Marriage Amendment Backers Broke Campaign laws

Complaint asks for Mr. Helmberger to be charged with a Gross Misdemeanor

Common Cause Minnesota has filed a complaint with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board against Minnesotans for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council for failing to disclose campaign donations in support of the so-called “Marriage Amendment.”

Minnesota law requires disclosure of campaign contributions because the public has a right to know what special interests are paying for political ads. Our democracy is threatened if people don’t have the political courage to stand behind the political ads that they support. Minnesotans should ask, what are these groups trying to hide by avoiding disclosure.

The complaint against Minnesotans for Marriage highlights how Marriage Amendment supporters only disclosed seven individual donations over $100, while at the same time, Marriage Amendment opponents disclosed 773 contributors during the same period. Although it is possible that one side’s grassroots support is much stronger than the other’s, it stretches all credibility that grassroots support for the Marriage Amendment is less than one percent of its opposition.

A second complaint alleges that the Minnesota Family Council has failed to register as a political fund and disclose its donors as required by state law. The Common Cause complaints seek to bring greater transparency and an end to the flow of secret money to the amendment campaigns.
For months, both groups have attempted to weaken the disclosure laws by sending in teams of national lawyers to create legal loopholes in the rules. This is part of a pattern from these types of groups to willfully violate disclosure laws and then challenge them in court so that their campaign donations are not disclosed during the campaign.

The complaint asks the board to charge Mr. Helmberger, Chief Executive of the Minnesota Family Council, with a gross misdemeanor for signing a false report and assess civil penalties against Minnesotans for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council.

Read the complaint against Minnesota for Marriage.

Read the complaint against the Minnesota Family Council.