In their attempt to exempt themselves from California’s campaign finance laws, Yes on 8 took their case to Federal Court and lost. It’s a good thing for us they did.
Yesterday, the LDS Church finally released their accounting of their donations to Yes on 8. It totaled over $180,000. It’s a far cry from their previously reported $2000. Even the new amount could be arguably low if one were to consider the market value of the media the Church produced. It is very likely they only counted the hourly rate of the employees that created the material.
But even so, weren’t we told when Yes on 8 went to court that all donations $1000 or more had been reported?
In fact, even in their press release regarding the case poses this Q&A.
“Isn’t this an attempt to shield large donors to Prop 8 from the public?
No. All donors of $1,000 or above have already been disclosed, as have all donors of $100 or more as of October 18, 2008. Only disclosure of those donors of $100 to $999 who contributed since October 18, 2008 are impacted.”
We knew the Church had more disclosures to file. When Fred Karger filed a complaint with California’s Fair Political Practices Commission regarding the Church’s seemingly modest filing, a spokesperson for the LDS Church said they had until Jan 31 to file. Surely the Yes on 8 Campaign, in their constant collusion with the LDS Church knew this was coming.
So that begs the question, exactly who was Yes on 8 seeking to protect by filing for an exemption of disclosure? Was it really about the little donors of $100 or was it to protect the LDS Church from even more bad PR?