Petrelis Files

Equality Federation Explains
No on 8 Committee Structure

Toni Broaddus, the executive director of the Equality Federation of state gay rights orgs, sent me this great explanation about the structure and legal entities involved for the No on 8/Equality for All committee and other advocacy groups. I am most appreciative of her assistance in helping me understand how the No on 8 campaign was established and will speak with her shorty for more info.

The bottom line is this: I want to see all public documents that were filed, either with the CA Secretary of State or the Attorney General's office or the Fair Political Practices Commission, that legal set up the No on 8 committee.

Of course, it would be so simple for Geoff Kors and the committee to start being transparent and provide the community on the EQCA web site with all the legal papers, and names of officers, for the No on 8 campaign. Think we can convince Kors and company to do this?

I have to agree with Broaddus' assertion that this info will make my head spin. But head spinning is the least of our worries as we continue to demand accountability and answers from Kors and the No on 8 leaders.

Here's Broaddus' email:

Hi Michael,

I just read your post about the legal entities sharing addresses and leadership, and I’d be happy to explain all those organizational connections to you if you want to call me. There’s nothing sinister or questionable about these legal entities – there are just many many laws & rules that we all must comply with when we do political work, and so the whole system works to obscure who is in charge of what. This is not the fault of our gay leaders or organizations. Here’s a brief overview to make your head spin:

Most state organizations operate multiple legal entities. a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4) organization, as well as a political action committee (PAC) that can endorse political candidates. These days, many state groups also operate ballot measure PACs. Together, these separate legal entities are an organizational family. Governance varies by state – most organizations have board members that serve on more than one board as well as board members who serve on only one board. Nearly always, the different legal entities share staff (so I am, for example, the ED of both Equality Federation, a 501c4, and Equality Federation Institute, a 501c3).

Equality California has all of these legal entities, including a ballot measure PAC formed to raise money for the No On Prop 8 campaign. In fact, most gay organizations had their own ballot measure PACs (including HRC, NCLR, and the Task Force) so that each group could track how much money it raised for the campaign. In fact, this is how we know that EQCA raised one-third of all the money for the campaign, which was five times the amount raised by the second largest donor (HRC). But money raised by the organizations was then given to a separate ballot measure PAC (Equality For All) that had been formed specifically to house and run the campaign organization.

Equality for All was essentially a coalition of organizations who came together to fight Prop 8. Geoff was on the Executive Committee, but so was Lorri Jean, Kate Kendell, Michael Fleming, and others. Since most committee leaders run organizations, not campaigns, a professional campaign consultant – Steve Smith – was hired to run the campaign. Later, the committee asked Patrick Guerriero was to direct the final weeks of the campaign.

As for the confusion over addresses: when I first became ED of Equality Federation, we had no staff and no need for an office so I worked from my home for the first year. I rented a mailbox in the UPS store that is in the same suite of offices as Equality California (the addresses are actually not the same). Since EQCA is a Federation member organization, I often used their copy machine or fax machine and the mailbox was in a convenient location. Although we now have offices and staff, the state of California has apparently not updated its records.

But if you did check out our new address, you would actually note that it is one of the official addresses used by Equality For All (the campaign organization) because we rent out office space to the financial services team who handled the campaign donations for the official campaign as well as the reporting for many of the movement organizations contributing resources to the campaign.

As for Marriage Equality California (once called MECA), that group actually merged with Equality California in 2004 or 2005 – it’s no secret. So that’s why the address is the same.

And Cary Davidson & John Duran have participated in various political campaigns over the years – related to gay rights and other issues as well. I met Cary when I worked for the No On Prop 22 campaign in 2000, for which he was the treasurer. I met John when I worked at Equality California. I believe both also have sat on the boards of different legal entities working on gay rights over the years, including EQCA. So it’s not surprising to see their names on other campaigns or organizations (including the org that became EQCA). They are both willing to step up when asked.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful. You are welcome to call me on either number below if I can clarify any of this web of connections. I just thought you were getting sidetracked on the legal entities in your post, and I lost your point. I would certainly agree that transparency is hard to come by in legal filings – and the IRS laws & campaign finance laws magnify the problem.

Best, Toni Broaddus