Sunday, January 22, 2012

Romney Family's Donations 
to Yes on Prop 8 Campaign?


This screen cap is from the San Francisco Chronicle's search engine of the California Secretary of State's records for all donors to the pro and con campaigns in 2008 over the gay marriage initiative Prop 8. Click to expand the chart.

The top name is Jennifer Romney who gave $1,000 to the Yes on 8 anti gay marriage effort, and she's married to Mitt Romney's son Tagg.

I couldn't locate proof that any other contributors with the last name Romney are related to Mitt, but allow me to point out that a private investor named Richard L. Romney of Rancho Santa Fe, California, coughed up $17,000 for the Yes on 8 side.

He also donated $750 in 2011 to Mitt's presidential bid, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's a relative of the GOP candidate. I'm blogging about Jennifer Romney and Richard Romney's Yes on 8 contributions to sunshine a small part of Mitt's network of donors.

The prod that got me poking around the Prop 8 donors' records was diary at DailyKos yesterday about Mitt's tax returns and their potential content. Let's see if he actually keeps his promise to release a return or two, and what they contain. Here's the pertinent section of the DailyKos diary titled "Will there be a Prop 8 bombshell hidden in Romney's tax returns?":

But a new report out from ABC News has LGBT Americans in particular buzzing about "Just how much did Mitt Romney spend to take away Californians' right to marry?" ABC accounts his donations, or tithing, at more than $4M over the last 5 years, although exact totals are not known. Release of the tax forms may reveal more still.

[The diarist reminds us of a New York Times story about the Yes on 8 side making an urgent push for fund in the days before the 2008 election, then asks a question.]

Was Gov. Romney one of the many who heeded the last minute "urgent appeal"? Of course, Mitt Romney's opposition to marriage equality is well known. Still, if it turns out Romney was particularly helpful in passing the marriage equality banning amendment, this might be particularly infuriating news to the LGBT community still smarting from that loss.

2 comments:

Andy Humm said...

The funny thing about Romney is that the religious right insists he did not do ENOUGH as governor of Mass. to block same-sex marriage there. He has always been against it and is a strong supporter of this hateful constitutional amendment to stop it in this country--even though it has virtually no chance of getting through two-thirds of both houses of Congress. He is our enemy, no matter how much Log Cabin tries to pitch him as a moderate. And while it is reprehensible that Obama ostensibly opposes same-sex marriage, he is no longer defending DOMA in court--probably our biggest victory of 2011.

Anonymous said...

Good job. I really disagree with you about the Sheriff. He is the victim of a witch hunt. We should be standing with him.

Stephen