NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, in a fundraising email blast to supporters claimed yesterday that “We also do not use the marriage issue to elect Republicans,” an incredible falsehood that anyone paying attention over the past few years would bust out loud hearing. In his lengthy, 2100+ word, rambling, weekly “Letter from the President,” NOM President Brian Brown claims,
Our goal is to build a rare thing in America: a genuinely interfaith, interracial coalition of Americans across both parties, who are willing to stand for God’s vision of marriage—no matter what heat that brings.
Last year, NOM made headlines when it created a “marriage pledge” designed to test Republican candidates on their support of one man – one woman only marriage. NOM has since railed against Ron Paul, the only major GOP candidate who refused to sign their anti-gay pledge. They tried to attack Newt Gingrich — who ethically should have been challenged in signing the pledge — but ultimately he wrote a statement of support of the “ideals” the pledge touted.
In a January 6 fundraising email to supporters, Brown, describing the Iowa Caucuses, wrote:
Ron Paul was holding at a steady 16, 17, 18 points in Iowa polling, up until support for frontrunner Newt Gingrich collapsed. I started becoming concerned because I began receiving calls from many of the good people—including pastors—with whom we worked in the campaign to defeat Iowa’s activist judges. These people, who opposed same-sex marriage, were searching for a candidate and were actually beginning to gravitate to Ron Paul. By mid-December, three separate Iowa polls were showing Ron Paul as the winner, with his poll numbers going as high as 28 percent of the vote.
I knew we had to act. Can you imagine the field day the liberal mainstream media would have had if Ron Paul won the Iowa caucuses?
In that same email, NOM touted an anti-Ron Paul TV ad that they paid for:
Ron Paul, to his credit, has always been a stalwart pro-life vote, and at NOM we know from our past experience in other elections that faith-based voters who see a strong pro-life candidate often just assume he or she is good on marriage too.
In Paul’s case that’s just not true, and we had to let Iowa voters know the truth.
Ron Paul’s a good man, but he’s just wrong on marriage.
We put up a TV ad that Time‘s Joe Klein called “very effective” (even though he didn’t catch that it was NOM’s ad)
IRS regulations on what constitutes political activity for specific forms of non-profits, like religious institutions, are very clear. Working to defeat a candidate in the eyes of the IRS is equal to working to elect another.
For NOM to claim “We also do not use the marriage issue to elect Republicans,” is ludicrous on its face.
This is just one example of many. NOM has time and time again threatened to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars — and in some cases, $1.5 million — to defeat pro-equality candidates if they dare to actually vote in favor of same-sex marriage legislation.
There’s also a September 14 NOM email signed by Brian Brown that applauds the “major role in this election” NOM played to elect a Republican anti-gay marriage candidate, now U.S. Rep. Bob Turner:
NOM played a major role in this election, helping to organize the Jewish and Hispanic communities to coalesce with Republicans, conservative and other pro-family voters. We mounted the first and largest independent expenditure campaign in the race to make marriage a key issue, and we succeeded.
NOM would like to have it both ways: play fast and loose with words and rhetoric, while behind the scenes actively working on their official corporate board approved racially divisive strategy.
NOM does not use “the marriage issue” to elect Republicans?
What do you think?