Bloomberg offers $250,000 match on R-74 donations
NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg is poised to spend $500,000 of his personal fortune on gay marriage campaigns in Maine, Minnesota and Washington state, he said Monday, following up on a major political spending push the billionaire businessman-turned-politician announced last week.
Bloomberg already had established himself as an outspoken, and generous, supporter of same-sex marriage. He unveiled a $250,000 contribution to a Maryland gay marriage effort earlier this month and has backed four New York Republican senators who crossed party lines to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the state last year.
Monday's move deepened Bloomberg's involvement in the issue outside New York, and it reflected his vow to give at least $10 million by Election Day to moderate candidates and to ballot initiatives supporting gay marriage and other issues around the country.
"Marriage equality is the next big step in America's long march of freedom," Bloomberg said in a statement Monday.
His new contributions, intended as challenge grants to spur matching donations, include $125,000 to a group backing a ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage in Maine and $250,000 to an organization seeking to uphold it in Washington. A Washington law legalizing same-sex marriage was passed and signed this year, but it's on hold until next month's referendum.
Bloomberg is giving another $125,000 to a group working against a Minnesota constitutional amendment that would strengthen an existing law against same-sex marriage. A dozen Minnesota businesspeople already have raised $125,000 to match Bloomberg's gift, said the organization, Minnesotans United for All Families.
"Business leaders across the state - and those around the nation, like Mayor Bloomberg - have made it clear that this amendment is bad for business," Minnesotans United campaign manager Richard Carlbom said. The group says the proposed constitutional amendment would hurt Minnesota's prospects of attracting talented workers, among other arguments against it.
A spokesman for a group leading the charge to pass the proposal, Minnesota for Marriage, saw Bloomberg's gift as interloping.
"We believe it is the people of Minnesota who should decide the question of marriage, not out-of-state donors like Bloomberg," said the spokesman, Chuck Darrell. The organization, which includes religious and socially conservative groups, says the state needs the constitutional language to keep judges or lawmakers from altering the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.
Besides gay marriage ballot questions, Bloomberg's self-financed super PAC, Independence USA PAC, is focusing on local, state and congressional candidates who agree with him on issues including gun control, education reform and the importance of working across party lines. Beneficiaries range from former Maine Gov. Angus King, now running for U.S. Senate there as an independent, to Gloria Negrete McLeod, a Democratic California senator running for U.S. House.
Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, has declined thus far to make a presidential endorsement, and his super PAC doesn't plan to pay for any presidential ads.
Bloomberg already had established himself as an outspoken, and generous, supporter of same-sex marriage. He unveiled a $250,000 contribution to a Maryland gay marriage effort earlier this month and has backed four New York Republican senators who crossed party lines to vote for legalizing gay marriage in the state last year.
Monday's move deepened Bloomberg's involvement in the issue outside New York, and it reflected his vow to give at least $10 million by Election Day to moderate candidates and to ballot initiatives supporting gay marriage and other issues around the country.
"Marriage equality is the next big step in America's long march of freedom," Bloomberg said in a statement Monday.
His new contributions, intended as challenge grants to spur matching donations, include $125,000 to a group backing a ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage in Maine and $250,000 to an organization seeking to uphold it in Washington. A Washington law legalizing same-sex marriage was passed and signed this year, but it's on hold until next month's referendum.
Bloomberg is giving another $125,000 to a group working against a Minnesota constitutional amendment that would strengthen an existing law against same-sex marriage. A dozen Minnesota businesspeople already have raised $125,000 to match Bloomberg's gift, said the organization, Minnesotans United for All Families.
"Business leaders across the state - and those around the nation, like Mayor Bloomberg - have made it clear that this amendment is bad for business," Minnesotans United campaign manager Richard Carlbom said. The group says the proposed constitutional amendment would hurt Minnesota's prospects of attracting talented workers, among other arguments against it.
A spokesman for a group leading the charge to pass the proposal, Minnesota for Marriage, saw Bloomberg's gift as interloping.
"We believe it is the people of Minnesota who should decide the question of marriage, not out-of-state donors like Bloomberg," said the spokesman, Chuck Darrell. The organization, which includes religious and socially conservative groups, says the state needs the constitutional language to keep judges or lawmakers from altering the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.
Besides gay marriage ballot questions, Bloomberg's self-financed super PAC, Independence USA PAC, is focusing on local, state and congressional candidates who agree with him on issues including gun control, education reform and the importance of working across party lines. Beneficiaries range from former Maine Gov. Angus King, now running for U.S. Senate there as an independent, to Gloria Negrete McLeod, a Democratic California senator running for U.S. House.
Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, has declined thus far to make a presidential endorsement, and his super PAC doesn't plan to pay for any presidential ads.
Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose, they donât have the right to redefine marriage for all of us.
Same-sex couples already have the legal rights as married couples in Washington. Also, children do better when raised by a married mom and dad - Social science research indicates. Lower poverty rates, higher education achievement, better mental health, improved physical health, and increased general happiness. Redefining marriage can cause people to choose between faith action mission or upholding their religious beliefs. Parental rights are impacted as they cannot chose how their offspring are taught about marriage in public school. Businesses can be sued for just expressing support for traditional marriage - paraphrased from Preserve Marriage Washington.
The Harvard Journal Article is online - please download and read the 43 pages. It doesn't take too long and is very scholarly and well thought out. It covers Equality, Justice and the Heart of the Debate, -- If Not Same-Sex Couples, Why Infertile Ones, -- Challenges for Revisionists -- and Isn't It Only Natural -- among all other related topics. It never uses religion to make any of its points.
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On page 13 it also references another prominent paper delineating research results: "Ten Principles on Marriage and the Public Good, signed by some seventy scholars, which corroborates the philosophical case for marriage with extensive evidence from the social sciences about the welfare of children and adults. The Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles 9-19 (2008), available at http://www.winst.org/family_marriage_and_democracy/WI_Marriage.pdf"
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(All from "What is Marriage?" by Sherif Girgis*, Robert P. George**, & Ryan T. Anderson***, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy Vol 34, No. 1. Winter 2011.)
* Ph.D .Candidate in Philosophy, Princeton University.
** McCormick Professor of Jusrisprudence, Princeton University.
*** Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, University of Notre Dame
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Retrieved Oct 26, 2012 from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1722155## [Click on "Download this Paper"]
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At the same time, I believe in the Bible as the Word of God that tells us God created marriage as between a man and a woman. This article is for those who do not necessarily believe it as I do.
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 @SerBob  @sturds go puke, it may make you feel better
Bloomberg is supporting it? Good enough reason for me to vote against it.
 @Gino so your opinion is the opposite of whatever Bloomberg's is? Why waste any energy on making up your own mind...Â
I guess my question is whether same-sex marriage has ever been legalized by popular vote in any state? I suspect it will be King County vs the rest of Washington.
I hear what you're saying but...it's why it was founded as "King"..King County rules man,it always will ~
It's unfortunate that the word marriage (as if it were the issue) is being used.  The issue is about federal and State benefits for being married.  Anyone can get married.  You don't need permission from anyone except your spouse.  Find people you trust and admire, ask them to marry you, have witnesses, done.  This issue is about getting benefits and protections for that personal (non-governmental) event, and being recognized by your nation and people.  That being said, when one person or group says that the benefits they enjoy cannot be enjoyed by another, then you are talking about kooks, loons and sociopaths.  Hypocrites too!
 @ETSubmariner mostly hypocrites, and about 50% of their marriages are failing... I am looking forward to stats on same sex divorces down the road. Could be an eye opener...Â
WOOO HOOO!!!! Â Â Let those hate filled religious goons live by their fairy tales but leave NORMAL people alone. Â
 @Andrew Bush a "like" from me Andrew.Â
 @Andrew Bush Fairy tails.