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Big money goes into state's battle over gay rights

Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 8, 2006 at midnight

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The gay rights battle in Colorado is turning into a multi-million dollar production.

Focus on the Family and its political arm has so far given $716,000 to support a ballot measure that would ban gay marriage and oppose a domestic partnership initiative, campaign finance reports show.

The Colorado Springs evangelical group and its political action committee gave $216,000 between July 27 and August 30 to Colorado Family Action Inc., according to campaign reports filed Tuesday.

Earlier in the summer, Focus on the Family and Focus on the Family Action each gave about $250,000 to Colorado Family Action, formed in June with the help of Focus staffer Jim Pfaff. That group plans to mount a media campaign on behalf of Amendment 43 and against Referendum I.

And the group sponsoring the marriage amendment raised $244,188 as of July 26. Its latest finance report will be filed in the next week.

Amendment 43 would amend the state constitution to say that marriage is a union only between a man and a woman. Referendum I would allow gay couples to register as domestic partners and obtain many of the same legal rights and responsibilities as married couples.

Coloradans for Fairness and Equality, which supports Referendum I and opposes the marriage amendment, raised $256,138 between July 27 and Aug. 30, a spokeswoman said Thursday. That group will file its detailed report today.

Earlier the group collected more than $613,000.

Colorado Family Action has spent almost $584,000 on television and radio ads that are expected to be aired in Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Pueblo and Denver in the weeks before the election.

It also paid a Christian media firm in Austin, Texas, called Sovrenti, $6,250 for its Web site, according to finance reports. A company employee said Sovrenti modeled Colorado Family Action's Web site (www.cofamily .org) after the site Sovrenti designed for a group that backed a successful one man/one woman measure that Texas voters passed last year.

The Colorado and Texas Web sites are similar. Both feature a 30-second spot called "For God's Design" which shows a man's hand linked to a woman's hand, then joined by a baby's hand.

The two Web sites feature identical talking points about anti-gay- marriage measures and sample letters to the editor, including one that attacks the claim that same-sex marriage is a civil right. The Colorado Family Action site also prominently opposes Referendum I.

Pfaff would not say whether the "For God's Design" spots would air here and would not comment on what the ads will say.

Colorado Family Action is one of about 34 state family policy councils tied to Focus on the Family. Focus has been a key supporter of gay marriage bans that have passed in about 20 states, including Texas.

By the numbers

Campaign contributions on both sides of the gay rights issue:

AGAINST:

$216,000

Amount donated by Focus on the Family and Focus on the Family Action to support the marriage amendment (Amendment 43) and oppose a domestic partnership measure (Referendum I) between July 27 and Aug. 30.

$500,000

Previous amount donated by the two groups.

$244,188

Amount donated as of July 26 to Coloradans for Marriage, the sponsor of Amendment 43. Its latest finance report has not been filed.

FOR:

$256,138

Amount donated between July 27 and Aug. 30 to Coloradans for Fairness and Equality, which supports Referendum I and opposes Amendment 43.

$613,164

Previous amount donated to the group.Source: Colorado Secretary Of State Campaign Finance Reports