Complaint charges pro-family groups hid funding(Focus on the Family is 1)

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1130396646206450.xml&storylist=cleveland

10/27/2005, 2:59 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two Cincinnati attorneys claim several pro-family, anti-gay organizations which have been active in election issues concealed more than $2 million in campaign contributions.

They said they would file a complaint Thursday with the Ohio Elections Commission.

The complaint cites last year's campaign for a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and the battle in Cincinnati over repeal of an ordinance that prohibited passage of a gay rights law.

Filing the complaint are former Cincinnati mayor Bobbie Sterne and Gary Wright, chairman of Equality Cincinnati, the successor to the group which led the successful repeal effort...


http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051027/NEWS01/510270356/1056/news01

CCV, others hid funding, complaint says
Pro-family groups to be named in elections commission filing

By Jon Craig and Gregory Korte
Enquirer staff writers

COLUMBUS - ...The complaint by two Cincinnati lawyers cites last year's campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Ohio and the battle over Cincinnati's Article XII. The state ban passed. The city ordinance, which prohibited passage of a gay-rights ordinance, was opposed by gay-rights groups and repealed by voters last November.

Signed by Bobbie Sterne, a former Cincinnati mayor, and Gary Wright, chairman of Equality Cincinnati, the complaint questions the groups' tax-exempt status.

Named in the complaint are Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values, its president, Phil Burress, officers of Equal Rights No Special Rights, and Focus on the Family of Colorado Springs, Colo., among other groups.

"Burress and others seem to believe that they are above the law," Wright said. "What CCV and their allies did last year is illegal in Ohio."...

[clydefrand]

1. Has Ohio done anything right as far as the repugs go?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. The Repug's corruption isn't isolated to just one state

it is throughout the entire party.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Dobson Involved In Tricky Financing? Maybe The Jack O' lantern

What? The so-called "Focus on the Family" is involved with dubious campaign financing? I had thought this might be true for years, but I never expected any allegations to get as far as Equality Cincinnati has taken theirs.

Maybe the Jack O'Lantern is delivering in time for Halloween.

:evilgrin:

[mzteris]

4. Illegal elsewhere, too??

"What CCV and their allies did last year is illegal in Ohio." . . .
For example, Wright claims that Equal Rights No Special Rights was set up "as a front" for CCV and Family Research Council of Washington, D.C."


If they're doing it in OH they're doing it everywhere, let's hope every state starts investigating.

I would dearly LOVE to see the FRC go DOWN - especially that freak Dobson who thinks he's "Beyond sin"!!!

[lonestarnot]

5. Damn the Ohio fristians are dirty aren't they....

[Coventina]

6. Man, if FOTF went down, I think I'd have an orgasm.

:evilgrin:

[xchrom]

7. lol

now that would really make them have a bad day.

you should e-mail them and tell them if that happens.

[MountainLaurel]

18. Damn straight

My girly bits are twitching as I write at the thought of James Dobson in shackles.

[rkc3]

22. Dobson's naughty parts twitch at the thought of being shackled as well.

Thanks for the imagery - now I'll go vomit.

[geniph]

24. I don't think he HAS naughty bits

I think he's anatomically incorrect, kinda like a Ken doll.

Has about the same amount of functioning neurons, too.

[Demeter]

8. This Is Better Than Winning The Lottery!

All our dreams and wishes for the past 6 years coming true in one singular sensation--Miers gone, the cabal indictments to come, Cheney is toast, W is isolated even more than he was, Frist, DeLay, man, when the karma bill comes due, it really takes the shirt and the skin off the back.

[WhiteTara]

9. Noe was indicted...Scrushy re indicted

oh the joy of the moment. The happy little moments leading up to Fitzmas and Impeachment Day.

[Initech]

10. Indict Dobson!!!

I mean come on, first he reveals that he had access to classified documents about Harriet Miers, then his company is hiding funds... what's next?

[Maven]

11. I wish these STUPID journalists/editors would stop calling

these hate groups "pro-family" without quotation marks, or even worse, putting "pro-family" and "anti-gay" in the same sentence as if A=B.

Even when they're suspected of fucking FRAUD they get more credibility than they ever deserve...

:grr:

[roguevalley]

12. sic 'em! This is great news. maybe I can be a Christian again.

Some day. Before I do. Maybe.

[texpatriot2004]

13. Ruh-roh. ...concealed (lied about) 2 Mil in funds to campaigns...

Wow. What part of Christianity or Morality does that fit into eh?

[bobbieinok]

14. the same part that thinks god went into ballot boxes in FL2000 so

W would 'win' b/c W 'is annointed by god for such a time as this'

when I would say to students who said this that 'my God doesn't steal elections' they would stare blankly at me in total non-comprehension

[donheld]

15. I really hope that one day soon these fools get found out

with irrefutable evidence.

[Endangered Specie]

16. Focus on the Family, should be renamed to "Focus on the Pfenning"

[LynneSin]

17. What a shock!! It's in Ohio

:eyes:

Seriously - they need some fresh blood to run that state and clean up the corruption

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. I wish they stopped called these idiots "pro-family".

It's RIGHT-WING groups. That's what they are.

They'd be pro-family if they were for living ages, effective social security, and universal healthcare.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

21. I agree!

They're not "pro-family"; and they're anything but Christian.
They're a bunch of fucking bigots!

[megatherium]

20. "nonpartisan" political games by religious groups?

In October of last year, the local megachurch (18,000 members) in Louisville, Kentucky, gave a special three-sermon series on marriage. This was to buttress the campaign for a constitutional amendment in Kentucky against gay marriage. Billboards opposing gay marriage were put up around town by this same church. The amendment was successful (by a 75% to 25% margin). Close republican victories (including a US Senate campaign) were the result.

So there are fishy things going on. I think the law allows churches to be active in issues such as gay marriage because they are nominally "non-partisan". But of course, this issue was highly partisan: it was the carefully-chosen wedge issue for the 2004 Presidential campaign. Gotta get the evangelical vote out, by putting out propaganda (such as Dobson's own slender book released in the late summer of 2004) portraying Western Civilization as being in the balance over this issue. It worked.

It would be so gratifying if it can be proven that Dobson and company went beyond the bounds of good taste and actually committed crimes.

[BlueManDude]

23. these groups are not "pro-family". they are pro-bigotry.

[WhiteTara]

25. the next targets for justice

:kick: this story high!

[zann725]

26. Lordie, lordie...the god-fearing commit crimes? Doing God's will...

...fixing elections?