Online Ad Campaign Launched Highlighting Fringe Extremists Who've Spent $220K Supporting Carly Fiorina Calls for Fiorina to Disavow National Organization for Marriage Published on Oct 19, 2010 - 11:05:44 AM
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19, 2010 - The Courage Campaign, a 700,000 member online activist network, and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, launched a new online ad campaign today asking Californians to call Carly Fiorina and demand that she reject the extremism of one of her biggest financial backers -- the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
According to reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission, NOM, a secretive fringe group with deep ties to anti-gay activists, has spent more than $220,000 through numerous independent expenditures supporting Carly Fiorina for U.S. Senate.
"Californians deserve to know the truth about the out-of-state extremist group that's allied itself with Carly Fiorina," said Courage Campaign Chairman and Founder Rick Jacobs. "Time and again, the National Organization for Marriage has shown itself to be one of the most toxic elements in the political process, willing to use any means, -- including tolerance of hate speech and refusal to comply with federal tax and election laws -- to advance an agenda that advocates discrimination against millions of loving families and promotes an environment that leads LGBT teens to take their own lives."
"Will Carly Fiorina continue to associate herself with a radical fringe group like the National Organization for Marriage, or will she reject the anti-gay animus NOM stands for?" asked Joe Solmonese, HRC president
The ad, titled "Meet NOM," features audio and video clips from numerous NOM rallies conducted across the country this past summer, in which NOM's supporters can be seen and heard calling for the murder of gays and lesbians.
The ad also highlights NOM's ongoing legal problems, which include refusing to comply with the election and disclosure laws of nearly a half dozen states, including California, as well as funneling charitable resources into political campaigns. The latter was the subject of a September 20th story in the Washington Independent, as well as an IRS complaint that the Human Rights Campaign and Courage Campaign filed against NOM's San Diego based tax-exempt arm, called the Ruth Institute, last week.
The video will appear on nearly a dozen online news and political sites across California, including the websites of the LA Times, Sacramento Bee, and San Francisco Chronicle.
