MAINE: Ethics Committee Finds NOM Guilty, Eastman Says “We Won’t Pay Fine”

UPDATE: The Portland Press Herald reports.

NOM executives, two of whom were present for the hearing, vowed to fight the ruling and protect the anonymity of the organization’s donors. John Eastman, the attorney and board chairman for NOM, said revealing the donors would put them at risk of threats and harassment while hindering the organization’s ability to raise money. Eastman said NOM would appeal Wednesday’s ruling. NOM’s resistance means that more time is likely to pass before the donors to the 2009 campaign are publicly identified. Chris Plante, NOM’s regional director, told the Portland Press Herald last week that the group will “do whatever it takes to defend this and protect our donors’ anonymity.”

Eastman says that NOM will file an ethics complaint against the HRC.

During occasionally heated exchanges, Eastman and Brown said NOM had been singled out by the commission. They argued that the Human Rights Campaign, a gay activist group, operated in the same manner during the 2009 referendum and the 2012 ballot initiative that legalized same-sex marriage in Maine. Eastman said NOM would file an ethics complaint against the Human Rights Campaign for its activities in the referendum battles. Fred Karger, a gay-rights activist from California, filed the complaint against NOM with the Maine ethics commission in 2009. Karger said NOM effectively laundered its donations to conceal the identity of its donors. “NOM definitely picked the wrong state to break the law,” Karger said. Karger said the ruling could assist an investigation that he filed in Iowa in 2013. He is also considering filing another complaint in New Hampshire, where NOM attempted to repeal that state’s same-sex marriage law.