Friday, December 5, 2008

Where Did the Money Really Come From?

So there have been a lot of attacks on the "Mormon" church with respect to their involvement in the passage of prop 8. There has also been allegations of more money coming from out-of-state than in state. The analytical part of my brain doesn't take what people say as fact... I want to see the numbers/evidence. Here are the hard numbers:

The amounts contributed to both sides were very high. It is reasonable for critics to question why their greater contributions to defeat Proposition 8 didn't carry the vote as they expected, but to imply that the participation of Latter-day Saint citizens—most of whom were California residents—was improper is inappropriate. Such an accusation is an exercise in empowering a straw man of their own creation.

For Proposition 8
In-State Donations $25,388,955
Out-of-State Donations $10,733,582
Total Donations $36,122,538


Against Proposition 8
In-State Donations $26,464,589
Out-of-State Donations $11,968,285
Total Donations $38,432,873


Totals
In-State Donations $51,853,544
Out-of-State Donations $22,701,867
Total Donations $74,555,411
Source:
Tracking the money, Los Angeles Times

Note that out-of-state contributions to the "No" side were over $1.2 million higher than the out-of-state contributions to the "Yes" side and that out-of-state contributions to the "No" side constituted a higher percentage of the overall "No" funding than out-of-state contributions did for the "Yes" side.

There have been various estimates of monies donated to the "Yes on 8" campaign by LDS Church members, ranging from $14 to $20 million. No firm figures are available because the State of California does not request or record the religion of donors.

You can read the entire article here.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is good stuff. Very important information for anyone who claims that Prop 8 won because of Mormons. If it's donations that can be credited for the win, then obviously numbers suggest that No on 8 should have won.

G. said...

great info, thanks. just started blogging today about this subject.

Frank said...

Hey, Heather, when do I get to vote on your marriage?

Heather said...

Frank,

Did you vote on proposition 8?