NOM brings high-powered tea party lawyer to Minnesota in marriage ballot disclosure battle
Wednesday, November 02, 2011 at 6:47 am
- 12 Comments
The National Organization for Marriage has tapped tea party attorney Cleta Mitchell as the organization’s Minnesota lobbyist during the state’s contentious 2012 battle over a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Mitchell’s expertise is in campaign finance law and Minnesota for Marriage—of which NOM is a member—has already announced plans to challenge Minnesota’s finance law surrounding ballot initiatives.
Mitchell registered as a lobbyist with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board last Wednesday, according to board records. She’s the only lobbyist that NOM has currently registered in Minnesota, although NOM President Brian Brown was registered for a month earlier this year.
Mitchell is a rising star in conservative politics, mainly for her efforts in opposing campaign finance laws and helping candidates and groups exploit loopholes in existing laws. She’s represented a slew of tea party candidates including Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sen. Jim DeMint in South Carolina, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio in Florida and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire.
Mitchell has taken the lead in taking down ACORN, testified in the U.S. Senate against public financing for federal elections, and coached the Daily Show’s Samantha Bee on how to use a 527 to get past campaign finance rules. She has also assisted the American Issues Project in defending their ads attempting to “swift boat” candidate Barack Obama in 2008, defended Rep. Tom Delay prior to his fraud conviction and has pushed for photo ID laws across the country.
But her new gig as lobbyist in Minnesota appears to be focused on the anti-gay marriage amendment and efforts by the National Organization for Marriage to oppose Minnesota’s campaign finance rules governing disclosure during ballot campaigns.
Cleta opposes marriage equality for same-sex couples. She spearheaded efforts to repeal marriage equality in Washington, D.C. She staged a walkout of board members at the Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C. this spring in protest of CPAC’s decision to allow GOProud, a group of conservative LGBT activists, to attend the event.
NOM and Minnesota for Marriage have been very vocal about their opposition to Minnesota’s campaign finance disclosure rules regarding ballot initiative committees. NOM and MFM say that they shouldn’t have to disclose any of their donors for fear of boycotts or political retaliation from supporters of gay rights.
Mitchell has already become involved in the battle over campaign finance and the ballot campaigns.
Mitchell was the author of a letter to the campaign finance board in protest of the state’s disclosure guidelines. In it, she reiterated the complaints offered by NOM, claiming that members of the LGBT community will attack donors if they’re publicly disclosed.
“The board’s sudden attempt to change the law in order to subject the source(s) of NOM funds used to support the Marriage Referendum puts a bullseye squarely on the forehead of every NOM donor, supporter and member if disclosed and any alleged ‘informational interest’ is purely artificial,” wrote Mitchell. “In sum, this newly concocted disclosure and regulatory scheme is unlawful, is not constitutionally sound, threatens NOM members, donors and supporters with personal injury and harm and the Board should cease immediately its efforts to rewrite Minnesota law to achieve this unlawful purpose.”
The campaign finance board is continuing to evaluate it’s guidance for ballot campaigns and what donations and expenditures will need to be disclosed in light of new rules passed by the Minnesota Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2010.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter12 Comments
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 7:25 am
Welcome to Minnesota Ms. Mitchell. We anticipate your bigotry. Maybe we can meet and I can show you a picture of our son who died under oath to protect the constitution you are so gallantly interested in abasing with prejudice.
Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 9:49 am
People like this disgusting lady have NO MORAL compass ….its all about the MONEY $$$$…..seriously – who could be against Public financing on politcial races…as opposed to corporate funding? ..Of course, ONLY a Selfish hateful person like this old windbag bleach blond.
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 9:54 am
NOM can call gay people pedophiles, rapists, sinners, fornicators, sodomites, “the greatest threat to civilization” and these anti-equality activists are the victims? Gays are assaulted, beat, raped, burned, and hanged regularly because of their sexuality. When there is a rash of Christian teen suicides, maybe they’ll get some sympathy. And frankly the reason to have full disclosure of campaign contributions is because we all have the right of free speech to boycott you or your business if you are actively working against my civil rights. Luckily, this argument by NOM carries little weight in court, as there is no evidence of violence by gays in retaliation (except fake ones invented by NOM).
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 11:01 am
If Minnesota banned all marriages, the money that would be saved by the state would more than cover the cost of a Vikings stadium.
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 11:31 am
And here I thought the Tea Party had nothing to do with social issues? For why that’s untrue, Exhibit A…
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 4:14 pm
Mitchell, we know you by the company you keep. Angle, O’Donnell in Delaware, Miller, DeMint, Toomey, Rubio and Ayotte: slimy clients need a slimy lawyer to represent them.
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 8:18 pm
More money spent by NOM. You just KNOW girlfriend comes at a high price. More the reason for NOM to disclose its finances as according to the law.
Comment posted November 2, 2011 @ 10:42 pm
Their claims of threat of injury were found baseless before and they’ll be found baseless again. It is LGBTQ community who are being victimized by hateful people, not the other way around. I’m also quite amazed that she even has a law degree…free speech doesn’t guarantee that it’s anonymous, nor does it guarantee that there aren’t consequences to that speech – like boycotting businesses, etc. The constitution guarantees that GOVERNMENT can not RESTRICT speech, except in certain lawful situations. In this case the government isn’t trying to restrict their speech but rather make it freer as in transparent. The constitution also says nothing about protecting one from social or economic consequences of their speech.
Comment posted November 3, 2011 @ 5:06 am
I’ve never seen such a chep looking money slut in all my life. I have nothing but total disgust for people who hurt others in their daily lives. This witch needs to be taught a lesson by the same people that hurt the GLBT community. Justice for her cannot come soon enough!
Pingback posted November 3, 2011 @ 8:55 am
[...] Full Story from the MN Independent [...]
Comment posted November 3, 2011 @ 9:07 am
More proof that the corporate theocRAT cults are not the 99% but are teabaggers too (like we didn’t know that but now I will show all the gay bashers at the Occupy protests that if they are against marriage equality they are for teabaggers)
Pingback posted November 3, 2011 @ 9:36 am
[...] bid as a California elected official last year. Today, the indispensible Minnesota Independent reports NOM has hired a heavyweight Tea Party attorney in [...]
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
