Before Prop8 in California, there wasProposition 22, the "Knight Initiative" that outlawed same sex marriage. This was struck down by the Supreme Court of California n 2008, as unconstitutional under the state Constitution, which led to legal same sex marriages during the California Interregnum. Proposition 8 sought to amend the state constitution to once again outlaw marriage equality, and as we know, it succeeded.
The "Knight Initiative" was written by Pete Knight, a State Senator from Lancaster, CA. Its dislike of GLBT people is all the more striking because Knight's middle son is gay and he came out during the campaign to oppose his father. Some dad, eh?
But I digress. Last week, aninvestigative reporter published evidence that one of CA State Sen. Knight's staff, Andrew Pugno, worked in the Senator's office using official letterhead to coordinate the strategy for Prop 22 with the Mormon church.
The Mormon church's involvement and financial support in California's gay marriage debate is well documented. But Pugno's newly unearthed memo, written on state government letterhead, is striking evidence of how closely the Mormon church has been involved in the gay marriage debate in California for more than a decade.
So what? Well, there's a problem. Seems California law is explicit that there has to be a bright line between the business of the people's representatives using the people's money, and campaigning. Basically, you can't spend your senate budget, use your senate letterhead, or your senate fax machine for a political campaign. (Clarificaion: since Prop22 was a voter proposition, not a piece of legislation, this required a campaign independent from Knight's official legislative functions.)
As for Pugno using Senate letterhead for a political issue – and asking Wardle to use the government fax machine and phone lines – the law is fairly strict. One regulation does allow for "incidental" campaign use, but Roman Porter, executive director of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, said about cases like this in general: "The use of public funds for campaign purposes is unlawful." (The statute of limitations on any violation from 1998 has likely passed.)
So the progressive Courage Campaign is filing a complaint for an investigation of Mr Pugno.
Why does this matter? Well, as the Courage Campaign explains it best:
Pugno is of course the general counsel to ProtectMarriage.com, and a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 5th District State Assembly seat. He is a key figure in the campaign strategy used for both Prop 22 and Prop 8, and for the legal defense of Prop 8 in both the California Supreme Court and in Judge Vaughn Walker’s federal courtroom. As longtime Trial Trackers know, Pugno also played a key role in trying get this website shut down by suing Courage Campaign over the logo we use at this site.
At some level, the PropH8 supporters think that the laws don't apply to them: campaign transparency, openness, funding sources--all dispensible if they choose. We've seen this for PropH8, as well as for Question 1 in Maine and for Referendum 71 in Washington State. They even now have a case before SCOTUS about whether or not on the issue of marriage equality in particular, campaign transparency laws should be put aside. All because of false claims of violence--apparently if they say it enough they think someone will believe that there are marauding bands of 'mos attacking them. (More in my previous post, SCOTUS and equality opponents: the courage of conviction?).
Now, we have further evidence that they think they are above the law. The law is for the little people and the homosexuals.
So it will be interesting to see what happens to Mr Pugno. My prediction? Not a thing. Being a gay, married Californian has left me very cynical about the other side.
Update Last night on Hardball, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said that gays should be imprisoned.
"I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas which overturned the sodomy laws in this country was wrongly decided," said Sprigg. "I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior."
"So we should outlaw gay behavior?" asked Matthews again.
Yes,” said Sprigg.
And then he laughed.
As Rob Tisani writes,
You know, it’s the laughter that gets me. I live in L.A., where I can pretend this sort of thinking is limited to the extreme, bigoted fringes of society. But this is on MSNBC, and Sprigg is a spokesperson for a group that brings in over twelve million dollars a year. We see what their position is — and how can you compromise between full civil equality and being thrown in prison? What would that compromise even look like?
No matter what we do, no matter what we offer, it won’t be enough for these folk. If we agree to everything-but-the-word, they’ll go to work on the “everything.” They’ll chisel away at civil unions and domestic partnerships until they strip us of even the right to claim the dead body of your partner from the morgue. They’ll keep chiseling — chiseling until we’re in prison.
Let's be very clear what we are up against.