HRC Blog

New figures: Prop 8 was an $83 million fight

February 3, 2009

The Advocate has the story:

New campaign filings released Monday revealed that supporters and opponents of California's gay marriage ban funneled more than $28 million into the battle during its final weeks, according to the Associated Press. The final numbers show that the campaign to defeat Proposition 8 and keep gay marriage legal amassed about $43.3 million, while those who successfully pushed to strip same-sex couples of the right to marry raised $39.9 million. The antigay marriage measure, which is by far the priciest social-issue campaign in the nation's history, ultimately passed with 52 percent of the vote last November. ...The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put about $190,000 worth of in-kind donations toward passing the measure by providing paid staffers and other resources to Yes on 8 as well as subsidizing travel costs of church officials. The Mormon Church said it did not make direct donations to the Yes on 8 campaign, although its membership is believed to have contributed an estimated $23 million in total to the campaign.