LETTER TO EDITOR: Contributors beware

Valerie Richardson’s article (“Pestered Prop 8 donors file suit,” Page 1, March 23) reported that a lawsuit was filed to protect the identities of people making contributions of $100 or more on ballot issues concerning the status of same-gender relationships. Mrs. Richardson is too quick to quote Fred Karger, who said, among other things, that the lawsuit was being pushed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “to conceal its financial stake in the campaign.”

Mr. Karger’s diatribes against Mormons who supported the passage of Proposition 8 in California are legion, and his claim that Mormons accounted for 80 percent of the $39.4 million raised is wildly exaggerated.

As to Mr. Karger’s claim that the Mormon Church is behind the new lawsuit, church officials claim they were not even consulted beforehand by those who filed the suit. Their story is consistent with the track record of Ron Prentice, the chairman of Protectmarriage.com, which, together with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), is behind the suit.

Mr. Prentice is widely known for raising millions for a registered charity and then spending only $500,000 for charitable purposes, the rest going to salaries and fees benefiting him and his friends. He also owes franchise taxes on a second charity he founded and that has been suspended. A third charity he founded is also under suspension for failure to file an annual information return for tax-exempt organizations.

A lawsuit identical to the one recently filed has already been brought and summarily dismissed by a federal judge in Sacramento, Calif. There is no chance this new suit will benefit anyone supporting same-gender marriage except for the lawyers bringing the suit (who are counsel for NOM). Mr. Prentice’s latest creation, the Legal Defense Fund for Proposition 8, has been raising money from the tens of thousands who already contributed money to pass Proposition 8. Contributors beware!

DAVID L. WILKINSON

Director

National Legal and Policy Center

Attorney general of Utah, 1981-89

Provo, Utah