Donors gave $83M to Prop. 8 campaign

SAN FRANCISCO  — More than $83 million was donated to support or oppose

the ballot initiative that abolished same-sex marriage in California, according

to campaign filings released Monday.

The new filings cover the weeks immediately before and after the Nov. 4

election. They show that elected officials, businesses, churches and individuals

poured more than $28 million into the campaigns during the contest's closing

days.

The final tallies show that opponents of Proposition 8 raised $43.3 million

in 2008 and had a little more than $730,000 left on hand at year's end. The

measure's sponsors raised $39.9 million and had $983,000 left over.

Even before the late contributions were added, the race was the most

expensive ballot measure on a social issue in the nation's history. Proposition

8 passed with 52 percent of the vote. Gay marriage backers have asked the

California Supreme Court to overturn it.

The new disclosure forms reveal that the state Democratic party and

Democratic politicians gave heavily in the campaign's closing days to defeat the

gay marriage ban, which overturned the state Supreme Court decision that

legalized same-sex marriage in June.

The Democratic State Central Committee donated $150,000 and spent another

$202,647 on mailers and other in-kind contributions. San Francisco Mayor Gavin

Newsom funneled $20,000 from the committee he has established to explore running

for governor next year. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the same amount from her

re-election account to the No on 8 campaign.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has been criticized

for strongly encouraging its members to support Proposition 8, for the first