Marriage measure gets out-of-state funds

Minnesota for Marriage, the main group working to pass the marriage amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman in the state constitution, raised $3.6 million in cash from Jan. 1, 2012 to Oct. 22, 2012. Forty-three percent of that, or nearly $1.6 million, came from out of state. The bulk of that, $1.45 million, came from the National Organization for Marriage based in Washington D.C. On Tuesday, NOM contributed an additional $125,000.

The largest individual out-of-state donor was Bob Naegele of Florida, who contributed $50,000.

Minnesota for Marriage initially had some technical difficulties filing its report. A software glitch with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board site caused the data to display incorrectly, but the report is now up on the site.

The largest expenditure on the pro-amendment side is Mission Public Affairs, run by California-based strategist Frank Schubert. Mission Public Affairs billed $3.4 million for work from March to October. Schubert serves as the campaign manager for Minnesota for Marriage, as well as for the three other states voting on marriage next week: Maine, Washington and Maryland.

Minnesotans United for All Families, the main group working to defeat the amendment, announced it raised a total of $9.9 million as of Tuesday, with 85 percent of the money coming from in-state donors. Minnesota for Marriage says it's raised more than $5 million since the campaign started last year.

On Wednesday, the Human Rights Campaign, based in Washington, D.C., announced actor Brad Pitt contributed $100,000 in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples in the four states voting on the issue. Of that, $25,000 will be spent in Minnesota to help defeat the amendment. The Human Rights Campaign Minnesota Family Freedom PAC reported on Oct. 29 that it had raised $440,621.