Tying Donations to Political Causes

On July 17, 2008, the New York Times reported that a donation by a hotel owner (Doug Manchester) to support a ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California has resulted in a boycott of two of the donor’s San Diego area hotels.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, an organization he started to organize the boycott of Mr. Manchester’s two San Diego hotels, said his goal was to call attention to San Diego as a major source of money for supporters of Proposition 8 and to focus on Mr. Manchester as a formidable donor.

According to a report by Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office, more than $750,000 of the $2.3 million raised by Proposition 8 supporters has come from San Diego donors.

“Our main beef is the exhaustive amount of money he contributed with glee to take away this brand-new right and to write discrimination into the California Constitution for the very first time,” Mr. Karger said.

Mr. Manchester said Wednesday: “This really is a free-speech, First Amendment issue. While I respect everyone’s choice of partner, my Catholic faith and longtime affiliation with the Catholic Church leads me to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

For the entire article see “Donation to Same-Sex Marriage Foes Brings Boycott Calls” in the July 17, 2008, issue of the New York Times.

DAB