NOM kicks in $250,000 to fight gay marriage measure

The National Organization for Marriage has written its first sizable check to the campaign to repeal Washington's gay marriage law.

NOM contributed $250,000 to Preserve Marriage Washington on Sept. 20, according to information posted on the state Public Disclosure Commission web site.

That is the single largest contribution to Preserve Marriage Washington, the coalition working to defeat Referendum 74 in November. It gives Preserve Marriage nearly $876,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to date though the group has spent a little more than a third.

NOM had previously given $5,000 in cash plus roughly $16,000 of in-kind contributions. It also has loaned one of its staffers, Christopher Plante, to serve as deputy campaign manager for Preserve Marriage Washington.

For comparison, NOM's quarter-million dollar contribution is a fraction of the $2.5 million that Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos contributed to Washington United for Marriage in July. WUM is the coalition campaigning for approval of the referendum in order to retain the state's gay marriage law. As of this morning, the pro-referendum group had raised nearly $7.8 million, spent $2.45 million of that and racked up $3.7 million in bills.

If you want to get a sense of where the money has been coming from, take a look at a recent breakdown done by The Herald here.