What do Honda, State Farm, Proctor and Gamble, have in common?

[Ms. Toad]

(with a whole host of other companies).

In 2000, Citizens for a Strong Ohio, an arm of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, ran a very nasty, dirty campaign against Justice Resnick (Supreme Court). http://www.centerjd.org/press/release/001027.htm , http://www.justiceodonnell.com/news/05_15_03_DISPATCH.htm I believe the campaign was, at that time, the most expensive judicial smear campaign on record. Fortunately, it did not succeed.

Until now, the group has refused to reveal the contributors to the campaign calling, it an issue ad campaign. Facing $25,000 fines a day, the group revealed the donors on Friday. http://www.rcfp.org/news/2004/0114citize.html

The list:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/education/10761187.htm?1c (free subscription)
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050129/NEWS01/501290403/1056/news01 (non-subscription, but only had a Cincinnati list)

Unfortunately, I cannot find a complete list in a non-subscription source. If someone finds one, please post a link - otherwise I'll find a way to post it this evening.

Two companies I have spent a significant amount of money with are on the list as $100,000 donors (Honda - two family cars, with a third purchase expected in the near future) and State Farm (insurance for car and home for 30+ years).

We have already informed State Farm (through our agent of 15 years) that if we do not receive assurances from them within the next 30 days that they will make an equivalent donation to an acceptable, neutral, voter education fund that we will be pulling our business from them. She was surprised at the contribution - not necessarily that they made one but that she had not been warned ahead of time to expect negative publicity. Apparently, they didn't think their contribution would generate any, so they hadn't sent out their normal alert to their agents.

We will inform Honda of the same (pointing out our current vehicles, and the anticipated third within the next couple of years).

One family alone, however, will not make much of an impact - and many of these companies are national companies so I am hoping some of you will make similar statements to them.

(Edited to fix first link and change title)

[lonestarnot]

1. Yuck to both... State Farm has many complaints from policy holders, and

Honda sucks! Both bad news.

[Ms. Toad]

3. I would prefer this thread

not be about the merits of any of the particular companies on the list. (Feel free to start another thread - personally I would rather continue to do business with both companies, and might even join in a debate about the merits of each in another thread.)

In this thread, I am hoping to reeach folks who do deal with companies on the donor list (whether or not the rest of DU likes the companies or not) and encourage these companies to correct their bad (donor) behavior with respect to such companies.

(I know trying to direct the course of a thread is like herding cats...)

[RebelOne]

2. If you want to see the list without registering,

log in as [email protected] and password is register. Got it from Bugmenot.com

[Ian David]

4. American Center for Law and Justice: Right-wing Pat Robertson Group

Right Wing Organizations

American Center for Law and Justice
P.O. Box 64429
1000 Regent University Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23467
www.aclj.org

Founder: Pat Robertson, founder of the 700 Club, Christian Coalition, Operation Blessing, Regent University
Date established: 1990
Executive Director/Chief Counsel: Jay Sekulow
Publications: Newsletter, education pamphlets, and reports.

<snip>

ACLJ’s Principal Issues:
# ACLJ is a legal advocacy group “dedicated to defending and advancing religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, and the two-parent, marriage-bound family.”
# ACLJ is a strong supporter of the Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
<snip>
# ACLJ has been involved with more than 30 cases before the United States Supreme Court and has been successful in many of its lawsuits.
The ACLJ challenges domestic partnership benefits for city and state employees, anti-discrimination ordinances that include sexual orientation, and generally fights against the right of gays and lesbians to be parents.
<snip>
#


# Two of the Supreme Court cases argued by Sekulow have become benchmark cases in the area of religious liberty litigation. In Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens (496 US 226), Sekulow argued the right of public school students to form Bible clubs and religious organizations on their school campuses. In Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District, Sekulow defended the rights of religious groups to use public school property for religious meetings after hours.
# A few other examples of ACLJ cases: ACLJ defended a group of parents who drove a transsexual teacher out of her job in Minnesota, has supporting a Kmart pharmacist who refused to dispense birth control pills, and has pursued litigation over various claims that children are being told that they cannot pray on school grounds or talk about their religion.
<snip>
About Jay Sekulow:
# Jay Sekulow helped draft the Defense of the Marriage Act, which passed both houses and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. DOMA allows states to reject the legitimacy of same-sex marriage licenses awarded in other states, although, to this day no state offers marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Sekulow helped draft DOMA “at the request of several pro-family legislators, and gave expert testimony to both houses of Congress on this bill.” (Jay Sekulow, direct mail, March 1997)


More:
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7649


ON EDIT:
It looks like Citizens for a Strong Ohio is a reich-wing organization, too:
Future family and rights cases
hang on state high court races

by Eric Resnick

Columbus--Because they are farther down the ballot and often misunderstood, many voters do not choose judges wisely, if at all. Yet, for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, there is much to be gained or lost by who is elected to the bench.
<snip>
One of the identified contributors to Citizens for a Strong Ohio is Bob Kolkhepp, head of Cintas, a Cincinnati uniform company who also contributed a great deal of money to pass the city’s 1994 anti-gay charter amendment known as Issue 3.
<snip>
Ohioans will be electing two justices. One seat is currently held by Justice Deborah Cook. She is being challenged by Judge Tim Black of Cuyahoga County.

The other is the seat held by Resnick. She is being challenged by Terrance O’Donnell, also of Cuyahoga County.
<snip>
OHRBA {Ohio Human Rights Bar Association} highly recommended the election of Resnick and Black based on their screening process. Cook and O’Donnell opted not to be screened by OHRBA.
<snip>
Resnick continued, "I have come to realize that homophobia shares to a great extent many of the characteristics of gender and racial discrimination. While some differences exist among the types of discrimination, I now believe that the similarities dwarf the differences, and all types of discrimination are cut from the same cloth."
More:
http://www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/stories/00nov3.htm

----

So, it looks like a Battle of the Right Wing Anti-Gay Titans with gay people caught in the middle.

[Ms. Toad]

5. Not sure why you are providing information about

The American Center for Law and Justice.

It is not one of the donors, I didn't link to their site, and can't find a reference to them in anything I posted. Are you perhaps confusing them with the Center for Justice and Democracy (to which I did link)?

The Chamber of Commerce (and their hit squad smear campaign arm) is definitely right wing.

A number of companies gave them big bucks to run a smear campaign against Alice Robie Resnick (a decent judge - although her legal reasoning is occasionally not the strongest on the court, she makes up for it with good instincts and a heart in the right place). These companies donated with the expectation that their customers, stockholders, etc. would never find out about their secret donations.

Their participation is now public, and I would like them to hear that some of their customers, stockholders, etc. are unhappy.