John Helmberger is the chairman of the Minnesota for Marriage campaign. He writes in the Star-Tribune:
The Star Tribune waxes righteous ("Voters should know amendment donors," Oct. 6) that the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board has "made the right call" in a ruling that attempts to force nonprofit organizations to disclose the identity of supporters if the nonprofit group contributes to the marriage-amendment campaign.
Nobody disagrees that voters are entitled to know who contributes to the marriage campaign. But the changes the Campaign Finance Board proposes are not authorized by law and would mislead the public, resulting in the disclosure of people who did not contribute to the campaign.
... the board simply does not have the legal authority to arbitrarily change Minnesota campaign reporting laws. That is the job of the Legislature. For almost a decade, the board has been asking the Legislature to expand or change the definition of "association" to be able to regulate nonprofit corporations in this manner, and the Legislature refused to grant it. The board has acted illegally in claiming legal authority it does not possess.
