Dear Marriage Supporter,
Last Friday I told you about the witch hunt in Iowa initiated by a homosexual activist whose sole goal is to silence NOM and people like yourself from standing up in public for the truth of God's design for marriage. If you have not been able to give an emergency donation to help us fight this frivolous complaint, please do so today because the story is even more outrageous than even we realized.
Get this: Megan Tooker, Chief Executive and General Counsel for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board — the very person charged with conducting a fair and impartial investigation into the complaint — worked for Supreme Court Justice Michael Streit, one of the judges we helped remove from office during the 2010 judicial retention campaign! Talk about an apparent conflict of interest. It's no wonder that Ms. Tooker has in effect already publicly "convicted" NOM in absentia through the press. Instead of giving the good people of Iowa ethical and impartial service, Ms. Tooker has revealed her deep bias and animosity by declaring, without seeing any evidence in the case, that NOM is "absolutely false" and "absolutely wrong" in its position. Worse, she has blatantly lied to the public and media by misrepresenting our views on what must be disclosed under Iowa campaign finance laws. Her impertinent behavior is an attempt to poison the well of public opinion against NOM before anyone reviews the actual evidence.
We are not going to accept such outrageous and unprofessional behavior. Yesterday we demanded that Ms. Tooker be removed from any involvement with NOM's case. The people of Iowa are entitled to the highest standards of ethical conduct and independence from the state's top ethics officer, not conflicts of interest and misleading comments.
Sadly, we've seen this type of thing before. Ms. Tooker's behavior is frighteningly reminiscent to Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, who outrageously declared Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional, thus invalidating the votes of over 7 million Californians. Walker refused to disclose that he is homosexual and engaged in a long-term gay relationship despite rules that require federal judges to make such disclosure if a reasonable person would believe him to have a conflict of interest. Just as Walker could never be expected to rule fairly on homosexual marriage, how can Megan Tooker be counted on to fairly handle a complaint that involves a campaign that helped remove her former boss from office?
Whether or not our demand of the Ethics Board that Ms. Tooker be removed from being involved in the complaint against NOM is granted or denied, we still have to defend ourselves from the blatantly false accusations that have been leveled by the homosexual activist who filed the complaint. This defense will cost money, time, and manpower, and distracts us from the critical job of fighting to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Public officials and judges with conflicts of interest, frivolous complaints, and misrepresentations and lies to the public and media are all tools of our opponents to silence NOM and people like you who stand for God's truth and design for marriage. Don't let them win! Stand with us today with your generous donation.
Faithfully,
Brian S. Brown
