San Diego businessman donated $300K to defeat Maine’s gay marriage law: report

San Diego-based businessman Terry Caster donated $300,000 to support the National Organization for Marriage's efforts to defeat Maine's controversial gay marriage law in 2009, a campaign disclosure report revealed.

According to the campaign disclosure report, Caster was one of the biggest donors who supported the fight against gay marriage law that year.

The Maine Ethics Commission's Jonathan Wayne said, "Its important when out-of-state groups come to Maine to fund an initiative or referendum that they know they have to register with the commission and disclose the sources of their political funding. That's what this whole matter was about."

The biggest single contributor was New Jersey's Sean Fieler, the president of hedge fund Equinox Partners. The other large donor was retired Pennsylvania doctor Jack Templeton, who died of brain cancer in May this year.

The disclosure report also revealed that the largest Maine contributor to National Organization for Marriage was Richard Kurtz, a retiree from Cape Elizabeth.

Caster has donated more than $470,000 to Sharp HealthCare according to the company's website. The Casters' donations have gone to supporting scholarships for nursing education.

The organization went to court three times to shield its list of biggest donors, arguing that it never registered with the state and that the money it raised was not specifically earmarked for the Maine referendum. But it had to reveal the names of the donors after the Supreme Court of Maine rejected its request.