Alachua Voter Guide

There is a local website called The Buyers Guide, which keeps track of who gives to local political campaigns, and provides a breakdown of what percentage of money comes from sources outside of our community. That is a good idea. I want to know if people who don’t even live here have a vested interest in our elections. I went to the site, and saw that they are not yet caught up with Gainesville’s March election. So, I decided to get the information myself by going to the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website and finding it myself. Here is what I discovered about the highly controversial Transgender Bathroom item. Keep in mind that this is publicly available information that anyone who cared to look could have discovered.

Of the $24,333.30 donated to Citizens for Good Public Policy, $3,300 came from businesses, and the rest was given by individuals. There was also a $500 contribution made by the Rock of Gainesville, a church. It was returned. I can only presume that is because a church is somehow prohibited from endorsing one side in an election. If you include that donation, which came from within Alachua County, a total of $925 came from outside Alachua County, or 3.8% of the money donated to this cause. If you don’t include the Rock’s contribution, it is 3.9%

On the other side of this fight is a group calling itself Equality is Gainesville’s Business, a political action committee (PAC) registered with the Supervisor of Elections. Thus far, they have collected $23,456.57. At first, it appears that $9,831.85, or 41.9%, came from out of town. However, a closer look reveals that one of our “local” donations of $5,000 came from a local entity that has only one donor, another entity that is located in Maryland. Basic Rights Gainesville is the next biggest donor beside the National Gay and Lesbian Talk Force. That takes the out of town number to 63%.

Yes, someone started a PAC in Alachua County, ostensibly to hide the fact that the money comes from out of state. I know that sounds like I’m saying that someone is up to no good, but when I went to the SOE website to find out who set up this local entity, there is no name and address on the form. So, there is some pretty sloppy work being done here if we are trying to achieve some sort of transparency in our system. I have also gone to the State Division of Elections and their database returns error messagges when I search for Basic Rights Gainesville. I have emailed them about it this morning.

What we do know is that their single $5,000 donation came from another organization called Basic Rights Montgomery. This group is much more visible. The Nationall Gay and Lesbian Task Force was instrumental in starting this group to fight another transgender bathroom ballot initiative in Montgomery County, Maryland. The NGLTF was the biggest donor to Equality is Gainesville’s Business.  It looks like they are the recipients of some leftover donations from Maryland.

And how did that battle go? It depends on who you ask. The short version is this: a local group started collecting signatures to get a measure on the ballot to overturn a transgender bathroom ordinance similar to Gainesville’s. They needed 25,000 signatures. They got them. Then their opponenets petitioned the court to change the number that was needed after the time to get them had expired. The court changed the number to 27,000, and the game was over. Read about it here.

So, who started Basic Rights Montgomery? Well, it’s a another group called Equality Maryland. And one of their donors is the Unitarian Universalist Church. I had to get around to that because it is very instructive to the rest of us that if you use enough paper entities to funnel your money to a political campaign, it is perfectly legal. I suppose.

This story is developing…