SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Less than two weeks before Election Day, the chief strategist behind a ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California called an emergency meeting here.
"We're going to lose this campaign if we don't get more money," the
strategist, Frank Schubert, recalled telling leaders of Protect
Marriage, the main group behind the ban.
The campaign issued an urgent appeal, and in a matter of days, it
raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan
C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church. The
money allowed the drive to intensify a sharp-elbowed advertising
campaign, and support for the measure was catapulted ahead; it
ultimately won with 52 percent of the vote.