NEWS FLASH

Mitt Romney Secretly Gave Race-Wedging NOM $10,000 In 2008 | Records show that Mitt Romney secretly funneled $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in 2008 through the Alabama chapter of his Free and Strong America PAC. Alabama’s lax financial disclosure laws helped keep the donation hidden until a NOM whistle-blower shared it with the Human Rights Campaign. The donation was made just weeks before the vote on Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in California. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, infamous for his “Etch A Sketch” description of the general election, claimed a contribution to the Prop 8 campaign, but given it was never disclosed, this may constitute a violation of California disclosure laws. In its confidential memos from 2009 released this week, NOM admitted that “most of the world may never know the crucial role that NOM played in the Prop 8 campaign.” Openly gay Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger is calling on Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich — all of whom have signed NOM’s presidential pledge — to disavow the anti-gay group for its strategy to drive a “wedge” between gays and blacks.