FAYETTEVILLE -- The group supporting the city's Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance raised nearly twice as much money as opponents through the end of July, according to financial filings with the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
For Fayetteville, a registered ballot question committee advocating passage of the latest anti-discrimination law, listed $39,444 in contributions and $33,420 in expenditures in reports filed July 15 and Aug. 17.
Protect Fayetteville, a group opposing the measure, reported $22,308 in contributions and $1,728 in expenditures.
The question will be decided in a Sept. 8 special election.
The largest donation to each campaign was $10,000.
Kirk Thompson, board chairman and former CEO of J.B. Hunt, donated that amount to For Fayetteville, according to the reports. The Baldwin Christian Church, 5595 E. Huntsville Road, gave $10,000 to Protect Fayetteville.
The opposition campaign identified just four other donors -- Fayetteville's Joe and Kim Maynard family ($4,000), Terminella Engineering ($1,000), Sandra Goeke ($500) and the Washington Madison Baptist Association ($200). An additional $6,608 in contributions that aren't itemized was reported.
According to state law, only donors who contribute $50 or more must be identified. All expenditures of $100 or more must be itemized. Any individual or organization that receives or spends more than $500 "for the purpose of expressly advocating the qualification, disqualification, passage or defeat of any ballot question" is considered a ballot question committee and, according to state law, must report financial activity to the Arkansas Ethics Commission.
"If you have a question that's going to be put to voters in an election and you have someone out there advocating for passage or defeat of the measure, the public has the right to know how that money's being spent," said Graham Sloan, director of the Ethics Commission.
For Fayetteville listed $33,935 from 112 donors in its two reports, along with $5,509 in unitemized contributions. The average contribution was $303.
Besides Thompson, For Fayetteville's largest donors were Bryan Bair, who owns Maverx Medica in Springdale ($4,000); Kyle Smith, the group's president ($2,170); and Leslie Belden, parish associate at First United Presbyterian Church, 695 E. Calvin St. ($2,000). Smith also provided $261 in "nonmoney" support for food, office supplies, web domains and a mailbox, according to the reports. The group listed 13 other nonmonetary contributions, the largest of which ($3,000), came from the NWA Center for Equality for yard signs.
Twenty-nine of 112 itemized contributions to For Fayetteville were from people with addresses outside Fayetteville. The five identified donors to the Protect Fayetteville campaign listed Fayetteville addresses.
Unlike the campaign for the city's failed Civil Rights Administration ordinance last year, no contributions were listed from the Human Rights Campaign. The Washington-based gay rights advocacy organization provided more than $270,000 in-kind support to Keep Fayetteville Fair, the ballot question committee that supported the proposal.
The nonmonetary contributions from the Human Rights Campaign in last year's campaign were used, at least in part, for staff salaries, fundraising, mailing and legal fees, according to Keep Fayetteville Fair's financial reports.
Also missing so far this year were several large outside donors to the Protect Fayetteville campaign. According to financial filings for Repeal 119, the ballot question committee that advocated for repeal of the earlier anti-discrimination law, WallBuilders Presentations, a conservative advocacy group from Aledo, Texas, gave $6,000 to the opposition campaign. Former state Rep. Jim Bob Duggar, R-Springdale, gave $5,000 to the effort and Stephanie Nichols, a Jonesboro-area lawyer, provided $5,000 of in-kind legal fees.
The earlier ordinance was repealed by 7,527, or about 52 percent, of the 14,580 voters who cast ballots in a Dec. 9 special election.
If approved, the Uniform Civil Rights Protection ordinance -- like the Civil Rights Administration ordinance before it -- will prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and places of public accommodation on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Unlike the previous ordinance, the latest version borrows language from existing state laws, such as the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993. It does not contain references to terms like "socioeconomic background" and "perceived" characteristics that proved to be controversial last time around. And it offers broader religious exemptions for "churches, religious schools and daycare facilities and religious organizations of any kind."
According to For Fayetteville's financial filings, $19,200, or about 57 percent of the group's $33,420 in expenditures through July 31 paid for three political consultants: Shannon Hix, Nate Kennedy and Spencer Hall.
The rest of the money went toward campaign management expenses from Hot Springs-based Natural State Strategies ($6,000), T-shirts ($2,625), website design ($2,000), software ($1,000), wall calendars ($753), bank fees ($489), printing and office supplies ($385) and fees for an Aug. 15 event at Teatro Scarpino ($200). The group also reported $768 in unitemized expenses.
Protect Fayetteville listed $466 worth of expenditures for office supplies; $333 for meeting expenses; and $245 to establish domain names. Another $684 in expenditures were not itemized. The group did not list any expenses related to an Aug. 11 campaign rally at which the owners of an Oregon bakery spoke. Its most recent financial report only included expenses the group has incurred through the end of July.
The ballot question committees' next reports are due Sept. 1. Sloan said the reports, by law, must list money spent and received through Aug. 29 -- 10 days prior to the Sept. 8 special election.
Final financial reports are due Oct. 8.
Last year, nearly one-quarter of Keep Fayetteville Fair's itemized monetary contributions and more than three-quarters of Repeal 119's were posted in the week leading up to and after the Dec. 9 special election.
NW News on 08/26/2015