Ill keep to myself what I think about this but most people know how I feel about this issue I did alot of work on Carl Linders I, houses back in the early 80s

Generous Bush contributor had ties to gay marriage amendment
By JULIE CARR SMYTH AP Statehouse Correspondent

Published on Friday Aug 31, 2007

The son of one of President Bush's most generous campaign fundraisers served as an adviser to the group behind Ohio's 2004 gay marriage ban credited with helping Bush win the state and take back the White House.

An Associated Press analysis shows Carl Lindner III was among nearly a dozen associates of Citizens for Community Values who donated to Bush heading into the 2004 election, part of a giving pattern that provides new evidence that many supporters of the group had allegiances to Bush and the GOP.

None of the associates donated to Bush's opponent, Democratic Sen. John Kerry, state and federal campaign data show.

Critics have suggested that the way the Cincinnati-based Christian values group was organized allowed it to avoid contribution limits and conceal donors despite playing a crucial role in the Bush-Cheney victory strategy. Both CCV and the Bush campaign have said the groups never coordinated their efforts.

Exactly who funded the group's 2004 effort is still unclear, but the elusive list of the group's advisers and donors obtained by The AP lends some detail to the picture.

Lindner, president of Great American Insurance Companies, is son to Carl Lindner Jr., one of the nation's top fundraisers for Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The younger Lindner and 31 other advisers or directors to CCV in 2000, along with their family members, have donated at least $540,000 to Bush or other Republicans since that time, state and federal data show. Theirs were among 53 names listed on CCV letterhead filed in a federal communications case in 2000.

CCV vice president David Miller declined to say whether the younger Lindner remained on the advisory board as the 2004 election approached, or whether he serves today. A message seeking comment was left at the younger Lindner's office.

Miller said as the group's activities expanded since 2000 from the Cincinnati area to the statewide stage, backers' names were removed from the organization's stationery.

"We report what we need to, when we need to," he said. "Some people just prefer to be private, and I don't see anything wrong with protecting their privacy. It's common practice among non-profits."

As the group's reach as expanded, so too has curiosity about who is behind its political initiatives, which have included not only the gay marriage amendment but anti-pornography efforts in Cincinnati and a recent statewide crackdown on strip clubs.

"It seems that these folks have gone to great lengths to hide who they are and where their money comes from, but at the same time they seem to want to be Ohio's morality police," said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of Progress Ohio. The liberal policy group has filed a complaint with the state's elections chief over CCV's financial reporting practices.

In addition to Lindner, CCV advisers or directors listed on the letterhead included Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, football hall-of-famer Anthony Munoz, former Bengals head coach Sam Wyche, Olympic gold medalist Adrian Smith, Kings Island owners James and Patricia Carroll and James Markley, the retired chairman of Provident Bank.

The AP review found 11 of the 53 gave a combined $28,912 to Bush's campaigns, and $335,485 since 2000 to Republican causes at the federal level. An additional $209,000 was given to Ohio Republicans, including $63,518 to Republican Ken Blackwell, former Ohio secretary of state and a 2006 gubernatorial contender.

Miller declined to address questions about his group's relationship with the Bush campaign, except to say that many of the same people who supported Bush's re-election supported restricting gay marriage in the state.

"We had a very family-friendly, pro-family agenda that I think a very broad-based cross-section of society agreed were good public policies and thought we should adopt," he said.

However, state Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, said he remembers CCV president Phil Burress telling him during a 2004 telephone conversation that Bush strategist Karl Rove knew about, and was supportive of, the gay marriage amendment. Seitz sponsored a similar gay marriage ban the previous year.

"I absolutely stand by the fact that Phil told me he had been to Washington and met with Karl Rove, and Karl Rove said it would be a good idea," said Seitz, whose story has been refuted by Burress. "He said having it on the ballot would mean 3 to 4 percentage points for Bush in Ohio." Bush beat Kerry in Ohio by 118,000 votes, or 2.1 percent.

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.