Hedge fund money to back same-sex marriage campaign
Coalition will 'spend whatever it takes to win the freedom to marry'
A new coalition seeking to enact same-sex marriage in New Jersey will be backed by hedge fund managers and investors who oversee billions in funds, the Wall Street Journal reports this morning.
New Jersey United for Marriage [NJ United] will formally announce its campaign at a news conference on the Asbury boardwalk today. The coalition brings together Garden State Equality and the American Civil Liberties Union of NJ, which are based in the state, as well as the national groups American Unity Fund, Freedom to Marry, Gill Action Fund, Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal.
Click here for a prior Sun story on the new coalition.
Wall Street backers of NJ United include high-profile hedge fund managers such as David Tepper and Daniel Loeb.
From the Wall Street Journal report:
“We will make sure things will be well-funded, and they will be well-funded in New Jersey,” said David Tepper, a hedge-fund manager overseeing Appaloosa Management and a New Jersey resident. Mr. Tepper, who is a Democrat, also lent financial backing to the push to pass gay marriage in New York.
The “New Jersey United for Marriage” campaign intends to target Republican legislators to vote for an override of Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s veto last year of a bill allowing for same sex marriage in New Jersey. Lawmakers need to pull in the support of three senators and 12 Assembly members for an override of Mr. Christie’s veto…
The American Unity Fund [part of the NJ United coalition] was started earlier this year by some of the top Republican donors in the U.S. specifically to encourage GOP legislators to back gay rights. Paul Singer, a New York Republican who runs the Elliott Management hedge fund, founded the nonprofit. Mr. Singer was one of a number of influential Republicans who urged Mr. Christie to run for president last year and donated at least $6,800 to his campaign for governor in 2009, campaign filings show.
Other leading supporters from the financial world include Clifford Asness, Seth Klarman, David Herro and Daniel Loeb—all of whom are investors or run hedge funds worth billions of dollars…
“Very quickly, people will be knocking on their doors and they will be getting phone calls,” said Troy Stevenson, executive director of Garden State Equality, about the campaign.
According to the Journal, the NJ United campaign is expected to start in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the coalition will “spend whatever it takes to win the freedom to marry,” Garden State Equality’s Stevenson said.
Click here for the full Wall Street Journal story.
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