Marriage scouting

The battle between pro– and anti–gay-marriage forces continues. Among the latest to back Proposition 8, the proposed statewide ban on gay marriages, is Robert Bolingbroke of Rancho Santa Fe, who recently kicked in $25,000. The former president and chief operating officer of bleach-maker Clorox Company, Bolingbroke now serves as a council commissioner with the San Diego–Imperial Council of the Boy Scouts of America, a group that lost its lease in San Diego’s city-owned Balboa Park over its opposition to admission of gays. Bolingbroke signed the rebuttal to the argument against Prop 8 that appears in the state ballot pamphlet for the November election: “Your YES vote ensures that parents can teach their children about marriage according to their own values and beliefs without conflicting messages being forced on young children in public schools that gay marriage is okay.” … Employees of utility giant Sempra Energy have been pouring money into the reelection campaign of GOP congressman Brian Bilbray, who has collected a total of $4750 from 19 individuals who gave $250 each and identified themselves as working for the company. Donors included executive vice president Jessie Knight, former executive director of the San Diego chamber of commerce, and Darcel Hulse, Sempra’s liquefied natural gas honcho. The Sempra Energy Employees Political Action Committee also favored Bilbray with $5000; in the same period it gave South Bay’s Democratic congressman Bob Filner only $1000 and the GOP’s Darrell Issa $2500. On the presidential front, Democrats did better with Sempra workers: 6 of them gave a total of $4250 to Republican John McCain, nothing compared to the 27 who came up with a total of $16,900 for his Democratic rival Barack Obama.