DENVER (AP) – The public policy arm of the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family raised nearly $9 million in its first six months of existence – the equivalent of $50,000 a day, according to records reviewed by The Denver Post.

Focus on the Family is a non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs. The ministry focuses on promoting evangelical Christian teachings on marriage and child rearing through radio programs, publications and telephone help.

Because such organizations are barred from supporting or opposing political candidates, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson last year founded Focus Action to address public policy concerns. Similar groups include AARP and the National Rifle Association.

Focus Action’s first federal income tax forms illustrate Focus Action’s popularity from its inception in April 2004 through last September. It took in $8.8 million, all from individuals.

The records show 152 donors contributed at least $5,000 for a total of $2.4 million, so the majority of gifts were relatively small.

Of the total, Focus Action said it spent nearly $2 million distributing newsletters, e-mails and articles to involve people in issues such as same-sex marriage, the role of judges and “the protection of human life.” Nearly $900,000 was spent on radio broadcasts on legislative and public-policy issues, and about the same amount on rallies urging Christians to vote in North Carolina, Louisiana and South Dakota, which all had close Senate races.

Last October, Focus Action also spent $256,025 to mail letters offering Dobson’s endorsement of conservative GOP Senate candidates in four states: Mel Martinez in Florida, James DeMint in South Carolina, Thomas Coburn in Oklahoma and John Thune in South Dakota. All four won.

Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus Action, said that in April and May, the organization also spent $1.2 million on the Senate filibuster debate.

Focus Action is now looking at efforts to support the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment that would bar same-sex marriage and potential Supreme Court vacancies, Minnery said.

With campaign finance reform laws restricting unregulated “soft money” to political parties, non-profit groups are exerting greater influence in the political sphere.

A Colorado Springs group, Citizens Project, earlier this year asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether a Focus on the Family magazine crossed the line by using persuasive language to imply support for President Bush.

James Bopp, a tax lawyer who represents Focus on the Family, said neither Focus on the Family nor Focus Action has been contacted by the IRS about the last election cycle.

“Some people think it’s illegitimate for people of faith to get involved in the democratic process,” Bopp said. “They think it ought to be illegal, or if it’s not, they say, ‘At least we ought to sully them with unfounded allegations.’ It’s just a smear.”

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) –A new federal lawsuit seeks to strike down Michigan’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution.

Bangor attorney Jessie Olson is named as a co-plaintiff with her partner, Tabitha A. Flatau, in the suit she filed in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo.

She said the amendment is stripping away job benefits such as health insurance from gay and unmarried heterosexual domestic partners, and their children.

Michigan voters approved the amendment, which adds Section 25 to Article 1 of the state’s constitution, with November’s passage of Proposal 2.

“Section 25 applies at all levels of state, county and municipal government, imposing a special disability on people in same-sex relationships whether they seek protection for their relationships from government employers, administrative agencies, cities, towns or the state Legislature,” the lawsuit says.

The amendment violates the equal-protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, according to the suit.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox’s office said it hadn’t seen Olson’s lawsuit yet. Gary Glenn, president of the Midland-based American Family Association of Michigan and an outspoken supporter of Proposal 2, said the filing was “certainly no surprise.”

“It does point to the absolute necessity of a marriage protection amendment to the U.S. Constitution in order to protect the will of the people of Michigan and 17 other states in the country,” Glenn said.

Going into the November election, opponents of Proposal 2 said they worried about its possible effect on domestic partner benefits for unmarried couples.

On March 16, Cox said the amendment bars local and state governments, in future labor contracts, from designating gay partners of employees to receive health and retirement benefits also given to spouses. He wrote in an opinion that Kalamazoo’s policy of offering benefits to same-sex partners violates the amendment.

Five days later, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan challenged Cox’s opinion in a still-pending lawsuit filed in Ingham County Circuit Court. Those bringing that suit include 21 same-sex couples – including Kalamazoo city employees, workers at state universities and employees at various state agencies and departments – and a Washington-based AFL-CIO group, National Pride at Work, that backs gay rights.

DETROIT (AP) – A conservative Christian group launched a boycott against Ford Motor Co., saying the second-largest U.S. automaker has given thousands of dollars to gay rights groups, offers benefits to same-sex couples and actively recruits gay employees.

“From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support homosexual groups and their agenda, to forcing managers to attend diversity training on how to promote the acceptance of homosexuality … Ford leads the way,” American Family Association chair Donald Wildmon said in a statement.

Ford responded that it respects its customers and employees.

“Ford values all people, regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and cultural or physical differences,” Ford vice president of human resources Joe Laymon said.

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. also provide benefits for same-sex partners.

Tupelo, Miss.-based AFA said it e-mailed an announcement about the Ford boycott to 2.2 million supporters. AFA special projects director Randy Sharp said nearly 55,000 people had already signed a pledge supporting the boycott.

Ford was the only automaker among the 56 companies that got the highest rating last year from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group. Companies are rated on several factors, including whether they offer benefits to gay partners, donate to gay rights groups and market their products to gays.

Sharp said he is upset by Ford’s marketing tactics in gay-oriented publications, including offering to donate $1,000 to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for every Jaguar or Land Rover sold.

“Ford is willing to do something they have refused to do for any other group,” Sharp said.

Ford spokesperson Oscar Suris said the company donated $77.9 million to a wide variety of groups last year. The majority – $39.6 million – went to education, he said. A much smaller percentage went to community organizations for gays, Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and other groups.

The AFA recently ended a nine-year boycott of The Walt Disney Co. over Disney’s decision to extend benefits to same-sex couples and promote gay-related events at its theme parks. The boycott appeared to have little effect, since Disney reported higher earnings and increased theme park attendance during that time.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Over the objections of one of its more conservative leaders, New York’s Republican State Committee has voted to give a seat on its executive committee to a group that represents gay GOP members.

The vote to give the Log Cabin Republicans representation on the executive committee came June 13 at a closed-door meeting of the state GOP leadership and over the objections of state Sen. Serphin Maltese, the Queens GOP chair.

“I felt a group should not be recognized strictly on sexual orientation,” Maltese said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Maltese, a former state chair of the politically influential Conservative Party, also noted the Log Cabin Republicans’ criticism during the 2004 election campaign of President Bush’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

“They’ve been disloyal and I don’t think the group belongs in the leadership,” Maltese told the New York Times.

Declaring that “I am not anti-gay” and that “I don’t want to be a divisive force,” Maltese told the AP that he simply felt it was wrong to remain silent in the face of the proposal from state GOP Chair Stephen Minarik.

But a supporter of the change, Manhattan GOP Chair James Ortenzio, said Maltese was hurting efforts to promote a “big tent” Republican Party.

“Whether it’s a log cabin, a yurt, an igloo or a split-level, we’ve got room for every kind of housing no matter how you depict yourself in terms of your belief,” Ortenzio said.

“He certainly turned himself in one minute from the Maltese Falcon to some form of domestic poultry,” the Manhattan party leader added.

Maltese said he had no problem with homosexuals being in leadership positions in the party, but felt it was wrong to give the Log Cabin Republicans special treatment.

Minarik said that “in the Republican Party we are allowed to have diversity of opinion. While I may agree with Serph Maltese on many of the issues, particularly with regard to the Log Cabin Republican group, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to sit at our table and be part of our party.”