SUMMARY: A lesbian couple heats up the money race in the California initiative campaign to ban same-gender marriages, but anti-gay & lesbian forces may have deeper pockets still.

Through June 30, the campaign for the heterosexual-only Definition of Marriage initiative to appear on California ballots in March had raised almost four times as much money as the measure's opponents, Californians for Fairness -- but a big part of that difference was made up with a single gift on August 15. ETrade Group president and chief operating officer Kathy Levinson and her partner Jennifer Levinson made one of the largest contributions yet seen to any California initiative, a whomping $300,000. The Levinsons, who have two children, had never previously been involved in any ballot measure campaign. They announced their gift at a fund-raising event at their home to encourage others present to dig deep to defeat the measure.

The initiative asks voters to confirm or reject that, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Marriages performed in California are already so restricted, but three efforts in the state legislature failed to bar recognition of legal same-gender marriages another state may someday perform.

Besides the Levinsons', the biggest individual gifts published to date were $50,000 each from four donors to the Definition of Marriage campaign (actually comprised of two groups, the Protection of Marriage Committee and Californians for the Defense of Marriage) and $25,000 from one non-gay couple to Californians for Fairness. Even the national Human Rights Campaign, which was very actively involved in opposing Hawaii's 1998 initiative against same-gender marriages, has so far given only $25,000 to Californians for Fairness, partly based on the rationale that the California gay and lesbian community, with more than 20 years experience, is better prepared to oppose such an initiative than were those in Hawai'i or Alaska.

June 30 was the end of the last period for which campaigns were required to report on their contributions. At that time, the sponsoring groups reported a total of $839,000 and Californians for Fairness reported $223,000. The latter group hadn't even opened its office for the opposition campaign until mid-May and didn't really get underway until June, but while they hope to raise a total of $5-million, they still expect to be outspent.

The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) was already urging its California membership to contribute to the Definition of Marriage initiative campaign in a letter dated May 11, which was followed up with detailed instructions for its local leaders in a letter dated May 20. Although the church itself gave a total of $1.1-million to the Hawai'i and Alaska initiative campaigns against same-gender marriage, it reportedly is not contemplating making a direct contribution to the California measure. However, its California members have responded to the call, and are considered to be responsible for nearly $70,000 raised from four California towns, Fallbrook, Murrieta, Temecula, and Vista. Californians for Fairness has criticized its opponents for listing 68% of its 675 individual donors' occupations/employers as "unknown," including dozens of donations over $1,000 to as much as $20,000, when most campaigns can readily supply this information about larger donors.