Maine's Ethics Commission has rejected a request from the National Organization for Marriage to drop a state investigation of its financial contributors. The group donated more than $1.9 million to Stand For Marriage Maine, which worked to overturn Maine's same-sex marriage law at the ballot box last year. The denial of NOM's request is the latest development in a series of confrontations between the group and the ethics panel that are taking place in federal and state courtrooms.

Disclosure is the issue that has divided the state ethics panel -- which believes in more transparency -- and the National Organization for Marriage, which argues it should be entitled to keep the names of its donors private.

And just in case anyone had any doubts about where the average Mainer weighs in on the issue, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections decided to conduct a poll as a reference point.

"Maine voters strongly support campaign finance disclosure laws. All dimensions of transparancy in Maine's law are supported by Maine people, even when tested against other values, such as confidentiality and privacy,' says Alison Smith, the co-chair of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections.

Smith wanted the members of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to know that more than 80 percent of the 400 Mainers recently surveyed support the commission's efforts to keep the names of political campaign contributors in the public domain.

"Voters want to know who pays for campaign ads," Smith says. "They feel that knowing the name of an organization is not enough; they want to know who finances and who leads the organizations who buy these communications. And about three-quarters of voters said that knowing who pays and who's behind the organizations that pays helps them determine the credibility of the organization, so voters really use this information."

Meanwhile, lawyers for the National Organization for Marriage are fighting the Ethics Commission in the courts. NOM maintains the contributions amount to a free speech issue and that revealing the names of its contributors threatens their privacy and could make them potential victims of harassment.

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the Ethics Commission, says NOM wants the panel to halt its fund raising probe, claiming that current state law does not technically make the organization a legal target for investigation.

"The argument is that the statute says the commission may undertake on its investigation to determine the facts concerning the registration of a candidate, treasurer, political committee or political action committee. But because the type of filer we're investigating, the ballot question committee does not list it among those types of entities that we can investigate, NOM's arguing that the investigation's not authorized in the first place."

Although no one from NOM was present during the meeting, Fred Karger, a gay rights activist from California, told members of the commission that the anti-same-sex marriage group was trying to bully Maine and other states seeking financial disclosure.

"They shouldn't have anything to hide," Karger says. "Why are they going through all of this, through all the court proceedings -- all the way to the Supreme Court on one appeal -- to protect their donor names. Whom are they trying to protect?"

Walter McKee, chairman of the five-member ethics panel, says NOM seems intent on waging a long courtoom challenge of the issue that is now dragging into its first year in both the state and federal courts. "I have no doubt that once we make our decision, that this, as with all of our other decisions will be appealed to Superior Court and this will continue to go on and on," he says. "But as frustrating as that may be as we may all have strong views about the manner in which some people litigate, we'll deal with this strictly on the legal issue of whether they are correct or not. I do not believe they are correct."

The panel's unanimous decision to reject NOM's request for dismissal of its investigation was supported by commission staff.