Money fueling battle over gay marriage

With a week and a half to go before Election Day, the two campaigns in the battle over gay marriage continue to haul in large sums of money from donors both inside and outside of Maine. The organization defending Maine’s same-sex marriage law continues to hold a sizable financial edge over the law’s detractors, although the gap has narrowed in recent weeks. No on 1-Protect Maine Equality has raised more than $4 million so far — including about $1.4 million since Oct. 1 — for its campaign to make Maine the first state in the nation where voters have endorsed same-sex marriages. The group working to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law, Stand for Marriage Maine, more than doubled its war chest in three weeks by raising roughly $1.4 million in October. Stand for Marriage Maine has raised a total of $2.6 million, according to reports filed Friday with the Maine Ethics Commission.