Maplewood follies: Plan to ban deceptive group names shot down

The Maplewood follies made an appearance at the Capitol Thursday morning.

Minnesota’s most notoriously acrimonious municipality was front and center at a hearing before the State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections committee. The occasion was a bill introduced by Rep. Nora Slawik (pictured), who represents the suburb, that would prohibit the use of intentionally deceptive names in political campaigns.

The legislation was prompted by contretemps during Maplewood’s 2007 municipal elections. A group called Maplewood Voters Coalition had long been active in municipal politics. But during the campaign an organization dubbed Maplewood Voters suddenly materialized. The latter group had very different political goals, supporting an opposing slate of political candidates, and proceeded to send out mailings to residents about the upcoming elections.

Stephan Flister, a member of the Maplewood Voters Coalition’s board of directors, told legislators at the hearing that his organization had no recourse against this identity theft.

“Current Minnesota campaign law does virtually nothing to prohibit deceptive use of names,” Flister said.

“If Minnesota voters want free and open and honest debate among active citizens, we think that deceptive use of names should be prohibited.”

The proposed legislation immediately ran into opposition, however. Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud) questioned whether the bill would pass constitutional muster.

“Who is going to determine whether a name is similar enough to invoke this law?” asked Gottwalt. “How is this going to be policed?”

Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) wondered if a group billed the Taxpayers League could seek to shut down an organization dubbed the Taxpayers Association under the proposal.

“I realize that for the people involved it wasn’t a small issue,” Buesgens noted of the Maplewood dispute. “It was a huge situation. But in changing state law to deal with this specific issue I think we better be really careful about what we do.”

Ultimately the bill was voted down by a 14-2 margin. Maplewood will have to figure out a different means to police its political disputes.