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As part of his unallotment budget cuts, Gov. Pawlenty vowed to end the program that offers citizens a refund on a $50 donation to a political campaign. It’s not yet final, but the governor said he wants the program axed by July 1, and that has inspired candidates and parties to appeal for refundable donations before the end of the month. If you’ve received such an appeal, let us know. See a sample after the jump.
Ritchie’s email message carried a tagline identifying it as coming from his campaign.
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Comment posted June 19, 2009 @ 8:10 am
Does the Governor have the legal authority to terminate this program ? If the program was created by statute, doesn’t he have to change the law ?
IF this is temporary for the next two years, should he have deferred the payment until 2013 ?
IF he feels the funds will be unavailable, why didn’t he immediately announce the end of the program … and allow any unpaid (or not applied for) requests to be treated the same as those after July 1st ? It seems stupid to tell everybody to get your donations and refund forms in before the program which will only run the deficit higher.
And what’s wrong with voluntary compliance … why not “shame” candidates into not promoting this refund program.
Now, let’s get to the politics of this … isn’t this largely going to impact “challengers” since incumbents already have name recognition and know the lobbyists that will donate monies without regard to this program ? Second, won’t this impact “grassroots” interest groups – like MCCL and NRA – in which individuals would be encouraged to make donations to particular candidates ? If I am correct, that means the MN-GOP could be hurt more by this since they are in the minority and are typically supported by special interest groups. Any interest in researching past payments to see if I am correct ?
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