Dayton speaks out on Target donation to MN Forward
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 at 1:24 pm
- 7 Comments
Photo: MarkDayton.org
As fallout continues over Target’s decision to give to MN Forward, an independent expenditure committee that is backing Republican Tom Emmer for governor, DFL candidate Mark Dayton expressed disappointment over the the donation and said that if his family still ran the corporation, as it once did, such a gift would not have been made.
The Star Tribune’s Rachel Stassen-Berger reports that Dayton spoke out about the contribution at an event Tuesday morning in which Dayton was endorsed by the SEIU.
Dayton: “Personally, I’m disappointed in that decision. I am very proud of what my father and his brother, who are my uncles, and thousands of Minnesotans built as the Dayton-Hudson Corporation and Target is one of those subsidiaries. You know, my family’s been out of the operating side of the business for about the last, almost the last 30 years. I don’t hold any stock directly in Target in my own holdings. I don’t know the percent of my family’s holding in Target but I would estimate it is less than one percent of the actively traded shares in the company and certainly my family has no voice in the actions of Target corporation.”
Reporter: “Had your family still be involved do you think that Target would have given to MN Forward.”
Dayton: “I don’t believe so. No.”
Target’s donation has riled LGBT and immigrant groups and prompted boycott’s and demonstrations because of Emmer’s views about immigration and same-sex marriage.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter7 Comments
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
I wonder how much union money this yahoo will be receiving?
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
Dano, Mark Dayton isn’t a Yahoo. If you would listen to him debate Emmer at the University of St Thomas you’d find him a top-flight candidate.
Listen to the debate here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/08/24/midday2/
Comment posted August 24, 2010 @ 4:29 pm
I’ve listened to him and basically he’s made it clear he’s going to go after anybody with a bank account left. I do not see him having any leadership abilities or any real ideas other than using people of means as his scapegoat as to how to fix things by taking from them. He straight out said a couple making over 150k a year he would increase taxes on. That’s two people making 75k, that’s NOT the wealthy. He also said he would increase education funding every year. Is he going to cash out his trust account and buy it, like he did with the DFT nomination? (of course the other two candidates were weak) No, we are going to get raped by this yahoo every which way we turn.
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 11:31 am
Dano’s Party-of-NO! point that $75k is NOT wealthy may be true (by U.S. standards; but it misses the point that when a couple is making Over $150,000 per year, they are definitely doing well enough by most (verifiable & reasonable) standards to give more to benefit the commonweal. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that such affluent folks are in the top statistical quartile; and doing better than 94% of their fellow Americans. It is his appeal to the baser, selfish side of our natures that epitomizes the difference between the GOP & DFL policies re progressive taxation. Republicans have mostly forgotten the simple truism that: We All do better when we All do better.
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
Frank,
“We All do better when we All do better.”
This kind of simple minded thinking is why I reject progressive policies. I and my wife get out of bed every morning and bust our humps at well paying jobs because we want to be able to go places and do the things we want to do with our money. We pay a lot in property and income taxes already. Are we selfish? Yes and no. We worked for what we have and earn and I see no reason to hand one penny more that I have to to the government. We give some to charity but we work for us not society at large.
Comment posted August 25, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
Frank,
In regards to giving to the “commonweal” there are way too many riding and not enought of us pulling that cart. Time to throw some overboard.
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