Complaint alleges GOP fund illegally funneled campaign money
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 2:09 pm
- 5 Comments
A government watchdog group said in a complaint filed with the campaign finance board Thursday that a trio of Republican groups conspired to conceal important campaign finance information. Common Cause Minnesota said the “scheme” was developed to avoid aspects of Minnesota’s campaign finance disclosure laws.
The group alleges that the Republican Governor’s Association funneled money through Minnesota’s Future LLC to Minnesota’s Future, an independent expenditure committee with the same name. Mike Dean, Common Cause Minnesota’s executive director said the violation could result in $5.1 million in fines. Minnesota’s Future has produced two ads attacking DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton. The Minnesota Independent reported on the funneling of money to the group last week.
“Common Cause has uncovered a scheme by Minnesota’s Future Political Fund to avoid key aspects of Minnesota’s disclosure law by funneling a $428,000 contribution through a shell corporation,” Dean told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.
Dean said that Minnesota’s Future LLC was set up just weeks before $428,000 was was funneled through it by the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) to Minnesota’s Future Political Fund. About $390,000 went to the political fund. He said the LLC acted as an intermediary between the RGA and the political fund, and was able to bypass certain reporting requirements.
“The three groups together violated numerous state statutes,” he said. He said the violations could result in a fine as high as 5.1 million civil penalty and could also result in criminal prosecution. “So this is extremely serious violation,” he added.
“The scheme that was created was a clear and deliberate attempt by Minnesota’s Future and Republican Governor’s Association to avoid source disclosure law,” said Dean.
He said there were four laws that the LLC broke. They failed to register as a political committee, failed to report receipts and expenditures, failed to fill out a 42-day pre-general election report, and failed to fill out a source disclosure form.
He said the political committee broke the law when it accepted the $390,000 and that it filed a false statement with the finance board.
He added that the RGA circumvented the law by not filing a source disclosure form.
Common Cause is asking the campaign finance board to move this complaint through an expedited process.
Dean explained the difference between this case and the activities of left-leaning groups such as WIN Minnesota which passed through money from the Democratic Governor’s Association to groups that support DFL candidates. WIN Minnesota is a different type of organization, a 501(c)4, and followed the law, he said. “We may not like it, but they did it the right way,” he said.
The LLC had no other activity than the direct pass through of funds.
He said that all the RGA had to do was give the funds directly to the political fund instead of funneling it through the LLC.
“That’s all they had to do. That would have been the easiest thing.”
He said that protests earlier this summer over Target’s contributions to Minnesota Forward, a group that spent those contributions on ads supporting GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer might have prompted the groups to try and hide the donations.
“I think this came off of the Target backlash where we saw immense public pressure bring put on corporations who were involved in politics,” he said. “They saw what happened with Target and were looking for ways to hide those contributions.”
Here’s video of the press conference courtesy of TheUptake:
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Comment posted September 30, 2010 @ 4:52 pm
Here are some names of deep pockets funding Obama’s scheme
“A new report on the Tides Foundation and Tides Center, a network of wealthy political activists with connections to President Obama whose objective is no less than to transform the U.S. into a socialist nation. “ http://www.wnd.com/files/tides.pdf
The report contain a picture of some of the most radical groups leaders, including Tides Foundation founder Drummond Pike and disgraced ACORN founder Wade Rathke in a visit to ACORN’s organization in the nation of Peru, with a picture of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in the background.
“Anonymity is one key to Tides’ success, the report says, noting donors are not required to reveal the recipients of their contributions. “
So it’s Ok for the left to have a Foundation that can hide the names and identities of contributors, but the right is not suppose to?
“The Tides Foundation claims it has distributed $400 million in grants to progressive nonprofits since 2000, but Loudon believes the true amount must be significantly higher. “
So it’s Ok for the left to lie about how much it given and to who they give it to but the right is not suppose to?
Much of the money was given to media outlets in order to try and change public opinion.
So it’s Ok for the left to fund major media outlets (perhaps this blog) for purely political purposes to spew propaganda, while demonizing public enterprises like Fox News?
I think the left likes to play this game without anyone knowing what they are doing; all the while pointing fingers at the right. It’s high time to throw these crooks out of office.
Comment posted September 30, 2010 @ 9:39 pm
Barack Obama collected $800,000,000 for his presidential campaign, about twice that of his opponent, John McCain.
Estimates are that Obama collected about half of his contributions via the internet, where payments were made with bundled Visa cash cards and from foreign sources in Asia, Africa and the middle east, all of it untraceable and illegal.
And the democrats have the audacity to complain about campaign fund-raising??
Comment posted September 30, 2010 @ 9:57 pm
“whose objective is no less than to transform the U.S. into a socialist nation.”
Actually, Tim, I didn’t find that quote anywhere in the article you linked to. I’m not surprised you thought that what the author said but he actually didnt say that. He talked about “radicals”, “leftists” and “ultra-leftists”. Can you tell me me what the difference is beteen an of those? I didn;t think so. It used to be advocacy of violent change and revolution qualified you for the fringe in the eyes of the right. Now merely advocating social change, economic and social justice or feeding the hungry are signs of being a leftist or an “extreme radical.” I guess I’d better quit the Methodist Church.
So I’m not too surprised you think things like the paltry and feeble half measures at reform of health care, the financial system, immigration or the tax system that somehow got by the new 60 vote supermajority created by right wing Republican and Democrat hosers qualify as “socialism”.
But getting back to the topic, there is a difference between contributing to 501 (c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations by wealthy individuals and funneling campaign contributions through dummy corporations. But one has to ask: why should the right, which is funded by wealthy right wing corporate interests have anything to hide in the wake of the execrable “Citizen’s United” decision granting corporations first amendment rights to corrupt the political system? The answer is in the reptilian brains of the right wingers that want their cake and eat it too. In other words, corporations like Target, Best Buy and 3M and no doubt many others run by self-aggrandizing CEOs want to promote their true selfish and greedy personal interests without jeopardizing their fake, happy faced corporate images and goodwill.
These same right wingers scoff at the pitiful efforts of we mere human beings to challenge these “masters of the universe” by boycotts. Actions speak louder than words.
By the way, Master Tim, ACORN is not “disgraced”. It was cleared and vindicated of any of the alleged wrongdoing trumped up and manufactured by Mr. Breitbart. But maybe you think smearing worthwhile organizations with lies and false claims is an honorable profession?
Comment posted October 1, 2010 @ 4:59 pm
Well Tim, those lessons at Glenn Beck U are paying off. You memorized your conspiracy theories well.
Comment posted October 2, 2010 @ 8:33 am
This is how I read the article and subsequent posts:
The article itemizes specific, illegal financial transactions. These transactions exist specifically to evade both laws and accepted accounting practices.
The defending posts tacitly approve of these criminal practices because, in the words of that weasel you still remember from 7th grade “He did it first!”
“If the facts are on your side, bang on the facts. If the law is on your side, bang on the law. If neither the facts nor the law is on your side, bang on the table.”
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