Campaign Finance

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak romped to a third term while openly flirting with a 2010 gubernatorial bid. Today a state agency rebuked him for mingling funds while pursuing the dual political contests. Will the ruling hurt Rybak’s political viability?

Surveying voters outside of the city last May meant Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak should have registered a gubernatorial campaign committee, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board said in a ruling (pdf) announced today. The upshot: One R.T. Rybak campaign committee must pay another $26,500 to cover the cost of the survey. The board [...]

“As one of my good friends and supporters, I want you to know that today we filed the paperwork to create the R.T. Rybak for Governor Committee.” And so Minneapolis’ newly re-elected mayor at long last made his intentions clear — though murky syntax made it sound like he is one of his own good friends [...]

Gov. Pawlenty’s new Freedom First political action committee held its first local fundraiser tonight at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. About 250 people — the same size crowd Pawlenty drew at the PAC’s considerably more affordable pretzel reception in Washington, D.C. last month – paid $1,000 each to attend a reception on the hotel’s third [...]

State Sen. Dick Cohen has been picked to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The committee advises the federal government’s three primary cultural agencies: the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The personal is apparently political for Minneapolis City Council president Barb Johnson. City Pages reports that the four-term council member, who is locked in a tough, four-way re-election fight, makes some rather dubious campaign expenditures.
Johnson charged her campaign $1,154 for hairdresser appointments and $986 for dry-cleaning during the current four-year election cycle. No other city [...]

They are called “pre-general” campaign-finance reports, but with the general election in Minneapolis only a day away, many candidates’ reports have yet to be filed, according to a website maintained by Hennepin County. In select races that could be close and have reports posted, the money race gives an indication of what the candidates had to work with in the closing days of their campaigns.

Politics in Minnesota has posted a lovely new infographic chart showing DFL candidates for governor and the endorsements they’ve earned.

Ward One in Minneapolis’ northeast corner is brimming with resentments and possibilities, to hear candidates for an open city council seat there tell it. A week from Election Day, a crowd of 75 packed the Northeast Library for a Ward One candidate forum. They were treated to a smorgasbord of back-to-basics rhetoric, with a side of chips on the shoulder.

Among the rewards Gov. Pawlenty dangles in a fundraising email on behalf of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC): “a photo opportunity with me.”