Courts in states across the country have rejected the National Organization for Marriage’s efforts to hide their donors, as they’re trying to do in Minnesota, saying the group provided no credible evidence of threats or violence.
Relaxing disclosure rules would benefit groups like Minnesota for Marriage, which has vowed not to comply with some campaign finance guidelines as they advocate for a constitutional gay marriage ban,
Minnesota experts on lobbyist disclosure say ALEC’s activity here requires the group to register as a lobbyist under state law.
The organization held an event without registering as a state lobbyist, as a Minnesota board ruled was necessary in 1995.
The Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board has begun an investigation prompted by a complaint filed last week by Common Cause Minnesota, according to that group’s executive director, Mike Dean. The complaint alleges that the three groups coordinated to funnel money from the Republican Governor’s Association through Minnesota’s Future LLC to Minnesota’s Future, an independent expenditure committee with the same name, without disclosing all of the required donor information. The RGA has provided essentially all of the funding for Minnesota’s Future, which has used that money to run ads attacking Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton.
After last Tuesday’s primary, Minnesota voters learned the basic layout of the midterm election, with Democrats choosing former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton as their candidate to run against Tom Emmer for the governor’s seat. But with the candidates solidified, voters will actually know less about campaign finance after the primary election.
Since Gov. Tim Pawlenty took office in 2003, not one public official has filed a conflict-of-interest disclosure with the state ethics board, an unprecedented streak for a disclosure system that was routinely used for the previous three decades. Critics blame the precedent set by the Pawlenty administration’s own numerous ethical lapses, as well as the outdated disclosure requirements that are rife with loopholes.
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?
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