Campaign Finance

At the press availability event Thursday, the one that barred Minnesota Independent and The UpTake, Sen. Norm Coleman attempted to address recent concerns about whether Nasser Kazeminy paid for his suits. The Pioneer Press’ Rachel Stassen-Berger has the transcript of the event.
While I have answered honestly the question about suits and jobs – I will [...]

Since 2000, the Republican Party of Minnesota has had problems complying with the Federal Election Commission’s requirements for reporting, a fact made painfully clear over the last month as the party has amended virtually every report it has made since 2002. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is responsible for enforcing election laws pertaining to contributions [...]

Producer and HRC mainstay Harvey Weinstein is pushing a plan in which he would put together the dollars required to do primary re-votes in Florida and Michigan. He wants the blessing of key Democrats — with their kneecaps intact or otherwise. CNN describes two threats Weinstein reportedly levied in a call with House Speaker Nancy [...]

Despite canceling her morning round of post-primary big media appearances yesterday, Hillary Clinton was back on the stump in West Virginia by midday sounding not at all like a candidate who has dropping out on her mind. A few of her more quotable remarks:

“If we had the rules that the Republicans have, I’d already be [...]

The FEC has released new numbers summarizing the financial status of the Al Franken for US Senate campaign through March 31, and here’s how they break down:

Franken’s first-quarter 2008 take was about $2.2 million, bringing the campaign’s total receipts so far to $9,356,168.
During the same period, the campaign spent $1.8 million.
Franken’s cash on hand thus [...]

Hope Yen of the Associated Press writes that the Democratic National Committee is filing a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission  today. According to Yen, the litigation “questions the agency’s ability to enforce the law and review McCain’s decision to opt out of the system. The Republican presidential candidate, who had been entitled to $5.8 [...]

Today Brody Mullins of the Wall Street Journal crunches numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics on business donations to the presidential campaigns and finds that John McCain is trailing his Democratic opponents in funding from the seven major industrial sectors that have been the most steadfast donors to the GOP.

Mullins writes:
“Sen. McCain has beaten [...]

Some tea leaves to sort through on a Friday afternoon:

Former Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson endorsed Obama. (But remember that Clinton got a consequential endorsement the other day from Pennsylvania Senator and Iraq War critic John Murtha.)

The Clinton campaign ended the month of February in the red, reports the NYT’s The Caucus blog.

Ex-WashPosters Jim [...]

About a month ago MDE unleashed another baseless attack on a State Representative just to garner some more undeserved attention.  This time the victim was State Representative Denise Dittrich (HD 47A) from Champlain.  Some of you may remember MDE’s claim (and this juvenile video) that Dittrich failed to disclose a conflict of interest and some [...]

Short of returning political contributions to defense contractors whose work might call into question his antiwar stance, Mike Erlandson could look to Senate candidate Mark Kennedy for what not to do–begin hurling rocks in the proverbial glass house.
See part 1.
See part 2.