By avoiding disclosure required of direct donations, TCF has largely shielded itself from the kind of scrutiny Target and Best Buy have received for their political contributions.
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.
Minnesota has the highest level of participation by small political donors in the country, according to a new study by the Campaign Finance Institute. But that status is threatened by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s elimination of the state’s Political Contribution Refund program, which the report calls “a big success” and “a much healthier system” that the rest of the country can learn from.
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