The study averaged the net worth of each member. When members file their financial disclosure statements, they list assets and liabilities as part of minimum and maximum bet worth and CRP averaged those. For example, Sen. Amy Klobuchar reported a minimum net worth of $345,029 and a maximum of $1,104,000 for an average net worth of $724,512.

In Minnesota politics, the Republican members are much wealthier than the DFLers.

The wealthiest member of Minnesota’s delegation was Sen. Al Franken with an average net worth of $8,747,525 followed by Rep. Michele Bachmann at $1,783,508 and Rep. Chip Cravaack in 217th place with an average net worth of $1,391,551.

Those three were in the top half of Congress’ 535 members.

After Klobuchar’s $724,512 comes Rep. Erik Paulsen with an average net worth of $487,017, Rep. John Kline had $471,006, Rep. Collin Peterson had $263,005, Rep. Tim Walz with $247,502, and Rep. Betty McCollum with an average net worth of $88,005.

Rep. Keith Ellison had the lowest net worth, with negative $14,497.

The generally accepted cutoff for the top 1 percent of Americans in terms of net worth is about $9 million on 2010, a threshold that none of the Minnesota delegation report.

Eleven percent of Congress is in the top 1 percent in terms of net worth.

Boisclair works for the Society for Truth and Justice, an anti-abortion group whose staffers are running primary challenges around the country in order to exploit a campaign law loophole and get graphic ads aired on broadcast television, as the Minnesota Independent first reported.

In a press release titled, “Christian challenges Muslim for congressional seat,” Boisclair announced that he had launched his first ad.

“We did not pick this fight,” Boisclair said. “Islam’s war against Christianity and human liberty has raged against us for 1,400 years. We are merely responding with the truth.”

“The call to violent acts against Christians and Jews within this ‘holy’ book should alarm every American. The fact that a U.S. Congressman swore an oath on a book that calls for most of us to be persecuted is an outrage.”

The video was deemed offensive by Youtube and promptly pulled from the video hosting service. Ellison praised the move.

“I’d like to thank YouTube for removing the ad because it violated the company’s ‘policy on shocking and disgusting content,’” Ellison wrote in a statement. “The people of Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District elected me to uphold our Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion for every American. I intend to maintain the high level of civility the voters expect and deserve. And, I will continue working with our communities to organize for greater inclusion of people of all faiths and backgrounds.”

Boisclair, who currently works in Washington, DC, for the Society for Truth and Justice is one of several candidates from that organization running in primary challenges against House members in order to force local media outlets to air the candidates’ ads no matter how graphic.

The Federal Communications Act of 1934 says that all candidates for a specific office must have equal access to public airwaves.

Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist who founded the group, is also running a Democratic primary challenge against President Obama. Earlier this week, Terry began soliciting $100,000 in donations to air graphic anti-abortion ads in the 2012 Democratic primaries and caucuses.

Boisclair told the Hopkins Patch that he doesn’t yet have the money to air his anti-Islam ads, but hopes to in time for the election

Here’s Boisclair’s new ad:

Source: donsutherland1, Flickr

Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Tim Walz joined 130 other members of Congress in filing a brief in a court case challenging part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The members are challenging Section 3 of DOMA that denies benefits to some legally married couples in Massachusetts that others are afforded and the members say it compromises states’ rights.

The lawsuit began in 2009, when the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) filed suit on behalf of eight legally married same-sex couples and three surviving spouses after they were denied federal legal protections.

133 House members added their support for the couples’ lawsuit.

“Some [House members] voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”) while others voted for it; still others were not in Congress when DOMA was enacted. But all believe, today, that Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage for all federal purposes as ‘only a legal union between one man and one woman,’ lacks a rational relationship to any legitimate federal purpose and accordingly is unconstitutional,” the brief said.

Fourteen of the 133 House members signing the brief voted for the original law that they now view as unconstitutional. The only member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to have voted for DOMA in 1996 is Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, who has said he continues to support the law and voted to “reaffirm” it earlier this year.

Walz, Ellison, and McCollum have all been elected to Congress well after that vote. All three have also sponsored legislation to repeal DOMA.

The brief said, in part, that it was a response to House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to expend federal time and money on the Defense of Marriage Act.

“[The members] also wish to make clear that the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (“BLAG”), which has intervened in this case to defend Section 3’s constitutionality, does not speak for a unanimous House on this issue.”

The brief concluded that DOMA was a federal overreach into the individual states’ rights to determine marriage.

“Prior to DOMA, Congress achieved its legitimate federal interests in promoting the welfare of American families by working cooperatively with the states and respecting state marriage determinations. Congress’s radical departure from that federalist practice was a mistake; because Section 3 violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, it is also unconstitutional. The decision below should be affirmed.”

The case is being heard in the First Circuit’s U.S. Court of Appeals.

Here’s the full list of members who signed the brief:

Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, James E. Clyburn, Jerrold Nadler, John Conyers, Jr., Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, Jared Polis, David N. Cicilline, Gary L. Ackerman, Robert E. Andrews, Karen Bass, Xavier Becerra, Shelley Berkley, Howard L. Berman, Timothy H. Bishop, Earl Blumenauer, Robert A. Brady, Bruce L. Braley, Lois Capps, Michael E. Capuano, André Carson, Judy Chu, Hansen Clarke, Yvette D. Clarke, Wm. Lacy Clay, Emanuel Cleaver, Steve Cohen, Gerald E. Connolly, Joe Courtney, Joseph Crowley, Danny K. Davis, Susan A. Davis, Diana DeGette, Rosa L. DeLauro, Theodore E. Deutch, Lloyd Doggett, Michael F. Doyle, Donna F. Edwards, Keith Ellison, Eliot L. Engel, Anna G. Eshoo, Sam Farr, Chaka Fattah, Bob Filner, Marcia L. Fudge, John Garamendi, Charles A. Gonzalez, Raúl M. Grijalva, Luis V. Gutierrez, Janice Hahn, Colleen W. Hanabusa, Alcee L. Hastings, Martin Heinrich, Brian Higgins, James A. Himes, Maurice D. Hinchey, Mazie K. Hirono, Kathy Hochul, Rush D. Holt, Michael M. Honda, Jay Inslee, Steve Israel, Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Sheila Jackson Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., William R. Keating, Dennis J. Kucinich, John B. Larson, Barbara Lee, Sander M. Levin, John Lewis, Zoe Lofgren, Nita M. Lowey, Carolyn B. Maloney, Edward J. Markey, Doris O. Matsui, Carolyn McCarthy, Betty McCollum, Jim McDermott, James P. McGovern, Jerry McNerney, Gregory W. Meeks, Brad Miller, George Miller, Gwen Moore, James P. Moran, Christopher S. Murphy, Grace F. Napolitano, Richard E. Neal, Eleanor Holmes Norton, John W. Olver, William L. Owens, Frank Pallone, Jr., Ed Pastor, Donald M. Payne, Gary C. Peters, Chellie Pingree, David E. Price, Mike Quigley, Charles B. Rangel, Laura Richardson, Steven R. Rothman, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bobby L. Rush, Tim Ryan, Linda T. Sánchez, Loretta Sanchez, John P. Sarbanes, Janice D. Schakowsky, Adam B. Schiff, Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, José E. Serrano, Brad Sherman, Louise McIntosh Slaughter, Adam Smith, Jackie Speier, Fortney Pete Stark, Mike Thompson, John F. Tierney, Paul Tonko, Edolphus Towns, Niki Tsongas, Chris Van Hollen, Nydia M. Velázquez, Timothy J. Walz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Henry A. Waxman, Peter Welch, Lynn C. Woolsey, John A. Yarmuth.

With the 2012 elections looming, states have passed a slew of laws making voting more difficult, including voter ID laws. Opponents of the new laws say the rules will make it harder for minorities and young people to vote in the upcoming elections.

The office of Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., announced that the letter urges secretaries of state across the country “to oppose new state measures adopted over the last year that would make it harder for eligible voters to register or vote.”

“A year from now, millions of Americans will head to the polls to exercise their most fundamental right—the right to vote,” Hoyer said in a press release. “Unfortunately, in states across the country, partisan measures have been adopted that would make it more difficult for nearly five million voters, particularly the poor, young people, the elderly, and minorities, to register and vote.”

House Democrats signing onto the letter said voter restriction laws were a “disturbing trend.”

“Election legislation and administration appear to be increasingly the product of partisan plays,” the letter read. “It is critical for our democracy that this does not continue. Voting hours, voting sites, identification requirements, voter registration regulation and access to mail ballots should not be used as weapons to achieve a preferred electoral outcome.”

The letter asked secretaries of state to “be vigilant in protecting against fraud but equally vigilant in protecting the franchise for all our citizens.”

“History has taught us that our democracy has suffered far more from elected officials who chose to deny some of our citizens the opportunity to vote than from any other cause,” the letter reads. “There is no greater threat to our democracy than a diminished belief that the rules are fair and fairly administered.”

The letter is signed by Rep. Collin Peterson, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Betty McCollum and Rep. Tim Walz.

A voter ID law was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2011, although Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) has said she plans to pursue a voter ID law in 2012 as a constitutional amendment.

“As part of the deficit reduction process, the agriculture committees are responsible for reviewing existing programs and identifying where the Congress can find savings,” the House members wrote on Nov. 3. “However, we are greatly troubled by any attempt to use the Joint Select Committee to authorize costly new mandatory programs without adequate congressional review.”

The Super Committee is tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion over the next decade. In a bid to avoid deeper cuts, four members of congressional agriculture committees, including Rep. Collin Peterson (DFL-Minn.) have been working on a proposal to cut $23 billion from the Farm Bill. Although the plan hasn’t yet been released, it’s expected to eliminate direct payments to farmers in favor of programs focused on lost revenues. Peterson did not reply to a request for comment on the status of the legislation.

“We urge the Joint Select Committee to resist proposals that would go beyond its mandate of deficit reduction and authorize new, complicated agriculture programs that have not been the subject of congressional review,” the letter reads. “If the agricultural committees believe that these cuts will require a fundamental redesign of agricultural programs, those committees can and should move legislation through regular order.”

As the Minnesota Independent reported last week, agricultural lobbyists are gearing up to influence the Farm Bill, which will only be subject to an up or down vote if the Super Committee accepts it. Advocates from environmental and other groups have mobilized against the process.

“Anyone who thinks a bill driven by industry lobbyists, written behind closed doors and negotiated in secret, will be a good deal for taxpayers or the hungry should have their head examined,” said Jim French of Oxfam America in a statement lauding the letter. “Members of the Super Committee should reject the ‘Secret Farm Bill’.”

The full text of the letter is below:

November 3, 2011

The Honorable Patty Murray
Co-Chair, Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Jeb Hensarling
Co-Chair, Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
129 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairwoman Murray and Chairman Hensarling:

We are writing to express our concern with reports that the House and Senate Agriculture Committees intend to use the expedited legislative process of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to authorize new Farm Bill programs and entitlements outside of regular order. As part of the Deficit Reduction process, the Agriculture Committees are responsible for reviewing existing programs and identifying where the Congress can find savings. However, we are greatly troubled by any attempt to use the Joint Select Committee to authorize costly new mandatory programs without adequate Congressional review.

As you know, Congress charged the Joint Select Committee with the task of reducing the deficit by $1.5 trillion between 2012 and 2021 and provided for its legislative recommendations to be brought to the floor of both the House and the Senate for expedited consideration. Furthermore, its recommendations are not subject to amendment or filibuster. Congress implemented these rules to dull the pain of politically contentious but fiscally responsible measures. Yet, it has become apparent that some believe they can create new programs and entitlements with limited Congressional scrutiny and input.

We urge the Joint Select Committee to resist proposals that would go beyond its mandate of deficit reduction and authorize new, complicated agriculture programs that have not been the subject of Congressional review. The Joint Select Committee should instead act to find efficiencies within existing programs. If the Agricultural Committees believe that these cuts will require a fundamental redesign of agricultural programs, those Committees can and should move legislation through regular order.

Sincerely,

Ron Kind
Earl Blumenauer
John Campbell
Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands)
Steve Cohen
Peter DeFazio
Keith Ellison
Jeff Flake
Raul Grijalva
Rush Holt
Hank Johnson
Barbara Lee
John Lewis
Tom McClintock
Gwen Moore
Jim Moran
Mick Mulvaney
John Olver
Ron Paul
Tom Petri
Joe Pitts
Adam Smith
Jackie Speier
Pete Stark
Bennie Thompson
Ed Towns
Henry Waxman

Michele Bachmann, John Kline

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has missed more votes than all but two of her House colleagues, both of whom were ill.

Bachmann is running for the GOP nod for president and spends much of her time in Iowa and other early primary states. She missed 26 percent of all votes so far in 2011, according to a New York Times’ analysis of House attendance. In missed votes, Bachmann trails only Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York, who is ill, and Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in January.

Rep. Ron Paul, who is also running for president, missed 21.3 percent of 2011 votes.

But Bachmann has vastly improved her voting record since this summer, when the Hill reported that she had missed 37 percent of all House votes from the time she declared her candidacy until late July.

Even before she officially declared her candidacy, Bachmann had a higher proportion of missed votes than most members of the House. A Minnesota Independent report last year found that many of her missed votes coincided with media appearances.

The analysis shows Rep. Keith Ellison also missed 11.3 percent of the year’s votes, mostly because of a leg injury earlier this year.

The New York Times’ analysis of House attendance showed a bright spot for Minnesota, with Rep. John Kline being one of only 15 House members to make every one of the 814 votes so far this year.

Source: MyEyesSees, Flickr

A Florida-based group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled an anti-gay hate group is taking aim at Minnesota-based Target for advertising during a Teen Nick show, Degrassi, that contains gay characters. The group, the Florida Family Association, is calling for a boycott.

Pres. Barack Obama released a plan to provide student loan debt relief to millions of Americans this week. Sen. Al Franken, who has sponsored similar legislation, praised the executive orders. But student loan advocates said the reforms were too limited.

The Occupy Wall Street protests saw their first serious injuries this week as Oakland, Calif., police used crowd control tactics on a peaceful march. One of those injured was former Marine and Wisconsin native Scott Olsen, who took a police projectile to the head and is expected to undergo surgery. Warning: the embedded video is intense.

Campaign finance disclosures filed for October show both the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Republicans are in debt. The Republicans carry more than half a million dollars in debt, while Democrats have about half that.

Less than a week after a Minnesota Independent story on Rep. Erik Paulsen’s intimate connections with the medical device industry, the New York Times published a piece profiling his attempts to relax Food and Drug Administration oversight of device approval.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council rejected a measure that would have allowed a domestic partnership registry in the city. One of the main opponents on the council, Dennis Madden, said he was “tired of these weird little groups that do all these strange things.” The rejection came after a pressure campaign from religious conservatives.

A union locked out since Aug. 1 will take the most recent offer from American Crystal Sugar to a vote by the end of the month, although the union isn’t happy with the offer. Replacement workers brought in by Strom Engineering of Minnetonka, which specializes in supporting companies involved in labor disputes, have staffed the plants since the lockout started. Union members have blamed replacement workers for a number of fires at the plants this summer and fall.

Just weeks after a Minnesota Independent article retraced the political influence wielded by Comcast’s to push through their early 2011 merger, Pres. Barack Obama hired one of the company’s paid lobbyists. The lobbyist has also been involved in pushing for the Keystone XL pipeline, which Obama has not opposed.

After almost three weeks of protesting, someone left a box labelled “riot equipment” on Hennepin County Government Plaza. The spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department sent out an email to all media, attaching photos of the box and listing incidents where police have responded to the plaza since the occupation started. Occupy MN organizers blamed a “provocateur” for the box, and said protesters aren’t responsible for many of the incidents downtown.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared on the show of controversial preacher Bradlee Dean. Santorum reinforced his support for “sodomy laws” and accused gay people of using marriage rights issues to “secularize our society.”

The Minnesota Independent also reported at the start of this week that an anti-abortion activist was planning to use a run against Rep. Keith Ellison to force Twin Cities media to play graphic anti-abortion ads. Legacy media later picked up on the story.

Boisclair is the latest member of the Society for Truth and Justice (STJ) to launch a primary challenge. David Lewis, a lobbyist for the Washington, D.C.-based STJ, announced in late-September that he is challenging House Speaker Jon Boehner in Ohio for the Republican primary. Lewis doesn’t live in the district and says he will move there if elected.

And Lewis is making abortion the sole issue of his campaign, as is anti-abortion activist Angela Michael who is running for Congress in the Chicago area.

Boisclair is running against Ellison in Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District on the abortion issue as well.

STJ’s founder, Randall Terry, explained the strategy to Catholic Online.

“By running campaign ads in the top 25 media markets, we can reach 1/3 of the nation with a message about the truth and horror of abortion,” he said.

Boisclair is the latest of the STJ staffers to launch a campaign. His campaign website features graphic images of fetuses, and is virtually identical to Lewis’ and Michael’s. In fact, when the Minnesota Independent attempted to contact Boisclair, the email address on his website went to Lewis for Congress instead of Boisclair’s campaign email address.

In a document from Randall Terry posted on Boisclair’s website, Randall Terry lays out his campaign strategy (capitalization theirs):

WE WILL NEVER SAVE OUR ECONOMY, or CURE THESE OTHER ILLS, until we stop killing our children, BECAUSE THE HAND OF GOD WILL BE AGAINST US. Hence, our goal is to create a crisis of conscience for America, by showing the public the gruesome reality of “safe, legal, abortion;” pictures of murdered babies in TV ads. Federal Law Requires that TV Stations Run the Ads of Federal Candidates; Even Ads That Show Babies Murdered By Abortion! Every true pro-lifer in America needs to know this, and embrace this incredible chance to be a witness…a prophetic voice…for the babies. Every pro-lifer in America needs to catch the vision of ENDING THIS HOLOCAUST. “But Randall…” some will say, “surely they will find a way to get around the law; surely they will not run the ads.” WRONG!!! Federal Law
requires that TV stations run the ads that they are given, even if the ad shows aborted babies.

Despite the connections to Randall Terry and the push to get anti-abortion ads aired, Boisclair’s press release announcing his campaign tells a different story.

“I intend to defeat Mr. Ellison soundly in this primary, based upon the issues at hand. Congressman Keith Ellison has failed to represent the ethics and beliefs of this district,” he wrote. “At the onset of his tenure, Ellison took his Oath of office with his hand on a Quaran—a book which mandates violence against Jews and Christians. Ellison consistently legislates for socialist programs, which in effect make us the slave labor force of the federal government. Under his agenda, we are enslaved to heavy taxation, crushing debt, runaway inflation, and we are forced to ‘give’ our hard earned money to his favorite ‘entitlements.’”

Boisclair said Ellison’s track record is “even more nefarious.”

“Mr. Ellison has voted repeatedly to fund Planned Parenthood, a racist organization with a long history of discrimination against minorities, which has consistently targeted black and Hispanic minorities for the abortion of their children. Planned Parenthood is a racist, criminal syndicate, which covers up the crimes of pedophiles, rapists and sex traffickers; it slaughters nearly 1,000 unborn babies every day, and Keith Ellison is their brazen champion, as he hypocritically parades his Progressive Caucus motto, ‘Liberty and Justice for ALL.’”

Boisclair says his campaign will issue three ads on Monday.

Boisclair has long been involved with Terry’s STJ as well as another of Terry’s anti-abortion groups, Operation Rescue. He was arrested in front of Boehner’s office in March. He also protested Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana this spring.

“Michael Pence did a great service for the babies by introducing an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood,” Boisclair said in a press statement at the time. “As a matter of duty to God, the babies, and his constituents, Mr. Pence must be willing to ‘die on this hill’ even if it means standing against the GOP leadership – and a government shut-down – to insure that this ‘criminal syndicate’ does not receive any more of our money.”

He wore a chicken suit at a protest during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in 2010.

And in 2010, he wrote a letter to Catholic bishops urging them to deny communion to politicians that disagree with his stance on abortion.

Your Excellency:

We thank you for your service to us and to all the Church, and, in particular, for all that you have done for the unborn.

We humbly beg you to warn any Catholic Senator or House Member within your See or within your state: “If you vote for child-killing in ‘Health Care Reform,’ you will be denied Holy Communion.”

Is this not a bishop’s pastoral duty of mercy?

Jesus’ witness to the truth (Jn 18) cost him his life. Following Christ’s example many bishops have been martyred, including St. Timothy, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pope St. Clement, and St. John Fisher.

STANDING UP FOR THE BABIES AND THE EUCHARIST IN THIS HOUR WILL SURELY NOT COST YOU YOUR LIFE!

Be of good courage and let your voice be heard!

Sincerely in Christ,

Diana Roccograndi, Gary Boisclair, Andrew Beacham

Late last year, the group crashed a holiday party hosted by NARAL.

At the time he said that the “people at NARAL and DC Abortion Fund have celebrated their selfish, deceptive, wicked ideas and called it a holiday party. We at Insurrecta Nex love them too much to fail to tell them the truth.

Boisclair is also running Randall Terry’s campaign for president in 2012. Terry announced earlier this year that he would challenge President Obama in the Democratic primaries in order to exploit the federal elections law that says media outlets cannot refuse to run a candidate’s advertising. Terry plans national anti-abortion ads in 2012, particularly during the Super Bowl.

“[Terry] wants to bring America face to face with the victims of abortion,” Boisclair said of the campaign. “He wants to be able to pummel Obama’s policies.”

Gaddafi was killed by rebels on Wednesday after the found him in a sewage tunnel.

Bachmann released a short statement on her Facebook page. “For more than 40 years, we lived with the Muammar al-Qaddafi regime and the atrocities he orchestrated,” she said. “The world is a better place without [Gaddafi].”

Bachmann said in a separate post that she hopes Gaddafi’s death ”will also bring to an end our military involvement there, something I opposed from its beginning.”

Ellison released a statement that called for restraint.

“The death of Moammar Gaddafi marks the end of an era of repression and tyranny for the Libyan people. While we do not celebrate the death of anyone, we do feel relieved that the people of Libya no longer have to live under a violent dictator,” he said. “The defeat of Gaddafi strengthens the country’s transition to democracy. With Gaddafi’s last remaining stronghold of Surt liberated, Libya can now focus on securing its borders and holding national elections. The people of Libya should know that they have a partner in the United States as they move forward to join the community of democratic nations.”

President Obama also spoke about Gaddafi’s death at a press conference in the Rose Garden.

“This marks the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya who now have the opportunity to determine their own destiny in a new and democratic Libya,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.