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,
Transparency advocates say the group appears to be prepping a lawsuit challenging the state’s already weakened disclosure rules.
The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled today that corporate donations to groups advocating for or against a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage must be disclosed. The Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage argued that supporters of marriage equality would commit violence against their donors if they were made public. On Thursday, the board disagreed.
Minneapolis-based retailer Target told investors on Wednesday that the company will not be taking sides on the anti–gay marriage amendment slated for the 2012 ballot. The shareholders meeting in Pittsburgh, the first held since a nationwide boycott targeted the stores last fall over its corporate contributions to Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, drew protesters critical of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and members of the LGBT community. Target’s announcement comes as Twin Cities LGBT Pride festivities get under way — an event for which Target is a major sponsor.
Reports filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board this week indicate that independent expenditure group Minnesota’s Future has shifted its behavior after a complaint was filed with the board last month by the Minnesota chapter of Common Cause. That complaint alleged that Minnesota’s Future had failed to detail the full extent of donor information required by law in their last finance report.
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.
When a stubborn government official refuses to release public information as required under Minnesota law, a costly and lengthy lawsuit is often a citizen’s only recourse. But state Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, has authored a bill that will simplify, cheapen and shorten the process used by citizens and the media to gain access to public government information.
Common Cause Minnesota is “looking at bringing forward a case to reinstate the Political Contribution Refund program” after a judge ruled the program wasn’t immune to unallotment by Gov. Pawlenty. A new suit would advance the separation-of-powers argument that…
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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