Rod Grams

Three Minnesota politicians — none of them now in office — received political donations from accused Ponzi schemer Sir Allen Stanford or his staff. Stanford’s largest and most recent gift ($2,300) was to Democrat Ashwin Madia, who tried unsuccessfully to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad last year.

A man presented as an “ordinary voter” in a New York Times article today about the impending recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race has strong ties to the Republican Party and conservative causes that the article does not reveal. Noah Rouen says he told writer Christina Capecchi about his background.

Nine Minnesotans made Forbes’ richest Americans list this year. Most of them are peeling off small-fractions of their wealth to support political parties and candidates for national office–shoveling a total of $245,000 into the game since Election Day 2006. A little number crunching turns up a few surprises, like conservative broadcasting magnate Stanley Hubbard giving more to Senator Amy Klobuchar than he did to Norm Coleman.