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.

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.

Quist lost the Republican endorsement to former legislator Randy Demmer in 2010. Quist, who is a longtime religious right activist, has run for office several times, including a primary challenge to Gov. Arne Carlson who Quist thought was too liberal.

“I wish to thank all the patriotic Republicans who have been encouraging me to become a candidate for First District Congress,” Quist wrote on his website. “Be assured that I hear what you are saying, and I am now leaning in the direction of aggressively going for it. I will make a final decision soon.”

Quist ran in 2010 for the Republican endorsement and made national headlines for his statements at the Wabasha County Republicans Christmas Party when he said that defeating liberals was more important than defeating terrorism. He lost the endorsement to Randy Demmer, who lost in the general election to Walz.

He’s spent a long time in politics and during his stint in the Minnesota Legislature in the 1980s, he made a name for himself by opposing LGBT rights and ranting against abortion, two topics on which he has authored books.

In the 1988 legislative session, Quist was notorious for his emphasis on social issues. “He alleged that Mankato State University was encouraging the spread of AIDS by sponsoring a counseling center for gays, comparing it to a center for the Ku Klux Klan,” wrote the Star Tribune’s Dane Smith in 1994.

Sen. Mike Parry is the only Republican challenger to have formally announced for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District. He officially kicked off his campaign on Thursday morning with a series of stops in southern Minnesota.

“I’m running for Congress because Congressman Tim Walz and the Washington crowd have sold us out,” Parry said in a statement. “They have mortgaged the futures of our children and grandchildren with their wasteful spending. I look forward to speaking with families across southern Minnesota about how we can bring fiscal responsibility to Washington.”

Parry is so far the only challenger to Rep. Tim Walz, a DFLer who first won election in 2006.

“After five years in Washington, Congressman Tim Walz has represented the values of Washington liberals like Nancy Pelosi and not the values of southern Minnesota,” Drazkowski said in a statement. “I’m convinced that Mike will build the grassroots campaign to defeat Congressman Walz. As a small business owner, he is best equipped to go to Washington and rein in wasteful government spending and jump-start our economy.”

Both Drazkowski and Parry are among the most conservative members of the Minnesota Legislature. Minnesota’s First Congressional District is one of the state’s most moderate. Since 1980, the district has been held for an equal number of years by both the DFL and the GOP.

Federal elected officials from Minnesota released their fundraising records for the most recent financial quarter this weekend, with Rep. Erik Paulsen topping all other House incumbents by adding $340,134 to his already substantial haul this year.

Democratic Rep. Tim Walz, who is also expected to face strong opposition, pulled in $221,351, according to FEC filings.

Rep. Michele Bachmann is focused on fundraising for her presidential bid, for which she raised $4.1 million.

In Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, where at least four DFL candidates are vying to take on Rep. Chip Cravaack, Tarryl Clark gathered up $228,000, more than Cravaack, although Cravaack has more money on hand.

Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson raised the least of the group, although he had a healthy fund on hand at the end of the last election cycle.

Join the Minnesota Independent this week as we dig further into the fundraising numbers in each district.

All data comes from Federal Election Commission quarterly filings.

The bills were supported by corporations, including Minnesota-based Cargill, while labor and human rights groups opposed the measures, particularly the deal with Colombia.

The South Korea agreement passed the House by a vote of 278 to 151 and the Senate by a vote of 83 to 15. The Colombia agreement passed the House 262-167 and the Senate 66-33. The deal with Panama passed the House 300-129 and the Senate 77-22.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken voted in favor of the South Korea and both voted against the Columbia deal. Klobuchar supported the Panama deal and Franken opposed it.

Republican Reps. Erik Paulsen, Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Chip Cravaack voted for all three trade agreements.

“These trade agreements will open new markets for Minnesotan and American workers, farmers, and small businesses to sell their goods and services to new customers,” Paulsen said in a statement. “Currently, U.S. exporters face unfair restrictions in other countries – either through high tariffs or discriminating regulations that put them at a disadvantage. These agreements help address these imbalances and level the playing field. I look forward to working with the President to implement these pacts so we can create jobs here at home, and get our economy back on track.”

Cravaack also praised the passage of the bills.

“Our ailing economy will not be cured through a single ‘jobs bill’ — it will take a comprehensive series of measures, all aimed toward removing government barriers to private-sector job growth and tax relief for employers and small businesses,” Cravaack said. “The bipartisan effort to pass the three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, which will help America’s farmers, businesses and manufacturers increase our exports and create jobs, represents a good start. These FTAs will create jobs at home in Minnesota without costing taxpayers a dime and will level the playing field for American exports and boost demand for our products.”

Bachmann returned to Washington from the campaign trail to cast her first vote since August.

“My long-standing support of the free trade agreements was reinforced when I met with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia in February, and again when I discussed trade in my office with South Korean Ambassador Han Duk-soo in June,” she said. “Both the countries of Colombia and South Korea are eager for the implementation of these free trade agreements.”

All of Minnesota’s DFLers voted against the deal with Colombia citing concerns of government violence against the labor movement in that country. Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum voted against all three free trade agreements.

In a floor speech, McCollum explained her opposition.

“In Colombia, the intimidation and murder of trade unionists and human rights workers is widespread. According to Human Rights Watch, over 50 trade unionists were murdered last year,” McCollum said. “The Colombian government’s human rights record may be improving but it is still very poor. This is not the time to reward Colombia’s poor record with a preferential trade arrangement. This agreement does not advance fair trade, and I urge my colleagues to vote against it.”

She also said that the trade agreements would cost American jobs and create offshore tax havens for corporations.

“As we’ve seen with free trade agreements with China, NAFTA, and CAFTA, unfair trade deals cost American jobs,” McCollum said. “This is why Trade Adjustment Assistance exists — to provide training to workers who lose their jobs due to trade. Considering TAA while we consider these three agreements is evidence that these deals result in the loss of jobs here in the U.S. I support the passage of the needed TAA extension in order to provide some protections for American workers.”

The TAA, a fourth bill intended to offset the predicted job losses caused by the trade deals was supported by all members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation.

In the rest of the delegation, Rep. Collin Peterson backed the bill for South Korea and Panama but not Colombia. And Rep. Tim Walz voted for South Korea but not Panama and Colombia.

Just before the vote, the AFL-CIO sent an email alert to supporters urging them to contact Congress to vote against the trade bills.

These trade deals don’t benefit America’s workers. And an increasing number of people understand that. Only 17 percent of Americans polled think so-called free trade agreements have benefited the United States. And even 61 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters think these agreements have hurt America,” the group said. “Politicians who support these agreements are claiming they will help with our jobs crisis—which is a talking point straight from Wall Street lobbyists—and it’s wrong. The Korea deal alone will cost 159,000 net American jobs.”

Parry, a relative newcomer to politics, won his seat in the Minnesota state Senate in a special election in February 2010 and then won re-election that November. He’s the owner of a pizza restaurant in Waseca.

Parry is facing a host of potential competitors for the GOP endorsement, but on Monday received the support of GOP State Party Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb, who resigned to advise Parry’s campaign.

MPR reports that State DFL Chair Ken Martin slammed Parry as “an angry, ultra conservative Tea-Party Republican more concerned with pandering to the right wing and special interests than he is with working to improve our state economy, create jobs or build a more prosperous future for middle-class families.”

Parry’s become known in Minnesota politics for his liberal and incendiary use of Twitter. He created a minor national incident when he was running for his current seat and tweeted that President Obama “is a power hungry arrogant black man.”

Another tweet at the time read, “What’s with the Dems and Pedophiles?”

During the 2011 state government shutdown, Parry tweeted that he thought Gov. Mark Dayton should resign.

“With all due respect, Mondale and Carlson need to stay in their rockers unless they can get Dayton to do the right thing. … RESIGN!” he tweeted.

That led to a strong rebuke from the editorial boards of newspapers in his district.

On the legislative front, Parry proposed a constitutional amendment on Minnesota sovereignty.

The bill would have made Minnesota the first state to require a two-thirds majority vote in the legislature to approve federal laws affecting the state. “Minnesotans enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights,” the bill read, and “Citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government’s enumerated constitutional powers.”

The Minnesota Independent covered a variety of issues this week, from in-depth looks at U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s inner circle to a state Senate special election primary in Minneapolis.

Pres. Barack Obama’s job plan went to Congress, where it’s expected to face opposition from Minnesota Republicans despite White House claims that the plan would create up to 100,000 jobs in the state.

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a PAC aligned with Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann put out another ad, this one painting Texas Gov. Rick Perry as soft on immigration. The radio uses the slogan “illegals take jobs.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty left the Republican presidential race with an impressive debt, this week’s endorsement of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will likely help ease the burden. (Comedian Stephen Colbert said Pawlenty’s endorsement was like Miracle Whip endorsing mayonnaise). As Romney’s spokesman said: ”If Tim Pawlenty wants our help, that’s something we’d help him with, just as we help all our friends.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry snagged a handful of Pawlenty supporters despite Pawlenty’s endorsement of Romney.

As his formal presidential rivals continue to trudge through the primary process, Pawlenty is planning a vacation; he’ll attend the annual National Review cruise as a guest speaker.

In the Republican tea party debate, Perry came under attack by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for his support of an HPV vaccine mandate. Bachmann later went even further, linking theHPV vaccine to “mental retardation,” which all experts say is false. Despite a storm of criticism, Bachmann has stood firm, saying she never misrepresented herself as a doctor or scientist. Bachmann’s argument against Perry and the drug company, Merck, is now being used in California to urge a veto of that state’s HPV vaccination mandate.

Bachmann spent the days after the debate wooing controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has kept prisoners in tent cities with extreme heat and provided inadequate food.

The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey dug into the beliefs of Bachmann’s main supporters, finding fringe ideas like abolishing public education and even a terrorism charge for stockpiling guns in Uganda.

In Minnesota, the employment rate is stagnant, with 7.2 percent unemployment.

Minnesota for Marriage, a coalition of conservative Christian groups that are working to convince voters to back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, has signed on the former communications director of the Minnesota Family Council in the run-up to the 2012 vote.

Lynne Torgerson launched her campaign against U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison on 9/11. She said Ellison is a “radical Islamist” who wanted to install Sharia law into the Constitution. Ellison said that this whole movement to ban Sharia law that no one is trying to install in the United States “is a very thin-disguised effort at religious persecution of people who are Muslim.”

Bradlee Dean, head of the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide ministry, was also back in the news with an open letter to Pres. Barack Obama.

A piece in the New York Times about conflict in the Anoka-Hennepin School District brought the issue of harassment of LGBT youth to the nation’s attention. The Minnesota Independent published a primer on the issue, giving a background to the reporting we’ve done on it for the last two years. Citing the school district, U.S. Sen. Al Franken called for an end to discrimination against LGBT students.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz joined the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which now includes 122 House members. Ellison and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum also signed a letter with 72 other members of Congress urging the IRS to clarify tax rules for legally married same-sex couples—the rules are confusing and contradictory, they said. Members of Congress also announced the HIV/AIDS caucus, although no members of the Minnesota delegation are signed on.

In the special election primary for Senate District 61, state Rep. Jeff Hayden came out on top with DFLers, but Sadik Warfa made a strong showing, demonstrating the growing political clout of the state’s Somali-American population.

In Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, former congressman Rick Nolan picked up a slew of big-name Iron Range endorsements in his bid for the DFL nomination to take on U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack.

If you have any news tips, please contact us at tips@minnesotaindependent.com.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Walz joined all but one of his Minnesota DFL colleagues in support of a repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from recognizing legally married same-sex couples.

The Defense of Marriage Act passed into law in 1996. Walz is the latest lawmaker to sponsor the repeal effort in the House, bringing the number up to 122 representatives. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York said the bill has been offered every year, but that this year it has gathered the greatest number of sponsors in its history.

Reps. Keith Ellison and Betty McCollum are original sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act which was introduced in March. Sen. Al Franken is an original sponsor in the Senate, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined him this summer. Rep. Collin Peterson is the only DFLer in Minnesota’s delegation that hasn’t signed the repeal.

“Getting married to my wife Gwen and building our life together was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Walz said in a statement. “I simply cannot imagine why we would want to ban our fellow Americans from that commitment. Martin Luther King Jr. once said ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ I believe that arc is getting shorter and I look forward to a day in my lifetime when Americans are not discriminated on based on who they love.”

The repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act would ensure that same-sex couples who have been legally married in the United States would have access to federal benefits such as social security, file jointly on tax forms and enjoy less onerous immigration requirements for binational couples.

Same-sex couples can legally mary in Iowa, New York, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and the sovereign nations of the Coquille and Suquamish. In addition, couples married in California prior to the passing of Proposition 8 in 2008 hold valid marriage licenses in that state.

“As the march toward full equality for LGBT Americans is seeing some real, concrete progress, the movement to repeal DOMA is steadily growing stronger and more robust,” Nadler said of the 122 sponsors. “The coalition working for LGBT rights in the Congress and the nation as a whole is larger than ever before, and we gain new allies every day. And, just this year, New York State enacted marriage equality, hammering one more nail into the coffin of bigotry and discrimination against gays and lesbians. Dumping DOMA is simply not a question of if, but when.”