A pair of campaign finance complaints against the National Organization for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council were dismissed by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board on Wednesday. Common Cause Minnesota had filed the complaints alleging that advertising by the two groups on an anti-gay marriage amendment in 2010 constituted lobbying. The board ruled that the ads were too vague to trigger the registration requirement for lobbyists.

The board dismissed the complaint against the Minnesota Family Council because the group did not pay for the ads. Though the ads were listed as “Paid for by the Minnesota Family Council and the National Organization for Marriage,” the Family Council did not actually contribute any funds to the ad campaign.

MFC’s CEO John Helmberger told the board,

Because of their shared goals of preserving traditional marriage in Minnesota, National Organization for Marriage asked MFC to help plan the production and placement of the [subject] ads. While MFC had input as to the production and placement of these ads, MFC did not pay for any part of their production or broadcast, nor is it obligated to reimburse the National Organization for Marriage for any part of the cost of producing or broadcasting the ads. Further, during 2010 MFC did not make any contribution to the National Organization for Marriage.

Based on that, the board dismissed the complaint from the group.

“There is no probable cause to believe that MFC paid for or is obligated to pay for any cost of creation, production, distribution, or broadcasting of the subject communications,” the board wrote.

The board also dismissed the complaint against NOM: “There is no probable cause to believe that NOM engaged in activities during 2010 that would require it to report as a principal [lobbyist].”

Because the ads were vague, NOM did not actually lobby for the anti–gay marriage amendment, the board noted. At issue is the fact that although NOM advocated the election of Tom Emmer who supported the amendment, the governor has no say in constitutional amendments.

“The legislation most clearly implied in the ads is the constitutional amendment to define marriage,” the board wrote. “While the next Governor may advocate for a legislative action, the Governor himself or herself can neither force nor prevent the placing a constitutional amendment question before the voters.”

The board also concluded that since no bills on same-sex marriage were active in the Minnesota Legislature at the time the ads came out, the ads did no constitute lobbying.

“Some of the ads also refer generally to the claim that Dayton, Horner, or the DFL legislature want to impose gay marriage on Minnesotans. Considering the fact that at the time the ads ran, there were no active bills and the composition of the next legislature could not be predicted, these references are too remote and vague to constitute an attempt to influence legislative action.”

The board added, “Any influence the ads may have on a the actions of future legislature, the composition of which will not be known until after the 2010 elections, is too speculative to permit regulation of the ads under Minnesota’s principal disclosure statutes.”

Copies of the decisions can be viewed on the board’s website.

The Minnesota Faith and Freedom Coalition, part of a network of groups created by religious right icon Ralph Reed, is hosting a strategy session on the ballot measure to put a ban on marriage for same-sex couples in the Minnesota Constitution. Former gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer will emcee the October event, and Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, the lead sponsor of the amendment, will give the keynote speech.

According to the group’s release on the event, which will be held at a Bloomington hotel Oct. 7:

The Marriage Amendment will be addressed by chief author, Senator Warren Limmer. Additionally, Minnesota Congressional Representatives, Bachmann, Cravaack, Kline and Paulsen will be awarded the prestigious ‘Friend of the Family’ award for their voting record in 2010 – 2011 legislative session. The Strategy & Briefing session will kickoff the GOP’s 2011 Midwest Leadership Conference at the Doubletree Hotel, Bloomington, MN.

The group notes that Republican legislators Bachmann, Cravaack, Kline and Paulsen have not confirmed their attendance at the event.

The Minnesota Faith and Freedom Coalition is part of a network of state-based 501(c)4 groups founded by Reed in 2009 to re-energize the religious right. Reed was the head of the Christian Coalition in the 1990s and was a leading figure in the Jack Abramoff scandal. According to emails released in the Abramoff case, Reed secretly accepted funds from Abramoff to oppose Indian gaming in the South.

“We need to be hipper, more technology savvy,” Reed said when he launched the coalition in 2009. “This is where the culture is going and we need to be there if we’re going to compete.”

Reed is hoping to get the group operating in all 50 states. He will also be a featured speaker at the Minnesota event.

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.

The Minnesota Legislature passed an amendment last month that would let voters decide whether to codify a ban on same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution. State voters will decide that issue in 2012, though same-sex marriage is currently illegal in Minnesota.

“Our position at this particular time is that we are going to be neutral on that particular issue, as we would be on other social issues that have polarizing points of view,” CEO Gregg Steinhafel told shareholders. “We’re a retail store, we welcome everybody,” he added. “We have a broad team-member base, every shape and size and color. And so we are a very inclusive organization… We’re going to continue to monitor, we’re going to continue to assess, and see how that develops.”

Target took heat last fall when campaign finance reports showed Target giving $150,000 to MN Forward, an independent expenditure committee that produced ads in support of Emmer who has been a staunch opponent of rights for LGBT Minnesotans. The revelation sparked a nationwide boycott.

And at Wednesdays’ shareholders meeting the issue came up again and again. Nearly a dozen shareholders grilled Steinhafel on Target’s political giving, according to the Pioneer Press.

Target made some changes to its corporate political expenditures in February but, as the Minnesota Independent reported at the time, it was not enough to dissuade those critical of Target’s donation to Emmer.

Thomas Waters, advocacy chair of the Delta Foundation, an LGBT group in Pennsylvania, also attended the protest and noted that it’s incorrect to label Target as homophobic.

“One problem with that boycott effort was that Target got painted as being ‘homophobic.’ This isn’t really accurate,” he said. “Target, the corporation, has had business values of respecting everyone and being pro-gay in the sense of being welcoming and supporting of the LGBT community. That was still true, even while, as a corporation, they were giving vast sums of money, which was knowingly going to anti-gay politicians.”

He said that corporate giving to politicians that oppose rights for LGBT people was not in line with Target’s typical policies on inclusion.

“They acted in a way that was not aligned with their corporate values. That doesn’t make them homophobes, but it does call into question their value system,” he said. “Is their support for the LGBT community real? More likely, it is real, but there is a problem in the way the corporation acts and makes decisions regarding how they will use profits.”

Target has in the past been a major sponsor of Twin Cities LGBT Pride, where Target temporary tattoos and tchotchkes are ubiquitous. And the retailer will again be one of the prime sponsors of the monthlong series of events.

But on a larger scale, protesters at Wednesday’s shareholder meeting are concerned about unbridled corporate spending in political campaigns.

Mike Dean, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, a group that works for more transparency in politics, attended the demonstration at the shareholders meeting in Pittsburgh.

“Target should stick to business and stop meddling in our democracy,” he said. “Target Corporation has failed to learn from the controversy last year by continuing to make corporate political donations.”

The Republican Party of Minnesota owes nearly 20 counties payment for expenses incurred by the counties during the 2010 recount between Tom Emmer and Gov. Mark Dayton. The fact that so many counties haven’t been reimbursed in seven months led one Republican senator to offer to pay some of the bills out of his own pocket.

The Rochester Post Bulletin got a hold of a letter by Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, that called the GOP debt to the counties an embarrassment.

“This is embarrassing and painfully indefensible. This damages us not just on the local level, but statewide as well,” he wrote to GOP caucus leaders. “It is spreading through the political blogs, and must be a reason for much head shaking in water cooler conversations.”

Howe said he would donate money to help the debts be repaid.

GOP chair Tony Sutton told the Post Bulletin that the party paid eight counties last week and the party still had 20 more to pay off.

As Blue Stem Prairie notes, Sutton has missed his own promised deadlines to pay the counties.

The GOP and Sutton filed suit against several counties for not being swift enough in pulling together recount documents last fall.

“The unacceptable foot dragging of St. Louis and Pine Counties cannot persist,” Sutton said at the time. “The Emmer for Governor campaign and the Republican Party of Minnesota should not have to go to court to get counties to respond to data practices requests in a timely manner. We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”

The Minnesota Independent contacted the county auditors in St. Louis and Pine counties. Unlike two dozen other counties, they have been paid.

Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, R-Big Lake, told Minnesota Public Radio on Thursday that if Gov. Mark Dayton vetoes a controversial voter ID bill, she will seek to put it on the ballot in 2012. The bill, which is currently winding its way through the Legislature, would require photo ID of all voters. Dayton hasn’t indicated whether he’ll veto such a measure, but election integrity advocates say the proposal could run into constitutional problems.

“We’re going to keep working with Gov. Dayton and continue to do that but if we have to at the end, that is probably a back-up option because this is something that the voters do want,” Kiffmeyer told MPR. “So if we need to, we’ll take it to the voters.”

Pro-voter ID groups had already threatened to advance a constitutional amendment last November following the defeat of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, a strong supporter of the measure.

But, Minnesota Common Cause noted that the current bill would not spend enough on voter education to ensure that all voters know they need an ID at the polls:

A revised estimate of the costs, savings, revenue gains, and losses projected for Minnesota’s voter ID bill, SF509, fails to adequately account for the costs of the legislation required by the courts. If the legislation is to be constitutional, the estimate–called a fiscal note–must include additional costs for public education and providing the free ID to individuals.

The courts have repeatedly required that states adopt expensive measures to mitigate the burdensome effects that voter ID mandates have on seniors, students and the poor. If legislators fail to account for these costs, this legislation will be held unconstitutional by the courts.

Common Cause estimates that voter education will cost $19.48 million, while Kiffmeyer estimates $2.7 million.

Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) was stopped by a Scott County sheriff’s deputy on Wednesday night and blew a 0.008 on a breathalyzer test. Buesgens is on probation for a DWI conviction last summer that occurred on the same day he was representing the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. According to the Shakopee Valley News, Buesgens allegedly violated his probation by drinking and driving.

“He was way below the legal limit,” Buesgens attorney Ron Rosenbaum told the Valley News. “He accepts responsibility for having a drink.”

House Speaker Kurt Zellers released this statement on Thursday evening:

“I have not yet spoken with Representative Mark Buesgens. Representative Buesgens has taken responsibility for his actions in response to violating his probation. These allegations are serious, and we expect Representative Buesgens to continue to take responsibility for his actions. We will support and pray for him in his recovery effort, and have requested that he seek additional professional evaluation and follow all recommended action.”

Buesgens said in November when he was sentenced in the DWI case that he would he seeking help for his drinking, as Bluestem Prairie notes.

Wright County Assistant Attorney Shane Simonds said, “Mr. Buesgens has been very proactive since he obtained his charge and has taken steps to address his problems with alcohol.”

In the wake of a controversial donation to MN Forward that riled LGBT activists and sparked boycotts cross-country, Target has changed its process for making corporate independent expenditures. The retail giant will now run its political donations through a policy committee that would determine if the donations “advance issues that are important to our business.” But will the change be enough for LGBT community members still hurt by Target’s 2010 donations?

In July, Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, an independent expenditure campaign that produced and distributed ads in support of Republican Tom Emmer, a gubernatorial candidate who opposed marriage for same-sex couples. His campaign had also donated to the anti-gay ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International and he had attended a 2009 fundraiser for the group.

Target, which had been a big supporter of LGBT causes in Minnesota, suddenly found itself facing protests by the LGBT community in Minnesota and became the target of a nationwide boycotts.

On Thursday, Target announced a new set of policies around corporate political contributions.

Now, before general corporate funds can be used for political donations, they’ll have to go through a policy committee comprised of senior Target executives that’s “responsible for balancing our business interests with any other considerations that may be important to our team members, guests or other stakeholders,” according to the new policies posted on the Target website.

The policy committee will be in charge of those decisions regardless of whether the contribution is to an independent group such as MN Forward or to a political action committee:

The use of general corporate funds for political contributions is permitted if the Policy Committee determines that would be an appropriate means of advancing issues that are important to our business. The Policy Committee reviews and approves any use of general corporate funds for electioneering activities or for ballot initiatives. This approval process applies whether the contribution is made directly to a candidate or party, or indirectly through an organization operating under Section 527 or 501(c)(4) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.

“These changes are really reflective of that perspective that we gained over the 2010 election cycle,” Jessica Carlson, spokesperson for Target, told the Washington Blade yesterday.

The Blade asked her if the controversy surrounding MN Forward contributed to the policy change. Carlson said, “Well, this has been an evolution, and so based on just generally the 2010 election cycle, we made some changes.”

But the change doesn’t necessarily mend any fences with local LGBT advocates.

“It sure took Target a long to time react to the boycott,” said Randi Reitan, the mother of a gay son who took her Target card to a local store and tore it up in front of management. Her protests, captured on YouTube and at The Uptake, made her the face of the boycott.

“But language like this, establishing a policy committee made up of senior executives, really doesn’t say much to me,” she said.

“I wish they would have addressed the fact that they — as a corporation — gave to a group who wanted to elect a person who would do all he could to take rights away from their gay employees,” she added. “As a company, Target has great benefits and internal support for their gay employees and that is wonderful, but if Target gives large sums of money to elect a person who wants to take rights away from the gay community in the ‘real world,’ they loose my respect and my business.”

For Reitan, the bigger issue is Gregg Steinhafel, Target’s President, CEO and Chairman of the Board. Steinhafel, a devout conservative Christian, has a reputation for supporting conservative candidates.

“I do not respect Gregg Steinhafel,” Reitan said. “I feel — and a number of Target employees expressed to me in the months since Target donated the $150,000 — Steinhafel is personally not supportive of marriage equality, and he gave to Emmer in part because of that viewpoint.”

She added, “I have no plans to return to Target until he is replaced.”

The controversy, she said has made her reconsider shopping at large corporations because of political giving in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court case.

“I am against any corporation giving to political campaigns,” she said. “Companies like Target are wealthy enough to have the ability to actually sway an election with their donations.”

Sen. David Senjem and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer were fined by the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board on Monday. The board reviewed complaints stemming from the Nov. 2 election: Emmer’s campaign was fined for accepting illegal corporate contributions while Senjem was found to have violated campaign laws when he gave money to former Sen. Paul Koering.

Emmer’s campaign was fined $150 for accepting a contribution from Reliakor, a “national property maintenance company specializing in sweeping, striping, and snow removal.” Reliakor was also fined $150 by the board. Campaigns are not allowed to accept direct campaign contributions from corporations without disclosing the donation, and Reliakor did not make such a disclosure, the board said.

In a separate case, the board said that Emmer’s campaign accepted a donation from lobbyist Paul Hoff, a representative of the Onvoy communications firm, during the 2010 legislative session. The board directed the Emmer campaign to return the $200 gift and did not impose a civil penalty on the campaign. Hoff, however, was fined $400 for contributing as a lobbyist without disclosing that status.

“There is probable cause to believe that the Tom Emmer for Governor Committee accepted the contribution from Mr. Hoff because there was no registration number to identify the donor as a lobbyist,” the board stated. The Emmer campaign would have a hard time knowing the donation was illegal “without receiving the appropriate disclosure with the contribution.”

The campaign of Senjem, the Rochester Republican who currently serves as assistant majority leader, was fined $250 for donating to former Sen. Koering’s campaign. Campaigns can donate to other campaigns as long as the campaign is dissolving, the board noted in its findings. Though Senjem’s camp was fined, the board found that “there is no probable cause to believe that the violations were intentional or done with the intent to circumvent the requirements of Minnesota Statutes.”

In a letter to the board in December, Senjem stated that “he misunderstood the statute relating to contributions made with campaign funds and acknowledges violating the noted statute.”

Senjem was one of few Republicans who defended Koering against what he called a Republican party-led “witch hunt,” during which the state GOP requested law enforcement information on Koering. Koering subsequently lost the GOP primary to Paul Gazelka.

Several other entities were fined by the board on Monday.

A lobbyist for MiningMN illegally donated to the campaign of Patricia Anderson during the legislative session. Anderson ran unsuccessfully for state auditor. Ernest Lehmann will have to pay a two fines of $100.

The board said there was probable cause to believe that Anderson’s campaign violated state statute in accepting the donation but that the campaign “accepted the contribution from Mr. Lehmann because there was no registration number to identify the donor as a lobbyist.” Anderson’s campaign was not fined because it did not know it had violated the law due to Lehmann’s negligence.

Judicial candidate Dawn Hennessy was fined $1,900 for “accepting and depositing a contribution from an unregistered association without the disclosure required by Minnesota Statues” after her campaign took a donation from Trailside Liquor, an entity that was not registered with the campaign finance board. Hennessy was a candidate for the 10th District judicial race, running in a field of 24 candidates. She lost the election.

Trailside Liquor was also fined $1,000 for donating to Hennessy.

The Republican Party of Minnesota still owes counties for a massive document request leading up to the recent election recount, according to the Mankato Free Press. For the past several weeks, more than a dozen counties have been wondering if they’ll get paid for hundred of thousands of documents that were requested by the GOP on behalf of the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Tom Emmer. Those counties were threatened with lawsuits if they didn’t comply with the GOP’s requests for election documents.

“They just insisted they had to have the machine tapes right away,” Patty O’Connor, Blue Earth County elections director, told the Free Press.

“I sent bills for $800, of which Dayton paid and Emmer did not. I have requested at least three times, where’s my payment, and they’ve responded to nothing.”

Two weeks ago, southern Minnesota counties complained that they weren’t being paid after they assembled election documents under threat of lawsuit by the GOP.

GOP chair Tony Sutton, in an early November statement complaining that counties were not responding quickly enough to the party’s request, said, “We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”

Bridgette Kennedy, Nicollet County Auditor, told KEYC-TV back on Dec. 1, “Not that I relish the thought of completing the task and getting all the copies made, but I would feel horrible if the taxpayer dollars have been used fruitlessly with having 10,000 copies sitting here.”

The GOP told KEYC that they were looking into it. But as the Free Press reports, the counties haven’t heard a word from the GOP on whether or not they will get paid.

According to the Federal Elections Commission, the Republican Party of Minnesota faces a debt of $621,116 as of Nov. 22.

Minnesota’s Campaign Finance Board issued their finding Thursday for Common Cause’s complaint against Minnesota’s Future and the Republican Governors Association (RGA). The Board’s report — published online Friday afternoon — essentially goes with the principal of ‘no harm, no foul,’ noting that Minnesota’s Future and the RGA may not have strictly complied with Minnesota law initially but that the offense did not merit any fine.

“There is no probable cause to believe that the Republican Governors Association, Minnesota Future, LLC, or Minnesota’s Future political committee engaged in an intentional plan or strategy to circumvent the disclosure requirements,” the Board’s report reads.

Common Cause Minnesota’s Executive Director Mike Dean disparaged the decision in a press release Friday. “The CFDB has failed in its responsibility to enforce Minnesota campaign disclosure law,” Dean said. “The board is sending a message to special interest groups that no one will hold them accountable for violating campaign disclosure laws.”

The circuitous route of contributions that flowed from the RGA toward eventual spending in this year’s gubernatorial campaign is a prime example of complex world of campaign finance in the post-Citizens United world. The RGA donated $428,000 to an entity known as Minnesota Future LLC in August. The LLC did not file a report with the Finance Board at that time; it did not spend the money itself, instead directing that sum toward a political action committee named Minnesota’s Future, with the LLC dropped from its name. Minnesota’s Future then spent those funds on running ads against the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton or supporting his Republican opponent Tom Emmer.

Common Cause’s complaint alleged that the LLC was required to register with the Finance Board and that the whole arrangement was designed to obscure the original source of the group’s funding, which is information required under Minnesota law. If the Board had ruled in Common Cause’s favor, they could have levied fines of up to $1.7 million for each Minnesota’s Future, Minnesota’s Future LLC, and the RGA.

As sister-site TAI reported in October, Minnesota Future LLC adapted their disclosure habits after the complaint was filed. The LLC went back and retroactively filed the original report Common Cause claimed was required. The Board’s ruling on the complaint concurred that Minnesota Future LLC should have originally registered with the committee within 10 days after they starting making expenditures or taking contributions larger than $100. But since the LLC subsequently filed those reports preceding Election Day, the Board found no malicious intent in the organization’s oversight and chose not to levy any fines for the violation. “They have completed their registration and reporting obligations. Consequently, there is no probable cause to believe that an ongoing violation exists,” the report says.

The Board’s decision to ignore the RGA aspect of the complaint appears to stand on shakier ground. While Minnesota Future LLC changed course, the RGA never detailed the original source of the funding they provided to the LLC, even in donations given after Common Cause filed their complaint. The Board forgives the RGA’s initial lack of disclosure, as Minnesota Future LLC was not considered a political committee at the time. The Board then appears to argue that it does not matter that the RGA did not subsequently comply with Minnesota law since they filed the paperwork required at the national level with the IRS.

What was not clear to the RGA at the time is that the corporation to which it was donating should have been registered as a political committee under Minnesota law and, as a result, the RGA should have provided underlying disclosure of its sources.

The Board notes that the RGA disclosed all of its sources of income to the IRS under the requirements applicable to organizations registered under IRC section 527. The timing of that disclosure is different than what is required in Minnesota but the level of itemization is greater than Minnesota requires. This observation is noted because it suggests that avoidance of disclosure was not a motive for the RGA when it made its contribution to Minnesota Future, LLC.

This form of disclosure provides an important avenue for determining the original funding source for independent expenditures. Similar donations from the Democratic Governors Association to a liberal political committee included the information the RGA chose to ignore in its donations. The DGA’s reports revealed that money from corporations such as AT&T and Hewlett Packard were spent in Democratic candidate Mark Dayton’s favor during the gubernatorial campaign.

In response to Thursday’s ruling, Common Cause claimed that there was a lack of transparency in the Board’s decision making process, and said the Board should have employed the full use of their subpoena power to discover whether Minnesota’s Future and the RGA colluded to funnel campaign contributions outside the spotlight of the public eye. The group argued that the Board was too willing to take the organizations at their word rather than fully investigating the charges levied in the complaint.

From Common Cause’s press release:

Today’s ruling has severely weakened Minnesota’s campaign disclosure laws by allowing groups to use ignorance of the law as a defense. The board’s reluctance to punish groups for not following state law means that there are no consequences for those that don’t follow Minnesotans disclosure laws. The actions by the board have allowed groups like Minnesota’s Future, LLC to act with impunity, as evidenced by the fact that Minnesota Future, LLC again broke Minnesota campaign disclosure law by failing to disclose another contribution on October 27, 2010 from the Republican Governor’s Associations.

The American Independent was the first to report on Minnesota’s Future and their position as conduit for the RGA to funnel money into the governor’s election through independent expenditures.