The Progressive Kick in the Head

Whoever coined the phrase “all politics is local” obviously hasn’t spent much time in Minnesota during the past few years.  Consider the case of former state representative, St. Cloud State University economics professor, and radio talk show host King Banaian.
 

Prof. Banaian was elected to represent a St. Cloud-area constituency in 2010, and ran for re-election in 2012.  He was opposed by Democrat Zachary Dorholt, an exceedingly unremarkable 33-year-old mental health counselor, competing in his first general election.

According to his Year-End Report filed with Minnesota’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Rep. Banaian spent $33,493.09, just below his legal spending limit of $34,300, in 2012.  His opponent spent a little over $25,000 on his 2012 campaign.  Both men agreed to abide by the state’s campaign spending limits and both received state subsidies amounting to a few thousand dollars apiece.  Their combined $58,000 in spending represents a more than respectable effort in a competitive race outside of the state’s major metropolitan areas.

The efforts of both candidates were outdone by the spending of a single out-of-state political action committee.   Progressive Kick, an Oakland, CA-based national progressive Super PAC chose the previously unheard of Mr. Dorholt as one of its six “rock star progressives” for 2012.

 

Under its Oakland address, Progressive Kick set up a Minnesota 527 Independent Expenditure Fund (Progressive Kick IE) that reported raising $93,500 in a ten-day period in late September 2012.  Four donors accounted for that entire amount.

 

The biggest donor turned out to be Robert Fertik of New York City, who gave $50,000.  Mr. Fertik is the head and co-founder of the website Democrats.com, "The Aggressive Progressives!"  His current official bio goes on about George Bush’s record in the National Guard, which tells you all you need to know about Mr. Fertik.

 
The second largest donor was Lawrence Hess of San Diego, who gave $37,000.  He and his wife are profiled here as San Diego’s largest donors to Super PAC’s in early 2012, reportedly giving Progressive Kick $100,000
 
It seems unlikely that Messrs. Fertik and Hess could find St. Cloud, Minnesota, on a map and even less likely that they have ever visited the city.  Yet their donations determined who would represent the citizens of St. Cloud at the Minnesota legislature.
 

Two other donors to Progressive Kick IE gave $5,000 and $1,500, respectively.  Not one of the four donations to Progressive Kick’s Minnesota 527 was small enough to have met the state’s campaign finance limits for giving directly to a candidate.

 

Speaking from experience, candidates for offices like state representative spend a great deal of time and energy raising money from donors a few hundred dollars (or less) at a time.  The state’s campaign finance laws impose limits on the total amount a candidate can raise, the amount an individual can give, the collective amount certain classes of donors can give, and even the amount a candidate can give to herself.  Any donation over $100 has to be disclosed to the public.  Donations from some classes of donors, such as for-profit corporations, are absolutely forbidden.  Donations from certain other classes, such as registered lobbyists, are prohibited during certain time periods.

Meanwhile, state 527’s, for the most part, can accept money from anyone, in any amount, at any time.  A clever 527 can move donations through multiple Super PACs and disguise the identity of the original donor.

For all the left’s bleating about money in politics—the Koch brothers, Karl Rove, Citizens United, etc.—it is the progressives that have the monopoly on big money in election campaigns.

 

In its original 2012 Year-End Report to the Board, Progressive Kick IE reported devoting the entirety of its spending, about $35,000, in an effort to defeat King Banaian for re-election.  Even with that spending, the group reported still having $60,000 left over for future use against other Republican candidates.  The most interesting fact about Progressive Kick’s Minnesota PAC is that the group does not list a single donor, vendor, or official located within the state.

 

Almost $20,000 of Progressive Kick’s Minnesota spending came in the form of payments to Washington, DC’s America Votes, a group we have previously discussed, for “canvassing services.”  In fact, in filings at the Board, America Votes’ Minnesota 527 Action Fund lists as its largest donor (not customer) Progressive Kick IE, with $20,346, and its second largest donor as Progressive Kick’s California non-profit 501(c)(4) unit, with an additional $13,001 in cash.

 

America Votes’ Action Fund reports that all of its independent expenditures for 2012, totaling $15,875.62, went toward defeating King Banaian for re-election.

 

In a June 3^rd Amendment filed with the Board, Progressive Kick IE reported a cash balance of only $46,000 or so.  It lists the $20,000 sent to America votes as donations, rather than vendor payments, and lays claim to the $13,001 donation to America votes that was previously attributed to Progressive Kick’s California 501(c)(4).  A June 17^th second Amendment filed with the Board further corrects the record.

 
Professor Banaian also drew the attention of  the Super PAC Alliance for A Better Minnesota (ABM), who spent $111,777.57 to defeat him in 2012.  Minnesota state Democrats spent $32,362 on behalf of Mr. Dorholt and a separate $68,013.66 in opposition to Prof. Banaian.  Another group called Public Safety Matters spent $16,136.56 against Banaian. I could go on, but I’ll stop there.
 

Prof. Banaian, of course, had his outside supporters.  The House Republicans, for example, spent $56,189.28 in an effort to defeat his opponent.  A group called Minnesota’s Future spent $28,472.40 on Banaian’s behalf and $46,163.90 against his opponent.  However, such spending on Banaian’s behalf makes my point rather than refutes it.  In a contested race, the vast majority of resources are out of the hands of the candidates themselves.

 

Minnesota’s politics no longer belongs, in any meaningful way, to Minnesota’s citizens.  Unaccountable liberal PAC’s like ABM and Progressive Kick make a few phone calls and order up six-figure money strikes from out-of-state sources, wiping out—several times over—years of hard work by local candidates and their local supporters.

 

As we have previously discussed, bi-coastal progressive elites have selected fly-over Minnesota as their playground for radical policies and politics.  Unfortunately, Minnesota citizens are left to pay the nation-leading tax rates that go along with this imported ideology.  Taxation without representation, indeed.