Hired Guns, Part 6

Now we know.  For months we’ve been asking what credentialed political reporter Shawn Towle did to earn the $40,000 he has been paid by state senate Democrats since 2012.

The indispensable Politics in Minnesota correspondent James Nord reports that the money from Democrats went to pay for…wait for it…candidate and opposition research.

Nord writes,

It turns out he was paid by the DFL Senate Caucus’ campaign arm for candidate and opposition research for use mostly in TV and radio ads leading into the operations’ fall 2012 election campaign.

This post is the sixth part of a series [1, 2, 3, 4, and 5] on the payments by state senate Democrats and state Republicans to Shawn Towle.

As to what Towle specifically did to earn the Democrats’ money, Nord reports senate “campaign director” Mike Kennedy as explaining,

Towle did research on incumbent and new candidates of both parties and provided political analysis to the Senate DFL, campaign director Mike Kennedy said.

Who is Mike Kennedy?

According to his profile on LinkedIn™, Kennedy describes himself as “Political Hack:  Senate DFL Caucus,” and lists his employer since 1999 as the Minnesota Senate DFL Caucus.

On the official Minnesota Senate Staff List, there is no Mike Kennedy working at the state senate.

According to records on file at the state’s Campaign Finance Board, the senate Democrat campaign committee lists expense reimbursements to Mike Kennedy in 2012, 2013, and 2014, but lists his employer as the “MN DFL Party.”  There is no listing for any payroll payments to Kennedy from senate Democrats for the election years of 2012 or 2014.

In 2013, senate Democrats report paying Kennedy $5,000 for “salary” but do not list any payments for payroll taxes to state or federal authorities, as required by state and federal law.

Mr. Kennedy represents himself in public as an employee of the state senate, but does not appear to be so.  That arrangement may be good for taxpayers, but it raises questions about accountability and transparency.

So what?  By keeping him off the official senate payroll, senate Democrats are able to use his services without taking up precious budget space to do so.  By having Kennedy work for the state party but speak for the state senate, senate Democrats are absolved of any responsibility for Kennedy’s actions.

In 2012, the state Democrat Party, the Minnesota DFL State Central Committee, lists payroll payments to Mr. Kennedy totaling $51,504.57.  In 2013, the state party paid him $50,132.57 in payroll.  For the first quarter of 2014, he received $11,594.44 in payroll payments from the state party.

So, Mr. Kennedy misrepresents himself as working for senate Democrats, speaks on behalf of senate Democrats, but is, in fact, an employee of the state party.  It’s a classic case of having your cake and eating it, too.

The 2012 State Senate Election
In 2012, all 67 seats in the Minnesota State Senate were on the ballot in the November election.   However, the senate Democrats did not record spending any money on TV or radio ads in that election.  What the caucus did do was to transfer the bulk of the money it raised to the state party.

The state Democrat Party lists TV ad buys in opposition to the following state senate candidates in 2012,

·         Keith Downey

·         David Gaither

·         David Hann

·         Karin Housley

·         April King

·         Ted Lille

·         Pam Wolf 

The state Democrat party also ran radio ads in opposition to candidate Bill Weber.

As reporter Nord puts it, Towle was paid by senate Democrats, “while he had special access to the chamber because of his press status.”

Three of the above 2012 candidates were sitting members of the state senate at the time of the 2012 campaign.  Did Towle use any information he gained as a capitol media insider with “special access” to help the Democrats’ opposition effort?

The Democrats’ state senate victory on 2012 was already tainted by the illegal coordination scandal involving candidate photographs, a violation for which senate Democrats had to pay a $100,000 fine.

Unanswered Questions
Should the state Democrat Party have listed Towle’s research costs paid the senate Democrats as an “in kind” contribution toward the resulting state party’s TV and radio campaign?

Payments to Towle from senate Democrats have continued since the 2012 election.  In 2013, senate Democrats paid Towle’s firm $5,000 and for the first quarter of 2014 an additional $1,000.  Since senate Democrats will not be on the ballot until 2016, we have no idea what services Towle has continued to provide to the party the past two years.

What did state Democrat Party Chair Ken Martin (Kennedy’s boss) know and when did he know it?

And finally, as of today, May 2014, do the Democrats still have a reporter on the payroll?