Follow the Money: Trading Oil for Votes

The Minneapolis Star Tribune piece on Alida Rockefeller Messinger last Sunday deserves even more attention than it has been getting.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton's former wife and Rockefeller heiress "has quietly given at least $10 million to [DFL] candidates and causes over the past decade," according to the Star Tribune.  And now, "She is vowing to do all she can to help the DFL regain control of the Legislature and get President Obama re-elected."

John Hinderaker had an early reaction on the Power Line blog to the piece, making the point that the Star Tribune is fine with the liberal Messinger's use of her money to advance her political causes, but when it comes to conservatives, not so much.  Let Freedom Ring blog connects a few more dots on the story.

But I want to make two points that I have not seen elsewhere.

One.  As the great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, she is the heiress to a fortune built on oil refining.  According to the Star Tribune, someone spending millions of oil dollars on left wing politics is just "a woman passionate about issues."  The paper is rather less kind to the current bogeymen of the left, the Koch Brothers.  They too made a fortune in oil refining.  But back when the Wisconsin legislature was considering some public union reforms, the Star Tribune wrote that Messinger's ex-husband Gov. Mark Dayton, "would 'not let right wing billionaires" [the Koch Brothers--who reportedly have helped finance Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker campaign] "control the debate in Minnesota."  So, Gov. Dayton's ex-wife spends money on Minnesota politics and she is "passionate about issues" but the Koch's are trying to "control the debate."

Two.  It isn't just through direct political donations that Messinger influences policy.  As recently as 2006, she served on the board of the Rockefeller Family Fund, which gave grants to a host of policy-oriented environmental groups in that year.  Her son, Eric Dayton, continues to serve on the Fund's board.

The New York City-born Messinger presumes to tell the rest of us in Minnesota how to organize our society.  The Star Tribune quotes a former DLF official saying, "She has chosen, by virtue of her ability to support things, to have a very loud voice."

I, for one, choose not to listen.