In the Matter of Public Safety Matters, Part 3

In Part 1 of this series, I introduce the Democrat-supporting political expenditure group Public Safety Matters Campaign.  In Part 2 of this series, I did deeper into the organizations behind the effort and the Minnesota Republicans they targeted in the 2012 election.

During the waning days of the 2012 election, I received four Public Safety mailers.  Each was a large, two-sided color postcard [1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B] attacking Keith Downey in his run for the State Senate.

The first three words of Mailer No. 1 describe Downey as “Incumbent Keith Downey.”  At the time, Downey was a member of the State House of Representatives.  He was not running for re-election to the House, but rather was running for an open Senate seat.  In no sense of the word was Keith a Senate incumbent.  Truth is always the first casualty.

The thrust of the mailer is a variation on the old “Fireman First” political strategy: since Downey didn’t vote to increase the state’s budget as much as Democrat Governor Mark Dayton wanted, he was guilty of voting for devastating cuts to the budget.  Police, firemen, and other vital services are always the first casualty of these “cuts,” cleverly disguised as massive budget increases.

The mailers trot out the left’s favorite victims.  They contain footnotes that support none of the claims made in the text.  The group’s donors were not disclosed until well after the new legislature was sworn in.  Standard stuff from the left these days.

All of this is to be expected from Democrat partisans.  What was surprising about these mailers was the list of recipients.  At the time I received the mailers, I was the Republican-nominee for Downey’s House seat.  That I and other solid Republicans received this mailing revealed part of the strategy: to paint Downey as a “soft-on-crime” politician and depress turnout and support from Republicans and conservatives.  Those who know Downey immediately saw the falsehoods behind the campaign.  Newer residents of the district and residents of the larger Senate District not having Downey as their Representative, however, may have been fooled.  In a race as close as 2012’s, all it takes is a few lies to swing the election.

Expect the same tactics to re-appear in 2014.  Desperate to hang onto power and with a disastrous 2013 record that can’t be defended, Minnesota’s Democrats will tell any lie and spend any amount of money to maintain their one-party rule.

In the Matter of Public Safety Matters, Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced the recently-created political group Public Safety Matters Campaign.  This less-than-year-old group had an outsized influence in the 2012 campaign for the Minnesota state legislature by going after Republican candidates on an issue that is usually one of their strengths: law enforcement.

In this part, I take a look at the targets of the group’s 2012 campaign.

 

In the Matter of Public Safety Matters Campaign, Part 1

As Minneapolis Star Tribune political reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger famously wrote on Twitter earlier this month, 

There’s still more stories hidden in the last decade worth of spending on Minnesota Legislature races.  More to Come.

Never were truer words spoken.  Consider the curious case of Public Safety Matters Campaign.  Public safety, in this sense, means law enforcement, police.

Established on October 1, 2012, in the waning days of the 2012 election, Public Safety Matters Campaign has no Chair.  Its treasurer is Dennis Flaherty, the executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA).  The address for the two groups is the same St. Paul location.

All Things Considered, Again

In the first part of this series, I discussed the sponsorship by the state government agency MNsure of the news programming of Minnesota Public Radio.  In this post, I discuss some of the troubling aspects of this business relationship.

Minnesota Public Radio is a private, non-profit corporation, organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.  Its parent company, the St. Paul-based American Public Media Group, is also organized as a 501(c)(3).

American Public Media owns companies across the country, from South Florida, to Southern California, the Rocky Mountains, and across the Midwest.  According to its most recent Federal tax return, American Public Media Group had annual revenue[1] of $18,655,077, earning[2] a respectable profit of $339,897.

Last year, its current CEO, Jon McTaggart, was paid[3] $494,497.  Its outgoing CEO, William Kling, was paid[4] $541,183.  American Public Media owns three, for-profit[5] companies.

The Banana Republic of Minnesota: All Things Considered

[In this post, I outline the basics of the MNsure/MPR relationship.  In the next post, I will outline my objections.]

Thanks to the keen hearing of John Gilmore this morning, I was alerted to a curious radio relationship.  I confirmed with the staff of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) that the state government agency MNsure is a sponsor of MPR’s news programming.  To be clear, when you hear a 15-second ad on MPR news, you are not hearing a public service announcement; you are hearing a paid (cash) advertisement for a program sponsor.

The Met Council’s Wishful Thinking

With some fanfare, the Metropolitan Council issued its predictions on where within the Twin Cities metropolitan area population growth will occur between now and 2040.  Not surprisingly, the Met Council predicts that almost all future population growth will occur in the core cities of the metro area, with little growth occurring in the suburbs and outlying areas.

This prediction is not surprising, because it’s increasingly clear that growth in the urban core will be the only growth that the Met Council will allow to occur in the next 30 years.  The prediction will be self-fulfilling, based on the Met Council’s policy preferences.

The Banana Republic of Minnesota: After Action Report

I attended a meeting of the MNsure Board of Directors this afternoon in St. Paul.  I do not recommend the experience to others.  MNsure is the state government agency overseeing the start up of Minnesota’s Obamacare health insurance exchange.  MNsure’s Board is the body that is supposed to be overseeing the agency.  As Board members themselves were quick to point out, they neither have nor will they exercise any such authority.  It turns out that the buck stops…well, it never stops.

Outsourcing Even a Democrat Can Like

Democrats, as a group, aren’t known as fans of outsourcing, but I’ve found at least one instance where they appear to embrace the practice.

Combing through 2012 Year-End Reports filed at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, I found a few curious entries in the filing of the DFL House Caucus.

The DFL House Caucus is the Democrat political party entity that coordinates the election efforts for the 134 seats in the state House of Representatives.  For 2012, House Democrats reported receiving a total of $189,036.51 of “in-kind” contributions.

The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) donated $13,350.20, mostly in “staff and mileage” costs.  The Education Minnesota teachers union donated $63,394.51 in “staff time.”  Taking the top spot, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) donated $108,593.99 in “staff expense” to the House Democrats.

The House Democrats’ Republican counterparts—the HRCC—show only $7,230.63 of “in-kind” contributions.  Of that amount, $6,880 is attributed to “fundraising event” costs.

It’s bad enough that Democrats in Minnesota are so dependent on union cash for financing their election efforts.  Once elected, House Democrats must vote on public employee union contracts and appropriate funds to pay for government employees’ salaries and benefits.  How likely is it that elected Democrats would defy union demands, when Democrats are dependent on unions to staff their campaigns?

The Banana Republic of Minnesota, Part 6: Who are these guys (or gals)?

Another media outlet has begun reporting on the growing scandal surrounding the Federal taxpayer- funded grants issued by the state government agency MNsure.  MNsure is the Obamacare arm in Minnesota about to launch a statewide health insurance exchange.  Since MNsure announced the list of 30 grant winners late last month, it’s turning out that some of MNsure’s “trusted community organizations” don’t qualify as any one of those three things.

Politics in Minnesota (PIM) reports on how—despite having one of the highest uninsured populations—local nonprofits serving the African-American community were largely shut out of the MNsure grants.

The Banana Republic of Minnesota, Part 5: Shotgun Edition

The legacy media has finally joined the effort in looking into the curious case of MNsure grantees.  MNsure is the Minnesota state government agency operating the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange scheduled to launch on October 1^st.

Last month, MNsure announced the 30 recipients of a taxpayer-funded Federal grant to promote Obamacare in the state.  Lyon-Dugin Associates was one of a handful of for-profit companies to make the list of what MNsure describes as “trusted community organizations.”

Lyon-Dugin Associates is a private, for-profit company owned by Bruce Lyon-Dugin and Fran Lyon-Dugin.  According to documents on file at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, the company was created on August 3, 2012.  Questions remain as to how this year-old, two-person, for-profit operation so quickly rose to become one of the state's most trusted community organizations.

 

The Banana Republic of Minnesota, Part 4: Campaign Finance Edition

This post follows up on the second post in this series, which focuses on the west-Metro non-profit Small Business Minnesota (SBM).  This 2½-year-old non-profit group is headed by its president, Audrey Britton, according to documents on file with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. 

Democrat Britton is a two-time (2010, 2012) candidate for the state House of Representatives seat held by Republican Sarah Anderson, representing the Plymouth area.  Britton maintains an active candidate committee on file with the state’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.  Britton’s 2012 candidate profile on the Plymouth Patch lists her leadership role with Small Business Minnesota.

Random Act of Journalism

Some 8 months after the data became available, the Minneapolis Star Tribune finally gets around to an analysis of campaign spending in the 2012 election.

The article (headlined "Spending on Minnesota legislative races has doubled in 10 years") describes how much more money has poured into races for the state legislature in recent years.

Not surprisingly, they bury the lede.  Yes, lots more money is coming into these races, but in recent years, it's almost all on the Democrat/liberal/progressive side of the ledger.

Consider these two facts brought out by the Star Tribune,

"Fueled by cash from unions and wealthy Minnesotans, the Alliance poured nearly $2 million into independent expenditures in targeted legislative races last year.

"Only the DFL Party, with $3.5 million in independent spending on legislative races, spent more in 2012."

 

And,

 

"Republican interests were outgunned that year not just in [King Banaian's] district, but in most other competitive races.

 

"The Star Tribune’s analysis showed that Democratic interests outspent Republican groups in 25 of the 40 most expensive contests. In those races, Democratic groups spent $6.9 million — 20 percent more than the $5.8 million mustered by Republican groups.

 

"While money is not the only determining factor, DFLers swept to victory in 32 of those races, with Republicans winning eight."

 

As I have documented before, much of the money is coming from out-of-state sources.  Minnesotans no longer have any meaningful say in their own politics.  The culprits are not the shadowy Koch Brothers on the right, but the wealthy liberals from the two coasts.