Minnesota Means Good Government

The State of Minnesota prides itself on two things: being the Land of 10,000 Lakes and the land of good government.

So the fact that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Treasury Department are proposing new restrictions on the political activity of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) non-profits should be seen as good news for the state’s politics.

The Politics of Poverty, Part 1

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten recently wrote about the Metropolitan Council regional government and its efforts to remake the region’s demography using data collected through a “Fair Housing and Equity Assessment.”  Kersten writes,

Using these data, the council will lay out what the region’s 187 municipalities must do to disperse poverty.

A User’s Guide to the TakeAction Series

It turns out that I’ve written quite a bit about the political charity TakeAction Minnesota this year.  My interest in the group—who they are and what they do—centers on several topic areas, listed here in no particular order:

Ideology—TakeAction follows a far-left political ideology under the “progressive” liberal banner.  The success TakeAction has enjoyed in elections, lobbying, and fundraising has pushed the state Democrat party even further to the left.  With Democrats having a near-monopoly on political power in Minnesota, TakeAction’s influence among the state’s Democrats means that the state’s public policy choices represent the preferences of a small fraction of the state’s electorate.

Follow the Money and TakeAction! Part 3A

Since I wrote the original Part 3 of my TakeAction series back in January, I’ve come across the names of a few additional financial backers of the Minnesota political charity.

SourceWatch lists then-U.S. Senator Mark Dayton as a past funding partner of the charity.  This is interesting because these days, now Governor Dayton is not known for being generous to charities, political or otherwise.

Nobody Doesn’t Like Sara Lee
Nathan Cummings was a Canadian-born American business executive who built up a fortune in the brand name food industry, most notably Sara Lee.  His New York-based legacy foundation has contributed to TakeAction in recent years

According to the Foundation’s IRS Form 990 Federal income tax returns, in 2011 it gave $60,000 to TakeAction Minnesota’s Education Fund for the “Medicaid Expansion Project.”  In 2010 the Foundation gave $60,000 for TakeAction’s “Make Health Happen Campaign.”  In 2009, it also gave TakeAction $60,000 for the same project.

All For One
The One World Fund of Andover, MA, has supported TakeAction in recent years.  According to One World’s IRS Form 990 Federal income tax returns, in 2012 the Fund gave $25,000 to TakeAction “to unite the power of diverse individuals.”  The Fund’s 2011 and 2010 returns also show $25,000 donations to TakeAction for the same purpose.

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Still Ain’t Satisfied, A Foundation With Attitude, is a Minneapolis-based non-profit operated by Shayna Berkowitz and Phyllis Wiener.  The Foundation is reported by SourceWatch to be among TakeAction’s past funding partners.

Who is TakeAction? Part 3, the Brand New Party

At the Minneapolis Hilton ballroom last Friday night, more than a thousand of the faithful gathered to pay tribute to the year’s progressive heroes.  It was the TakeAction Minnesota Annual Awards Dinner (and dancing!) 2013.

Branded the Progressive Prom™, the event drew A-list headliners Governor Mark Dayton, U.S. Senator Al Franken, and Minneapolis Mayor-Elect Betsy Hodges.  Hodges had just been declared the winner of last week’s election and both Dayton and Franken face 2014 re-election battles in what’s turning out to be an increasingly tough environment for incumbent Democrats.

Who Is TakeAction Minnesota? Part 2: the TakeAction Takeover

In Part1 I take a look at the political philosophy behind the far-left super-PAC TakeAction Minnesota.  In Part 3 I discuss TakeAction's emergence as a statewide political machine.

The group marked another triumph on Monday, when TakeAction organizer Dai Thao was elected to St. Paul’s City Council, becoming the city’s first Hmong council member.

Mr. Thao defeated Noel Nix, a city hall insider and the candidate in the race endorsed by both the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce.  And therein rests the real story. 

Who Is TakeAction Minnesota? Part 1

Earlier this year I wrote a series of posts on the powerful political charity TakeAction Minnesota.  That series focused on what the group does.  Now that TakeAction has succeeded in electing the next mayor of Minneapolis, it is a good time to take a look at who the group is.

The Morning After the Night Before

At least for the next few days, pundits will be combing through the 2013 election returns for any signs and portents of 2014 and beyond.  Let me offer a few words on what I think the results mean for one city.

Minneapolis has elected a new mayor.  I did not vote in that election, having fled the City of Lakes some years ago to escape the high taxes, underperforming schools, and crumbling infrastructure.  Many of my former neighbors followed.   Unfortunately, they have continued to vote for the same politics in our new home city that produced the high taxes, underperforming schools, and crumbling infrastructure in our old one.

Minneapolis has elected a new mayor, despite the best efforts of its Ranked-Choice Voting experiment (RCV).  Under RCV, you get to vote for up to three candidates for each office.  Although the outcome of last night’s election is clear to all observers, election officials will continue to count votes for some time to come, carefully tabulating the 2^nd and 3^rd choices of voters choosing among the nearly three dozen candidates.

Updated: For the Children

[Updated with election results, below.]

Yesterday, I received this PDF via The Network.  It appears to be a script to be read over the phone to the parents of children attending Eden Prairie Public Schools.  It concerns the proposed property tax levy on the ballot for next Tuesday's election.

I don't live in Eden Prairie, so I have no firsthand knowledge of the situation.  I do know how much the state's Democrats have put into taking credit for all the additional taxpayer funding they voted for Minnesota's public schools.  They also claim that all that additional spending would result in lower property taxes.

Eden Prairie did not get the memo, it appears.  What ever additional funds the schools received from the state were not nearly enough for the Eden Prairie schools, who are asking for additional tax funding from local residents.