Disclosure, Part 3

In hindsight, the passage of same-sex marriage legislation by the 2013 Minnesota state legislature seems as if it was always a foregone conclusion.  Following the money from that time period, however, would lead one to a different conclusion.  In this Part 3, we examine the lobbying operation of Minnesotans United. (See also Part 1 and Part 2)

Minnesotans United—the $12 million powerhouse behind the 2012 defeat of the marriage amendment ballot initiative—set its sights on a legislative victory in 2013.  According to records on file at the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Minnesota United formed a lobbying entity on January 24, 2013, and shut down operations after the legislature adjourned in May.

In five short months, under the leadership of Richard Carlbom, the group spent over $1.6 million in persuading legislators to vote in their favor, employing the services of 14 registered lobbyists.  Not only did their spending dwarf the $211,000 raised by their opponents on the marriage issue, it ranked as the largest amount spent by any single organization lobbying in 2013.
 

Disclosure, Part 2

[Updated: this post has been updated to reflect more recent campaign finance reports.]

Yesterday, I introduced the group Minnesotans United PAC, a political action committee that believes it’s on the right side of history but thinks it doesn’t need to follow the state’s campaign finance disclosure rules.  In this Part 2, I dig deeper into what the group promises, and what it delivers.

Disclosure, Part 1

The 2012 success of the political group Minnesotans United for All Families should be studied by political scientists for years to come.

As was widely reported at the time, the efforts of Minnesotans United found success—not just in defeating the proposed constitutional amendment on marriage—but also in helping to elect Democrat majorities in the state House and Senate.

Formed in 2011, in just a year and a half the group raised and spent $12 million on the 2012 election.  It was the largest amount of money raised by any group or political party during the cycle in Minnesota.

 

Ringers

[This post has been updated.  See below.]

An incident occurred this past week that deserves far more scrutiny than it has received so far.

The state’s Obamacare agency, MNsure, held a meeting of its Board of Directors last Wednesday.  As is the Board’s custom, the meeting was to begin with a story from a MNsure “customer.”

The Minnesota Jobs Coalition points out that the week’s success story turns out to be a paid consultant for the state’s Democrat party, Mike Sherman.

As I've documented before, this is not the first time (or the second) the MNsure “success” story turns out to be a partisan ringer.  But this time around, MNsure has dropped Northwoods icons Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox from its multi-million-dollar ad campaign in favor of testimonials from actual customers.

As I’ve also discussed before, the Board would be in much better shape if it listened to unsuccessful customers.  The disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act in Minnesota has gained the state a much-deserved national reputation for mismanagement.

[Updated:  It turns out that Mr. Sherman's insurance story has gone national.  He is featured at Organizing for Action's (OFA) Barack Obama.com site.  The photo used for "Michael" from Minnesota is the same photo Sherman uses as his profile picture on his employer's website and his Twitter profile pic.  The only question remains is "Who Found Mike First, MNsure or OFA?"  For the record, Michael tweeted his OFA-MN appearance on February 11th and his appearance at the MNsure Board meeting was scheduled for February 26.]

Now MNsure seeks to add misrepresentation to mismanagement.  If the Board cannot find success stories from somewhere other than ruling party’s payroll, then MNsure is in worse trouble than anybody believes.  Furthermore, with the hand-selected success stories turning out to be fakes—time after time—then why should we believe anything (enrollment figures, cost data, etc.) put out by MNsure?

Ringing in March on the Radio

We kick off March with a bang on the radio.

King Banaian Show, AM 1570

Saturday morning, March 1^st at 9 a.m., I’ll be filling in again for King Banaian on his radio show.  Our guests will be: 

• Elizabeth Emerson, Director of Government Relations for Goff Public, will update us on the first week of the 2014 session of the state legislature.
• Kim Crockett, COO of the Center of the American Experiment, will talk about pension solvency.
• Gita Sitaramiah, Director of Communications for Greater MSP, will talk about strategies to grow our regional economy.
• Tom Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, will talk about transportation policy.

Gilmore and Glahn Radio Hour, Blog Talk Radio

On Sunday’s Gilmore And Glahn show, we’re hosting conservative columnist Diana West for the whole hour from 4 to 5 p.m.

Minnesota’s Radio Forum, AM 1570

This week we taped our March episode of Minnesota’s Radio Forum.  This month the topic is Jobs and our guests include, 

• Bill Blazar of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce
• Julie Bunn, former State Representative from the Lake Elmo area and a Stanford PhD. in Economics
• Traci Tapani, Co-President of family-owned Wyoming Machine and a state Chamber board member

The program will air at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 8.

Big Weekend for Radio

I have the unique honor of filling in for King Banaian on his radio show this Saturday.  It runs from 9 to 11 a.m. on station AM 1570.

My guest in the 9 am hour will be Fluence Media's Blois Olson.  Joining me in the 10 am hour will be the Taxpayers League's Ted Lillie.

And, as always, I'll be co-hosting the Gilmore and Glahn Blog Talk Radio show Sunday at 4 pm.  Tune in!

The Indonesian Connection

I wrote last week about some interesting coincidences surrounding a young Democrat party donor, who is making a name for himself on the national political scene.

From Utah, With Love

Last week, I mentioned an odd transaction reported in the 2013 filing submitted by the Minnesota Democrat Party (officially, the Minnesota DFL State Central Committee) to the Campaign Finance Board.

On March 15, 2013 (the Ides of March), Minnesota Democrats contributed $27,500 to the Utah State Democratic Committee.

According to records on file at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), exactly one week later (March 22^nd), Utah’s Democrats transferred $25,000 from their federal campaign account to the federal campaign account of the Minnesota Democrat party.

In the Matter of Public Safety Matters, Part 4

Democrat State Representative Carly Melin represents Hibbing and environs in the state legislature.  While I don’t admire her politics, I do admire her taking on the state’s public safety union machine.

Rep. Melin is advocating for medicinal marijuana, and is running into (her words) “a brick wall” of union bosses concerned that legalization may reduce law enforcement budgets.

Prominent in opposition is union chief Dennis Flaherty, who refuses to negotiate with Melin on her bill.  Observant readers may recall Mr. Flaherty’s starring role in my series of posts [1, 2, and 3] on the shadowy political group Public Safety Matters Campaign.

Hired Guns, Part 2

Digging deeper into campaign finance reports, amazing coincidences keep popping up.  In Part 1 of this series, I documented a series of remarkable coincidences around a company called Enlightened Enterprises (or Enlighten Enterprise) of 254 Wheeler Street, St. Paul.

Today, I document a series of coincidences around a company called Key Strategies, LLC.  In the 2012 report for the Minnesota DFL Senate Caucus, senate Democrats report making a series of four payments to the company (p. 75).  Key Strategies is also listed under the 254 Wheeler Street address and received a total of $8,250 from March 7, 2012, to June 5, 2012.  Payment was for “strategic consulting.”