Wednesday, July 28, 2010

MNForward

In case anyone was wondering as to which corporate entities have given what to the MN Forward corporations-as-people political fund, here's the complete list, which can be found at the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board's website.

Best Buy ($100,000)
Davisco Foods ($100,000)
Hubbard Broadcasting ($100,000)
Polaris Industries ($100,000)
Regis ($100,000)
Securian ($100,000)
Target ($100,000 cash, $50,000 in kind "Branding" services)

The thing to watch in the last weeks before the election will be the "24 hour notices," which require disclosure of the last-minute funding of the fund and are often overlooked. Since the last report, additional money has flowed in even faster:

Insurance Federation of MN ($10,000)
Federated Insurance ($100,000)
Pentair ($125,000)
Red Wing Shoes ($50,000)

You can also see who's on this gravy train by looking at the expenses. Big winners? Lawyers, Brian McClung, pollsters, and SSG Media, Inc. At this point, they've spent $195,000 on an independent expenditure for Candidate Emmer (no others), and have $790,000 in the bank.

Welcome to the post Citizens United world.

Update: And just today, Senate Republicans ensured that we will remain in a post Citizens United world with corporate money destroying our democracy when they blocked passage of the DISCLOSE Act.

Further Update: Just since late this morning when the listing above went up, MNForward's coffers have grown even fatter. Another 24 hour notice indicates that the Cold Spring Granite Company gave $35,000 yesterday.

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