Hatch and the Qwest for

Hatch and the Qwest for 2006 - In March, Minnesota attorney general Mike Hatch made maximum hay from a "scandal" that, eventually, pointed back at him.

More followed - the "Gang Task Force" scandal, the "Sexual Predators" releases that weren't, Telegate. The pattern was always the same; about the time the previous "scandal" died down, the next one would break in the local media, as if on cue.

And, inevitably, in every story, Mike Hatch (as portrayed in the local media) was the scolding figure in the background, waving his finger at the new adminstration.

My theory - and I'm not alone - has been that Hatch was prepping the ground for a run at Pawlenty in 2006.

But maybe it was all a pre-emptive strike for when this story came out: Hatch is involved with Qwest Communications.

"The Communication Workers of America (CWA) found common cause with Qwest management in its fight last year to ward off the fines and a proposed breakup of the company. It contributed about $135,000 to the DFL Party and Hatch's reelection campaign and on behalf of DFL gubernatorial candidate Roger Moe. Most of that amount, $125,000, was given to the DFL Party by the national CWA unit.

Hatch has close personal associates at Qwest, as well. John Stanoch, who was Hatch's top deputy for the first two years of his first term, was hired by Qwest more than two years ago as president of Minnesota operations. He is a former district judge and was campaign manager for Gov. Rudy Perpich, a DFLer, in 1990."

Our old friend from the American Bankers story, Ron Jerich, makes an encore appearance; he is a lobbyist for Qwest.

Just as happened with the American Bankers story, Hatch is covering his alleged wrongdoing with populist bluster.

"I have a 25-year track record of fighting for the underdog and the consumer, and I take great pride in that," he said. "That's more important to me than political affiliation, more important to me than any labor organization. I represent the people of this state, and that's my trademark.

"By God, that's what I am all about, that's all I'm about. I don't sell out. I may get tricked but I don't sell out. . . . And I'm not going to have . . . Republicans accuse me otherwise," said Hatch, who is a top DFL prospect to run against Pawlenty in 2006.

He's not going to "have" Republicans accuse him otherwise?

Well, perhaps. But there are some questions to answer first.

Once the money changed hands, according to the Strib:

Shortly after the November election, at the final stage before the PUC was to render its decision on the anti-competitive question, the Commerce Department and Hatch's residential utilities division submitted sharply different proposals for penalizing Qwest.

The Commerce brief issued scathing critiques of the company, but the much shorter brief from the attorney general's office contained almost no editorializing on the company's conduct, calling instead for "a creative remedy" rather than "a traditional remedy which only really benefits the state treasury."

Commerce's Mendoza, in his brief, scoffed at the claims of possible bankruptcy and damage to employees and retirees, noting that executives had recently assured the media that the company was not in peril and that Qwest was so big and potentially profitable that it could "treat $50 million like loose pocket change." He stuck by his department's proposal to break the company into wholesale and retail operations.

Hatch said that he respects Mendoza as a tenacious regulator but that it was clear that a structural separation was a dead issue and would not succeed.

Sound an awful lot like Mike Hatch's version of Commerce's behavior in the American Bankers incident?

More to come.

Posted by Mitch at August 11, 2003 02:05 AM