So far in this campaign, as the DFL hammers its way toward its primary next month, most of the attacks against Tom Emmer have come from a shadowy group, “Alliance for a Better Minnesota”.
I’ve busted them repeatedly stretching the truth and/or lying; Channel Five followed suit earlier this week.
But who are these people? And where did they get the money to run all these slick (if utterly truth-free) ads, and all these posh (but amateurishly-designed) websites?
Because they run through a lot of money!
2006 Campaign – We first heard of “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” (A4aBM) during the 2006 campaign. During that outing, A4aBM spent $2,545,162 – about $2.3 million of it in ads against Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Where did that money come from?
Their donor list is as follows:
- CWA COPE $5,000
- MAPE $5,000
- Midwest Values PAC (Franken) $5,000
- MN AFL-CIO $5,000
- United Food Comml Workers $7,500
- Ma Mah Wi No Min Fund1 (Mille Lacs Tribe) $7,000
Unions and Native American gambling interests so far; no big surprises.
- Tom Kayser (MN) $7,500 [One of Mike Ciresi’s cronies]
- Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux $15,000
- MN Nurses $15,000
- United Steelworkers $22,000
- Afscme Council 5 – $25,000
- Lks and Plains Carpenters $25,000
- IBEW MN State Council $25,000
- Intl Union of Operating Engineers $25,000
- America Votes MN $30,040 [aka “ACORN 2.0“]
- Coalition for Progress $50,000 (Mich)
- Laborers Dist Cncl $60,000
- Pat Stryker (CO) $100,000
- SEIU MN State Cncl $100,000
- Educ. MN $135,000
- Tim Gill (CO) $300,000
- Alida Messinger (NY) $746,000
- Win Minnesota $778,500;
So – out of two and a half million dollars spent, about 20% – about $449,000 – came from those whom I thought were the most likely suspects, the unions.
And nearly 2/3 came from two sources – “Alida Messinger”, and a group called “Win Minnesota”.
We’ll come back to both of them.
2010 Campaign So Far – To date in the gubernatorial campaign, A4aBM has raised $93,386 (as of this past Tuesday). They’d spent $72,383 of it as of Tuesday (on ads that were, as we ascertained earlier this week, wall to wall bullcrap). Of that $93,386, 79.636 of it came from the “Win Minnesota PAC”.
So that’s two election cycles in a row (so far) where “Win Minnesota” has been the leading funder of scabrous hit pieces against Republican candidates.
Win Minnesota? Seems pretty innocuous, doesn’t it?
Who is “Win Minnesota”, And Who Funds Them? – Here’s the list of major contributors to “Win Minnesota” during the 2006 campaign. I’ll be adding the emphasis for reasons that’ll become fairly obvious:
- Anne Bartley (San Fran) $25,000 [Linked via the Rockefeller foundation to Alida Messinger – whose maiden name was “Rockefeller” and who…well, we’ll get back to that. She’s also linked to Hillary Clinton’s “Women’s Leadership Council” and former Clinton administration figure]
- Shayna Berkowitz (Mpls) $100,000; ]
- John Cowles (Mpls) $20,000; [Why yes, the former Strib publisher! But don’t you dare say the Strib is biased!]
- Andrew Dayton (Mpls) $1,000;
- David Dayton (Mpls) $5,000;
- Eric Dayton (Mpls) $1,000;
- Mark Dayton (Mpls) $25,000;
- Mary Lee Dayon (Mpls) $100,000;
- Vanessa Dayton $1,000;
- Sandra Ferry (NY) $50,000; [Yet another Rockefeller – sister of Alida Messinger]
- Barbara Forster (Mpls) $25,000; [generic liberal with deep pockets]
- Roger Hale (Mpls) $100,000; [Former Daytons’ executive]
- John Harris (PA)$20,000;
- Myron Kunin $5,000; [Hair care tycoon]
- Kim Lund (Mpls) $25,000
- Darlene Luther 47A Committee $10,000 ;
- alida Messinger (NY) $165,000;
- Midwest Values PAC (Franken) $20,000;
- Linda Pritzker (TX) $30,000; [Scionette of the Hyatt fortune, big-time liberal with deep pockets; major donor to MoveOn.org]
- Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux $10,000;
- Tina Smith (Mpls) $10,000;
- Linde Uihlein (WI)$100,000; [Schlitz heiress, long-time political plutocrat]
- Julie Zelle (MN) $5,000
That was a lot of Daytons, and people linked with the Daytons…wasn’t it?
So how about this year?
So far in 2010, “Win Minnesota” lists the following donors to “Win Minnesota”‘s current warchest (currently worth $1,173,500), again with emphasis added by me:
- Andrew Dayton $1,000
- David Dayton $50,000
- John cowles $25,000 [Remember him from 2006?]
- MaryLee Dayton $250,000
- Emily Tuttle (MN) $5,000
- Ronald Sternal (MN) $5,000
- Alida Messinger (NY) $500,000
- James Deal (MN) $50,000
- Roger Hale (MN) $10,000 [Remember him from above?]
- Barbara forster (MN) $25,000
- Democratic Governors Association $250,000;
So of the $1.1 and change million warchest, $851,000 came from Daytons, and Alida Messinger.
But wait! There is another fund registered with the state, with a different account number but with the same email and street addresses, that has $850,000 socked away but has spent no money.
And where did that $850,000 come from?
- Alida Messinger (Mpls) $50,000
- Win Minnesota $50,000
- Education MN $250,000
- Laborers District Council $100,000
- MAPE $50,000
- IBEW MN State Council $50,000
- MN Nurses Assc $50,000
- Local 49 Engineers $25,000
- Vance Opperman $50,000
- Afscme Council 5 $50,000
- MN AFL-CIO $25,000
- SEIU MN State Council $50,000
- AFSCME (Wash DC) $50,000;
And who is this Alida Messinger who has contributed so mightily – over $1.46 million over the past four years! – to the cause of disinforming Minnesotans about Republicans? Other than the youngest daughter of John D. Rockefeller III?
The ex-wife of candidate Mark Dayton.
So “Alliance for a Better Minnesota” is essentially a front for a group of unions and, to the tune of millions over the past four years, Mark Dayton’s family, friends and ex-wife.
They are paying millions of dollars to advertise – and hiding it from casual view behind two layers of astroturf.
Mark Dayton is trying to buy the election, but he’s taking great pains to make sure you don’t know about it.
Why does this information not surprise me?
Tim Gill is an radical gay activist and his meddling in politics supporting liberals out side of liberal CO, was foretold in the Conservative blogosphere months ago.
How can we expose this crap?
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Interesting analysis – well done.
Is it just me though…….doesn’t it seem odd an EX-wife would be funding political campaigns? Are Dayton and his former spouse on such good terms? There is amicable, but this goes pretty far beyond that.
Any info?
Hey, it’s not the first election the Congenital Idiot has tried to buy. It’s really a hobby for good ol’ Mark.
And Tom Kayser? I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why any armed forces member or veteran could even think of being a member of the Dimwit Freaking Liars! All the libs have ever done is denegrate and demonize the military.
Any info?
Other than political financials? Not a bit.
Notice the roundness of the numbers. You don’t do that if you want to be open, but rather if you want to work around the campaign finance laws.
Regarding Messinger, the Rockefellers and the Daytons have been in the same liberal circles for decades. A divorce doesn’t change that, so this is really no surprise.
But interestingly, Dayton promised (see wiki article) that he would not self-fund future campaigns….and now he’s doing that in all but name. We desperately need a man with such “honesty” to….
….stay as far away from St. Paul as humanly possible!
Here’s a follow on to my earlier comment.
This is so outrageous that it’s laughable.
Apparently, trust fund boy is proving my point by criticizing the MNGOP for wanting to give our veterans a tax break, claiming: “Unlike the Republican Candidate, Tom Emmer, I will not offer tax cut bribes to special groups of people, as Representative Emmer did this week to restaurant servers. I believe in the principle that all Minnesotans should pay their fair share of taxes, based upon their taxable incomes. However, I promise that I will not alter or take away existing state tax credits, deductions, or exemptions for veterans or any other Minnesotans. The only people whose taxes I intend to raise are the richest 10%”.
This verbatim quote came from MinnPost.
I think that the Dims need a math lesson, since it is obvious that they all skipped that class and doubled up on classes in Keynesian economics.
Here it is:
Your Adjusted Gross Income is $45,000 on which you pay 7.05% or $3173.
My AGI was $120,000 on which I also paid 7.05% or $8,460.
Now, since I paid more taxes on more money, where did I not pay “my share?”
Lesson over!
Mitch, I think you just laid out the blueprint for a tell all counter ad.
Fantastic work!!
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Obviously these rich folks aren’t paying enough in taxes if they can throw money around this gratuitously. To paraphrase Robin Williams remark about cocaine: “Contributing to Mark Dayton is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.”
This is really excellent stuff, Mitch.
Hmmm, lets hope since this is the slow news cycle someone picks this up. Lets be careful not to damage Dayton too much until AFTER he wins the primary.
The governor’s mansion shouldn’t be a subsidiary of Dayton, Inc.
AMAZING. So you’re saying that a wealthy liberal family, one of whom is running for governor, is legally donating money to a liberal PAC that airs anti-GOP advertisements. IS THIS EVEN AMERICA ANYMORE??
Tim, see this tin I’m holding? This is Shineola. See that pile you’re standing in? That is not Shineola.
Good to see that Tim is cool with the Citizens United decision.
nah, only for the Unions and liberal PAC’s. Anything conservative should be illegal and subject to public scruitny.
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Wouldn’t we all be better off if the Daytons would just buy poor Mark a banjo and a bridge to live under? Somewhere warm; like Georgia.
I think so.
Well done, Mitch!
Just one nit, in the fifth to the last paragraph you spelled “Alida” as “Alita” (or maybe that was a Freudian slip 😉 )
It was a typo – but now that you mention it…
“Don’t cry for me, Minnetonka!
My boat has always plied you!
My family could have buyed you…”
Congrats on the HotAir frontpage promotion. Well done!
Great work Mitch, but the real crime here is the FUNDAMENTAL DISHONESTY of the STAR TRIBUNE ond the PIONEER PRESS.
This stuff is easily checked ! Another thing is that the STAR TRIBUNE in particuliar wants to find some way to get ANDERSON-KELLIHER through the primary while minimizing the damage to DAYTON in case he wins ! My guess is that the Strib will soon come out with a story playing up the Messinger contribution to the SMEAR EMMER campaign, while DOWNPLAYING ANDERSON-KELLIHER’S UNION buddies role in this.
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