{"id":5085,"date":"2009-07-13T06:42:05","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T11:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5085"},"modified":"2011-10-12T13:05:55","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T18:05:55","slug":"victim-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5085","title":{"rendered":"Victim Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

To balance the state budget, Governor Pawlenty has “unallotted” – pulled the funding for – hundreds of millions of dollars of state spending…<\/p>\n

…including the state program that refunded campaign contributions to people.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Lori Sturdevant is painting campaign donors as\u00a0 victims of unallotment:<\/a><\/p>\n

The Campaign Finance Institute, based at George Washington University in Washington, issued a statement Wednesday noting that its studies have found that small donors play an unusually large role in Minnesota’s elections for legislative and state constitutional offices. The state leads the nation in the share of campaign funds raised in increments of less than $100 — the maximum contribution amount from a married couple that the refund program would reimburse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, not. If that trend survives this unallotment, then that will be true.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

If it does not, then the State of Minnesota <\/em>will have led the nation in campaign funds raised in small doses.\u00a0 In other words, all of Minnesota’s taxpayers have been subsidizing Minnesotans’ political habits.<\/p>\n

“Eliminating the rebate would remove an important force for democracy in Minnesota government,” said the institute’s executive director Michal Malbin. In most states, campaign donations come in larger amounts from fewer donors, many of whom expect to gain influence with their contributions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is right – and whether the donation is small or large, that is the way it should be<\/em>.\u00a0 If I give $5 to the NRA, it’s because I want to “gain influence” in Saint Paul or Washington when my contribution forces NRA-endorsed candidates over the top to win elections.<\/p>\n

So in what ethical universe is it right for Greta Hellemoen in Fergus Falls to subsidize my political donations?<\/p>\n

Common Cause Minnesota is urging the 2010 Legislature to restore the program,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another good reason to cut it.<\/p>\n

and Republican activist Robert Carney of Minneapolis has threatened to initiate a class action lawsuit to stop Pawlenty’s unallotment. His argument is that depriving taxpayers of a promised refund sets an unwelcome precedent for the next time the state faces money woes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps, arguably.<\/p>\n

Allowing the DFL to spend money like crack whores who’ve rolled their johns is even more “unwelcome”, one might think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To balance the state budget, Governor Pawlenty has “unallotted” – pulled the funding for – hundreds of millions of dollars of state spending… …including the state program that refunded campaign contributions to people. Naturally, Lori Sturdevant is painting campaign donors as\u00a0 victims of unallotment: The Campaign Finance Institute, based at George Washington University in Washington, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144,2],"tags":[143,154],"class_list":["post-5085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-governor","category-minnesota-politics","tag-common-cause","tag-pawlenty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23507,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions\/23507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}