ST. PAUL—Rep. Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley) has authored legislation aimed at increasing campaign finance disclosure for outside spending groups. The bill, HF 43, eliminates a campaign finance loophole that currently exempts certain political groups from reporting spending on “issue” mailers, even if they advocate for or against a candidate with close proximity to an election.
Rep. Halverson (DFL – Eagan) and Sen. Carlson (DFL – Eagan) joined Rep. Winkler today to call on the House and Senate to pass this legislation quickly. Sen. Carlson will author the bill in the Senate.
“We can see big money, corporate special interests dominating the GOP political agenda already this session, with the Republican corporate tax break bill last week,” said Rep. Winkler. “People rightly believe that big money has too much influence in politics and that too many politicians forget the voice of the people. The public deserves to know who is spending money to elect candidates. Our constituents deserve to know if their representatives are working for them.”
In 2014, the top 100 National political donors gave $323 million, compared to $356 million contributed by 4.75 million small donors. Just as income disparity is growing between the wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country, so grows the gap between big political spenders and small donors. And trends in Minnesota are heading in the same direction.
2014 was the biggest spending year ever in Minnesota campaigns, and it is expected that outside groups spent close to $1 million in several House races. Spending in the 2014 elections will not be fully disclosed until year-end campaign finance reports are due January 31, but with the current loophole in the law, not all spending will be disclosed to the public.
“We saw a dramatic rise in outside money being funneled into local races this year,” commented Rep. Halverson. “People in my district were getting 2-3 mail pieces per day for weeks and months on end. This kind of spending hurts our democracy—it funds misleading messages and frustrates voters. Minnesota saw a dramatic drop in voter turnout in 2014. If citizens feel as if their voice doesn’t matter we lose the most effective check on our government—the power of the people. Minnesota has long been known for clean elections and high voter turnout. It’s important to our democracy that we keep it that way.”
The DFL legislators also called on outside spending groups to voluntarily disclose their donors for paid communications attempted to influence voters. Under current law, non-profit political organizations do not have to disclose the information of their donors like other political party units and independent expenditure groups do.
Norm Coleman’s political action committee, Minnesota Action Network (MAN), falls under this category. As of October 31, the group had spent $337,532 and had $507,986.44 in the bank. And MAN has already begun mailing political advertisements into several districts in Minnesota since the New Year. Unless Norm Coleman voluntarily discloses his donors, the public will never know who really funded these communications.
Rep. Winkler can be reached by phone at 612-991-4498 or by email at rep.ryan.winkler@house.mn. Rep. Halverson can be reached by phone at 651-296-4128 or by email at rep.laurie.halverson@house.mn.
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