Behind the Lobbying numbers

Posted at 12:48 AM on June 26, 2008 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)

MPR has a story detailing the money spent on lobbying during the first half of 2008. Here are some interesting tidbits:

467 groups spent more than $1,000 (for a total of $7,779,872).

130 groups spent more than $10,000 (for a total of $6,730,392).

14 groups spent more than $100,000.

The most spent by an individual business was Enbridge Energy Association (which lobbied the Public Utilities Commission). $252,718.

The most spent by an individual governmental unit was the city of St. Paul - $51,482.

The most spent by a union was the Minnesota Nurses Association - $182,165.

Here are the 2008 Top Spenders:

1) Minnesota Chamber (not including local chambers) - $509,777

2) Minnesota Business Partnership - $333,579

3) Minnesota Transportation Alliance (a coalition of unions and construction firms) - $323,486

4) MyWireless (a coalition of cell phone companies to fight higher cell phone taxes and increased cell phone regulation) - $291,750

5) Enbridge Energy Association - $252,718

6) Minnesotans Against Fraud and Higher Insurance Costs (lobbied against Good Faith Legislation) - $241,112

7) Coalition of Minnesota Businesses (a coalition of the MN Chamber and the MN Business Partnership) - $223,595

8) Flint Hills - $192,085

9) Marijuana Policy Project (lobbied to legalize medical marijuana) - $187,524

10) Minnesota Nurses Association - $182,165

11) AARP - $169,156

12) Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities - $162,644

13) Insurance Federation of Minnesota - $149,551

14) Education Minnesota - $116,015

15) National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (lobbied for the Mall of America expansion) - $97,593

Of the Top Ten spenders, only Minnesotans Against Fraud and Higher Insurance Costs spent fewer dollars than they did in 2007 (they spent $995,821 in 2007).

Apparently all of those Education Minnesota TV ads were not considered lobbying by the group. That's a source of some consternation by others who disclose all PR related activity.

NOTE:
The Minnesota Orthopaedic Society reported spending $210, 069 but their lobbyist says the number is incorrect . She says they're filing an amended report that says they spent $2169.

Source: Minnesota Campaign Finance and Disclosure Board.

---

Comments (2)

What about campaign donations?

Posted by jqpublic | June 26, 2008 8:21 AM

---

Sorry it took so long to get this comment up -- my e-mail is on overload right now and I'm catching up. As to your question, campaign donations won't be made available until a few weeks before the Primary (august sometime)...

Posted by Tom Scheck | June 26, 2008 2:35 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor