Capitol View: March 8, 2010 Archive

Seifert targets Emmer on Campaign Finance bill

Posted at 1:41 PM on March 8, 2010 by Tom Scheck (8 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Republican Marty Seifert criticized his top contender for the Republican endorsement for governor on campaign finance bill. Seifert is criticizing Tom Emmer for sponsoring a bill that would have restricted political contributions. He's referencing a bill Emmer supported during the 2005-2006 legislative session. In a news release, he said Emmer's bill would have restricted free speech.

That bill (HF2116) would have imposed new limits on political contributions to party units, 527s, PACs and independent expenditures:

Contribution limits; political party units; political committees, political funds. Puts a $1,000 per year aggregate limit on contributions to political committees and political funds .

Puts a $500 per year aggregate limit on contributions to political party units.

Requires any of these entities that receive excess contributions during a year to return the excess to the donor to give it to the board to deposit in the state general fund by January 31 of the year after the contribution is received.

"While I agree that transparency is a critical component in financial disclosure for political contributions, I strongly disagree that we need severe caps, further limiting free speech," Seifert said in a news release. "Doing so will create a permanent Democratic majority in the Minnesota Legislature." The news release also said Emmer's bill would have been more restrictive than the federal McCain-Feingold law.

Seifert also used Emmer's own words against him by quoting him in a 2005 news release on why the bill is important:

"Independent expenditures are often the most negative and offensive campaign activity," Emmer said. "Limiting them would go along way to making our campaigns cleaner and more positive."

The bill never became law. It's also a moot point now since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that businesses and unions can spend an unlimited amount of money on independent expenditures.

I'll update the blog post when I get a comment from Emmer or his campaign.

Update:

Emmer said he stands by the bill and stressed that the current law "already stifled freedom of speech.". He said he introduced it because Matt Entenza, who is now a DFL candidate for governor, sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to an independent group (527) that then spent the money on Minnesota House races in 2004. Emmer said he was concerned that people were "buying elections" and yet the state bans corporate expenditures.

"Under the rules of the game then, we were trying to do something with independent expenditures. Two things though, one, the environment has changed. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, in light of what we're doing now, we don't have the same concerns because we are moving toward a direction where always should have been which is freedom. Let people decide elections, don't let government rules decide the outcomes."

Emmer stressed that he doesn't support limits at all...

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Kiffmeyer and Cornish back Emmer

Posted at 2:45 PM on March 8, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Republican Tom Emmer announced that state Reps. Mary Kiffmeyer and Tony Cornish are backing his campaign for governor:

"I served as a statewide elected official and I know Tom Emmer has the strength of character to make the right decisions for our families," said Kiffmeyer in a news release. "We need Tom's energy and passion at the top of our ticket this fall."

"Tom is a team player and has been an important part of the House Republican Caucus strategy of showing the citizens of Minnesota there is a better way to govern our state," added Rep. Cornish in the news release.

Seifert questions Emmer's temperament to be governor

Posted at 4:01 PM on March 8, 2010 by Tom Scheck (9 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

The race to see who wins GOP backing in the campaign for governor is heating up. Earlier, we reported that Rep. Marty Seifert criticized Rep. Tom Emmer for authoring a bill that would have placed limits on independent expenditures, 527s and PACs (I updated that blog post with Emmer's comments on it). Seifert also lobbed another criticism of Emmer during an interview on Emmer's 2005 bill. He raised the issue of Emmer's temperament.

When discussing the bill, Seifert pointed to a 2005 City Pages article that quoted Emmer criticizing Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life for opposing the proposed limits:

Initially, Emmer was optimistic that the bill would be passed, but once it got to the floor, support suddenly dissipated. Various interest groups, most notably Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, stepped up their attacks on the measure. The anti-choice nonprofit group passed out literature condemning the bill and told house members that the vote would be counted in the organization's influential legislative scorecards, even though the issue has nothing to do with abortion.

"What a crock of crap that is," says Emmer, who is pro-life and was endorsed by the MCCL in 2004. He's now disgusted by the group's high-handed tactics: "I've told them to knock it off. I don't ever want to hear from them again. I don't appreciate people passing me notes while I'm in committee telling me how to vote."

Seifert said Emmer's quote in that article shows that Emmer doesn't have the temperament to be governor.

"The delegates need to know what they're getting," Seifert said. "Right now, they're coming in and getting a good speech for five minutes and the people leave the room and they have no idea about what happens in terms of these other issues like legislation sponsored, etc. I think they need to know if someone needs to come in and wows you with fire breathing, that may be enough but I think people need to know the whole story."

The criticism is a double whammy for Seifert. First, it raises the issue that Emmer supported limits on campaign spending that are opposed by many conservatives. (Emmer now says he doesn't support any limits on campaign spending but was trying to clear up the state's campaign finance laws at the time). Secondly, it puts Emmer at odds with the MCCL, a group that has considerable influence over Republican activists.

For his part, Emmer criticized Seifert for even bringing up a bill he authored in 2005. He said GOP delegates and the rest of the public are more concerned about bread and butter issues. He said Seifert is worried that Emmer has the momentum in the campaign.

"Somebody is raising a bill from 2005 on campaign practices when the real issues that people are talking about are what? They're talking about jobs. They're talking about the future," Emmer said. "They're talking about their families. This is a desperate attempt to create some kind of conflict."

Republicans will meet on April 30th to back a candidate for governor. Both Seifert and Emmer say they'll drop out of the race if they don't win the party endorsement.

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An "I'm not taxed enough already" fund?

Posted at 4:18 PM on March 8, 2010 by Tom Scheck (8 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, MN Legislature

GOP state Rep. Peggy Scott and GOP state Sen. Amy Koch introduced legislation that would allow taxpayers to mark a box on their tax return and dedicate an amount to a fund "for Minnesotans who think they are not taxed enough."

"There are many voices on the left calling for higher taxes," Scott said in a news release. "They say they are willing to pay more, so I want to give them that opportunity,"

Scott says other states including Arkansas and Virginia have set up such funds. She said Arkansas gathered $2,077 in contributions from 56 taxpayers between 2001 and 2005.

Discuss....

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