Dear Minneapolis Issues Folks, The Sierra Club North Star Chapter also had concerns about about campaign finance issues. Durring my review of campaign expenditure reports. I found what appears to be some irregularities related to Friend of Peter McLaughlin (County Commissioner) campaign report and the possible transfer of funds to McLaughlin for Mayor Committee. This was one of many issues that had an impact on our endorsement. But please allow me to explain.
I had discovered what appeared to be very unusual expenditures Friends of Peter McLaughlin 2004 Committee report. As I was preparing for screening for mayoral and other municipal office endorsements for the Sierra Club, I was reviewing campaign committee reports contributions and expenditures on Hennepin County's web site, preparing to convey my finds to my committee members. I searched for McLaughlin and by mistake I clicked on http://www16.co.hennepin.mn.us/cfrs/getreports.do Friends of Peter McLaughlin committee report (County Commissioner) for 2004 rather then his McLaughlin for Mayor committee report for 2004 and proceed to review. I was initially surprised by the amount of expenditures Friends of Peter McLaughlin had listed for a non-election year $22,745. The expenditure appeared to be significant especially when you consider that he has been in office since 1991, and won by very large margins in all of his previous elections, and was not up for possible-reelection unt il 2006. I compared previous Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee report expenditures; for 2003 non-election year, $5336.06, 2002 non-election year, $5951.01, 2001, $14,343.10 (per-election year report-one year out), and the amount of the expenditure for 2004 extremely unusual even when compared to a previous election year. I then began reviewing his committee�s itemized Vendor or Recipient list and found it surprising to see listed Alicia Bennett, and Ed Gross because they have both told me at public events they were working for Peter McLaughlin�s Mayoral campaign in the fall of 2004 and January 2005. I am very fond of Ed Gross and Alicia Bennett political work and thus it is not easy to implicat them but I believe Mr. McLauphlins campaign has given me no other choice, by now misrepresenting the Sierra Club on their web site. Ed Gross has been paid $5000 to consult from Friends of Peter McLaughlin�s 2004 (Cty Comissioner), and Alicia was paid $3,018.17 to provide assistance and database, for a total of $8,018.17. Ed Gross and I had spoken recently about his work at Mayor Rybak�s announcement to run for re-election January 30th, 2005. I was attending as an observer, not a supporter of either candidate for mayor because the non-profit I serve as a volunteer committee member was beginning its official endorsement process. I have known Ed Gross for many years, and asked him what he has been working on recently. He said to me, "I have been working for Peter McLaughlin�s Mayoral race." I said, "Are you paid staff or just volunteering?" Which he became upset with me and said, "Of coarse I am paid, this is what I do for a living!" I said, "Ed I am not trying to insult you, I just was curious if you were helping Peter McLaughlin out of the goodness of your hart as a volunteer, or the strength of his check book?" I laughed, and he said, "R.T. could have hired me as well." Ed is a well-known campaign consultant who works for many candidates and organizations including some I have been personall y affiliated with. I did not think about his comments again until reading Friends of Peter McLaughlin and McLaughlin for Mayor Campaign Committee reports in February 2005, and noticed the expenditures. I spoke for a significant amount of time with Alicia Bennett at the Brian Melendez�s (Minneapolis D.F.L Party Chair) annual non-partisan party November 13th, 2004. Others who attended the party may recal conversations as well. We talked at length and she told me she was working for Peter McLaughlin�s mayoral campaign. She never mentioned working on his county commissioner race for 2006. It was memorable because her adjective filled conversation monopolized my time at the party. The pattern developed during my review concerned me that Friends for Peter McLaughlin and McLaughlin for Mayor Campaign Committees may have violated the law in an effort to pay Alicia Bennett and Ed Gross for their services. I investigated further and compared numerous other campaign committees, as well as further explored Commissioner McLaughlin�s own past expenditures to see if this could be defined as standard allocations of funds or an unusual expenditure. I compared Friends of Peter McLaughlin Campaign Committee reports for consultant and staff expenditures to previous years committee reports to see if this was a common practice or unusual. In 2003 Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee spent zero dollars on consultants or to staff to provide assistance or database. In 2002 an election year Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee spent zero dollars on consultants or to staff to provide assistance or data base final report or in the pre-primary and general election reports. In 2001 Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee spent zero dollars on consultants or to staff to provide assistance or database. The type of expenditure for consultants and for staff to provide assistances is unusual for Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee in an election year or non-election year. His county commissioner seat would be considered �safe� by campaign election experts. No candidate has presently announced they will be challenging him in 2006, so s uch expenditures seem unnecessary, and a violation of the trust to his contributors. I compared other Hennepin County Commissioners Campaign Committee reports that represent Minneapolis to Friends of Peter McLaughlin and found that Commissioner Opat�s expenditures for 2004 was $4,560 and Hennepin Commissioner Dorfman�s expenditure for 2004, $5,299.65. Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee total dollar expenditures for 2004: $22,745 or $17,446 more then Commissioner Dorfman and $18,185 more then Commissioner Opat�s, which seems again a comparison to his colleagues own expenditures creates an extremely unusual picture I compared Friends of Peter McLaughlin�s expenditures for consultants and staff to provide assistance to his fellow county commissioners reports for 2004. Five of the six county commissioners reports for 2004 had zero expenditures for such services, and Commissioner Stenglein had an expenditure of $621.00 for database entry. Friends of Peter McLaughlin spent twelve times more than Commissioner Stenglein who came in second for such expenditures. McLaughlin for Mayor had expenditure to Ed Gross for consulting in 2004 for $750 or nearly 11 times less then what he spent on consultants for his County Commissioner Campaign. So when compared to his fellow commissioners reports the expenditure for staff and consultants appears to be excessive, and a foolish use of contributor�s dollars. Then I compared Friends of Peter McLaughlin expenditures to R.T. (Rybak) for Mayor Campaign Committee for 2004. R.T. for Mayor Committee expenditures $6,109 in 2004 (one year prior to running for office with a known challenger), which is $16,336.85 less then Mr. McLaughlin spent on his county commissioner race which will not happen until 2006. R.T. for Mayor had zero expenditures for consultants or database entry in 2004, or any other staff. Mr. McLaughlin had announced his candidacy for Mayor on December 16th, 2004. McLaughlin for Mayor Campaign Committee report for 2004 showed expenditures of $5,454.33. Friends of Peter McLaughlin (County Commissioner Committee) had expenditures of $22,445.85 on his county commissioner race in 2006, or $16,991.52 more then he spent on his Mayoral race he is running for this year-2005, and the only staff or consulting expenditure was the $750 previously mentioned for Ed Gross. Mr. McLaughlin had announced his candidacy for Mayor on December 16th, 2004, but within political circles he had been meeting with people about such a run since at least the summer of 2004. As of April 22nd, 2005 Mr. McLaughlin has not even announced his intentions to running for reelection for his county commissioner seat in 2006, and yet in 2004, he had spent more money on county commissioner race then his mayoral he has publicly stated he is committed to winning. It would appear from reviewing his camp aign committee expenditure reports that running for county commissioner in 2006 would be his first priority not campaigning for mayor. I have searched numerous news services and have not found a single statement from Mr. McLaughlin about his desire to run for county commissioner in 2006. It appears that Friends of Peter McLaughlin and McLaughlin for Mayor have been involved in some creative accounting to pay Ed Gross and Alicia Bennett to provide services for his mayoral campaign and that appears to be a violation of state statute (10A.105 Principal campaign committee. Which subdivision one states �Single committee. A candidate must not accept contributions from a source, other than self, in aggregate in excess of $100 or accept a public subsidy unless the candidate designates and causes to be formed a single principal campaign committee for each office sought. If Friends of Peter McLaughlin Committee have used funds to support his mayoral candidacy that would be a violation of this law and possible other campaign finance laws, and a breach of trust to his contributors. It would seem appropriate for McLaughlin for Mayor to reimburse Friends of Peter McLaughlin for such expenditures as well as possible other expenditures that you may uncover during your investigation. I believe from my investigation and conversations with you and others that Friends of Peter McLaughlin (County Commissioner Committee) and McLaughlin for Mayor have improperly used funds to pay staff and consultants and thus not complied with the state law. I believe that we need to elect politicians that want to protect and restore trust in our campaign finance system. Respectfully, Ken Bradley State Chair Sierra Club North Star Chapter 5415 Dupont Ave. S. Minneapolis, MN 55419 612-824-2825 Craig Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Sierra Club Challenges McLaughlin Campaign Claims The North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club has asked that mayoral challenger Peter McLaughlin remove a statement on his campaign Web site claiming he outscored Mayor R.T. Rybak on the Sierra Club's endorsement questionnaire. Go to Ballot Box: -- Craig Cox Founder/Editor The Minneapolis Observer www.mplsobserver.com 612/721-0285 Support the independent media! Pick up your neighborhood newspaper! REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
