LOOPHOLE OR SMART POLITICS?

It feels like Christmas morning today! I found two stories discussing DFL infighting.

Please read the story below, as I will be posting a hit on this subject involving a DFL campaign later this week.

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Complaint against McLaughlin dismissed; loophole revealed?

By Scott Russell

The Anoka County Attorney's Office has dismissed an elections complaint brought against Friends of Peter McLaughlin, McLaughlin's county commissioner campaign fund.

McLaughlin said he is pleased but not surprised by the opinion.

"There was nothing there - as I said from the beginning," he said. "Unfortunately, it is hard to erase the lingering untruths inherent in these filings. I am hopeful voters will … see that I have been completely exonerated."

Ken Bradley, a supporter of Mayor R.T. Rybak's who filed the complaint, said the decision spotlights what appears to be a campaign finance law loophole.

Bradley complained Aug. 5 that McLaughlin’s County Board campaign committee inappropriately spent money in 2004 to bolster McLaughlin's mayoral bid, based in part on conversations Bradley said he had with McLaughlin campaign staff.

The Hennepin County Attorney sent the complaint to Anoka County for review to avoid conflict of interest.

McLaughlin has stated his county campaign did not spend money on his mayoral bid. However, McLaughlin wouldn’t have violated any laws if he had, according to an Oct. 13 letter to Bradley from Karen M.S. Walden, an assistant Anoka County Attorney.

"The question is whether funds raised by a political committee to support a candidate for one office may be used by that committee to support that same candidate for another office," Walden wrote. "Such conduct is not prohibited in Minnesota election law."

The law does not prevent a committee "from using its funds to support a candidate for an office other than the office originally sought," the letter said. "[No] further action will be taken."

Walden was not available to elaborate on her opinion.

The ruling means local campaign fund laws are less strict than those governing state campaigns.

Jeanne Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, said, for example, that a state legislator running for state auditor could not use legislative-campaign funds. If such spending happened, the candidate’s fund would be fined four times the expense, Olson said.

It appears from the Anoka County opinion that local candidates have a way to skirt local campaign finance limits. The candidate could set up committees for several races, get friends and family to contribute to each - then spend all the money on one campaign.

For example, individuals can give a maximum $500 to a Minneapolis mayoral campaign in an election year. If a candidate had or set up a campaign committee for another local office, a donor could contribute the maximum to both funds, and the candidate could spend it all on his or her chosen race. Source: Skyway News, October 24, 2005