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MUST READ FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE: “HATCH, SWANSON QUERIED IN 2006 DEAL”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | July 1, 2008
“Attorney General Lori Swanson and her predecessor, Mike Hatch, have come under question for their role in a court settlement that diverted money to a nonprofit whose political wing endorsed Hatch’s bid for governor.
Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles recently asked Swanson and Hatch to explain the 2006 settlement, which required a credit card company accused of violating consumer protection laws to give $249,999 to a community advocacy organization, Minnesota ACORN. Its political action committee endorsed Hatch three weeks later.
The money for ACORN was part of a $749,999 settlement agreed to by Capital One. The dollar figure is significant because state law requires that settlement money go to the state — except when the amount is less than $750,000.
‘The dollar amount … initially, was the major thing that caught my attention,’ Nobles told the Legislative Audit Commission Monday, calling it ‘somewhat suspicious.’” Source: Star Tribune, June 30, 2008
Click here for the complete story.
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14 Responses to “MUST READ FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE: “HATCH, SWANSON QUERIED IN 2006 DEAL””
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July 1st, 2008 at 6:13 AM
Thank the Gods of Politics we didn’t saddled with Hatch the ButtClown as Gov. The guy and his protege Swanson are political hacks. They just happened to have the fine set at $1 less than amount required for the $$ to deposited in the General Fund. Funny how things just happened to work that way. Nice to see at least one DFLer having problems with the deal.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Thetruthisoutthere:
There is no need for name-calling here. Referring to Hatch as a “butt-clown” does a disservice to butt-clowns everywhere.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:51 AM
If they weren’t lying, thieving, bribing assholes, they wouldn’t be Democrats.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:02 AM
Hey,
Life imitates Al Franken’s “art”… Check out his sick story: http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/22743784.html?location_refer=Homepage:highlightModules:3 in the Strib today.
It’s as though the attackers were acting out an Al Franken skit. Right down to the raping of a vomiting woman….
I bet Al Franken thinks this is the funniest thing he’s ever read.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:32 AM
ACORN – convicted more than once of voter fraud. Well funded by democrats. Why won’t this get investigated further? It stinks to high heaven, to think that Hatch was 1% away from the Governor’s office!? He should be in jail.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:33 AM
When the heck are we gonna get serious about DE-funding the left? Jail for Hatch and Swanson.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:44 AM
Hatch gives money state money to ACORN!! It’s one thing to give contracts to his lawyer buddies, but these guys are pretty radical. It would be like a Republican giving taxpayers money to the Posse Comitatus.
It’s not just the money and how it was done, but who he gave it to. Hatch is enterting Ralph Nader moonbat territory.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:52 AM
This is obviously a clear example of corruption (as is the misuse of Medicaid Fraud money, which MinnPost covered but the Star Tribune barely touched).
I still don’t understand why people weren’t more upset over the initial report from the Legislative Auditor last month. His report concluded that Hatch and Swanson did things like ordering their attorneys to falsify affidavits and post favorable blog posts about Swanson. All of the attorneys refused to do these things, and most left their jobs as a result. The Legislative Auditor concluded that he couldn’t investigate because this misconduct didn’t involve money, and he can only investigate fiscal mismanagement. If the Legislative Auditor can’t press forward and investigate non-fiscal misconduct, who can?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:24 AM
At what point does the Justice Department’s public corruption unit get involved in investigating this? Forget the legislative auditor. We’re now talking about defrauding Medicaid, folks. Anyway, as usual, the Strib’s coverage is tame (Hatch has been a favorite Pat Doyle source for years). The better coverage is online. See the Minnesota Independent story. It mentions DFL rep Simon (who deserves a permanent pass from the GOP for having the guts to pursue these corrupt jerks when nobody else would do it), and how he questions Nobles at yesterday’s hearing:
“Specifically, Simon spoke of an employee who said he had been approached by Hatch (who, after Hatch’s gubernatorial defeat and Swanson’s AG victory in the 2006 elections, was serving as Swanson’s deputy) to create a blog post favorable to Swanson, a post Hatch had already composed for him. The employee said he refused to do this, but that Hatch posted it under the employee’s name anyway—and then wanted the employee to falsify his vacation time to cover the period when the blog post was made. Simon surmised that Nobles believed this matter lay outside his purview because the vacation time in question belonged to the employee, not the State of Minnesota, and thus could not be seen as misusing public funds. Nobles then replied that Simon’s account “was an accurate reflection of the testimony under oath,†and one corroborated by other sources.”
That’s your MN AG office, ladies and gentlemen. Whaddaya gonna do?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:48 AM
The ACORN that got the settlement and the ACORN that gave to the Hatch campaign are seperate. They don’t keep the same finances.
Well done Mikey.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:04 AM
Speaking of ACORN http://cloward-piven.com/
July 1st, 2008 at 11:26 AM
Hey Danno – did Mike Hatch make you write that? Don’t forget to mark it as vacation on your time sheet.
Anyway, how dumb do you think we are around here? The ACORN that received the money is a non-profit and – by law – it can’t give to candidates. But it CAN form a PAC to receive and give political contributions (this is what organizations from the AFL-CIO to the Chamber of Commerce do). And the same people who run the ACORN that received the AG money are the same people who run the PAC.
You go tell Mike that he’s going to have to find a better excuse than that one. In the meantime, quite wasting our time with stupidity.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:44 AM
[...] comment from my post about today’s Star Tribune story about Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles asking [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Them endorsing Hatch is a very moot point, they always endorse the most progressive candidate and there was no change they would endorse Pawlenty. The endorsement was coming regardless or not.
But, that $749,999 is pretty bullshit and Lori Swanson better not be getting a free ride to a DFL endorsement in 2010. Enough of this crap and allowing Republicans legitimate shit to throw at us.