Occupy MN Targets ALEC & Corporate Influence In Government

Click on photo of Scott Hargarten to hear how Occupy MN wants to reform state government

Scott Hargarten of Occupy Minneapolis and Occupy MN says those reforms target the corporate influence that groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) .

Hargarten says corporations use ALEC “to coerce state governments into basically serving their interests” by passing model bills the corporations have drawn up.

“There’s not a single bill produced by ALEC that doesn’t explicitly serve their interests, whatever the actual language of the bill might be. It’s part of a design to increase their profits at the expense of the average person.” Hargarten told the press on Monday.

Occupy plans to unveil it’s plan for state government reform during a 4pm February 29th rally on the front steps on Minnesota’s state capitol building.

Before then, organizers are asking people to attend tomorrow’s Minnesota precinct caucuses and push for campaign finance reform. Hargarten says people should attend whatever party caucus they choose, Republican DFL or Green. As leverage with the DFL Occupy MN is urging people to vote for “uncommitted” instead of President Obama.

Video and partial transcript of Scott Hargarten of Occupy MN statement to the press … Continue Reading

Somali Women To Flex Political Muscle At MN Caucuses

Click photo to watch Somali political training

Imagine what the process is like to people living here with a different cultural background, U.S. Somalis for example. Not many Somalis have participated in the caucus.

Somali activist Fartun Weli says, “The process is confusing and Democrats have not reached out to us.” Fartun and the leadership of DFL Senate District 44 decided to change that situation.

DFL produces political action training videos for Somali community … Continue Reading

MN GOP Hit With Second Federal Ethics Complaint

Public disclosure from acting MN Republican Party Chair Kelly Fenton prompts a federal investigation

It was just five months ago Minnesota’s Republican Party agreed it had violated federal law by deliberately hiding its debts from investigators and was fined $170,000. Now a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission says the Minnesota Republican Party has continued to hide its debts.

The new complaint from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) was prompted by a Republican Party news conference on December 30 that revealed it was nearly $2 million in debt, including $415,211 that had never been reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Earlier this week Common Cause of Minnesota had filed a similar complaint with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.

Press release from CREW … Continue Reading

How Should We Pay For Campaigns & Elections?

Click on photo to hear how Iowa Republicans think elections should be financed.

Who should pay for that? More and more the answer has been large corporations who now can spend unlimited dollars on ads to influence elections

Is that the way it should be? The UpTake posed that question to mostly Republican voters in Iowa during the January caucuses. Surprisingly most of the conservative voters we talked to told us there should be some sort of limit on what corporations can do to influence elections. That’s in direct opposition to the Republican party line that corporations should be able to spend as much as they want on elections.

Video shot by Allison Herrera and Jacob Wheeler, edited by Allison Herrera.

MN GOP Faces Campaign Finance Board Investigation

Public disclosure from acting MN Republican Party Chair Kelly Fenton prompts a state investigation

Minnesota Common Cause filed a complaint with the state alleging the Minnesota Republican Party funneled more than $719,000 in legal fees for the 2010 gubernatorial recount through a “shell corporation” called Count Them All Properly. Common Cause says doing that circumvented laws requiring disclosure of who made the contributions, and the Minnesota Republican party failed to properly report the contribution.

The evidence Common Cause cites comes from public disclosures Minnesota Republican Party leaders made at a news conference last month when it revealed the party’s debt could be nearly two million dollars, and comments former Republican Party Chair Tony Sutton has made to the media.

Following precedent could lead to a huge fine
… Continue Reading

Iowa Voter: “Corporations Should Quit Buying Elections”

Click on Photo for Interview with Iowa Voter Paul Smith

“If Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney are on the (Republican) ticket, I think we deserve four more years of Barack Obama,” Waterloo, Iowa, resident Paul Smith told The UpTake during Caucus night.

Smith, who says he’s been a conservative ever since voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976, supported Rick Santorum on Tuesday night. He takes offense to wealthy elitists like Romney coming into Iowa and donning blue jeans and a flannel shirt to pretend he’s a farmer. “He’s not me, he’ll never be me, he doesn’t want to be me,” said Smith. “I don’t want to be him, and I’m tired of him.”

If Mitt Romney ultimately wins the Republican nomination, as the former Massachusetts governor is expected to, Smith will consider voting to re-elect Obama, or he’ll vote for a third-party candidate.

“You’ve got to be a registered voter to make a contribution and if you’re not a registered voter, get out!” added Smith, who wants to see corporate money out of political elections. “Corporations need to get back to their jobs of doing business and quit buying elections. We all know that if I make million dollar contribution to your campaign, I do so because I expect something in return.”

“That’s the part of politics that really has to change.”

Former National GOP Chair Defends Corporate Election Spending

Click photo to hear Michael Steele endorse corporate funded elections

But at the same time, corporations ought to disclose how much they give, and do so immediately, such as the law in Virginia stipulates.

Steele is in Des Moines for Tuesday’s caucuses. Steele said he likes the grassroots shake-em-up candidates like Ron Paul, and fears that Mitt Romney won’t fire up the base.

Oh, and he liked Mission Impossible.

Corporate Money In Politics-Ron Paul Supporters

Click to hear Ron Paul Supporters talk about who should pay for elections

Court OK’s Occupy MN To “Re-sign” Plaza

Click photo to watch court-ordered signs return to Occupy MN's Peoples Plaza

In granting the order, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle wrote “the parties are going to have to ‘learn to live’ with one another.”

Last week, all of the OccupyMN belongings had been removed from The People’s Plaza. Today which marked the second month anniversary of the original occupation the group organized a sign making party followed by posting of the new signs on the plaza.

Fighting Hennepin County … Continue Reading

Exposing ALEC’s Corporate Control Of State Governments

Corporate dollars are funding changes in state laws that disenfranchise voters, and weaken regulations designed to protect the environment. Those dollars are flowing through the Arizona desert this week as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convenes to draw up more legislation it wants passed in state legislatures.

To highlight what ALEC is doing, groups including Common Cause, People for the American Way, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Arizona AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, the Arizona Education Association, and Progress Now held a press conference Wednesday in front of the Arizona state capitol.

“ALEC’s leaders, firms like Wal-Mart, Pfizer and Koch Industries, have poured close to $400 million into state elections over the past decade, financing campaigns and spoon-feeding our elected officials bills that put profits over the public interest,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, citing a recent Common Cause report. “The Arizona desert is a perfect place for the public to call them out.”

ALEC’s agenda includes weakening clean air and clean water laws, undercutting public education, and disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of legally-qualified voters. At closed-to-the-public meetings like this week’s confab at the posh Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, ALEC’s business executives, lobbyists, and elected lawmakers sit side by side and vote as equals on the group’s “model” bills, then carry that legislation back to state capitols across the nation.

ALEC puts its stamp of approval on hundreds of pieces of legislation each year and claims an annual success rate of about 20 percent. Almost all of the group’s $7 million annual budget, including the cost of conferences like this week’s gathering, is underwritten by its corporate affiliates.