Campaign Finance

Roll Call: Republicans pay a pittance to chip at 3rd District Dillon support

UPDATED: Roll Call reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee is putting $11,200 into mailings meant to reduce voter support for David Dillon, the Independence Party candidate who’s running a distant third in the 3rd Congressional District race. A scan of the piece and more after the jump.

Untangling the political ties of the primary players in the Kazeminy/Coleman lawsuit

The man at the heart of the lawsuit filed in Texas this week accusing Sen. Norm Coleman of fraudulently receiving $75,000 has kept a low political profile over the years. Deep Marine Technology founder Paul McKim has given a total of $900 — primarily to Republican political candidate and causes since 2000, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Texas lawsuit alleging that Coleman received tainted $75,000 from pal Kazeminy is re-instated

The Texas lawsuit alleging that Sen. Norm Coleman fraudulently received $75,000 from longtime political patron Nasser Kazeminy has been re-instated, according to attorney Casey Wallace, who is representing plaintiff Paul McKim in the case. The lawsuit had been “unsuited,” in the parlance of Texas courts, as the two sides pursued a settlement.

“We entered into serious settlement negotiations,” says Wallace. “Those broke down today.”

National groups have pumped more than $11 million into Minnesota contests

National Democratic and Republican campaign committees have so far spent more than $11 million on Minnesota’s congressional races this election season, according to the Campaign Finance Institute. The watchdog group has created a new tool to track expenditures on federal campaigns by such national organizations.

Is McCain conceding Minnesota?

John McCain’s campaign is scaling back its ad buys in Minnesota, according to an Associated Press report. Until recently it was one of the few states in the country where the Republican was outspending his Democratic counterpart.

Recurrent Republican recession symbols: baby outfits and socks

Maureen Dowd’s column in the Sunday New York Times linked two Republican shopping trips. The first, a 1991 George H.W. Bush photo-op run to the mall, was intentionally symbolic, meant to inspire Americans to repress their tightwad instincts during the early-’90s recession. The other — recent high-fashion expenditures by the Republican National Committee on behalf of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family — only became symbolic by accident. Dowd then moved on (so much to mock, so little time) without fully exploiting the delicious details of this political parallel.

Tangled web: Bachmann gives money from donor tied to Petters scandal to group tied to Petters scandal

The fallout from her Hardball appearance may have grabbed all the headlines, but that’s hardly the only crisis that Michele Bachmann has been dealing with this month. There is also the matter of her ties to Frank Vennes Jr., the ex-con and Bachmann campaign contributor on whose behalf she wrote a letter requesting a presidential pardon.

Bachmann later withdrew that request — and gave to charity some campaign funds she had received from Vennes. But as it turns out, it appears that Bachmann donated the money to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based evangelical recovery program on whose board of directors Vennes served as recently as February 2008.

Michele Bachmann has raised less than $30,000 since Hardball debacle

The fallout from Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “anti-America” interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews last Friday has turned the 2008 6th District race on its head. But it also could poison the well for Bachmann’s future fundraising efforts should she win this time or run for another office in the future.

It’s been widely noted that Bachmann’s challenger, El Tinklenberg, has raised a reported $1.45 million in campaign donations since that interview.

How about Bachmann? She has taken in $29,900 in itemized (over $250) contributions since last Friday. And a spokesman for one of those contributors tells MnIndy his company might not do it again.

MPR poll: Dead heat in Bachmann-Tinklenberg contest

A second poll released in the last 24 hours confirms that the Sixth Congressional District contest is extremely close less than two weeks before election day. According to the poll released today by Minnesota Public Radio, 45 percent of those surveyed support Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg, while 43 percent favor incumbent Republican Michele Bachmann.

McCain camp’s highest-paid employee in first half of October? Palin’s makeup artist

Michael Luo writes at the NYT’s The Caucus blog:
“Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch? Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s chief foreign policy adviser; not Nicolle Wallace, his senior communications staff member. It was Amy Strozzi [pictured, via], [...]