PepsiAmericas CEO Robert Pohlad has chipped in $50,000, while his wife, Rebecca, added another $37,500. Alida Messinger — a veteran Democratic donor, Rockefeller heir, and ex-wife of former Sen. Mark Dayton — also contributed $37,500. Finally, Jeffrey Balanga, CEO of Minnetonka-based Carlson Marketing, made a $25,000 donation.

As the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal previously reported, there are some other donors with Minnesota connections. UnitedHealth Group Executive Vice President Thomas Strickland contributed $50,000, while three other employees of the Minnetonka-based company gave at least $200.

Under rules put forth by Obama’s inaugural committee, individuals are prohibited from giving more than $50,000. In addition corporations, political-action committees, lobbyists and non-citizens are barred from contributing to the festivities.

Coleman announced that he intends to attempt a risky use of campaign funds to pay high-priced attorneys and investigators to defend against charges that could result from an FBI investigation into $75,000 that his benefactor, businessman Nasser Kazeminy, is alleged to have funneled to Coleman via his wife’s employer. At least Coleman’s campaign has leftover cash after the most expensive contest in state history.

Coleman attorney Roger Magnuson’s ominous references to the 2000 presidential recount debacle in Florida so annoyed state Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson that Anderson cut Magnuson off, saying, “This is not Florida.” At least Magnuson didn’t let Anderson go on and on about Florida while the sitting justices silently seethed.

At 11:41 a.m. yesterday, a Coleman attorney was observed surfing the J. Crew Web site during the second day of the State Canvassing Board’s review of ballots that rival Al Franken challenged in Minnesota’s statewide Senate recount. At least it wasn’t the Neiman Marcus Web site.

That’s how much money the convention’s host committee ultimately raised to produce the lavish four-day gala at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Nearly 90 percent of the GOP money came from donors who contributed at least $250,000, with more than 40 percent tapped from just 15 contributors who chipped in over $1 million.

The Democratic festivities in Denver were just as lavishly financed by corporations, unions and individuals. The Mile High City’s host committee raked in $61 million for the cause, with 72 percent of the funds coming from contributors who gave upward of $250,000.

The final contribution tallies are included in financial disclosure forms that the host committees are required to file 60 days after the close of the conventions and analyzed in a new report by the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI). Because such organizations are set up as nonprofit groups, contributors can make unlimited, tax-exempt contributions — constituting a major loophole in campaign finance laws. The party conventions provide a unique opportunity for special interests to buy access to influential people while receiving little public scrutiny. In Minnesota the fundraising drive was spearheaded by the state’s two most prominent Republican politicians, Sen. Norm Coleman and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“These conventions were floated by huge donors giving much more than they’re ever allowed to give normally to support political parties and presidential candidates,” says Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at CFI.

The $118 million total for both parties fell short of the $142 million raised in 2004 (when conventions were held in the pricier cities of Boston and New York), but is more than double the haul ($56 million) in 2000. The 2008 fundraising figures dwarf the $16 million in public funds provided to each party to produce their conventions.

Not surprisingly many of the major contributors to the festivities in St. Paul and Denver are also big-time influence peddlers in Washington. These organizations have spent $1.6 billion on lobbying expenses in just the last four years, while chipping in $273 million to federal candidates and parties, according to the CFI analysis. Verizon, for instance, which has a serious financial stake in telecommunications policy and has fought against “net neutrality” legislation, contributed roughly $800,000 to the two host committees. Meanwhile in the previous two election cycles it spent $76 million on lobbying and gave $5.7 million to federal campaigns and political parties.

While the bulk of the donations disclosed by the host committees prior to the conventions came from corporations (see MnIndy’s coverage of this here and here), a significant chunk of change was also contributed by wealthy individuals or the foundations they control. Such donors were responsible for $4.3 million of the GOP haul, most notably a $2 million contribution from hedge fund manager Raymond Dalio. The founder of Bridgewater Associates is also a major Republican campaign contributor, providing $152,000 in federal contributions since 2005.

Most of the Republican donations from wealthy individuals were raised in the latter stages of the fundraising drive, particularly after Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson, IV was added as the host committee’s national finance chair in July. “They had Woody Johnson going after all his rich friends,” notes Weissman.

Many of the corporations currently receiving taxpayer funds from the various federal bailout plans gave lavishly to the two host committees. American International Group, for instance, one of the country’s largest insurance companies and the recipient so far of roughly $150 billion in bailout funds, contributed $1.5 million to the two host committees. Beleagured housing finance company Freddie Mac, which was taken over by the federal government in September, also chipped in $500,000. In total, according to the CFI analysis, key actors in the ongoing financial crisis contributed $14 million to the conventions.

Under campaign finance laws, corporations are prohibited from contributing money to sway federal elections. For many years, special interests thwarted the intent of this prohibition by funneling so-called soft money donations to the two major parties. These contributions were supposedly for nonpartisan efforts such as voter-registration drives, but in reality they served as a primary means by which companies could purchase influence with politicians.

Passage of the 2002 McCain-Feingold act largely closed this loophole, barring such soft-money donations to the parties. But fund-raising to support political conventions, which is regulated by both the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Elections Commission, falls outside the purview of this legislation.

CFI and other watchdog organizations have called on Congress to overhaul campaign-finance laws so that unlimited contributions can no longer be made to convention host committees. Under a proposal put forth by the bi-partisan Presidential Task Force on Financing Presidential Nominations, all convention expenses would be financed by the national party committees. Under such a scenario, corporations and unions would no longer be permitted to make contributions to the conventions, while individuals would be required to follow restrictions already in place for such donations ($28,500 to a party committee per year).

Sen. Barack Obama indicated during the campaign that he supports removing unlimited, soft-money contributions from the funding of political conventions — although no specific proposal was outlined. Weissman says the president-elect now has the opportunity to act on that principal. “I think if he raised it, he would be putting Congress in a position where they would have to do it,” he says.

How much time is “as much time as you need”? Today’s the deadline for the statewide recount to wrap up, but the game extender will likely be an envelope marked “1/5,” one of five envelopes containing ballots from University Lutheran Church of Hope, the polling place for Minneapolis’ Ward 3, Precinct 1. They’ve gone missing, leaving 133 ballots unaccounted for. (Coleman’s campaign released a statement yesterday stating, “We do not know that there are any ballots missing, and it is premature and simply irresponsible to suggest that they are.”) The Secretary of State’s office has granted a request by Minneapolis officials to keep looking, stating that they could “take as much time as they need.” Technically, that means Dec. 16, when the State Canvassing Board starts looking at the nearly 6,000 ballots challenged by both campaigns.

Hi, Dudgeon: In a press release reprinted in its “awesome” entirety at MNPublius, the GOP decries the search of the church. Entitled “Franken Campaign Calls For Government Invasion Of A Church!,” it references the Franken campaign’s call for “a systematic forensic search of the church that served as a polling place.”

“Today’s demand [...] is both offensive and completely out-of-control. At what point does the Franken campaign simply conduct itself in this recount with some semblance of dignity? Demanding that the government invade a place of worship—and require taxpayers to foot the bill for that invasion—is bizarre and repulsive.”

Minneapolis election director Cindy Reichert suspects the missing envelope is at the city-owned warehouse two miles away, where ballots were delivered Nov. 5; she doesn’t think they’re in the church.

A supermajority in 2010? The Democrats won’t get their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but the Washington Post looks at the future — and personal — stakes in this election’s outcome:

A Franken win would give the Democrats 59 seats in the Senate, setting them up for another run at a filibuster-proof 60 in 2010. Coleman lost an embarrassing gubernatorial race to former pro wrestler  Jesse Ventura a decade ago, and another loss to an inexperienced celebrity-turned-politician would embarrass Republicans in an already miserable year.

If the Senate decides this: The New York Observer looks back to 1975 as a primer on how the Senate, charged by the Constitution with being “the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members,” might end up resolving the election. After two recounts in the New Hampshire Senate race came up with different results, writes Steve Kornacki, the Senate’s process that “played out wasn’t nearly as quick, orderly or predictable as [Democrats] thought it would be, an example that could serve as a cautionary note if the current Minnesota race does land in the Senate.”

The pricetag: When all is said and done, what is this all gonna cost?  It’ll likely cost the candidates, who raked in a combined $4 million in donations since election day, more than taxpayers. The Hill says the Secretary of State’s estimate of three cents per ballot — or a total pricetag of just shy of $90,000 — is probably correct. But the GOP’s Ron Carey tells the Washington-based publication that the recount will cost the campaigns and parties “several million dollars, depending on litigation.” The last big recount, Washington state’s 2004 governor’s race, set Democrats back a cool $6 mil.

So it’s no surprise that some residents might be interested in booting the liberal Democrat from office. Rumors of a recall petition have been circulating since shortly after the RNC. And on Thursday evening Thune’s supporters will hold a fundraiser for the city council member, despite any re-election contest being two three years away.

“Because of my strong advocacy of free speech during the Republican National Convention and authorship of St. Paul’s smoking ban, a number of individuals have initiated procedures to recall me from office in a special election,” Thune wrote in an email to supporters recently. “Because signatures can be gathered citywide, this is a very real threat — one we can’t ignore.”

But what evidence is there that any such threat exists? According to St. Paul City Clerk Shari Moore, the city received a couple of inquiries shortly after the RNC about the possibility of recalling Thune from office. “I haven’t heard anything since then,” Moore says. “I haven’t heard if there’s a petition out there anywhere.”

Thune is similarly uncertain about the actual existence of a recall movement. “We’re just doing like a peremptory rally and fundraiser,” he says. “If anything we’d love to sort of squelch this thing before it starts.”

Speculation about who might be spearheading such a drive has focused on Mike Costello, owner of Costello’s Bar & Grill and a longtime Thune antagonist. The pair most recently tussled over an off-color email the city council member sent to Costello during the RNC. The bar owner feigned shock at the crude language and called on Thune to resign. “I don’t want to accuse him,” says Thune. “But I’m pretty good at adding two and two.”

(A message left for Costello at his bar was not immediately returned.)

So what would it take to recall Thune from office — if such a campaign actually exists? Under the city’s charter, resident signatures equivalent to 20 percent of the electorate in the last municipal contest would need to be collected. In the 2006 mayoral election, 59,509 people cast ballots. So 11,902 residents would need to sign a petition in order for it move forward. If the city council then certified the petition drive as meeting this threshold, a special election would then be called within 60 days to determine Thune’s fate. The odds of this happening? Exceedingly slim.

(This wouldn’t be the only recall drive in recent St. Paul political history. Anyone remember the Duddingston brothers and the “Recall Randy” movement?)

Which means 2011 will likely be the next chance for Thune’s foes to boot him from office. But the city council member maintains that he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for re-election. “I always take things a year at a time,” Thune says.

Update: Thune antagonist denies any role in recall campaign

“The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama’s finances,” said CFI’s executive director Michael Malbin, in a statement announcing the report’s findings. “The reality of Obama’s fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth.”

This altered perception is driven by a key attribute of the president-elect’s donor base: while an unprecedented number (49 percent) started giving at a level below $200, by the end of the campaign cycle they had often eclipsed that barrier with repeat contributions. Roughly 27 percent of Obama’s donors ultimately gave between $201 and $999, while the remainder (47 percent) contributed at least $1000.

This shouldn’t suggest, however, that the president-elect’s fundraising prowess was any less extraordinary than previously understood. By October 15, the latest reporting period available, roughly 580,000 donors had given at least $200 to the Obama campaign (the level at which a donor’s identity must be disclosed). During the 2004 campaign, by contrast, approximately 475,000 people gave at least $200 to all presidential candidates. In other words, the president-elect successfully tapped 100,000 more donors than Bush, Kerry, Al Sharpton and every single other also-ran four years ago.

After naming him in the question posed in a poll earlier this month, Survey USA oddly dropped a direct reference to Dillon when it polled 642 likely voters Oct. 26–27. (The pollster hasn’t yet responded to MnIndy’s request to explain why references to third party support have been inconsistent in its three surveys of the 3rd District.) If you get an anti-Dillon mailing, please share it with MnIndy.

UPDATE: Joe Bodell at Minnesota Campaign Report has this high-contrast scan of the mailer and speculates writes that it’s being sent to Democrats. His theory goes that the NRCC might be using reverse psychology (if “reverse” is quite the right term in a three-way race) to draw Dems to Dillon by chargin him with being too far left politically.

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 at least $900 — primarily to Republican political candidate and causes since 2000, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Among the recipients: former Florida Rep. Katherine Harris ($200) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson ($250). The only donation to a non-GOP cause was $250 for the Sierra Club’s political action committee.

Other figures in the lawsuit are more prominent political patrons. Nasser Kazeminy, the Minnesota businessman at the center of the controversy, is a longtime friend and supporter of Coleman. Kazeminy has made nearly $800,000 in political contributions since 1990, primarily to Republican candidates. This includes just over $70,000 given to Coleman’s campaigns and political action committees, along with $36,265 provided to the Republican Party of Minnesota. Kazeminy has also supported the Senator by less orthodox means: He provided his private plane to the Coleman family for trips to the Bahamas and Paris, and is alleged to have footed the bill for the Senator’s suit purchases at Neiman Marcus. Now the lawsuit accuses the businessman of funneling $75,000 through Deep Marine Technology to Coleman via a job his wife, Laurie Coleman, holds with a Minnesota insurance firm.

The other primary player in the legal dispute is Otto Candies, Jr, an oil man from Des Allemands, Louisiana. According to the lawsuit, Candies bilked Deep Marine Technology out of millions of dollars with dodgy business practices. (Although McKim founded the Houston-based business — which provides underwater services to oil and gas companies — Candies and Kazeminy now hold controlling interests in the firm.) In the last two decades, Candies has given roughly $20,000 to an assortment of Republican and Democratic candidates, primarily in Louisiana. Among the recipients: Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and former Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin. Candies has not given any money to Coleman.

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

Plaintiff Paul McKim

The lawsuit alleges that Kazeminy steered $75,000 through a Texas firm he controls to Coleman through a job his wife, Laurie Coleman, held with a Minnesota insurance firm. If Coleman received such a gift and failed to report it, the repercussions could extend beyond his reelection prospects. Earlier this week, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted of seven felony counts after failing to report gifts from friends on federal disclosure forms.

Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan has denied the allegation, calling it “baseless,” and claiming that the lawsuit is politically motivated.

Wallace denies this assertion. “It was absolutely, positively not done for political purposes,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the election.”

Previous MnIndy coverage:

Video: Sen. Norm Coleman flees reporters asking about pal Kazeminy’s Texas lawsuit
Latest Coleman & Kazeminy connection: The Star Tribune needs to tell the story
Coleman and Kazeminy redux: Here’s the legal complaint in McKim v. Kazeminy et al

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.

In the Third District, the National Republican Congressional Committee has spent $482,109 to support Erik Paulsen (pictured) in the last week — more than on any other race in the country during that time period. This infusion of funds, however, is the first assistance that the NRCC has provided to the campaign.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, has pumped $1,785,802 into the Third District on behalf of Ashwin Madia, or more than on all but one other race in the country. Roughly $600,000 of that money has been spent in the last seven days. In other words, the Democratic campaign committee has outspent its Republican counterpart by more than three-to-one in contesting the open seat.

In the Sixth District, where incumbent Republican Michele Bachmann and Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg are locked in a close contest, only the DCCC has spent money so far. In the past week, the committee has doled out $482,408 on Tinklenberg’s behalf. The NRCC initially was poised to purchase television time for Bachmann, but pulled the ad buy after her Hardball blow-up.

On the senate side, as anyone who’s turned on a TV during the last month can attest, both parties are spending lavishly. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has far spent $5,100,678 to support challenger Al Franken, including more than $1 million in just the last week. Not to be outdone, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has funneled $4,009,104 into the state to back incumbent Norm Coleman, with nearly $1 million coming in the last seven days.