Waste of the Day: Walz Campaign Donors Received $15 Billion in State Business

By Jeremy Portnoy for RealClearInvestigations

Topline: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted $890,000 in marketing campaign donations from staff – together with C-suite executives – _­of 434 state distributors between 2019 and 2022, a new report from OpenTheBooks discovered. 

Those self same corporations collected practically $15 billion in funds from the state between 2019 and 2023, based on the state checkbook.

Key details: The donations all went to Walz’s marketing campaign for reelection as governor of Minnesota and have been made earlier than he turned the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

CEOs, presidents and different executives of 86 state distributors have been among the many donors.

Workers of regulation agency Blackwell Burke donated $4,750 to Walz’s gubernatorial marketing campaign, marketing campaign data present, and individually acquired nearly $200,000 from the state. Co-founder Jerry Blackwell was one of many prosecutors who helped convict Derek Chauvin of homicide for the demise of George Floyd.

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Ted Mondale, the pinnacle of recent enterprise growth and authorities relations at pc consultants Atomic Knowledge, donated $2,250 to Walz. His firm individually acquired $169,310 from the state. Mondale is a former Democratic state senator and the son of Walter Mondale,  a former U.S. Senator from Minnesota who additionally served as Jimmy Carter’s vice chairman.

Kinsale Communications acquired $160,583 in state spending, despite the fact that there’s few on-line data of the enterprise even present in any respect. President Steve Kinsella and his relations donated $3,000 to Walz’s marketing campaign.

Different Walz marketing campaign donors that acquired state enterprise included Goal, Basic Mills, Fortune 500 manufacturing firm 3M, and financial institution chains like Wells Fargo and U.S. Financial institution.

Background: It’s practically unattainable to establish which, if any, of the transactions signify precise conflicts of curiosity. 

The Minnesota checkbook incorporates solely greenback values and an inventory of corporations that acquired state cash. The state ignored OpenTheBooks’ freedom of knowledge request for particulars of every transaction, despite the fact that close by states like Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota have been extra clear.

Walz completed his re-election marketing campaign with greater than $627,000 money available as of Dec. 31, 2023. He can not legally switch the money to the Harris-Walz marketing campaign, however he theoretically may refund the contributions and ask donors to ship the cash again to the presidential ticket.

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Abstract: It’s seemingly that many Minnesota distributors would have acquired state enterprise even with out donating to Walz’s marketing campaign — but when any are receiving preferential remedy, taxpayers should know.

The #WasteOfTheDay is delivered to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.