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Capitol View®
Catharine Richert

Minn. DFL party chair predicts demise of state, local political parties

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Minnesota DFL party chairman Ken Martin told the Federal Election Commission this week that state and local political parties may disappear altogether in an unregulated world of campaign contributions.

"It is my sincere belief that if we do not address the growing imbalance of political money flowing towards unregulated, shadow organizations we may very well see the end of political parties at the state and local level," Martin told a panel of FEC officials. The Federal Election Commission regulates and collects information about political donations.

Martin is most concerned about outside spending groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of cash on candidates, and in some cases are not required to disclose their donors.

Not too long ago, Martin directed such a group called WIN Minnesota. The organization raises money from wealthy DFL donors and unions, among other groups, and moves that cash to a group called the Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM), which assists the DFL candidates each election cycle with targeted advertising.

ABM can spend as much as it wants on those ads, so long as it doesn't coordinate with candidates. Meanwhile, WIN Minnesota also has a nonprofit arm that can raise unlimited amounts of money from donors, but isn't required to say where the money is coming from.

"As someone who worked within the [independent expenditure] world, when I came to the party it was a shock to find out how over-regulated state parties are," Martin said.

"In a post-Citizens United landscape, where outside groups can and do spend unlimited amounts of money to build up or tear down candidates without their input, consent or control, candidates are losing control over their voice," Martin said.

According to a Bloomberg/BNA report of Martin's testimony, he's referring to new contribution rules imposed on parties in the early 2000's. Martin and other party chairs are lobbying Congress and the FEC to ease some of these restrictions, according to the report.

Martin said in his testimony that he was prompted to do something about the rules after the 2012 election ushered in unprecedented amounts of money to Minnesota's election. That year, the state party raised about $10 million and spent about as much on supporting candidates and other expenses.

This year, the party has raised about $685,000. That's on top of the more than $2 million the party raised last year for this election cycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the 2012 elections, it became apparent to me and many of my colleagues around the country that we had to do something to help save state and local parties given the explosion of Independent Expenditures in that election cycle.