The other contributors
The DFL Party's executive director sent a letter today to the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board detailing his involvement in the fundraising flap regarding Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher's campaign for governor. On Friday, Kelliher said she made a mistake by directing donors to give to the DFL Party to help pay for her access to the party's voter database. Kelliher said the party learned the process was illegal and returned $1,500 in contributions.
What we didn't know until today is that the DFL Party credited Kelliher for four other unnamed contributors. DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez said the party asked those contributors if they wanted a refund as a result of the mistake. He said they told him they operated under the assumption that the money was for the DFL Party, not Kelliher's access to the database.
"She did some fundraising and told us which fundraising she did. She basically claimed credit for some of the contributions that we received. But the contributors didn't necessarily think 'Oh, I'm paying for her voter file access," Melendez said.
"The contributors were giving to the DFL Party and may have well otherwise. For example, some of the people were buying tables for Founders Day, which is a big fundraising event that the party has in the fall. The speaker told us which contributors she thought she was entitled to credit for, and we gave her that credit until we realized the deal had to be unwound."
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Melendez wouldn't release the size of those contributions
but the simple math suggests that the four donors gave $2,500
Update: Kelliher's campaign manager told the Star Tribune that the other donors gave $6,000 to help Kelliher.
(Kelliher said she paid $4,000 from her own campaign to use the voter database after the DFL notified her the process was illegal).
I contacted Kelliher but haven't received a call back yet.
Meanwhile, Melendez also sent an apology to the other DFL candidates for governor. In the letter, obtained by MPR News, Melendez wrote that the party made an error.
"This incident was an honest mistake, not favoritism (and I still don't quite understand how the Party giving bad campaign-finance advice to the Kelliher campaign supposedly helped them). I apologize to all the campaigns and, in addition to the remedial steps that have already been taken, will be taking appropriate disciplinary action,"