Seifert targets Emmer on Campaign Finance bill
Republican Marty Seifert criticized his top contender for the Republican endorsement for governor on campaign finance bill. Seifert is criticizing Tom Emmer for sponsoring a bill that would have restricted political contributions. He's referencing a bill Emmer supported during the 2005-2006 legislative session. In a news release, he said Emmer's bill would have restricted free speech.
That bill (HF2116) would have imposed new limits on political contributions to party units, 527s, PACs and independent expenditures:
Contribution limits; political party units; political committees, political funds. Puts a $1,000 per year aggregate limit on contributions to political committees and political funds .
Puts a $500 per year aggregate limit on contributions to political party units.
Requires any of these entities that receive excess contributions during a year to return the excess to the donor to give it to the board to deposit in the state general fund by January 31 of the year after the contribution is received.
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"While I agree that transparency is a critical component in financial disclosure for political contributions, I strongly disagree that we need severe caps, further limiting free speech," Seifert said in a news release. "Doing so will create a permanent Democratic majority in the Minnesota Legislature." The news release also said Emmer's bill would have been more restrictive than the federal McCain-Feingold law.
Seifert also used Emmer's own words against him by quoting him in a 2005 news release on why the bill is important:
"Independent expenditures are often the most negative and offensive campaign activity," Emmer said. "Limiting them would go along way to making our campaigns cleaner and more positive."
The bill never became law. It's also a moot point now since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that businesses and unions can spend an unlimited amount of money on independent expenditures.
I'll update the blog post when I get a comment from Emmer or his campaign.
Update:
Emmer said he stands by the bill and stressed that the current law "already stifled freedom of speech.". He said he introduced it because Matt Entenza, who is now a DFL candidate for governor, sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to an independent group (527) that then spent the money on Minnesota House races in 2004. Emmer said he was concerned that people were "buying elections" and yet the state bans corporate expenditures.
"Under the rules of the game then, we were trying to do something with independent expenditures. Two things though, one, the environment has changed. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, in light of what we're doing now, we don't have the same concerns because we are moving toward a direction where always should have been which is freedom. Let people decide elections, don't let government rules decide the outcomes."
Emmer stressed that he doesn't support limits at all...