Outside money pads voter ID foe’s coffers
Fundraising for a group that opposes a proposed constitutional amendment to require voters to show photo identification at the polls has gotten a big boost from outside the state in the last few weeks.
Our Vote Our Future reported in September that it had raised nearly $594,000 in cash and in-kind contributions. Today, that total stands at $2.6 million. (That doesn't include the more than $270,000 that came in after the Oct. 22 cut off for the latest finance reports)
About $1.4 million of the total came from groups outside of the state, including MoveOn.org, which gave $182,770, the National Education Association, which gave $300,000, and the Service Employees International Union, which gave $75,166 in staff time and cash.
But the largest out-of-state donation of $500,000 came from the Open Society Policy Center, which was founded by wealthy liberal donor George Soros.
ProtectMyVote, which supports the amendment, has also had good luck raising cash over the last few weeks.
In September it reported raising $230,613 since the start of the year. It's increased that total to $1.5 million.
Though most of the group's contributions came from in the state, it has its own major donor. Joan Cummins, wife of conservative donor Robert Cummins, gave about $1.3 million to the group - or about 87 percent of all its contributions.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.