This story was originally published on Minnesota Reformer. [1]
Published here under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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Dark money accounted for majority of spending in Minnesota’s most competitive races, report finds
By: ['Ricardo Lopez Is The Senior Political Reporter For The Reformer. Ricardo Is Not New To Minnesota Politics', 'Previously Reporting On The Dayton Administration', 'Statehouse For The Star Tribune To', 'The Republican National Convention In Previously', "He Was A Staff Writer At The Los Angeles Times Covering The California Economy. He'S A Las Vegas Native Who Has Adopted Minnesota As His Home State. In His Spare Time", 'He Likes To Run', 'Cook', 'Volunteer With Save-A-Bull', 'A Minneapolis Dog Rescue Group.', 'Ricardo Lopez']
Date: None
A new report from the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs found that the cost of the 2020 election in Minnesota totaled nearly $163 million, a remarkable sum of cash that raises questions about transparency in campaign finance.
2020 was a presidential election year with several competitive races that drew millions in independent expenditures, a tool that can be used to obscure the source of the cash, sometimes referred to as “dark money.”
The report, by political scientists Kathryn Pearson and Larry Jacobs, showed that $105 million was spent on U.S. House and Senate races in Minnesota, twice the amount spent in 2016.
Similarly, the presidential campaign between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden cost $16.7 million. In 2016, that figure was $6.6 million in the match-up between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The battle for control of the Minnesota Legislature brought in nearly $41 million.
“Big money in our politics is a threat to our elections and lawmaking,” said Jacobs, the Center’s director and co-author of the study. “Huge sums are now in the politics business, and too many of us are sadly deadened by the magnitude of spending and its insidious impacts.”
Independent expenditures accounted for a majority of overall spending on legislative races, the report found. It also represented a majority of all spending in two congressional races, in the 1st and the 7th Districts.
The 1st District is represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who was able to hold his seat, while Collin Peterson, the Democratic incumbent from the 7th District, lost his race to his GOP challenger, former state Sen. Michelle Fischbach.
The race that drew the most spending, however, was not expected to be competitive. Minnesota’s 5th District, represented by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, attracted more than a quarter of all spending
Omar was reelected with 64 percent of the vote. That race accounted for 26% of all spending on U.S. House races in Minnesota, with her Republican challenger, Lacy Johnson, drawing $14.5 million in campaign cash, the bulk from individual donors.
Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, is a frequent target of Republicans and former president Donald Trump.
The report will be the focus of a discussion Tuesday during a panel moderated by a Reformer reporter
[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/dark-money-accounted-for-majority-of-spending-in-minnesotas-most-competitive-races-report-finds/
