State GOP questions large DFL donations

09/29/2006

Party chairman suspects Hatch involved

BY PATRICK SWEENEY
Pioneer Press

The Minnesota Republican Party on Thursday asked the state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board to investigate a mysterious cluster of large donations in 2003 to a county Democratic Party committee in western Minnesota.

In a news conference conducted by conference call, state Republican Chairman Ron Carey said he suspected — but could not prove — that Attorney General Mike Hatch orchestrated at least some of the about $32,000 in donations made to the Lac Qui Parle County Democratic-Farmer-Labor committee.

The $32,000 from about a dozen donors is far more than most county political committees raise in a year, and it is far greater than Lac Qui Parle raised before or since.

Carey also said he suspected that the county campaign committee used some of the money to buy yard signs appearing around the state that promote Hatch’s campaign for governor.

Carey’s written complaint filed with the campaign finance board does not allege Hatch broke any laws. Rather, it asks the board to investigate whether officials of the Lac Qui Parle committee violated any laws that require committees to fully report expenditures on behalf of candidates and ban any “earmarking” of campaign contributions.

Earmarking is defined as soliciting or accepting donations with the “express or implied condition that the contribution or any part of it be directed to a particular candidate other than the initial recipient.”

Hatch, in an interview Thursday, said he may have urged at least one of the donors — Theodore Deikel, a prominent Twin Cities businessman and a longtime Hatch supporter — to donate to the Lac Qui Parle committee.

“I’m almost positive I didn’t call the others,” he said. Previously, Hatch told the Pioneer Press he had asked insurance executive Jim Deal to contribute to the committee.

Hatch said Thursday he did not ask the Lac Qui Parle committee to do any spending on his behalf and did not know of any the committee might have done. He denied ever engaging in the earmarking that Carey said he suspects.

“I did not do any earmarking — I’m 100 percent sure on that,” Hatch said.

State law bars officials of the campaign finance board from commenting on any complaint. But the law requires the board to investigate every written complaint it receives, and it gives the board power to force candidates and committee officials to respond to questions and produce spending records.

Unless the board votes to extend the process, it must act on complaints within 30 days