Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Ciresi's money

Recently the Daily Mole and Minnesota Monitor have reported on the Franken and Ciresi campaign's big contributors. Franken's list of people of who have maxed out their donations is just what you'd expect - a lot of money from liberal entertainment people. But Ciresi's big donors should raise a few eyebrows in progressive circles:
Minnesota donors of note [to Ciresi]: Stanley Hubbard and Karen Hubbard, who give the great majority of their campaign donations to the GOP; Marilyn Carlson Nelson of Carlson Companies, plus executives from the following companies: Best Buy, Bremer Financial, Doran Companies, Haskell’s, Medtronic, Oppidan, and Phillips Distilling.
Just what do these corporate executives want from their contributions to Ciresi? Why are the Hubbards maxing out donations to him? Do they see something in Ciresi that Democrats don't? Corporate types don't give this kind of money for nothing, and they're not giving it to Franken.

This upcoming election may be shaping up as a true progressive moment; one of the top issues, in my mind, is the over-concentration of power in corporations. It appears one Democratic Senatorial candidate is taking lots of money from traditional corporatists and one isn't. I'd be surprised if this doesn't become an issue in the campaign.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds more to me like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," not uncommon thinking among the plutocracy.

Anonymous said...

Since 1999 Mike Ciresi's law firm has donated over $19,000,000 to public and private foundations in Minnesota and across the nation, and to many, many worthy causes.

The Big Tobacco law suit secured a settlement of about: $6,000,000,000.00.

Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen, Al Franken, and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer are the four candidates currently seeking the endorsement DFL endorsement.

I think that it is a stretch to write that Mike Ciresi is beholden because of maximum political MINNESOTA donations.

Rob Levine said...

Thanks for that comment, el presidente. My question is, with all that money, why isn't Ciresi a movement progressive?

Rob Levine said...

...and why would he need money from the Hubbards and the corporate executives who call the shots in Minnesota? Has Ciresi given to places like Acorn Minnesota, Minnesota Monitor, or, god forbid, any bloggers?