Although Republican gubernatorial challenger Marty Seifert may have come in third (14 percent) among likely GOP primary voters surveyed in the recent KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, he's finding that Greater Minnesotans are "starved" for his presence.
At least that's what he told Per Peterson, editor of the Marshall Independent, in Seifert campaigning hard across state:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert said Thursday that in some areas of the state, people are coming out of the woodwork to support his campaign. And at most stops he's made since the Republican State Convention, the people he has talked to have appeared starved for a brush with a GOP candidate.
"The common thing I'm hearing from a lot of people is that I'm the only candidate for governor they're seeing and hearing," Seifert said. "All of the newspaper editors I've talked to say I'm the only candidate for governor they've seen. That energizes me."
With that sort of positive attitude, Bluestem won't be surprised in see the buoyant former Lyon county legislator adopt one of our favorite soul-stirring Sam Cooke numbers as his campaign theme song.
Toward the end of the Marshall Independent story, however, we paused at this:
On Thursday, Seifert challenged his fellow Republican candidates, as well as Dayton, to refuse contributions from lobbyists for the duration of the campaign. He said his campaign is unique in that it has not accepted lobbyist contributions to date. Seifert says he has never accepted donations for lobbyists or PACs and does not view the two the same.
Well, not quite.
While Seifert claims on his 2014 gubernatorial campaign site that he hasn't taken contributions from PACS and lobbyist during this year, Minnesota Public Radio's Catherine Richert reported in Friday's
PoliGraph: Seifert misleads on campaign dollars:
. . .Additionally, Seifert has taken large sums of money from interest group, corporate and lobbying firm political action committees [PACs].
For instance, during his previous gubernatorial bid, Seifert took $25,000 from political action committees formed by interest groups representing car retailers, nurse anesthetists, hospitals, sugar beet growers and gasoline retailers, among others.
Of that $25,000, more than $3,600 came from political action committees formed by legal and lobbying shops, including Best & Flanagan, Dorsey & Whitney, Faegre Baker Daniels, Gray Plant Mooty, Lindquist & Vennum, Messerli & Kramer and Winthrop & Weinstein.
So, in the strictest sense, Seifert hasn’t taken contributions from individual lobbyists. But he has taken money from interest groups that lobby on behalf of the companies and employees they represent. . . .
It’s true that Seifert hasn’t raised cash from individual lobbyists.
But he’s defining “lobbyist” narrowly by not counting the thousands of dollars he’s raised from political action committees that are funded by interest groups and lobbying firms.
As a result, Seifert’s claim is misleading.
That's not exactly "Seifert says he has never accepted donations for lobbyists or PACs. . ." as the Independent reported
We look forward to the Seifert for Governor campaign contacting his hometown paper and asking that the record be corrected.
Photo: Marty Seifert, Republican gubernatorial candidate. Along with Scott Honour and Kurt Zellers, he's challenging endorsed candidate Jeff Johnson.
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