Is billboard on Highway 52 for real?; or, who are those "Republicans for Honesty in Government"

Update: Campaign Money lists this group, which has been around since 2004 but never spent anything:

Group Name	Republicans for Honesty in Government
Stated Purpose	Political Action Organization designed to provide information about election and political processes.
Email Address	no@email
Established Date	09/02/2004
Contact Person	A M Holland
Contact Address	PO Box 2402 Saint Paul, MN  55102
Mailing Address	PO Box 2402 Saint Paul, MN  55102
Contributions Received (since 09/02/2004)	$0
Expenditures Made (since 09/02/2004)	$0

The group "Republicans for Honesty in Government" filed a 8871 in 2004 with the Internal Revenue Service, but no other filings are available.

Does the billboard itself actually exist of Highway 52? The leaves on the trees look a bit too green for Minnesota in the winter. [end update]

[Update #2] There's another, earlier version of the billboard shot from a different angle reported by Grant Nelson (grantnel2002) on reddit  in from October 2017. The discussion notes:

[–]grantnel2002[S] 1 point 2 months ago 

Yeah basically. Was on the frontage road of a highway.

[–]Alyeskas_ghost 1 point 2 months ago 

What city is this in?

[–]MrVJTod 3 points 2 months ago 

It's in Hampton, MN

Best viewed driving North on Highway 52

I've driven past this sign a few times.

Google Maps street view is out of date : https://goo.gl/maps/2yXXvR2y8Hq

If this discussion is honest, it's real. Campaign finance records indicate Hampton is the home of Robert Johnson, president of "Republicans for Honesty in Government and a major DFL donor on the federal level.

On Sunday, "Paladin Cornelia" tweeted the photo above. Today, a friend of Bluestem provided a bit on research into just who those "Republicans for Honesty in Government" are:

step 1 look up "Republicans for Honesty in Government" on the MN Sec. of State website https://t.co/PwtEiKjNz5
step 2 google the address listed, which leads you here https://t.co/ccIWvgDNJ7
step 3 look up AEI on MN SOS, realize they are located in Delaware https://t.co/QYmlc70XfW

— Andy (@tacomachine) January 2, 2018

Looking at those links, we learn that Republicans for Honesty in Government is registered at the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office to President Robert Johnson at 30 7th Str E 1300 Wells Fargo Place St Paul, MN 55101 USA. The non-profit corporation name was first registered in 2006, became inactive in 2009, then was reinstated in 2017.

The second link leads to AEI Capital Corporation 1300 Wells Fargo Place, 30 East Seventh Street, St. Paul, MN 55101. Here's the top of the management team:

He looks nice. It's not unusual for corporations to register in Delaware, so that's no big whoop.

Is Mr. Johnson a Republican in deed as well as word? A search of the database by TacoMachine yielded this:

He also gave $7000 to John Kerry's presidential race.

On the state level, Johnson gave $250 to Secretary of State Steve Simon's 2014 campaign, according to state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board records. There are other Robert Johnson contributions in the mix--without the P-- but we're not ambitious enough to see if it's the same cat.

Whatever the case, this project looks to be sketchy--or a belief system in which the only Republicans for Honest Government are indeed Democrats. Decide for yourself, but Bluestem thinks Johnson is probably a Democrat--and that this is the billboard version of fake news.

Photos: The tweeted photo and a screengrab of a portrait of Robert P. Johnson, as well as some of his political giving.Hat tip to TacoMachine. 

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