Last week, we posted about former state representative Tony Cornish's consideration of another run for his office in Rosen's July 4th parade unit driver may seek old #mnleg seat; or the sorrows of young Munson.
Cornish had retired after accounts of his sexual harassment of a fellow representative and a lobbyist emerged. Jeremy Munson, New Republican-Lake Crystal, gained in a February 2018 special election for the seat.
At the Mankato Free Press, Trey Mewes reported in Cornish considering run for former House seat:
Former Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, is mulling a return to St. Paul.
Cornish confirmed Wednesday he is considering running for his old House District 23B seat in the Minnesota Legislature, saying he believes more needs to be done to address area residents’ needs at the Capitol.
“I’m not happy with how things are being handled in my district,” he said.
Cornish, once a powerful lawmaker who chaired the House public safety committee, resigned in November 2017 after he was accused of sexual harassment by several women.
If he runs next year, he won’t be the first state lawmaker accused of sexual harassment in the U.S. to run for their old job — at least 25 state lawmakers across the country ran in 2018. Yet Cornish’s run also threatens to expose a schism between House Republicans and far-right conservatives. . . .
Cornish acknowledged his seniority is part of why he’s thinking of running for a House seat, but he said he took back his promise not to run against Munson after he heard Munson refused to author several local infrastructure bills for sewer and wastewater projects. Cornish also said he’s concerned Munson doesn’t show up to community events or visit with residents enough.
“The lack of his presence in his district and complaints from citizens and city officials caused me to take back my statement,” Cornish said.
Munson confirmed Rosen was likely “not a fan” of his as he has repeatedly voted against omnibus bills, including a $1 billion infrastructure bill in 2018. He said he opposed the bill as it had too many non-essential projects the government shouldn’t borrow money to fund. . . .
Munson said Rosen has taken up infrastructure proposals within the district and sought out Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont, to author the House bill for several projects, including a St. James sewer project and additional money to build a new water treatment plant in Waldorf.
Munson said he supports wastewater funding and was involved in the early stages of securing funding to help clean up Lake Elysian, as well as a bill to help Rapidan Township with ditch cleanup funding.
Rosen disputed Munson’s account Wednesday afternoon. She said she hasn’t worked with Munson on any legislation thus far, including local infrastructure.
“He could have put a bill in and then you match them up,” Rosen said. “But he is not asking for advice, and he hasn’t been around long enough to understand the game and how it’s played.”
Rosen also said Munson should have voted for the infrastructure bill as it contained projects for small towns in his district.
“If you’re listening to your constituents, you’re going to support a bonding bill if there’s projects that are in there such as wastewater and sewer,” she said. “Those are crucial to a community and its vitality.”
The constituent who sent us the Freedom Club online ad touting a different part of Munson's record, wrote in an email that "This showed up on the scroll while I was reading the morning papers on the internet." Our correspondent agrees with Rosen's assessment of Munson's legislative record and lack of attention to the needs of the district.
Obviously, a group of wealthy business people disagrees. The Freedom Club state PAC is regulated by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
The latest data available is for 2018; the group's year-end report notes that it gave two $1000 direct contributions to Munson (one for the special election; the second for the general election). The group spent $41,925.11 in independent expenditures supporting Munson, while dropping a mere $1,382.99 against his DFL opponent in the special election.
Looking back to election year contributions to candidates, we were not able to find a contribution to Tony Cornish by the Freedom Club state PAC.
Looks like the Freedom Club is hoping to protect its investment early.
UPDATE, August 21, 2019: In the discussion of spending above, we realized that we had been talking about Freedom Club State PAC spending. This PAC is regulated by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, but the ad itself doesn't feature a disclosure statement for the PAC. We asked MCFB executive director Jeff Sigurdson about the rules regulating an ad such as this one. Via email, he replied:
Good question, the advertisement does not include any of the words of express advocacy, so the advertisement does not need to be reported as an independent expenditure. If an advertisement is not an independent expenditure, then the advertisement does not need any type of campaign disclaimer.
However, you may want to see what happens if you click on the actual online advertisement. The disclaimer requirement may be met by having a link from the online advertisement to a webpage that contains the full disclaimer. It is possible that the Freedom Club political committee did pay for the advertisement, and will report the expenditure on the year end report. Because no words of express advocacy were used, I think that is unlikely.
We'll ask our source if they are willing and still able to click on the ad and what they see. [end update]
Screengrab: A Munson constituent sent us this internet ad that crept into his news feed.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments