Update February 13: MN Right to Life registered as an Association with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Boad on February 11, 2020. Benjamin C Dorr is the designated lobbyist. His brother Christopher A Dorr is also a registered lobbyist. The Association lists a Northfield, Minnesota, address. [end update]
Over the years, Bluestem Prairie has covered the peculiar saga of the Minnesota Gun Rights organization in posts such as Sixteen pro-Second Amendment MN House members disavow Minnesota Gun Rights and A field guide to 2018 MN 2nd Amendment rallies.
Last year, we posted about the Berserk fundraising letter from Minnesota Gun Rights [that] aims to scare you out of your money and Fox 9: Minnesota gun group's sketchy status .
In August, the Cleveland Plaindealer reported in How one Ohio gun-rights group aims to upend the public debate by scaring Republicans:
. . . “I’m all for advocacy,” said Minnesota state Rep. Jim Nash, a leading pro-gun Republican in Minnesota. “But the best advocacy groups go in with the end goal in mind of the legislative outcome they want, not just their personal wealth increasing. And that one you can quote me on exactly.”
And that’s a main criticism of the Dorrs — detractors say their operations are less designed to promote pro-gun legislation, and more to drive fundraising to their growing political operation. In its most recent three years, public tax filings show Minnesota Gun Rights — the only Dorr-run group that has disclosed fundraising expenses — reported spending $601,221, of which 90% was spent on fundraising. . . .
Now the Dorrs appear to be branching into the abortion debate in Minnesota. At least two conservative Republican Minnesota House members shared an email from Minnesota Concerned Citizens for Life on Facebook.
Here's Glencoe's Glenn Gruenhagen weighing in:
And Alexandria's Representative Mary Franson shared the letter on Friday here, with the comment:
I got this email today from MCCL Minnesota’s most trusted pro life organization about a scam group run by several professional scammy brothers out of Iowa.
Please share this and warn your friends about the fakers.
Via Gruenhagen, here's the MCCL letter, signed by Scott Fischbach, MCCL Executive Director and spouse of former state senator and Lt. Gov. Michelle Fischbach, who is seeking the Republican endorsement for Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District:
Dear Pro-Life Legislator:
The Dorr brothers have decided that it is time to create confusion and chaos with attacks on Republicans and pro-lifers in an effort to raise money for their latest Facebook page called “Minnesota Right to Life.”
Let me be clear: Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) is the only state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee. We have been here for 51 years, and we will be here long after the Dorr brothers have moved their fundraising scam on to the next state.
The Dorr brothers are spreading some false messages. The first is that MCCL and pro-life Republicans support taxpayer funding of abortion based on a vote on an omnibus spending bill in 2017. They never mention the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Doe v. Gomez ruling that dictates abortion funding. Here is a link to the history of taxpayer funding of abortion in our state.
MCCL and pro-life legislators have worked for many years to stop this funding and will continue to do so. The attacks on pro-life people by so-called “pro-lifers” like the Dorr brothers do nothing to end taxpayer funding of abortion.
The other message they are spreading is that it is corruption for MCCL to endorse Michelle Fischbach for Congress. The truth is that it is the MCCL Federal PAC (which I am not involved with) that endorsed her, not MCCL. And why wouldn’t the Federal PAC endorse Michelle? Her long record of pro-life leadership speaks for itself. She has championed pro-life legislation for decades. And, frankly, she is the only candidate running a credible campaign in the district. Many of you as state legislative candidates have raised more money than the candidates running against her.
Additionally, I want to thank you for attending the 2020 MCCL March for Life and some of the other marches, rallies, dinners, and events that our chapters have held around the state. This year’s turnout has been awesome!
If you have any questions, feel free to call.
Scott Fischbach
MCCL Executive Director
Here are some of the "Minnesota Right to Life" posts bashing MCCL and state Republicans lawmakers the group has endorsed, as well as the attack on the Fischbachs:
A couple of parting shots. As Shot in the Dark blogger Mitch Berg noted in 2103's Carpetbaggers:
A few weeks ago, Minnesotans active in Second Amendment issues got this package. It was led off by a cover letter from Glenn Gruenhagen, a Minnesota state Representative – who, I stress right now and up front, is one of the absolute best in the Legislature on gun rights, and is utterly solid on the gun rights issue. Gruenhagen is one of the good guys.
A cover letter by Gruenhagen and a multi-page fundraising letter by "Minnesota Gun Rights" followed. While the document remains at SITD, it's gone from SCRIBD, or we'd embed it here. Go over to the blog and read it there. As we noted a couple of years later in Sixteen pro-Second Amendment MN House members disavow Minnesota Gun Rights, Gruenhagen had disavowed that cover letter, sending certified letters to Iowa asking that it not be used.
MinnPost's Doug Grow had more in 2017's Why gun-rights advocates may — or may not — be really ticked at Republican lawmakers in Minnesota.
Second, as American Public Media's Alex Baumhardt reported in Enemy of Public Schools How one man has spent 25 years thwarting bond money for rural districts, the Dorr brothers' father have quite the track record of his own in fighting school funding. BleedingHeartland noted in Sorenson scandal reflects poorly on Iowa Gun Owners group:
Chris Dorr – Bachmann for President Field Staff, legislative clerk for State Senator Kent Sorenson, brother of Aaron Dorr, and son of Paul Dorr.
Aaron Dorr – Executive Director of Iowa Gun Owners Association, founder of Iowa Pro-Life Action.
There's another Dorr brother involved, but readers can get the picture.
We don't share MCCL's politics, but feel it's unfortunate that the Dorr family is working to expand its brand in Minnesota.
UPDATE: February 3, 2020: An important Big Stone County Republican, Vicki Oakes, used a post by one of the Dorr Brothers to support MN07 Republican contender David Hughes (screengrab):
We'll look for more instances of the Dorr Brothers' takes being tagged with other candidates. [end update]
Image: The logo from Minnesota Right to Life's Facebook page.
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