On February 5, Bluestem Prairie posted a much-noticed article, Republican Party of MN reports self-employed James, Hagedorn lives in St. Louis Park.
This morning, we noticed this tweet from the Dan Feehan Fan Club, and after reading the Answer Man's article, we knew that this blogger had received a sweet Valentine's Day gift of follow-up content:
It’s absurd that his own staff couldn’t answer this question and directed it to the state party
— Dan Feehan Fan Club 🇺🇸 (@go_feehan) February 14, 2020
Smh 🤦♀️ #mn01 -> #mn05 https://t.co/PpeM7tlpJ7
We found additional absurdity in the Post Bulletin article. Read on.
Here's the copy of the Answer Man's Where does Rep. Jim Hagedorn live?, along our walking commentary as we stroll through it:
Dear Answer Man: You're so all seeing. Can you answer me this? Where does GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn live? He represents the First Congressional District. Does he live in the district? — 1st District Resident.
Dear Resident: As those familiar with the congressman's biography know, Rep. Jim Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth and he remains a Blue Earth resident as a representative of the First Congressional District. Or does he?
Confusion and uncertainty has reigned on that last score since an entry was spotted in a year-end campaign finance report filed by the Republican Party. The report listed a "James, Hagedorn" with a St. Louis Park, Minneapolis address.
That's not in the 1st District.
In addition to the unexpected address listing, Hagedorn's profession was described as "self-employed," instead of "congressman." It also had his first name in the last name column and his last name in the first name column.
The entry showed cash contributions to the GOP party of $30,000 and $25,000.
The listed address is that of Jennifer Carnahan, chairwoman of the Minnesota GOP and Hagedorn's wife.
We''re not surprised that the Post Bulletin fails to follow AP's recommended policy of noting the source where news was first broken: right here, but this isn't the first time the Post Bulletin dare not say our name.
We still fondly recall former editor Jay Furst chortling with the hosts of Almanac about silly unnamed bloggers thinking that neo-nazi Sam Johnson, or neo-nazis in general, was anything other than a small story. Johnson was later arrested on weapons charges after plotting to blow up the Mexican consulate in St. Paul and possibly attack anarchists and their metro-area bookstores. And neo-nazis?
We digress. Reporting 'The entry showed cash contributions to the GOP party of $30,000 and $25,000" is simply incorrect. We have to wonder whether The Answer Man looked at the original RPM 2019 year-end report, or the first amendment or the second amendment. All three reports are still online here, and none report contributions of that magnitude.
Here are the screenshots of the Hagedorn contributions to the Republican Party of Minnesota in the original filing and Amendment #1. We've redacted the address, as per Chair Carnahan's address:
As we noted in an update in our original post, the Hagedorn money disappears completely in Amendment #2, posted here with the earlier reports by the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
Since "Friends of Hagedorn" is a federal candidate committee registered with the Federal Election Committee, and the RPM keeps a federal account expenses relate to federal candidates (U.S. Representative, Senate and Presidential) running we thought that perhaps the Answer Man got the two committees confused--or was led to the federal filings here.
And yes, the Friends of Hagedorn, like other congressional and U.S. Senate candidates, did give money to the federal account. Screengrab of that reporting in the RPM federal account:
Curiously, that's the original filing (no amendments yet) and Friends of Hagedorn has contributed a mere $5200 for the 2019-2020 cycle--and the address has always been the committee's location in Mankato. We looked for FEC Year End Reports filed by the Friends of Hagedorn committee for the 2013-2014, 2015-2016, and 2017-2018 cycles and didn't find any contributions from federal account to federal account. For the current cycle, the latest $200 is for an event registration; the earlier $5000 is for the RPM's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner dues.
So the PB's "The entry showed cash contributions to the GOP party of $30,000 and $25,000" is a total mystery to us.
UPDATE: A reader just left this comment:
The $30k and $25k is the PB reading the hubbard donations in your screenshot, which is further evidence they looked at your materials without citing it.
That's probably the source and an exemplary instance of the Post Bulletin's reading skills. We mentioned in the original post why we included the Hubbard contribution. [end update]
Maybe some comes from Hagedorn's earliest congressional bid, under a different committee name, and long before Jennifer and James met.
Perhaps the article could be updated with links to the Answer Man's source and fill us in. After all, these are public state and federal databases.
Under normal circumstances, that wouldn't be so unusual. Many husbands and wives live together, even when they don't get along. And Hagedorn and Carnahan get along by all appearances since he took her as his guest to President Trump's State of the Union address last week and not someone from the 1st district.
But Hagedorn represents the 1st District, and sharing residency with his wife would mean Hagedorn is living outside the district he represents. That might represent a political problem, if true.
Hagedorn's campaign spokesman, Ted Prill, said Hagedorn lives in Blue Earth and attributed the confusion to a "bookkeeping error on the part of the Minnesota GOP." The campaign report has since been amended and lists Hagedorn's address as Blue Earth and his employer as "the United States Congress."
Prill said the donations came from the "Friends of Hagedorn," which is the Hagedorn campaign and located in Mankato.
To clarify, the address on the original, incorrect form is not the correct address for Rep. Hagedorn, who lives in Blue Earth," said a press statement from Hagedorn's office. "Neither Rep. Hagedorn nor his campaign filed the original, incorrect form."
Perhaps Hagedorn's campaign spokesman, Ted Prill, is the source of the confusion. We do think that a campaign spokesman for a federal elected official might know the difference between the Republican Party of Minnesota's state and federal committees, but there you go.
As we note, there's no "Friends of Hagedorn" contribution in the original RPM state filing, as is proper, given that federal candidate committees and PACs can't give to a state committee registered with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. The state party can transfer money and in-kind expenses to the federal account for "joint expenses (see page 6 of 7 of disbersements in the RPM's original 2019 Year Report downloadable here).
As Teen Talk Barbie once said, "Math is hard." Campaign finance is even worse, as the understanding of the Post Bulletin's Answer Man, the Republican Party of Minnesota and the Friends of Hagedorn reveal.
But we are just a poor country blogger and what would we know.
Related posts:
- Republican Party of MN reports self-employed James, Hagedorn lives in St. Louis Park
- MN01: Meet a Hagedorn Washington legislative assistant working on agriculture issues
- MN01: the hostile world of Hagedorn town halls, updated with videos of Mankato area meetings
- Nazi namecalling: two Southern MN Republicans lose their wits about Warren, insulin critics
- MN01: Hagedorn echoes colleague's remark about kids being free to leave detention centers
Photo: Congressman Jim Hagedorn out standing in a corn field. Via January 23, 2018 press release, Hagedorn Named to U.S. House Committee on Agriculture.
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.
The $30k and $25k is the PB reading the hubbard donations in your screenshot, which is further evidence they looked at your materials without citing it.
Posted by: Imbww | Feb 14, 2020 at 09:07 AM