A friend sent us the picture above, of an ad in the Saturday, June 18, 2022 Ely Echoe about the showing of Dinesh D’Souza’s "2000 Mules," a movies purporting to prove 2020 election fraud. Many disagree. At the Washington Post, Philip Bump wrote ‘2000 Mules’ offers the least convincing election-fraud theory yet.
But our correspondent was curious about something else.
His question related to the absence of a disclaimer for any of the candidates--Republican endorsed Minnesota House District 3A candidate Roger Skraba, nonpartisan St. Louis County Sheriff open seat candidate Chad Walsh, and Republican Secretary of State candidate Doug Wardlow.
Wardlow is on the state Republican Party of Minnesota's dung list for challenging the party's endorsed candidate, as CBS Minnesota reported in MN GOP Party Goes After Republican AG Candidate For Not Dropping Out After Losing Party Nod.
That's one heckova smart traveling companion on the endorsed House Republican candidate, who's got a primary challenger of his own, Blain Johnson.
Looking for more information, we found this tweet about a postcard mailed out about the showing
Bad news from Ely, Minnesota.
— Gnomon Chronicles (@GnomonChronicl1) June 17, 2022
The political film "2000 Mules" will be showing at the State Theater, complete with guest speakers, include persons from law enforcement. (I got a glossy card in the mail today. Money is being spent pushing pro-Trump conspiracy theories. By who?) pic.twitter.com/7pPMQKBbGM
Asked on Twitter, Gnomon Chronicles confirmed that there was no disclaimer about who sent the postcard.
We located the Minnesota Statute that outlines when a disclaimer is required, and contacted several staff members at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, but didn't expect to get a response today, since it's a federal and state holiday.
Our next step was emailing Ely’s Historic State Theater to see who was hosting the screenings, which weren't listed on the schedule on the venue's website.
Theater manager Peter Schamber emailed his reply:
The movie “2000 Mules” is being screened by a local organization, who is renting the theater for their use. They are paying our standard hourly rental fee to use our space. They have also secured the public performance license for the film of their own accord and are responsible for paying for those fees. The theater is not receiving any proceeds from the ticket sales beyond the rental fee, and the primary goal of the organization renting the space is to break even, not fundraise for the candidates.
The event is a non-partisan event as it is legally required to be in order for the candidate for the sheriff’s office (a non-partisan office) to be in attendance. It was pitched to us primarily as a meet and greet with the candidates and a chance for people to watch the film. I do not know if there are any plans to have a discussion of the movie after the screening (the group organizing the event are firming up their plans as they get closer to the date), but I know that the organizer has expressed repeatedly that the event is intended to be open to everyone of all political affiliations (democrats, republicans, independents, etc.) and they have no interest in drumming up controversy.
From our perspective, we are treating this like any other event rental. Because it is outside of our normal hours of operations, we do not post it to our website or advertise it on social media. It is not taking the place of any of our regularly scheduled movies, which is important since we are contractually required to screen first run films (new movies) exclusively and continuously during our hours of operation.
We have a non-discrimination policy at Ely’s Historic State Theater to make sure that all individuals, groups, and organizations have equal opportunity to use our space. Because this group was willing to meet our own scheduling requirements (i.e. outside of our operating hours and not promoted by the theater), we agreed to rent the space to them. Not doing so would have been discriminatory, and we support an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion even if it means renting our space to groups whose beliefs may or may not align with those of the board, management, or staff. This event itself is not reflective of the beliefs of theater, but is solely representative of the organization renting our space.
We followed up, asking the organization's name. He replied in two responses:
I believe the official organization that is paying the rental fee is “Minnesota Conservative PAC (North)” but it’s the local branch that is organizing the event.
Follow up:
And more specifically, I have been working with a local seasonal resident, who has (as I far I know) been the only person involved in coordinating the event. He reached to several candidates to be at the event, and the list of candidates that have agreed to be present where simply the people that happened to be available on that date. The candidates did not proactively seek to host this event.
Who is Minnesota Conservative PAC?
The MN Conservative PAC name seemed familiar to us. Wasn't that failed 2018 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Newberger's political action committee?
Yes, indeedie, according to its registration and filings at the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
According to a logo on its website, Minnesota Conservative PAC. the political action committee was established in 2020. Bluestem Prairie reported on this development in Minnesota politics in October 2020's Failed US senate candidate Jim Newberger registers a political action committee.
The disclaimer on the bottom of the PAC's webpage:
Prepared and Paid for by MNConPAC 14225 Balsam Blvd, Becker MN 55308, MNConPAC@Gmail.com Not endorsed or directed by any candidate, candidate committee or political party
Yes, that's the address on the CFB registration. The financial summary page indicates the PAC started the year with $798.07, took in $1,945.00 in receipts, spent $1,351.61, and had $1,391.46 in cash-in-hand at the end of May.
Chad Walsh, sheriff candidate, is listed as a vendor in the June 2022/ Q1 2022 reports; he was paid $500.00 in February 2022. We would have thought that information belonged in the "Total Contributions to Candidate Committees" category, but what do we know.
Read more on the website. There's a link to its public Facebook group, Minnesota Conservative PAC North, which is a treasure trove of opinions that some South Dakota politicians might call whack-a-doodle.
With the disgraceful departure of Jennifer Carnahan as state party chair, Newberger jumped into the race for a replacement. We posted in Newberger's bid for MN Republican Party state chair revives one of our 2018 greatest hits:
This news rippled through Twitter, prompting Naomi Kritzer to post a tongue-in-cheek quote retweet of this 2018 "important news story":
In the ultimate dumpster fire, Jim Newberger campaign torches own yard sign to own the libs https://t.co/T0tKcFQMNf
— Bluestem Prairie (@bspinmn) November 4, 2018
The Newberger twitter account from which the image was shared no longer exists. Oddly, we can't find a copy of it online.
Almost as good? 2014's Captured on the Minnesota House floor: Pat Garofalo reacts to Jim Newberger (watch the embedded video). An entertaining climate change denier piece.
Or 2012's Scary MN: Representative-elect Jim Newberger totally freaks about EQB & Citizens Forums .That's the Environmental Quality Board.
Not to forget 2016's Will Jim Newberger's best intentions flood Greater Minnesota with sex offenders?
Yeah, that guy.
We'll wait to hear from the CFB to learn whether the PAC's disclaimer was required on the newspaper ad and postcard.
Factchecking 2000 Mules
As far as the movie goes, some conservatives believe without faltering. Here's a sampling of fact checking to join former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr's analysis.
- Associated Press: FACT FOCUS: Gaping holes in the claim of 2K ballot ‘mules’
- WAPO: 2000 Mules’ offers the least convincing election-fraud theory yet.
- FactCheck.org: Evidence Gaps in ‘2000 Mules’
- Poynter: The ‘2,000 mules’ trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election is built on a faulty premise
Is this just another dumpster fire from Newburger?
He's also running in the primary for the open Minnesota state senate seat In District 10.
Photo: The ad from the Ely Echo.
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2000 Mules was also promoted by KdKK radio and shown at the Park Rapids Theater. I think it was promoted as something to watch instead of watching the first Jan 6 attack hearings. It was also attended by local Republican candidates-I forget who-
Posted by: L.Christopherson | Jun 22, 2022 at 06:44 AM