Post in Sierra Club Endorses Jeff Hayden for House 61B Seat
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Sierra Club Endorses Jeff Hayden for House 61B Seat From: Guy Gambill Date: Oct 12 23:04 UTC Short link
You are so right!!! What the Hell was Dean thinking!!! Why didn't he just
accept loads of
cash right out in the open like most of the rest downtown? How utterly gauche
and not
done!
--- On Sun, 10/12/08, Timothy J. Salo <salo@saloits.com> wrote: From: Timothy J. Salo <salo@saloits.com> Subject: Re: [Mpls] Sierra Club Endorses Jeff Hayden for House 61B Seat To: "Mpls" <mpls@forums.e-democracy.org> Date: Sunday, October 12, 2008, 11:54 AM > Timothy J. Salo wrote: > > The Green Party of Minnesota's vigorous and inexplicable > defense of the right of a Green Party City Council member > to surreptitiously accept envelopes stuffed with cash from > a developer weakens your claim. Ed Felien wrote: > I'm confused. This is a claim that I will not try to refute. Reordering: > And do you hold every other member of the City Council > and other elective officials to the same standard? Absolutely! I reject the notion that my personal friends and political allies should be held to a lower standard of ethical behavior than my political foes. This, in my view, is the saddest part of this whole episode. The Green Party of Minnesota abandoned their traditional strong stand against political corruption when one of their own was indited and later convicted. If you have credible evidence that _any_ local official is betraying the public trust, please contact the appropriate authorities. > Is it wrong to accept campaign contributions from developers? This raises two interesting questions. First, the Green Party's remaining council member wrote in August 2006: I have never and will never knowingly take any money from developers, or anyone who has business pending before the City Council, campaign contributions or otherwise. I support changing Minneapolis campaign finance rules to prohibit candidates from knowingly taking money from people with business before the City. Cam Gordon deserves a lot of credit for his well thought-out statement of August 2006. I recommend that the Green Party of Minnesota reread it periodically. Better yet, the Green Party should endorse Cam's guidelines. Second, I don't believe that the incidents of public corruption to which you refer involved campaign contributions. There were several transfers of envelopes stuffed with $100 bills. No receipts. No records. And, most of the money disappeared. After the fact, various claims were made that this no-longer-available cash was destined for a legal defense fund, not a campaign fund. If there aren't any laws against political campaigns accepting large sums of unrecorded cash (from a single source, not from your donation jar) I think there ought to be. Never mind that the ex-council member in question was recorded instructing the developer on how to circumvent campaign finance laws. Now it's my turn to be confused. Why did you want to remind us of the details of this episode? I was criticizing the Green Party of Minnesota for its support of these crimes, not the perpetrator of the crimes himself. The perpetrator has served his time. Now it is time for the Green Party to make amends for its mistakes. > Or, is it wrong to accept them surreptitiously? Would you care to guess what my views are about elected officials surreptitiously accepting envelopes stuffed with cash (with no records and no receipts)? _Any_ elected official. -tjs Tim Salo Macalester-Groveland/Dinkytown Info about Tim Salo: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/timsalo This topic's messages may be viewed at: http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/6pQFJ48oaZ7K6tUkG7GVj ----------------------------------------- To post, send your message to: <email obscured> To leave or for daily digest, type "unsubscribe" or "digest on," in subject line and send to: <email obscured> More info about Minneapolis Issues Forum: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls E-Democracy.Org rules: http://e-democracy.org/rules ----------------------------------------- Technical assistance thanks to our friends at http://OnlineGroups.Net 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the forum manager at <email obscured> before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.