Kelliher and DFL will face the music, as GOP complains to CFB. And, "After the private executive session, campaign finance board chair Hilda Betterman said the agency would make its decision public at noon Wednesday."
That's noon, today, Rachel Stassen-Berger of Strib reporting, this link, this excerpt:
DFL gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher and the Minnesota DFL will learn Wednesday whether they broke campaign finance laws by using donors' contributions to the party to aid Kelliher's campaign.
The state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board met behind closed doors Tuesday on a Republican party complaint and heard from attorneys for Kelliher and the DFL.
"We accepted responsibility for the goof," said DFL lawyer Alan Weinblatt. Last summer, the DFL executive director approved of the campaign finance arrangement, which allowed the party to use donations to help Kelliher pay for access to a voter database.
The board could fine Kelliher or the DFL if it finds they violated campaign laws.
The flap arose after other DFL candidates for governor discovered that Kelliher's supporters were allowed to contribute to the DFL to pay for her access to the party's database on voters, which competitors said smacked of favoritism.
Three donors took Kelliher up on that option. At least one of those donations would have violated the campaign finance limits on Kelliher's contributions.
A number of outlets will have stories out, once the official CFB decision is published. Crabgrass will either leave readers to check on their own, or post a link or two, via an update.
_________UPDATE__________
High Noon arrived. Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper shot dead in the dusty street.
Not exactly. Kelleher and DFL got fined. Coverage as of 1:45 PM, runs to over four sites, for a sampling, here, here, here and here. MinnIndependent links to the CFB document, here.
What the fallout will be is an open question. Because it broke as a story well before caucuses - there is enough time to absorb the impact for those who may weigh it one way or the other. My guess would be strong Kelliher supporters remain committed, those favoring other candidates for other reasons will be unchanged, and the hard core DFL caucus goers have already factored the situation into reckoning regardless of what the CFB decision would be.
We have 12 pages of decision and justification, so I will read it with others, and not have any further comment.
_______FURTHER UPDATE_________
Links only, no opinions. Minn Indy reported on the GOP complaint, earlier, this link. Earlier, another DFL candidate, (a dark horse I would think, at least more so than Kelliher), also got a CFB slap-down; Minn Indy links here and here.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
Opinion - How's this grab you for ethics irony; PiPress, this link, reporting:
At least one Democratic candidate issued a swift condemnation following the board's decision.
"What we have seen in the DFL's behavior amounts to an 'inside job' that's unfair to all the other campaigns that played by the rules," said Bridget Cusick, spokeswoman for former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza.
I wonder if Mike Hatch and Judy Dutcher and Lori Swanson would concur. What "rules" do you figure they would use in measuring someone's "playing by the rules?"
There's a saying about pot and kettle.