My take on Brandon Stahl’s recent post regarding the Democratic stronghold locally on PAC money.

I decided to respond to a recent post by DNT reporter Brandon Stahl titled Cheese with that whine

"The complaint: The PACs are buying what are supposed to be "non-partisan" elections and the candidates endorsed by the DFL/unions/etc get more money/more exposure/more votes. Blah blah blah. I have heard the argument going on for three years now, and not once have I seen a legitimate attempt to stop it, or better yet, fight back. Because what those same critics of the PACs rarely bring up is: it's perfectly legal. And accepted. And, ultimately, democratic. So why don't conservative-leaning groups stop complaining and instead form their own PACs and work to change the government they rail against?”

Brandon,
You don’t hear me talk about the legalities of the issue, because it is legal. So what’s to discuss on that point? I’m not even complaining that it ought to be illegal, so that’s a non-issue. Accepted and democratic? Sure. But I think ideally the notion of special interests essentially muscling certain candidates into office leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many. If it didn’t, why do senators keep trying to pass campaign reform proposals? Just because it’s democratic and accepted doesn’t mean it’s the ideal.

Why haven’t I worked to start a PAC? I’d rather try and get into office by getting regular taxpayers to vote for me. I don’t want to walk into office as a puppet of the city’s unions, or any other group for that matter. I don’t want to be in office if all it means is catering to unions, as some of my competitors will have to. As to whether Todd Fedora supports me is up to him. I’d love for him to, but I want people to vote for me, not vote for me because Mr. Fedora decided he liked me.

“I realize full well that it's not a fair fight. Duluth is dominated by democratic voters, as evidenced by the last few dozen presidential, senatorial and congressional elections, but that means the opposition will need to work harder and be better organized so that when there is a weakness in the opponents' party, they're more able to strike.”

I believe it’s not a fair fight because if one side has five, 10 or even 15 times the amount spent on its behalf (that they didn’t raise themselves), then many voters are simply going to vote for those candidates due to repeated advertising for them. That’s what bothers me. If it were just four candidates asking for votes, I believe my chances would be much greater. But as usual, the DFL will likely put on a barrage of television ads right before election day, to buy a few more seats. Like they did during the last election.
Lest anyone forget, here are a couple lines from your story Brandon, on March 1, 2008.

“A review of campaign reports filed by political committees, either based in Duluth or with numerous Duluth contributors, found that PACs spent almost $130,000 during the 2007 election. That's about a 233 percent jump from Duluth's 2005 City Council race, when PACs spent about $39,000.”
“PAC expenditures accounted for more than a third of the total spending by general-election candidates in 2007.”
“Nearly all the PACs that contributed to Duluth candidates are offshoots of local labor unions, and nearly all of the union PACs supported DFL candidates in the general election, including Jeff Anderson, Tony Cuneo, Laurie Johnson, Russ Stover, Sharla Gardner and Don Ness. Four of those candidates were successful; two, Johnson and Stover, were not.”