The Savage Republican

A penny per dollar....

That doesn't seem like much, one penny out of one hundred...to go to the state...to pay for roads and art and schools...not much at all right? Let's break out the calculator... For a family of four, making $60,000 a year, that penny per dollar additional tax equals $600.00 per year. $600.00 per year is:

20 tanks of gasoline (assuming you drive an economy car that only has a 12 gallon tank)
6 weeks of groceries
3 to 4 months of heat in the winter
1 year homeowners insurance premium
1 year car insurance premium
less than one months (assuming a $125,000 mortgage at 5.5% interest) mortgage payment
Depending on what county you are in, that is 1/2 of your annual property tax payment

That is for anyone who is outside of Hennepin County. Those that live in Hennepin County also need to factor in the new stadium tax of 3 cents on every $20.00 spent in Hennepin County. For someone living in Hennepin County, living on a fixed income (pension for example) the combination of the penny per dollar and the "Twins tax" means the difference between eating cat food or heating their home.
If Jim Pohlad and his friends really feel obligated to pay for something, here is an idea. Maybe Mr. Pohlad can get his wealthy friends together to pay for the new Twins Stadium (the Pohlad family owns the Twins by the way). Maybe if we, the taxpayers, didn't have to buy him a new stadium for his baseball team we would be a little more willing to listen to his idea!

Cross posted at Ladies Logic

Meet the Patricians - part 3

Cy and Paula DeCosse - The DeCosse's are semi-retired artists according to Open Secrets. They are (again) generous patrons of the arts, wildlife and the DFL. Ron and Joyce Deharpporte - Mr. Deharpporte lists his employer as Gibbco Company, Mrs. Deharpporte is retired. Both have contributed exclusively to Democratic campaigns including Wesley Clarke, John Kerry and Paul Wellstone.

Charles "Chuck" Denny - Mr. Denny is the retired chairman and CEO of ADC Telecommunications. Mr. Denny has a chairmanship at the University of Minnesota named after him. He has been awarded CEBC Distinguished Corporate Citizenship award for his (among other things) "deep commitment to equity and justice in our society". The majority of his contributions have been to mostly to Republican candidates, with just a couple of Democratic candidates (Bill Luther, Teresa Daly and Janet Robert) getting donations.

Joseph and Rachel Dolan - I am not able to find any information on the Dolan's.

Anita Duckor - Ms. Duckor is a sitting member of the Minneapolis Library Board and President of Duckor & Associates a business consulting firm. While these local positions are supposed to be non-partisan (by Minnesota Law) on look at the organizations and people that endorsed Ms. Duckor gives you a good idea of her political affiliation. There are no listed contributions in Ms. Duckor's name on either Open Secrets, Newsmeat or Political Money Line.

Lois Mary Dunlap - Ms. Dulap is a contributor to the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She has contributed mostly to Jim Ramstad's campaign, but she has also contributed to the late Senator Paul Wellstone's campaign.

Well that is the end of my list of the Patricians. I will cross post all of this over at Ladies Logic and I will also post links to any of the other blogs that joined Mitch's blogswarm on the Patricians. For more information on the tax increase that is proposed Growth & Justice, please go to their website and read for yourself what these "wealthy few" are willing to burden the rest of the state with. I will echo the call of the working middle class of this state....those of you wealthy few who believe you can pay more to the state - please do so! However, do not mandate that those of us who are just getting by - driving used cars and working two jobs in order to make ends meet - pay for programs that you say you are happy to pay for! Pay for it and stay out of my checkbook!

UPDATE: Thanks to commentor Anonymous over at Ladies Logic for checking my math! I have corrected the entry for Charles Daly to correctly reflect his political contributions.

Meet the Patricians - part 2 The Daytons

The Dayton family is legend in the Twin Cities. George Draper Dayton was the founder of the Dayton Corporation - the Dayton's department store chain. Dayton's merged with the J.L. Hudson Company in 1969 to form the Dayton Hudson Corporation, which is now Target Corporation. Bruce B. Dayton is George Dayton's son and Senator Mark Dayton's grandfather.

Bruce and Ruth Dayton are devotees of the arts, having donated over $20m in Chinese art to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Between the two, they have made over $229,000.00 in donations to both parties over the last 2 election cycles. Out of that $207,000 went to Democratic candidates, committees and campaigns. The rest to Republican candidates including President George W. Bush.

David Dayton works for Alumiplate Inc and has given much to local environmental and civic organizations. His campaign contributions have been exclusively to Democratic candidates and PACs.

Judy Dayton is the widow of Ken Dayton. They are great patrons of the local art scene and benefactors of Abbott Northwestern Hospital. As I stated in a prior post, Mrs. Dayton has contributed exclusively to DFL candidates for office - most notably her nephew Mark.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic

Meet the Patricians

As many of you heard, 203 of Minnesota's wealthiest signed an ad that ran in the Star Tribune last week, stating that Minnesota isn't taxed enough and that the wealthiest (according to their plan that is anyone who makes over $45,000 a year) should be taxed more. Well Mitch (over at Shot in the Dark) challenged readers to research the signatories - find out what (if any) political affiliations that they have...to see if the group responsible for the ad are as non-partisan as they claim to be. Mitch challenged and I answered. Rather than get into a long preamble, I'll cut right to the chase.

Burt Cohen - President and former Publisher of MSP Magazine. According to the Open Secrets search, Mr. Cohen has donated over $11,000 to Democratic candidates and campaigns between 2001 and 2004. According to the Cunningham Group profile of Mr. Cohen:

" Prior to MSP Communications he was the President of Modern Medicine Publications, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Health Care Publications and Vice President and Director of The New York Times Media Company.

Burt has been active in the Twin Cities for years. Community activities include sitting on the Board of Directors for various organizations including Medica; the Minneapolis Foundation; Minneapolis Midtown Community Works; University of Minnesota Foundation; Minnesota Zoo Foundation; and the One Percent Club. In addition, Burt has served on a number of committees such as the Children’s Theatre Capital Campaign Steering Committee, the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Advisory Committee and the Committee on Giving Organizing Committee." (emphasis added)

According to the filings listed at Open Secrets, Rusty Cohen is an Consultant/Volunteer. He is listed on the masthead of Mpls St Paul Magazine as a consultant. While he has not been a prolific contributor to Democratic candidates, he has given solely to Democrats. According to an article here, he is also a co-founder (with Burt Cohen) of MSP Publishing.

Bert and Suzi Colianni - Mr. Colianni is the executive vice president and COO of Marquette Financial (along with co-signatory Jim Pohlad). There was no record of any political contributions at Open Secrets, but Mr. and Mrs. Colianni were listed as contributors to Common Bond Communities (a non-profit that helps the homeless find housing).

Julie Corty lists her occupation as "retired" although she is listed on this newsletter as a member of the advisory board of a group called Wilderness Inquiry. Wilderness Inquiry is a non-profit organization that focuses on getting people from all walks of life to personally experience the natural world. She only had one listed donation from 2001 to 2004 and that was to John Kerry's presidential campaign.

John and Sage Cowles - John Cowles Jr is the former publisher (President of Cowles Media Group) of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a position that he assumed after his father retired. They currently hold the Lewis W. Hill Fellowship on Philanthropy at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute. Mr. Cowles political donations have been to Democratic candidates and committees exclusively. Mrs. Cowles (whose occupation is listed as retired) has donated to Democratic candidates, committees and organizations such as America Coming Together and Emily's list.

Dan and Cassie Cramer - I couldn't find a lot of data on the Cramer's so I have no idea (yet - still looking) what the Cramer's do for their money. What I did find is that they have donated moeny to an organization called Admission Possible, which helps disadvantaged students get prepped for college and helps them find grants etc. Mr. Cramer had donated to the Progressive Politics Network - formerly known as the Wellstone for Senate campaign. Mrs. Cramer is also listed on the campaign website of current DFL endorsed candidate (for MN Secretary of State) Mark Ritchie as a supporter.

Kim Culp - FINALLY a Republican donor! Mr. Culp is a banker from Eden Prairie. He is the chairman of the Minnesota region of M&I Bank and former President of Century Bank. His political donations have been exclusively to Republican candidates Norm Coleman and Jim Ramstad.

Susan Cushman is an OB/GYN doctor from Wayzata. Open Secrets shows no record of political donations, but Dr. Cushman is a patron of the Walker Arts Center.

Teresa Daly is (as I stated here) a former DFL candidate for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District. She is a consultant by profession - employed by Right Management, an employment transition consultant. Her political donations have been to DFL candidates and to Democratic aligned PAC's like Emily's List.

Cross posted at Ladies Logic

Convictions

On June 20, the following letter to the editor appeared in the Strib:

"I find it highly ironic that less than one week after the Star Tribune lambastes the Minnesota Republican Party for its criticism of "lame duck" Sen. Mark Dayton, it calls President Bush "King George" in an editorial!"

On June 26, the letter writer revieved the following anonymous letter in her mailbox:

"Irony? What is ironic is that Bush thinks he is KING. How blind are you?"

Now I happen to know the person who submitted the letter which is how I know what she got in return.

This just goes to show the lack of convictions that the leftists have. This person has to send anonymous letters with no return address. Heaven forbid you should identify yourself (as my friend did). That might open the channels for dialog. Better to send anonymous letters!

In case the letter writer is out there reading this let me ask you a couple of questions (additional questions or answers are welcome in the comments):

1) Do you have proof that the President considers himself to be "King"?
2) The Congress has been advised of all of the surveillance programs that the left uses as "proof" of kingly intent. If Congress has been advised, how can you say that the President is acting in a "kingly" manner?

And before any of you comment about the hypocricy of blogging under a pseudonym, I point you to the threats that were made against Michael Brodkorb and his family while he was still anonymous! There are some sick people out there whole feel that any and all opposition must be silenced at any cost. As long as people like that are out there, I will continue to blog under a pseudonym. However, I am more than willing to debate any and all who have the the strength of their convictions to actually engage in respectful discussion! Disrespectful discussion will be mocked appropriately!

What have I gotten myself into?

Mitch (over at Shot in the Dark) did a post on the "Happy to pay more for a better Minnesota" ad from last week. In the comments section someone (thanks Thorley) suggested that an enterprising blogger would be well served to take a look at the signatories and see exactly what they do to get their money and are they really as non-partisan as they suggest. I mentioned that I had started doing that (here) and that all led to this:

"I'd like to try to start my first blogswarm, here.

The idea actually came from longtime commenters Thorley Winston and Lady Logician, in the comment section to the previous posting. Here's what I'd like to do: do a research blogswarm on the 203 Minnesotans who signed the "We Can Afford To Pay More For State Taxes" (PDF file) "open letter" to the Strib last week. The group pitches itself as a group of bipartisan citizens concerned for the state. I suspect otherwise."

So I am going to take a group of the "patricians" and see what I can find out about these folks. Stay tuned here or over at Ladies Logic for the results. I will also link to anyone else that decides to join us in the project.

Cross posted over at Ladies Logic

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Friday, June 30, 2006