Alliance for a Better Minnesota (ABM), one of the top liberal political action groups in that state, receives nearly all of its funding from two other committees which are nearly identical in makeup and which donate exclusively to ABM, creating a network of unnecessary extra stops the money must flow through before reaching its end destination.
In the most recent campaign finance filings published Tuesday on the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board website, ABM reported $8.6 million in contributions from Jan. 1 of this year to Oct. 29.
Ninety-six percent of those contributions came from just two entities: $5.1 million from a group called the 2018 Fund and $3.2 million from the group Win Minnesota.
Those two groups did not give to any other political committees this year.
Given that the 2018 Fund and Win Minnesota give all of their funds to ABM, and given that ABM receives almost no funding from any other sources, it raises the question of why the two intermediaries exist in the first place.
At a minimum, the extra committees usually keep the true donors one more step removed from being identified as the source of ABM's funding and activities
For example, 2018 Fund has received about $1.8 million in contributions from a national 527 political committee called State Victory Action, which is largely funded by Tom Steyer and George Soros.
Both pass-throughs supporting ABM share the same treasurer, Denise Cardinal, and both share the same address. ABM has almost the identical address as the two pass-throughs as well:
Win Minnesota
Treasurer: Denise Cardinal
Address: 1600 University Ave W #309C2018 Fund
Treasurer: Denise Cardinal
Address: 1600 University Ave W #309CAlliance for a Better Minnesota
Treasurer: Dave McGonagle
Address: 1600 University Ave W Ste 309
The lion's share of activity by ABM this election cycle has been spending just over $4 million in television ads against the Republican candidate for governor, Jeff Johnson. Nearly all recent polling shows Johnson trailing the Democratic nominee, Tim Walz.
ABM has also spent thousands in support of House and Senate candidates for the Minnesota state legislature, most of that in online spending such as for Facebook ads.
Representatives with all three committees mentioned in this report did not respond to requests for comment.
ABM is intended to be a state-based offshoot of the national group Democracy Alliance, an elite donor's club focused on promoting progressive causes and candidates. In Minnesota, ABM is credited with reversing many gains Republicans had made in the state near the turn of the millennium.
The intermediary groups place an extra step in the process for anyone trying to discover who the root funders of ABM are. This sometimes means that media reports may mention that ABM is spending in a race, but the same report might not take the extra steps to mention that ABM is funded by 2018 Fund, which in turn receives its donations from the Democratic Governor's Association, and numerous unions such as the IBEW, AFSCME, and SEIU.