Republican Mark Mohr Breaks Campaign Limits

Republicans tend to break election rules and laws. Now, is the time to be checking those financial reports! Like Republican Mark Mohr, running for the West St. Paul City Council 2nd Ward seems to have conveniently forgotten the $300 individual contribution limit for city offices.

CONTRIBUTION LIMITS: Candidates or candidate’s committees for county, municipal, school district offices may not accept aggregate contributions in excess of $300 in an election year or in excess of $100 in a non election year made or delivered by an individual or committee. However, candidates seeking election from districts with a population in excess of 100,000 may not accept aggregate contributions in excess of $500 in an election year and $100 in a non election year.
(Minnesota Secretary of State)

Just so you know the $300 limit applies since the population of West St Paul was 19,405 at the 2000 census, which is well under the 100,000 needed for the $500 limit.

So add up these contributions from the 39A GOP for "Mohr for Change", the personal campaign account of Mark Mohr? Do you get $500, greater than the $300 limit?

(Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, select RPM, select 39A House District RPM, select view report twice)

And there is more on Mohr ...

So one would expect that Republican party would have rules against this. However it is easier if Mark Mohr, is the chair of the 39A GOP giving money to Mark Mohr's personal campaign, "Mohr for change". So we have more of the money shuffling around maneuvers that the Republicans are so famous for.

(Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, select RPM, select 39A House District RPM )

Now I did ask for the ten-days-before-election-day filing from the West St Paul city clerk for Mark Mohr, which did not include the time period. Now, either that is an accidental omission by the city clerk or Mark Mohr has missed a filing deadline. I will call again on Monday and update this article with the information. The file I did get is attached to this article.

So there are possibly two issues that someone should file a complaint on: exceeding the $500 limit and the lack of ten-days-before-election-filing. Certainly, there is a breaking of the spirit of the law, no matter how the complaint ends up.

Wait, wait there is more.

This is not the first report of Republican Mark Mohr breaking election rules either:

Confirmed: GOP City Council candidate inside polling places
by: Joe Bodell
Tue Nov 04, 2008 at 11:33:59 AM CST

According to a confirmed report, Republican City Council candidate Mark Mohr of West St. Paul has appeared at multiple precincts and entered the polling places, saying hi to voters.

This is illegal.

If he is misrepresenting himself as a poll challenger, then that opens up another can of legal worms.
(Minnesota Campaign Report)

So the good news is that Mark Mohr did NOT win the city council seat. However he is on many boards.

Mark Mohr, 54, is an alumnus of Henry Sibley High School and Inver Grove Heights Community College and works as a self-employed insurance agent. He serves as a Northern Dakota County Cable commissioner and is a member of the West St. Paul Charter Commission.
(Chamber of Commerce)

Hmmm, so we have someone not personally fond of following the law, helping create local rules and local laws.

Update 1: Note that Tony Schmitz has a contribution of $300 listed from 39A GOP, yet that is not listed in the file I received. Is that a clerk omission, a filing error or a deliberate attempt to not report that $300? Hmmm, more financial mysteries.