(7/30/08)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) takes money from anybody. From Big Oil to Big Polluters to War Profiteers to Big Pharma to indicted, corrupt politicians and their buddies. Of course, who does Norm represent in the US Senate? It certainly isn't our interests. He's a reliable vote for Big oil, against tougher pollution standards and always votes for the hand-outs to his corporate donors. We know that Norm isn't particularly interested in rooting out Republican corruption as he has investigated only a few millions worth of the billions lost to corruption in Iraq.

So now that Sen. Ted "Tubes" Stevens (R-AK) has been indicted for corruption, Norm still refuses to divest himself of all the money from Tubes and his already convicted or pled out buddies at VECO Corp. BTW, VECO is an oil company.

Does Norm really have any ethical morals guiding his campaign other than the ends justify the means?

Norm's donors in the oil industry keep American addicted to oil -- there has been no movement toward dealing with peak oil under the Bush Administration. The polluters who contribute to Norm have made sure that their biggest advocate outside of the Senate and the White House is the head of the EPA. Our soldiers are eletrocuted and poisoned by the war profiteers who generously donate to Norm's campaign. 50 million Americans have no health care and the cost of prescription drugs increase faster than inflation thanks to the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies. Big Pharma have given Norm more money than any MN politician in history.

Norm is dirty through and through ... does it really matter if he divests of a paltry $30,000 out of a $13,000,000+ campaign war chest? Let him keep his filthy lucre and let's just make sure that Al Franken beats him in November.

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(6/5/08)
Alliance for a Better Minnesota released an ad criticizing Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) for helping out the oil industry with billions of dollars in tax breaks while they made massive profits jacking up our oil prices. They have helped him out with $210,000 in contributions to his reelection campaign.

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(5/28/08)
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) still refuses to return the money from the lobby group DCI. DCI lobbied for the Myanmar junta. But it's more complex than that. DCI and Norm have a complex and close relationship. To help everyone understand the closeness, Brian Melendez, Chair of the MN DFL held a press conference.

Following Senator Norm Coleman’s persistent refusal to divest nearly $10,000 in contributions from the DCI Group’s political-action committee and employees, Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez held a press conference today to shed light on the extent to which Coleman’s ties to the group run far deeper than originally thought — with close connections to some of the most well-connected, influential Republican lobbying operatives who represent some of the most powerful corporate special interests in America.

He also provided a perty picture to help us all visualize it. Read and see more here.

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(5/13/08)
Norm received nearly $10,000 from DCI Group who lobby for the brutal dictatorship who run Myanmar. It's not just that, Norm's campaign officeshares with an arm of the lobby firm. This arm of DCI Group, FLS Connect, has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars for work they did for Norm's campaign. Filthy lucre, anyone?

It gets better. Norm won't return the money.

But he's Norm freaking Coleman. And as the prototypical political weasel that he is, he just cannot simply decline to return the money...

Read more about Norm Coleman and the Myanmar dictatorship.

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(5/12/08)
Minnesota Monitor reports that Sen. Norm Coleman is the #1 Senator for campaign contributions from the real estate industry. This is a surprise to nobody considering he's the Senator who co-authored the HOME Act which is written to help the banks holding subprime mortgages squeeze the last dollar out of homeowners facing foreclosure. The Home Act would allow homeowners more than 60 days overdue on their mortgage payment to withdraw up to $100,000 from their retirement accounts without penalty or taxes to deal with their crisis. They would have to pay that back within three years or the government would place a tax lien on their home. If the homeowner were to go bankrupt, the banks could not otherwise get at their retirement savings.

...A report issued by ACORN reveals that Coleman took $23,000 in contributions from two interest groups strongly opposed to the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. But that's small potatoes compared to Coleman's other campaign contributions this year.

According to OpenSecrets.com, Coleman has received a total of $477,000 from the real-estate industry (PACs and individual donors) during this election cycle. That makes him seventh in the Senate when it comes to getting bought out by the real-estate/mortgage industry.

Yet Coleman is actually the No. 1 Senate recipient who isn't running for president of contributions from the combined mortgage, finance, and insurance sector. Those industries are Coleman's biggest backers, with donations totaling $2 million. That's double the amount received from his second-biggest contributor of "miscellaneous businesses" and four times as much as he's received in contributions from agribusiness.
(Minnesota Monitor)

Read more about Norm's stances on this issue on the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter's foreclosure page

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(10/5/07) Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has received $6,000 from VECO Corp executives. Norm may complain about Al Franken getting Hollywood money, but Norm is flush with dirty Alaskan oil money.

Read more about Norm's dirty Alaskan oil money

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(10/4/07) Norm likes those out-of-state donations. While he and his allies beat the out-of-state donations drum incessantly, Norm is busy filling his campaign coffers from Big Oil, Big Pharma, the insurance industry and the far right PACs. They get what they pay for in Norm.

Read more about Norm's out-of-state donors here

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Travel paid for by lobbyist

(10/3/07) Though Norm can't be bothered to investigate billions of dollars of corruption and waste in no-bid contracts in Iraq, he's all over busting civil servants over their travel expenses. $146 million gets wasted in a matter of a few days over in Iraq, but we only hear Norm calling for oversight as his reelection fears mount. While Norm is all over civil servants taking expensive trips on the tax payers' dime, Norm takes more privately funded trips paid for by lobbyists than anyone but Sen. Joe Biden. 46 trips taken for $94,847 and 120 approved for $229,815. That's a lot of trips.

Highest Minnesota Trip Use/46th out of 638 in Congress AMERICAN RADIOWORKS is the national documentary unit of American Public Media, documents that Normal Coleman accepted $89,673.19 on trips for a rank of 46 out of 638 senators and representatives. Details here.

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(8/23/07) KARE 11 has a post up discussing President George Bush flying in to Minnesota for a fundraiser for embattled incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). While Norm needs the cash that His Shrubness can generate, he definitely doesn't want the concrete shoes that comes with it. Democrats are enjoying linking Norm even closer to Preznit 28%.

"President Bush is not very popular with the swing voters, so Coleman has to distance himself," Hamline University's David Schultz told KARE 11.

Read more about George Bush fundraising for Norm

Then read more here

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(8/1/07) Bush has already raised money this year for seemingly safeRepublican senators in Alabama, Kentucky and Kansas. He has also headlined two fundraisers for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The Minnesota event appears to be the president's first for a Senate incumbent facing a serious challenge next year.

It's an appearance that cuts both ways for Coleman: Bush is able to raise large sums of money from GOP donors, but his low approval rating has made some candidates think twice about being too closely aligned with him.

"In 2008, George Bush will be on the ballot even though George Bush isn't on the ballot," said Tom Horner, a Republican strategist in Minnesota. "I don't think any incumbent Republican senator is going to be able to run without having to deal with George Bush."

With well-heeled Democratic candidates Al Franken and Mike Ciresi vying to take on Coleman, Horner said the senator will need every dollar Bush can help him get even if it means fanning criticism about his relationship with the administration.
(MPR)

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(7/14/07) Elephant Biz reports that

In late March of this year [2007], just three weeks after filing legislation that would largely kill a government program established just 10 years ago to help the Department of Defense reduce waste in its mammoth travel expenditures, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, received $8,200 in campaign contributions from the Minnesota power couple that includes the CEO of Carson Wagonlit Travel, one of America's largest travel corporations.

If passed, Coleman's legislation would make an additional $5 billion worth of government travel spending potentially available to Carson Wagonlit, which is part of The Carlson Cos., based in Minneapolis, Minn. Coleman's home state...

(early July, 07) Al Franken outraised Norm by $300,000 raising $1.9M to Norm's $1.5M. Franken has more donors, 25,830, than Norm and more MN donors:

Franken, though, can now claim that he got more people from Minnesota to give him money than anyone else in the Senate race.
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At first glance, Coleman seems to have the lead, with 470 Minnesotans named in his second-quarter Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports. Franken's report lists 366 Minnesotans.

But the FEC reports list only people who gave more than $200. The rest are not itemized.

In all, Franken's camp reports that more than 4,000 of his 28,000 donors were from Minnesota, including 3,677 who gave less than $200.

Coleman's camp reports that about 3,500 of his 7,000 donors for the period were from Minnesota, including a little more than 3,000 who gave less than $200.

Coleman clearly got more money per donor, reflecting a large number of PAC contributions. But Franken found a larger number of individual donors, including a larger number of in-state donors.
(Strib)

(5/7/07) Two of Senator Norm Coleman's (R-MN) donors have recently pled guilty to bribing elected officials. Bill Allen, CEO of VECO Corp, and Rick Smith, a VP of VECO Corp, have both given Norm's reelection campaign $1,000. Will Norm return the money?

Read more about Norm's donors

(4/25/07) Norm among the 4 most endangered Republicans according to the Republicans. They are obviously worried about keeping a seat in a blue state where the presumed opponent, Al Franken, is matching Norm in fundraising for 2007 Q1.

Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he expects to put together as many as 30 joint fundraising events around the country for the four most vulnerable senators of 2008: Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Susan Collins of Maine, Gordon Smith of Oregon and John Sununu of New Hampshire.
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Ensign has asked his Senate colleagues to contribute roughly $30 million, a figure that would be at least six times what Republicans gave the NRSC in the last campaign cycle.
(The Politico)

Open Secrets analysis of Norm's campaign contributions

The Washington Post reports Norm's position on campaign finance reform includes a Max Out Package (1/16/07):

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) is offering a "Max out package" that allows political action committees to donate $10,000 to his coffers and be treated to special meetings that could include a Napa Valley wine tour, a "private event with up to five guests" or two visits to, well, Minnesota. (Sadly, last week, the Napa leg was canceled.)