The “Kevin” this email is addressed to is Kevin Jacobson the News Director of KBJR TV in Duluth, Minnesota. Soren took the opportunity to send an email to most of the congressional District candidates with the reply all feature of an email sent to the 8th District candidates by KBJR’s news director. Soren Sorenson, one of the candidates, was speculating that Joe Radinovich’s, one of the leading DFL candidate for the primary election, was getting donations that might not be kosher:
Kevin, and fellow candidates,
I have a really dumb question. for everyone here…
Who are Joe Radinovich’s donors? Why is he not disclosing who contributed via ActBlue, instead of just recording the method of donation?
If you read his FEC statements it looks like there a are a large number of anonymous maxed out donors. That’s neither the letter nor the intent of campaign finance law.
Attached is a screenshot showing what I think is likely illegal, but definitely not good.
Thanks,
Soren
I checked Soren’s concerns out and also hit reply all:
Soren,
Thanks for Sharing this. I am always interested in the hidden mechanics behind political campaigns. I had not heard of Actblue before so I looked up its website and an independent review of its operations on Realclear politics.
My initial take is that 1. It is a very smart reaction to the big “dark money” donations to Republicans and 2. Mr. R has simply been successful at harnessing this site to finance his campaigns.
Real Clear politics says the average donation to candidatesthrough Actblue is $31. Apparently when Actblue sends out the donations to candidates it sends them out in bundles of $2,700. Unless you know something more suspicious about these donations I won’t worry about them.
Best of luck to you.
Harry Welty
