When we saw a picture of Rep Steve Elkins (DFL-49B, Bloomington) sitting next to Jeanne Massey from FairVoteMN introducing HF983, we had our normal response, “What is he doing?” We know Elkins is a freshman and that may account for his naivete, but as a resident of Bloomington, a city that doesn’t use Ranked Choice Voting, he should talk to his fellow colleagues from other suburbs who are opposed to this concept and also people who have supported him in his election campaign.
We have reviewed his campaign finance documents and seen support from organized labor to the tune of $8,200.00. Elkins should ask the labor community their position on Ranked Choice Voting and if it is such a great idea why they won’t use it in their own union elections.
Additionally, he should research FairVoteMN and again ask organized labor, like MAPE, what they think about when the principal funder of FairVote nationally, and ask why John and Laura Arnold gave a significant amount of money through the Arnold Foundation after which the Pew Charitable Trust gave $9.7 million to the U of MN’s Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute for a comprehensive research-based approach to public pension policy design. The Arnold Foundation has spent a significant amount of money trying to eliminate public pensions in California.
Read https://checksandbalances.com/if-dflers-are-concerned-about-public-pensions-they-also-need-to-be-conscious-of-where-fairvotes-money-comes-from/ Yes, it’s a paid subscription.
This may seem like a good idea, why should voters get more choices, but it is not. It creates undue confusion and undermines the value of political parties. Yes, Ms Massey may seem like a nice person when you meet her, but so did the evil queen when she changed into the old crone and gave the Cinderella a beautiful poisoned apple.
FairVoteMN is a dark money group who will not be forthcoming with its donors in a timely manner, run campaigns under the guise of an educational effort and thereby doesn’t report their expenditures in any campaign finance reports. They bring forward groups of paid volunteers who saddle up to politicians especially DFLers to make fairness arguments that are like when Vice President Dick Cheney (R) help write the Blue Skies Initiative with Coal and Oil Executives.
FairVoteMN is a Dark Money group trying to corrupt our elections system under a guise or more access. Beware!