Campaign finance spotlight: Top 5 donor lists for 2008 DFL and Republican state parties

As a followup to last Friday’s PIM post on top donors to Minnesota’s House Democrats and Republicans, here are lists of last year’s top 5 individual and PAC givers to the respective state party organizations–the Minnesota DFL State Central Committee and the Republican Party of Minnesota.

(Note: In this case, unlike that of the House party units, I’ve omitted lobbyists from the Top 5 lists because they’re a non-factor. For the obscurantists among us, let it be noted that a) the state DFL received one lobbyist contribution in 2008 [$725!], and b) that’s one more lobbyist contribution than the state Republican party received.)

I’ll have a longer piece about top contributors to House and statewide DFL and GOP party units in next Monday’s Capitol Report. (If you’re not a subscriber, you can click here to fix that.)

All totals listed are rounded to the nearest thousand. And since a handful of top individual donors to both parties are from outside Minnesota, I’ve marked those entries with an asterisk (*) and expanded those lists so that they also reflect the top five contributions by Minnesota residents.

TOTAL 2008 RECEIPTS

Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM): $804,000

Minnesota DFL State Central Committee (Minn DFL): $3,847,000

TOP 5 DONORS: INDIVIDUALS

RPM

Total from individuals: $363,000

1. Robert Ulrich, retired Target CEO, $70,000
2. John Templeton, John Templeton Foundation, $60,000*
3. Bill Austin, Starkey Laboratories, $31,500
4. Glen Taylor, Taylor Corp/Timberwolves owner, $30,000
5. Dean White, Whiteco Industries, $25,000*
6. Bradbury Anderson, Best Buy, $20,000
7. George Anderson, Crown Iron Works, $20,000

Minn DFL

Total from individuals: $272,000

1. Fred Eychaner, Newsweb Corp, $50,000*
2. Matthew Entenza, attorney/2010 gov candidate, $30,050
3. Anne T. Bass, Keystone Group LP, $25,000*
4. Alida Messinger, Philanthropist, $25,000
5. Pam Deal, NA Companies, $13,500
6. Mark Dayton, retired U.S. senator, $11,000
7. Jeffrey Anderson, Reinhardt & Anderson, $10,000

(* = out-of-state donor)

TOP 5 DONORS: PACs

RPM

Total from political committees: $10,000

1. Freedom Club State PAC, $10,000

Minn DFL

Total from political committees: $792,000

1. SEIU Minn State Council Political Fund, $227,500
2. Laborers District Council of Minn & ND Pol Fund, $135,000
3. International Union of Operating Engineers, $70,561
4. Education Minnesota PAC, $70,500
5. Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, $33,000