DFL raises, spends millions in push to regain majority in Legislature

With one week to go before election day, the DFL Party’s campaign fiance reports find the minority party flush with cash and spending aggressively in its quest to win back a majority in the Legislature. Excluding transfers between its various funds, the DFL State Central Committee, the DFL House Caucus and DFL Senate Caucus have spent more than $5.4 million during 2012, and have a combined $2.32 million cash on hand.

The reports, which capture campaign finances through the 10-day pre-general election deadline, reveal the DFL’s central committee as the chief spending arm of the three groups.  The committee disclosed $2.4 million in campaign expenses and $1.95 million in outside expenditures, which have paid for campaign materials in dozens of targeted legislative campaigns. The central committee also has $1.12 million cash on hand, the largest bottom-line total among the three DFL funds.

The DFL House Caucus has $933,000 cash on hand, while the DFL Senate Caucus has only $228,000 in its bank account.

The DFL State Central Committee’s largest donor was the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which made six contributions in September and October totaling $550,000 to the party. Another large donor in recent months was the teachers’ union political action committee Education Minnesota, which sent a combined $306,000 since September, bringing its annual total to $536,000 to date.

The central committee’s reports disclose $8.1 million received an just over $7 million spent during the year, but large chunks of that are money transfers to and from its caucus units. The DFL Senate Caucus passed $2.2 million to the central committee, and the DFL House Caucus contributed $1.53 million; the central committee has cycled $2.6 million of that cash back to the caucus funds.

The party’s independent expenditure choices show heavy spending in a handful of swing districts. Among the beneficiaries of that spending is DFL Senate candidate Melisa Franzen. The party has spent more than $70,000 on positive messaging for Franzen; another $72,000 was spent on negative literature against Franzen’s opponent, Rep. Keith Downey. Likewise, the party has spent both ways on the Senate District 4 race, with $54,000 spent promoting DFL candidate Kent Eken, and  $66,000 spent targeting Republican candidate Phil Hansen.