Minnesota Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn — representing Minnesota’s First Congressional District, which covers much of southern Minnesota, including Mankato and Rochester — has filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint against Democrat challenger Dan Feehan.
According to Hagedorn, “Feehan denied receiving nearly $500,000 from three Democrat groups during a two-year period while running for Congress.”
“A compilation of Feehan’s House financial disclosure reports prove that Dan was lying,” said Hagedorn.
Indeed, campaign finance records show that he received $184,000 from Aug. 13, 2018 through Dec. 31, 2018 while running for Congress. Hagedorn’s campaign points out that if Feehan worked seven days a week during this period, his hourly pay would be $271 per hour — an unbelievable sum. Accepting pay to run for Congress and not actually work is a violation of federal election law.
Overall, records show Feehan has received $475,000 from three left-wing “non-profits” in the three years from 2017 through 2019 (2020 is not yet disclosed).
One left-wing group, Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), paid Feehan $290,000 over these three years. On LEE’s website, the words “Black Lives Matter” are prominently displayed, though it isn’t clear if LEE is supporting the phrase “black lives matter,” or the group Black Lives Matter, which is avowedly Marxist and seeks the destruction of the nuclear family.
On its face, LEE appears to be a left-of-center education advocacy organization (a de-emphasis on school choice, but not explicitly pro-teachers unions). Emma Bloomberg, Mike Bloomberg’s daughter, sits on the board of LEE, as do several Wall Street luminaries.
Another left-of-center organization to pay Feehan is the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, D.C. foreign policy think tank. CNAS is best described as globalist and neoconservative, and is headed by neoconservative Victoria Nuland.
Nuland was prominent in the Obama State Department, played a role in the Russiagate scandal, and was slated to be Hillary Clinton’s secretary of state would she have won. One issue that defines CNAS as neoconservative is support for military action in Syria, and CNAS counts a handful of large defense contractors as its biggest donors. CNAS paid Feehan over $60,000 during the three years in question.
Finally, Feehan received nearly $120,000 in 2018 and 2019 from the New Politics Leadership Academy. NPLA is a left-wing group that advocates for left-of-center veterans to enter public service.
Hagedorn further alleges that Feehan, in an attempt to hide a probable violation of federal election law, amended his 2019 Financial Disclosure Report to erase the roughly $120,000 he received from LEE. Hagedorn confronted Feehan over these discrepancies at their last debate and Feehan claimed he was currently unemployed and denied taking money from these groups. Hagedorn said he has some questions for Feehan, including:
- Where did the $120,000 go from Feehan’s 2018/2019 filings – which he previously verified as correct?
- When will Feehan release a copy of each contract he signed with the three non-profit entities?
- How many hours of work did Feehan perform for each of the contracts, what specific days/weeks was the work performed and how much was he compensated?
- When will Feehan release any work products he produced on behalf of New Politics Leadership Academy, Leadership for Educational Equity, and the Center for a New American Security?
“Feehan should immediately provide proof of how he earned almost $500,000 over a short period of time while also running for a contested House seat,” said Hagedorn. “It certainly appears Dan was paid to run for Congress, and concerned voters across southern Minnesota deserve answers, which I hope an investigation by the FEC will provide.”
Willis Krumholz
Willis L. Krumholz is a fellow at Defense Priorities. He holds a JD and MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas, and works in the financial services industry. The views expressed are those of the author only. You can follow Willis on Twitter @WillKrumholz.
