Letter: Buying the District 13 election

My earlier letter (published Feb. 13) provided evidence that one or two very rich men bought the November election that saw Sen. Dean Johnson's defeat. Three letters printed in the Public Forum admonished me to get over it.

The writers appear to be holier-than-the-preacher types who, in the name of upholding sanctity of marriage, were only too happy to chuck the preacher out to be replaced by the divorced, deadbeat dad. Rich folks can buy a lot of things that the rest of us can't afford, including elections, but we should know who is doing the buying before we vote.

We now know that Robert P. Cummins of Deephaven, with a little help from his friends, paid for the gay marriage scare campaign in Minnesota. He also invested in the abortion controversy by putting $20,000 into Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, exceeding all other contributors by a wide margin. He was a major financier of Sportsmen for Change and of the supposedly local West Central Citizens for Freedom. All of these organizations had Johnson as their No. 1 target.

Altogether, Cummins invested about half a million dollars to benefit Republicans in the 2006 election cycle, including a quarter of a million directly to the Minnesota Republican Party. He has been writing those big checks for more than a decade, including to the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry.

It's all perfectly legal, and it's a good investment for those, such as Cummins, who are in the top income brackets. They give generously to Republican causes and Republicans provide them with nice big tax cuts.

My concern is that under present law, voters don't find out until Jan. 31, after the election, who paid the piper and called the tune for organizations such as those that orchestrated the great gay marriage scare. That needs to change so that we know within 48 hours of political contributions that cumulate to more than $5,000 and all other political contributions of that donor. Armed with that information, voters may decide that this election is not for sale.

John H. Burns

Willmar