The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board released its summaries of lobbying in 2014 last month. Those summaries show that the Minnesota Child Protection League, through its lobbying and political action arm, spent $75,000 lobbying against protections for LGBT youth between 2013 and 2015. However, the group did not report any spending on its high-profile effort to block the Minnesota State High School League from approving a transgender-inclusive athletics policy.
In 2013, the Child Protection League Action spent $500 for lobbyist Stacey Pearson. The expenditure was for media advertising. Pearson quit lobbying for CPL Action in 2014. At that time, CPL Action was a new organization, having been founded in mid-2013. The group was organizing opposition to the Safe and Supportive Minnesota Schools Act, a bill that passed in 2014 and provided for strong anti-bullying protections. CPL Action opposed the bill because LGBT students were included in those protections along with more than a dozen others.
Between Jan-June 2014, CPL Action spent $40,000 in advertising in opposition to the anti-bullying bill. Another $20,000 was reported in other expenses. The lobbying reports do not list what the lobbying money is spent on, but the group did erect at least one billboard in Greater Minnesota.
The group also listed some of it’s lobbying efforts on its website: “Time and time again these legislators were warned not to betray our children. They were warned with billboards, with emails, with personal visits and visuals of examples of the pornographic curriculum this bill will sweep into our schools.”
The only lobbying efforts reported for 2015 were $15,000 in advertising, likely for the ads distributed on social media and at a GOP convention in support of a bill blocking transgender-inclusive school policies.
CPL Action reported no lobbying expenditures between June and December 2014. During that time, CPL Action was heavily involved in fighting transgender inclusion at the Minnesota State High School League. In a Sept. 28, 2014 ad, CPL Action urged members of the public to “contact the MSHSL before Wednesday” and provided geographic location information for each member, their name, email and phone number. A late November ad buy in the Star Tribune as well as regional Minnesota newspapers also called on the public to contact members of the MSHSL to vote against the policy.
CPL Action sent mailers to residents in key districts of MSHSL members in late-November and early December, Bluestem Prairie reported. For example, one such mailer in the St. Cloud area read: “Contact MSHSL Board Member Emmett Keenan and tell him: Transgender politics should not be directing Minnesota athletics. Don’t do this to our kids.” The mailers included each member’s email and phone number.
The MSHSL is listed as a “governmental unit” and its members listed as “public officials” at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, the entity that monitors lobbying and provides the public access to lobbying data. Its official guide on lobbyist gifts states:
Subd. 24. Metropolitan governmental unit. “Metropolitan governmental unit” means any of the seven counties in the metropolitan area as defined in section 473.121, subdivision 2, a regional railroad authority established by one or more of those counties under section 398A.03, a city with a population of over 50,000 located in the seven-county metropolitan area, the metropolitan council, a metropolitan agency as defined in section 473.121, subdivision 5a, the Minnesota state high school league, and Minnesota Technology, Inc.
In addition, the campaign finance board lists members of the MSHSL as “public officials” in its lobbying handbook which states: “Lobbyists are required to disclose lobbying disbursements to influence the official actions of public officials,” and lists the MSHSL as public officials “as defined in Minn. Stat. §10A.01, subd. 35; information compiled as of October 15, 2013.” Finally, the Minnesota statutes dealing with lobbying (10A.01, Subd. 35. (17)) define “public official” as including a “member of the board of directors or executive director of the Minnesota State High School League.”
CPL Action reported $0 in lobbying expenses for the last part of 2014 including any efforts to lobby the public officials at the Minnesota State High School League.
The group appeared to be aware of the government nature of the board a letter to the MSHSL on October 1, 2014:
“Child Protection League Action is appalled that this proposal has made its way so far within your organization as to be seriously presented to the public and actually be considered for adoption. We are stunned at the MSHSL’s abuse of power and policymaking granted to you under MN §128c.01 Subd.2., whereby the governing board of a high school may “delegate its control of extracurricular activities to the league…spend money for, and pay dues to, the league.”
CPL Action did not respond to a request for clarification.
Here are the lobbyist reports for Minnesota Child Protection League Action:
June-December 2013 – Stacey Pearson
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January-May 2014 – Michele Lentz
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June-December 2014 – Michele Lentz
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January-May 2015 – Michele Lentz
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