The Target/MN Forward saga continues. Today, the Human Rights Campaign announced that they will be donating $150,000 to balance out Target Corp’s donation to MN Forward, a Political Action Committee backing state Representative Tom Emmer in his bid for governor. As first reported by the Associated Press, the HRC will be splitting its money up among a progressive PAC closely tied to the Alliance for a Better Minnesota called WIN Minnesota ($100,000), various candidates for office around the state excluding Mark Dayton ($30,000), and OutFront Minnesota ($20,000).

HRC spokesperson Fred Sainz told TheColu.mn in an email that the donations do not represent a policy change for the organization, only a one-off event “in a key state where a marriage equality and safe schools bill are on the line.”

According to OutFront’s Adam Robbins, the HRC has also promised to donate staff time to helping elect “fair-minded” candidates in Minnesota this year.

The HRC chose not to “cancel out” Best Buy’s donations, Sainz said, because progressive groups and community members will be spending millions of dollars on the election already, suggesting the move is more about damaging Target’s reputation than compensating for MN Forward’s potential influence

Sainz told TheColu.mn that the HRC was still hoping Target would “make it right,” but said that it was “our responsibility as a community” to get pro-equality candidates elected. However, it is difficult to escape the suspicion that even the HRC, typically perceived as the most corporate-friendly of the major LGBT activist groups, is giving up hope that Target is willing to listen to community members and activists trying to organize a boycott of Target.

Target could not be reached for comment at the time of this writing.

In a strange twist, Minnesota voters have a rare choice between two gubernatorial candidates supportive of LGBT equality. While Rep. Tom Emmer’s anti-LGBT stances are well-known, both former Senator Mark Dayton and former public-relations executive Tom Horner have declared their strong support for marriage equality and for safe schools legislation that would help protect LGBT students. However, the HRC and OutFront have both endorsed Dayton, with the HRC saying they believe Dayton has the best chance to beat Emmer this November.

The recent Minnesota Public Radio/Hubert Humphrey Institute poll showed DFL candidate Dayton tied with GOP candidate Emmer at 34% each, with 13% for Independence Party candidate Horner, although in previous polls have given Dayton a stronger edge over Emmer.

Matt Lewis, a spokesperson for the Horner campaign, told TheColu.mn that, while the HRC has not yet approached the campaign about making any donations, they feel they deserve as much of the community’s support as Dayton, given Horner’s stances on the two most important LGBT issues of this election.

The HRC’s Sainz said that the unnamed Minnesota candidates that would be getting the $30,000 have yet to be determined, but could include any candidate for legislative, judicial, or state-wide office with the exception of Dayton.