The political committee seeking to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department received most of its donations from out-of-state donors, campaign finance records show.
Minneapolis voters will decide this November if they want to replace their police department with a new department of public safety, which would include police officers “if necessary to fulfill the department’s responsibilities.”
A political committee called Yes 4 Minneapolis is spearheading the campaign to abolish MPD and successfully petitioned the Minneapolis City Council to place the issue on the municipal ballot.
A campaign finance report filed this week in Hennepin County reveals that the group has raised $983,748 since the beginning of the year. But the majority of those donations are coming from out of state.
Of the 2,626 line-item donations listed in the report, 571 have a Minnesota address. Just 359 list a Minneapolis address.
That means roughly 22% of the group’s donations were from Minnesota, and just 14% were from Minneapolis, the city that will lose its police force if Yes 4 Minneapolis is successful.
Put another way, about 78% of contributions were from out-of-state donors, who in many cases listed California or New York addresses.
The largest contribution was an in-kind donation of $430,383 from MoveOn.org, a Washington, D.C.-based organization. In-kind contributions are donations of resources, not cash.
The national American Civil Liberties Union donated $75,000 in cash, compared to the $6,765 in-kind contribution made by the organization’s local chapter. San Francisco-based groups Tides Advocacy and WDN Action made cash donations of $70,000 and $100,000, respectively.
Faith in Minnesota, an offshoot of ISAIAH, made $7,421 worth of in-kind donations. Local groups Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block made cash donations in the $100,000 range.
Yes 4 Minneapolis has now turned its attention to getting out the vote, as demonstrated by the whopping $268,000 it has spent on door-knocking.
The proposal to replace the police department is opposed by Mayor Jacob Frey, who will also be on the November ballot.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
