[Disclaimer: I’m a member of the Green Party of Minnesota and whole-heartedly support—and will vote for—my party’s senatorial candidate, Ray Tricomo. I also fully realize that Tricomo doesn’t have a chance of winning Tuesday’s election. If you’re even considering voting for the putz that is Norm Coleman, make sure you read Paul Demko’s “Magical misery tour” before you decide. Frankly, I think we’d be just as well served if we drafted our representatives.]
Walter “Fritz” Mondale is the reluctant Minnesota DFL senatorial candidate, taking Senator Paul Wellstone’s place on the ballot after the latter’s untimely death in a plane crash. Up here on the far edge, we don’t have plain old Democrats, we have the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party. We used to have the Independent-Republicans too, but the Independents weren’t and now we’re back to plain old Republicans.
Mondale is most widely known as Jimmy Carter’s vice president (1976 - 1980) and as the first major-party presidential candidate with a female running mate (1984).
Fritz is concerned about big money compromising American politics. He told us so in his acceptance speech last week. His exact words were, “I will fight for citizens who are appalled by the oceans of special interest money that have swamped and compromised the politics of our country.”
Problem is that Fritz sat on at least two corporate boards that added a good deal of spit to those oceans of special interest money.
On January 30, 1997, Fritz was elected to the board of directors of Northwest Airlines. In the 2002 election cycle alone, Northwest had given more than US$575,000 in soft money through the end of May.
Fritz also sits on UnitedHealth Group’s board of directors and its compliance and government affairs committee. UnitedHealth has given more than US$500,000 so far in the 2002 election cycle.
Between the two, that’s more than a million dollars. And the totals aren’t in yet.
While Mondale retired from UnitedHealth’s board on Friday, and will likely resign from Northwest’s board as well, it’s clear that he had a hand in both corporations’ soft money political contributions. It’s also true that board activities and deliberations are generally private and conducted behind closed doors. For all I know, it’s possible—maybe even likely—that Fritz lobbied long and hard for these two outsized Minnesota corporations to do the right thing.
Here’s a way to know for sure. Fritz, if your heart really is in the right place, let us know by personally endorsing unreservedly and with gusto—that’s a term your generation understands, gusto—the Code for Corporate Responsibility. C’mon Fritz, it’ll only take you two minutes or so and its language is so simple and clear that even a corporate lawyer can’t obfuscate it. Yeah, it’s a Minnesota thing, and you’re running for national office, but it’s a start.
And that reminds me of something else Fritz said in his acceptance speech. “I will fight for Americans who know it’s not fair when a tax bill costs a trillion dollars and they give 40 percent of it to the richest 1 percent.” Does that mean that you’ll be working hard to repeal Shrub’s tax cuts? Does it, Fritz? A simple “yes” or “no” will suffice.
I sent an email to Fritz asking these two simple questions. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). I’ll let you know if I receive any response.
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