Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

"Welcome to Minnesota Politics"
Mike Hatch, American Bankers, and the Twin Cities Media

Introduction - This is not a story about Mike Hatch. [more]

Part 1 - If A Settlement Falls In The Woods, and Nobody Signs It...? - American Bankers and Insurance ran afoul of Minnesota insurance regulations many, many times. In 1998, Minnesota and 42 other states took action. By the summer of 2002, it looked like things were going to be settled. The story starts here. [more]

Part 2 - The Check - There are rules governing how corporations can give money to political campaigns in Minnesota. Minnesota GOP chairman Ron Eibensteiner says he followed them. But a letter from him to an American Bankers lobbyist is one of the keys to this controversy. [more]

Part 3 - The Meeting - Right after being sworn in as Commerce Commissioner, Glenn Wilson had no idea who American Bankers and Insurance were, according to sources familiar with the situation. He found out. [more]

Part 4 - "Confusing, deceptive, inappropriate, inconsiderate"- After the meeting last January between the principals, things moved quickly. [more]

Part 5 - Disappearance of Impropriety - The Legislative Auditor says that there are all kinds of wrinkles to this story. So why did the Star/Tribune and the Pioneer Press run the story as if it were a scandal that Hatch had pinned on the Pawlenty administration, and ignore everything that came afterward? [more]

In "Chaos Theory",
everything's impossible
yet inevitable.