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Capitol View®
Tom Scheck

Denise Cardinal to head liberal fundraising group

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Denise Cardinal, a long time political operative who helped form the liberal group Alliance for a Better Minnesota, is headed back to raise money for the group.

Cardinal said this morning that she’s been hired to run Win Minnesota, the fundraising arm for Alliance for a Better Minnesota.

Cardinal will replace Adam Duininck, whom Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed to chair the Metropolitan Council.

Cardinal started Alliance for a Better Minnesota in 2007. It’s been seen as a national model for Democratic organizations. She left the organization in 2010 after Dayton was elected governor.

Win Minnesota and the Alliance for a Better Minnesota have been instrumental in helping Democrats win state and federal elections over the past decade.

You can read our 2012 story about the organization here.

In her new role with Win Minnesota, Cardinal will work with the group’s chief backers including Alida Messinger (Mark Dayton’s ex-wife), labor unions and other prominent donors. She will also have to navigate the new political world that includes Super PACs and other non-profit groups that don’t have to disclose their fundraising and spending.

In the 2014 campaign, several Republican groups including Minnesota Action Network, which is run by former Sen. Norm Coleman, and Americans for Prosperity Minnesota, which was funded by the Koch Brothers, played a big part in helping Republicans win control of the Minnesota House.

Those groups do not have to disclose their fundraising and spending.

Cardinal says she’ll start her new role in about a month.