REGIONAL— A flood of outside political cash has poured into Minnesota’s House District 3A race, more than erasing the substantial fundraising advantage achieved by International Falls Mayor Harley Droba in his campaign to unseat first-term incumbent, Republican Roger Skraba.
Mailboxes throughout the district have been filled in recent days with glossy political mailers directed against the DFLer Droba, including any number of false or misleading claims and allegations. Droba, whose political experience is limited to his four years as mayor of the district’s largest city, is accused of voting to raise taxes on Social Security benefits, favoring water pollution, and supporting a “radical open borders agenda.”
None of these issues have ever come before the International Falls City Council, nor would the council have any authority to pass laws pertaining to such issues.
The Republican Party of Minnesota and two shadowy right-wing political action committees, called Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity Action, are behind the mailings, some of which also offer content supportive of incumbent Skraba.
Who is paying for it?
It’s unclear who is paying for most of the mailings directed at Droba. While the one falsely accusing Droba of voting for higher taxes on Social Security benefits was paid for by the Republican Party of Minnesota, the others were paid for by outside groups that don’t list their contributors. Both Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity Action are based in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and pour large sums of money into races all across the country.
Americans for Prosperity did file a large contribution notice with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board on July 29, 2024, indicating it was directing $740,000 to its Minnesota affiliate. Make Liberty Win, in a Sept. 17, 2024, campaign finance filing, reported receipts of $550,500 and expenditures of $549,385, the vast majority spent on attack mailings against DFL candidates in Minnesota, with lesser amounts in support of GOP candidates. Neither entity is required to disclose its donors, although typically such groups are funded by wealthy conservatives.
While many voters discount such unsolicited political mailers, they can influence some. Leah Rogne, of Gheen, who actively supported Droba’s campaign, said she recently received a call from an individual who had agreed to post a Droba sign in his yard. “He had gotten these mailings and wanted me to come and take down his Droba sign,” said Rogne.
“If you actually believe these things, it looks like he’s a monster,” she said.
After she explained the falsehoods and exaggerations behind the claims, and that they were coming from outside groups funded by undisclosed donors, she said the individual agreed to keep his sign. “In the end, he was angry that he’d been fooled by this stuff,” Rogne added.
While the groups behind the attacks aren’t required to report their spending since their September report, the onslaught is clearly expensive, entailing tens of thousands of dollars. Droba said he’s received 13 of the mailings to date at his home in International Falls. He calls most of the attacks “ridiculous,” but acknowledge he does manage to find humor in them. “We’ve had some pretty good laughs about some of them,” he said.
While the attacks are clearly intended to undermine Droba’s candidacy, he doesn’t necessarily view it that way. “I’m doing a lot of door-knocking. I know that the ads are negative toward me, but most northern Minnesotans are smart enough to know that as a mayor, I have nothing to do with control over the border, or Social Security taxes,” he said.
He said some voters he’s spoken to have asked him about the claims in the mailers, and he said those questions offer him an opening for a good conversation. “The whole goal is having conversations with people,” Droba said. “These attacks, in some cases, are a good starting point for a civics lesson. They actually may be helping me.”
Outside versus
local money
The flood of outside cash into the District 3A race is helping to erase the sizable fundraising advantage that Droba has enjoyed since announcing his candidacy in late 2023. As of the most recent campaign finance reporting deadline, of July 22, 2024, Droba reported raising $45,670 and disbursements of $18,963. He reported 28 individual contributors of $250 or more, 19 of whom were residents of the district.
Skraba, meanwhile, had received contributions totaling $19,503 in his latest report, with only five individual contributions of $250 or more. Just two of those large contributors lived in the district, and only three even lived in Minnesota.