Securian's donation to MN Forward draws fire at U

When Target Corp. donated $100,000 to MN Forward, a fundraising entity that has in turn supported Tom Emmer for governor, there was an uproar from shoppers who thought the company shouldn't be contributing to politicians, or at least not to Emmer.

Videos of customers cutting up their Target cards and staging elaborate musical demonstrations inside a Target were all over YouTube. Best Buy, another company that gave money to MN Forward, also felt some heat.

Others, such as St. Paul insurance company Securian Financial, went generally unscathed.

It turns out, however, that at least one of Securian's larger customers -- the University of Minnesota -- was raising questions behind the scenes.

Securian is the record-keeper of the U's faculty retirement plan and a vendor for other compensation plans, so when the company's contribution to Emmer -- via MN Forward -- was revealed, some professors challenged the relationship. They objected to the U using a company that supports a candidate whose positions run contrary to the university's.

It probably didn't help when Emmer's budget proposals came out, revealing what would be multimillion-dollar cuts to higher education.

According to minutes of the Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs, a spirited debate among professors over ethics, politics and free speech ensued.

Daniel Feeney, chair of the retirement committee, said no record was kept of how many faculty members were concerned about the donation, but it was important to have a discussion, and talk with lawyers, about what to do about it.

"I don't know if it's 3 percent or 30 percent" who are critical of Securian, he said. "There may be some, too, who think it's a good thing."

Feeney noted that members do not have to buy financial instruments offered by Securian, so they can vote with their dollars by avoiding Securian products. "The University is not a political instrument. We can get involved as individuals."

Lawyers warned the committee, Feeney added, that its fiduciary responsibility came first, and that decisions about the retirement fund could not be made for political reasons. There was also discussion of asking companies to avoid donating to any candidates.

After he started to get complaints from faculty about Securian's political donations, Feeney sat down with an official of the company and relayed those concerns. "He told me they thought [MN Forward] was simply a pro-business group."

Randy Croce, a faculty member, said he is concerned not only about Emmer's stand on gay rights, but by what he called "the attitude of the Republican Party toward the university."

In the past, the Republicans produced champions of the U such as former governors Elmer Andersen and Arne Carlson, Croce said, but an anti-higher education agenda recently has harmed the school.

That said, "although I'm not a fan of the Republican Party, I didn't think we could penalize them [Securian] for donating to the party," said Croce, who pointed out that the university didn't have any problem naming its new stadium after TCF Bank, and taking its money, even though its CEO was head of the Republican Party.

In the end, a university committee sent a cautiously worded letter to Securian to let the company know some of its clients are very upset, and Feeney said Securian promised to take that into consideration before directing any more money to politicians. It's yet another example that, just because the Supreme Court has given businesses a new right to donate to candidates, doing so is not necessarily in their best interest.

As one professor put it in meeting minutes, "Corporations are being really stupid" to give money to candidates who antagonize at least half of their customers.