Pearson, KathrynJacobs, Lawrence R2018-11-052018-11-052018-11-04https://hdl.handle.net/11299/200746The “Transparency and Minnesota Public Affairs” project improves awareness of how the state’s democratic process works. This is a project of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. We are grateful for the contributions of Madeline Salucka and Matthew Motta. The authors are solely responsible for the content of this report. Other parties who use or draw conclusions from this research are solely responsible for their own views, which do not necessarily reflect those of the original authors. This research is supported by a grant from the McKnight Foundation.Independent expenditures by parties, groups, corporations, unions, associations and individuals are flooding Minnesota, flowing mainly to four U.S. House races. (Independent expenditures are made by groups and parties to support or oppose a candidate without any coordination with the candidates). More than $45 million was spent by independent expenditure groups. Republican U.S. House and U.S. Senate candidates are receiving nearly $3 million more than Democrats from independent expenditure groups. Most of the independent expenditures are spent on negative advertising. Nearly all of the money helping Republicans (94 percent) was spent attacking DFL candidates, while groups helping Democrats spent 68% attacking Republicans.encampaign spendingMinnesotaelectionsindependent expendituresReport