I'm quite sure, and willing to be wrong, that these Real Estate types have used the services of Mr. Horner as a lobbyist in the past. An industry organization that I am am a member of, has some of the above mentioned big hitters as members. We hired Mr. Horner to lobby at the State capital for us in the past. I think that is the connection. It doesn't indicate a split in big hitters. Because other members of that organization will hold fundraisers for Emmer and still others will quite possibly do so for Dayton. We have always done it like that. We cover all of the bases.

I agree that the business community likes to hedge their bets, nothing new there. The business community is composed of a pragmatic group of individuals.

They are more than likely drawn to Tom Horner because he has a plan that is based on the 21st Century Tax Reform Commission of 2009. A commission made up of folks from the business community. And folks in the business community like to see how things are paid for and Tom Horner lays that out. I think the business community are simply recognizing honesty and rewarding it with some much needed support.

Eric-

Mr. Horner has never been a lobbyist. He has worked in the public relations / public affairs field for a firm he founded roughly two decades ago and completely divested from earlier this year. At Himle Horner he created coalitions around a number of policy issues ranging from transportation to equal rights to yes, business. But that work involved engaging the public from a position of deep knowledge of both public policy and politics. The work did not involve lobbying the legislature. Certainly there are different business leaders supporting each of the three candidates this fall. But we are seeing growing numbers of those leaders lining up behind us from all variety of fields and political backgrounds. And the article referenced in Jay's blog post makes quite clear that these were more than just token donations. The individuals clearly indicated why they support Horner in particular. And as Richard indicates in the previous comment, part of their reasoning is because of Horner's approach to balancing the budget. Minnesotans are eager to engage in a campaign based on the real issues like the budget this fall as 2011 will be so critical to our long term future.

Best,
Matt Lewis
Press Secretary
Tom Horner for Governor

It makes sense that business folks who may have trended towards supporting republicans would now support Horner. On a national level Republicans have not been fiscally conservative. On a state level republicans have not been fiscally responsible. As an independent I loath the special interest money that funds the campaigns of both democrats and republicans. Horner is not taking special interest money. There is a huge difference between holding a fundraiser with accomplished individuals and filling your campaign war chest with PAC money.

Apologies to Mr. Horner via Matt Lewis Comments-

I'll chose a more careful set of words. We hired him. Must have been to help get the message out and how to work our issues in the media etc. I met him at our pre legislative session get together. This is when we draw up our list of concerns that are before the legislature. What is coming up, what we are pursuing, what we are fighting off etc. Skull session-action planning- final debating- and battle plan. Mr. Horner sat through the whole matter, along with us, our lobbyist, our appointed and elected leaders. I guess that might not be lobbying. But he was privy to our plans, actions, opinions of legislation, authors of such legislation etc.

I guess he was doing a darn fine job of trying to understand our message and then try sell it in a way that work for us in that upcoming legislative session. So be it. Lobbyist may have been a bad choice of words. Mr. Horner, my bad.

Hey! I'm a lobbyist and I hope that's not a bad choice of words. . .at least for me.

But having lobbied for nearly 20 years, I have never seen either Mr. Horner (nor his partner, Mr. Himle) lobbying per se.