Mark Ritchie File 3 Who Funds Minnesota’s Radical Secretary of State? Socialists, Communists and George Soros

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Mark Ritchie File 2 here.

You can tell a lot about a politician’s true allegiances by identifying who funds him.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie poses as a moderate, but is in fact a hard core leftist with ties to several socialist organizations.

This becomes important, because part of Ritchie’s job is to oversee electoral recounts. In 2009, Ritchie gave a crucial Senate seat to leftist and former comedian Al Franken, though his Republican opponent was ahead on election night.

Soon Ritchie will oversee a recount that could put his long time colleague and fellow leftist Mark Dayton into the Minnesota Governor’s mansion.

In the knife edge world of U.S. politics, every seat counts.

That is why the left, feeling cheated after George Bush won the 2004 presidential election (after controversial recounts in Florida), established the Secretary of State Project, to fund and elect leftist Secretaries of State. Mark Ritchie was one of the first to benefit from this initiative.

A look at Ritchie’s funder’s lists for his 2006 and 2010 Secretary of State campaigns, reveals a whole host of interesting names.

There are members of America’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America, founders of Ritchie’s old socialist New Party and leading members of the Communist Party USA (not surprising given Ritchie’s high level contacts with that group).

Others are affiliated with high level leftist think tanks and “non profits” such as the Center for American Progress, Institute for Policy Studies, Democracy Alliance and the Tides Center.

There are also several leaders of the anti-Israel, socialist infiltrated organization, JStreet.

A couple of pro-Cuban activists appear on the list, as does a former associate of the infamous Weathermen.

Others who wrote out checks to Mark Ritchie’s campaign include a former Vice President of the United States and the man who “broke the bank of England.”

Several keen Barack Obama supporters also pop up.

Ritchie’s 2006 funders list includes:

• Caron Atlas – Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama.
• Barbara Baran – A member of Democratic Socialists of America.
• Harriet Barlow – A founder of the New Party.
• Jeff Blum – A former Weathermen supporter and long time colleague of Heather Booth.
• Heather Booth – A “friend” of Democratic Socialists of America and a founder of the Alinskyite Midwest Academy, which has trained thousands of radical “community activists.”
• Paul Booth – A member of Democratic Socialists of America and leading labor unionist.
• Cynthia Brown – A VP for education policy at the Center for American Progress and a supporter of Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama.
• Dan Cantor – A co-founder of the New Party, now leader of New York’s ACORN and the socialist and communist dominated Working Families Party.
• Dan Carol – A member of the Tides Center board, also a founder of the socialist controlled Apollo Alliance.
• Al Dwoskin – JStreet and Democracy Alliance board member.
• Phyllis Eckhaus – A Contributing Editor of Chicago based socialist journal In These Times, where she serves with former Weathermen terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
• Allison Fine – A Senior Fellow of New York based think tank Demos.
• Ed Garvey – New Party founder.
• Neva Goodwin – Currently working with Democratic Socialists of America member Thomas E. Weisskopf on a textbook, Economics in Context, for use in the former Soviet Union.
• Adam Hochschild – A member of Democratic Socialists of America and an endorser of Progressives for Obama.
• Michael Kieschnick – From Working Assets, a credit card, Internet and broadcasting company that donates a portion of its revenues to “progressive” nonprofit groups. A close associate of Tides’ Drummond Pike.
• Sandra Levinson – A former Black Panther Party supporter and veteran of more than 300 trips to Cuba.
• Doris Marquit – A veteran leader of the Minnesota Communist Party USA.
• Erwin Marquit – A veteran leader of the Minnesota Communist Party USA, husband of Doris Marquit.
• Larry Ottinger – A donor to the Oakland based, Cuban linked DataCenter, which was founded by former Weatherman supporter Jon Frappier.
• Max Palevsky – A former Institute for Policy Studies trustee, major funder of leftist causes and Progressives for Obama endorser.
• Drummond Pike – Founder and Chairman of the Tides Center, Democracy Alliance treasurer.
• Johanna Plaut – Board member of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, founded by the sons of convicted and executed Soviet atom bomb spy, Julius Rosenberg.
• James Rucker – A former Director of MoveOn.org and a founder of the Soros funded Secreatary of State Project which backed Mark Ritchie.
• Ellen Shaffer – A veteran of the 1969 Venceremos Brigade to Cuba, co-author of a 1994 book on socialized health care with several Democratic Socialists of America supporters, including Barack Obama’s personal physician, friend and mentor Quentin Young.
• George Soros – The man himself. A leading financial supporter of US and international socialism.
• Jonathan Tasini – An associate of Democratic Socialists of America and an endorser of Progressives for Obama.
• Jenny Warburg – A New Party founder and donor to the DataCenter.

2010 added more interesting names to the list:

• Patricia Bauman – A member of the JStreet Advisory Council.
• Martin Bunzl – A member of the JStreet Advisory Council.
• Mark Dayton – Former US Senator.
• Jodie Evans – A member of Board of Trustees of the Institute for Policy Studies, 9/11 “Truther,” CODEPINK leader and Hugo Chavez fan.
• Gail Furman – JStreet Advisory Council, Democracy Alliance board member.
• Randall Hayes – 9/11 “Truther.”
• Anne Hess – A DataCenter donor.
• Walter Mondale – Former US Democratic Vice President.
• Margery Tabankin – An Alinsky trained former member of the radical Students for a Democratic Society. Tabankin traveled to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War and has met with Fidel Castro and the late Palestinian terrorist leader Yasser Arafat. She has worked in funding left wing causes for decades and has ties to Democratic Socialists of America.

Why would some of America’s leading radicals write checks to support an obscure Secretary of State race in Minnesota?

Would they have supported someone who didn’t think like them? Someone who wouldn’t see politics the same way they do?

Many of the radicals who backed Mark Ritchie – the Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America and George Soros, are using the Democratic Party as a front to take power in America.

These people want Democrats, preferably “progressive” Democrats, to win every possible race, at every level. A sympathetic Secretary of State can be very helpful to this agenda.

Would these radicals have financed Mark Ritchie if they couldn’t trust him to give them what they want?