Minnesota

Unfriendly system that feels like it was designed for internal use, not the public. For example, downloading all clients yields a list in which every entry in the client column starts with a code number. Tracking any lobbyist’s activities is complicated by the fact that lobbyists’ and clients’ disclosure reports are kept in two different locations. No activity reports appear for some lobbyists’ clients if you look under Search Lobbyist, as is the case with Judy Cooke and the Lignite Energy Council. Only by looking under Search Association is it revealed that an activity report for 2023 for this Cooke-Lignite relationship was “filed by Joe Sellwood.”

Judy Cooke is important because she also represents the University of Minnesota–which announced that it would divest from fossil fuels within the next 5-7 years–and Enbridge, whose Line 3 oil pipeline was responsible for one of the worst inland oil spills in U.S. history. In 2020-21, environmentalists and indigenous groups protested Enbridge’s plans to reroute and expand the pipeline, and Enbridge went so far as to reimburse Minnesota law enforcement agencies for policing these protestors.

To what extent are these UMN lobbyists promoting coal and gas? Minnesota makes it hard to know because lobbyists are not required to disclose bill numbers or positions taken on bills. Total compensation paid to lobbyists is disclosed by companies, but individual lobbyists don’t report how much they receive from each client, so that the exact amounts paid to Judy Cook of Cook Girard Associates by Enbridge, the Lignite Energy Council, and UMN is unknowable.

Best feature: lobbyist and client names are easy to find due to an autofill feature that offers all possible entries that begin with a particular letter or letters.

Worst feature: reports filed by lobbyists and clients are kept in two different places.

Additional Findings

New law took effect in 2024 expanding scope of who registers to include seeking action by agencies. New compensation disclosure system will require clients to file reports rounding to “units of $9,000.” Current site is confusing, with client lists for lobbyists not corresponding with reports filed for this clients because they are sometimes filed by another person. Having separate, non-integrated pages for reports by Lobbyists and Clients further confuses things.