Omar Fateh campaign fined for claiming DFL endorsement after it was revoked

Omar Fateh’s campaign must pay a $500 civil penalty for distributing literature and yard signs saying he was the DFL-endorsed candidate despite knowing the endorsement had been revoked days before, a panel of judges has ruled.

The campaign’s actions were “negligent” and “ill-advised” but there’s no evidence that Fateh’s supporters were intentionally trying to mislead voters about the revocation, which had been decided Aug. 21, the judges wrote. The signs and literature were distributed Aug. 23.

“Nothing in the record suggests [the Fateh campaign] was seeking to publicize the endorsement after it was revoked or deceive voters,” the judges ruled. “On the contrary, respondent both promptly began ordering new literature without the DFL’s endorsement and publicized its loss of the endorsement in comments criticizing the DFL’s revocation.”

The complaint brought by Timothy J. Keane of Minneapolis, a donor to Mayor Jacob Frey‘s re-election campaign, alleged violations of the state’s fair campaign practices statutes that forbid making a false claim of support. The case was heard Sept. 26 before three administrative law judges, Joseph C. Meyer, Kristien R. E. Butler and Suzanne Todnem.

After the Minneapolis DFL endorsed Fateh for mayor at its July 19 convention, the Fateh campaign distributed about 600 yard signs, as well as campaign literature, with the DFL endorsement logo. On Aug. 21, the state DFL said it would revoke the nomination citing widespread concerns over the validity of the convention. On Aug. 22, the DFL published its formal decision of the revocation.

A day later, Fateh’s campaign hosted an event where his supporters passed out yard signs and campaign literature still bearing the endorsement logo. The campaign said it didn’t want to miss a day while waiting for new materials, but it did inform supporters at the rally that he was no longer endorsed, and trained door-knockers to tell people that the endorsement was no longer in place.

City Council Member Jason Chavez, who is running for re-election in Ward 9, helped distribute the outdated Fateh campaign literature along with his supporters on Aug. 23, 24 and 25, according to the panel.

Still, the judges gave Fateh’s campaign credit for ordering its graphic designer on Aug. 21 to come up with corrective stickers that could be put on existing literature, as well as ordering new yard signs on Aug. 25 and updated literature on Aug. 27. The campaign’s actions “were motivated by convenience, not malice,” the judges concluded.

The judges noted that the endorsement revocation was highly publicized — it made national news — and the outdated campaign materials were unlikely to have misled voters.

The revocation was appealed by the Minneapolis DFL, which argued at a hearing Sept. 29 that the state DFL’s Constitution, Rules, and Bylaws Committee violated its own procedures, lacked evidence and had conflicts of interest and other problems when it revoked the Fateh endorsement.