Minn. Sen. judge is Coleman donor

One of the five Minnesota Supreme Court judges who would rule on an appeal in the Franken-Coleman recount case is a two-time donor to Norm Coleman.

Justice Christopher Dietzen twice gave $250 to Norm Coleman, first in December 2001–when Coleman was Mayor of St. Paul and considering a senate campaign–and again in January 2004, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Dietzen previously served as campaign counsel for Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2002 campaign. Pawlenty appointed Dietzen to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, then to the State Supreme Court in 2008.

The liberal blog MyDD posted the donations and called for Dietzen to recuse himself from the case.

UPDATE: To be fair, it seems as though Justice Helen Meyer has made some contributions that might make REPUBLICANS uneasy. Between 1992 and 2002, Meyer donated $5500 to Democrats, including $2500 to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane accident during his 2002 campaign against Coleman. Meyer was appointed to the court by Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) in 2002.

Democrats would argue that Meyer’s donations are qualitatively different, since she hasn’t actually donated to either the plaintiff or defendant in the possible appeal. However, I still wanted to note that Dietzen isn’t the only Justice whose contributions suggest a partisan tilt.