Lydia Millard’s donors are responsible for hundreds of property violations across Ward 10 since Jacob Frey first ran for mayor. [1]
If you expand that list to the whole city, it’s over 1,000! [2]
Ward 10 deserves a leader who will work to ensure all of us have a place to call home — not take money from corporate landlords who are breaking the rules.
None is worse than out-of-state corporate landlord Brian Fitterer: half a million to Trump [3], max donation to Lydia Millard [4]
6
“AG Ellison reaches settlement with landlord that illegally charged for utilities”
The landlord in question was Brian Fitterer, who settled a lawsuit from the Attorney General’s Office by agreeing to pay $5 million in a case that impacted “at least 4,000 households.” [5]
But before the “California trailer-park king turned swimsuit designer,” [7] was ordered to pay restitution to his tenants, he maxed out a donation to Lydia Millard.
20% of her donors are Republican donors. [8]
Lydia Millard has raised $18,000 from Republican donors. [8]
Lydia Millard’s ties to Republican donors and the money she has taken from them raises serious concerns about who she will represent if she were elected. It’s not a risk Ward 10 residents can afford to take.
Just look at some of the Republican donors who have maxed out donations to her campaign [4]:
Brian Fitterer: California real estate mogul and half a million dollar Trump donor who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans in 2020. [3]
M D Darula: Wayzata-based McDonald’s owner and Scott Jensen Donor [8]
Joseph Knapp: Scott Jensen donor [8]
Stuart Ackerberg: Largest commercial property landlord in Uptown [8,9]
Martha Head: thousands to Jensen, Crockett, Finstad, Stauber and the MN Republican Party in 2022 [8]
Are these the people we want influencing our Ward 10 City Council Member?
“We Love Mpls,” a PAC chaired by 2024 Republican donor Andrea Corbin and run by former Jacob Frey campaign manager Joe Radinovich spent $16,000 for Lydia Millard ahead of the Ward 10 DFL convention. [10]
But that’s not all….
“We Love Mpls” was fined $4,000 by the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board for failing to disclose necessary information regarding contributions of $35,000 from the Minneapolis Downtown Council and $72,585 from the Minnesota Multi Housing Association. [11]
Why is a secret network of McDonald’s owners backing Lydia Millard?
On March 19th, 2025, St. Francis-based McDonald’s franchise operator Kris Genck made a max contribution to Lydia Millard. Ten days later, Maple Grove-based McDonald’s owner Mellissa Kennedy followed suit with a max contribution of her own. Less than a week later, Millard received a contribution from McDonald’s owner Tim Baylor. But the McDonald’s donations really started flowing for Lydia Millard a few weeks later.
Between April 20th and April 30th, every single reported donation Millard received was from the owner-operator of a McDonald’s franchise, including donations from Republican donors as far away Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana!
All told, Millard has reported receiving $10,000 from a network of 17 McDonald’s owners. [12]
