The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) of Minnesota is joining the boycott against the Target Corporation, the owner of Target Department Stores. The union has 30,000 members and is Minnesota’s largest labor union. The Union said that Target should not have contributed money to Minnesota Forward, an organization supporting Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate, Tom Emmer. Minnesota Forward started television ads for Emmer in July.

In January of this year, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that the government can not ban donations to political organizations made by corporations with the court claiming is was a case of free speech. The dropping of the ban did not include direct corporate donations to individual candidates but only political organizations.

Target Corporation made a $150,000 donation in cash and services to Minnesota Forward to help support Tom Emmer. Emmer is known for opposing gay rights and especially gay marriage. Target’s donation was comprised of $100,000 in cash and $50,000 in goods and services. Electronics giant, Best Buy also donated $100,000 to Minnesota Forward.

LGBT organizations throughout the country called for a nationwide boycott against the country’s third largest retailer. Afterward, MoveOn.org joined the LGBT community and also called for a boycott. Protests nationwide were organized in front of neighborhood Target stores including a national day of protest on August 14.
Almost immediately, Target stock lost over $1.3 billion with the threat of a nationwide boycott, a loss of 3.5% but has since risen to pre-boycott levels.

August sales reports for Target indicate that same-store sales for August 2010 rose 1.8% over August 2009 and were inline with what the corporate management expected. The increase was less than what Wall Street market analysts forecasted which was a 2% increase — the overall forecast for the 31 reporting retailers. However, those same analysts said that their sales rise was comparable to much of their competition and that there is not enough data yet to know for sure. Five chains, including J.C. Penneys, bettered the 2% forecast. Overall, sales increase of the 31 retailers rose an average of 3.2%.

Minnesota Forward rose just over $1-million dollars in its fundraising efforts which were well below their $10-million dollar goal.