{"id":1568998,"date":"2022-07-25T05:07:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T09:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1568998"},"modified":"2022-07-25T05:07:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T09:07:39","slug":"swine-and-sleaze-democrat-conspired-to-hike-pork-prices-lawsuits-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/swine-and-sleaze-democrat-conspired-to-hike-pork-prices-lawsuits-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Swine and Sleaze: Democrat Conspired To Hike Pork Prices, Lawsuits Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fswine-and-sleaze-democrat-conspired-to-hike-pork-prices-lawsuits-say%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1568998&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Minnesota&#8217;s Jeff Ettinger now says he &#8216;know[s] how to fight inflation&#8217; as his former company made food &#8216;affordable&#8217;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tEx-CEO of Hormel Foods Jeff Ettinger (Via Twitter)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 July 25, 2022 5:00 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Minnesota Democrat Jeff Ettinger says he &#8220;know[s] how to fight inflation&#8221; because his former company made food &#8220;affordable.&#8221; That company is facing an array of lawsuits that say it conspired to inflate the price of pork.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ettinger served as CEO of Hormel Foods from 2005 to 2016. During that time, Hormel conspired with other pork processors to run a &#8220;classic \u2026 price fixing scheme&#8221; to drive up the price of ham and bacon, active lawsuits facing the company argue. While Hormel has said the allegations are &#8220;completely without merit,&#8221; one of the companies involved in the purported scheme <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/smithfield-foods-settles-pork-price-fixing-lawsuit-42-million\/\"><span>agreed<\/span><\/a><span> to a $42 million settlement in early July.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Now, Ettinger is running in an August special election to replace the late Jim Hagedorn after the Republican congressman died in February. Ettinger has attempted to fight concerns of record-high inflation under President Joe Biden by touting his time at Hormel\u2014in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k6nsD1jjVUI\"><span>July 10 ad<\/span><\/a><span>, the Democrat said he &#8220;know[s] how to fight inflation&#8221; as his &#8220;business was making food affordable.&#8221; He went on to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SouthernMN4Jeff\/status\/1546921674842464259?s=20&#038;t=csJK3ZQVYlo41AOKnzoykQ\"><span>repeat<\/span><\/a><span> the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SouthernMN4Jeff\/status\/1549061069141860354?s=20&#038;t=fRVI0sQi6ZpQNbQfhnsfvw\"><span>claim<\/span><\/a><span> twice in the following week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The price-fixing lawsuits that loom over Hormel, however, could undermine Ettinger&#8217;s ability to navigate a perilous political climate that is driven by voters&#8217; concerns over the economy. According to a June <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/greater-minnesota\/2022\/06\/greater-minnesotans-may-be-feeling-the-squeeze-of-inflation-more-so-than-their-metro-counterparts\/\"><span><em>MinnPost<\/em> poll<\/span><\/a><span>, 94 percent of Minnesotans say rising gas and grocery prices have made their lives more &#8220;difficult&#8221; or &#8220;inconvenient.&#8221; On a national level, meanwhile, Americans view inflation as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2022\/05\/12\/by-a-wide-margin-americans-view-inflation-as-the-top-problem-facing-the-country-today\/\"><span>top problem facing the country<\/span><\/a><span> and believe that problem is Biden&#8217;s fault\u201464 percent of likely U.S. voters say the Biden administration&#8217;s policies have increased inflation, according to a March <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rasmussenreports.com\/public_content\/business\/general_business\/inflation_most_voters_blame_biden_s_policies\"><span>Rasmussen poll<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ettinger declined to comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to the series of lawsuits against Hormel, the food processing company in 2009 began sharing sensitive information with its competitors about its &#8220;profits, prices, costs, and production&#8221; in an attempt to drive up pork prices. A who&#8217;s who of grocery and restaurant chains have joined the lawsuits, the first of which was filed in 2018\u2014prominent plaintiffs include Kroger, Hy-Vee, Buffalo Wild Wings, Jimmy John&#8217;s, and Sonic Drive-In.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ettinger, who grew up in Los Angeles, made big money from his time at Hormel\u2014his total compensation in 2016 alone was $36 million, according to the Minneapolis <\/span><i><span>Star Tribune<\/span><\/i><span>. The Democrat&#8217;s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2022\/8218669.pdf\"><span>financial disclosure<\/span><\/a><span> also shows tens of millions of dollars in investments, and half of the roughly $800,000 Ettinger has raised <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/committee\/C00808329\/\"><span>came from his own pocket<\/span><\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ettinger&#8217;s wealth sparked one of his primary opponents, small business owner Rick DeVoe, to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/greater-minnesota\/2022\/04\/jeff-from-town-how-a-former-hormel-ceo-came-to-be-a-democratic-candidate-for-a-u-s-house-seat-in-southern-minnesota\/\"><span>accuse Ettinger<\/span><\/a><span> of being out of touch with everyday voters in Minnesota&#8217;s First Congressional District, who DeVoe said are sick of &#8220;corporate malfeasance.&#8221; Still, Ettinger said in his July ad that he understands why Minnesotans &#8220;feel squeezed.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ettinger used his financial advantage to emerge from the special election&#8217;s May 24 primary and will face Republican Brad Finstad in November. Finstad, a former state legislator, served in former president Donald Trump&#8217;s Department of Agriculture and has raised $614,000 to Ettinger&#8217;s $805,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Minnesota&#8217;s Jeff Ettinger now says he &#8216;know[s] how to fight inflation&#8217; as his former company made food &#8216;affordable&#8217;  Ex-CEO of Hormel Foods Jeff Ettinger (Via Twitter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}