Mark Ritchie’s Big Goof
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 2:50 pm
- 12 Comments
On the question of drawing the careful, necessary line between campaigning and governing, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s recent actions suggest he lacks the good sense God gave a goose. Which is too bad: A lot is riding on DFLer Ritchie’s ability to rebuild the secretary of state’s office from the degradation it suffered under the political hackstership of his predecessor, Republican Mary Kiffmeyer.Ritchie gave his campaign a list of participants in a state-sponsored civic-engagement event; his campaign then used the list to email those participants copies of Ritchie’s campaign newsletter, which included a solicitation for political contributions. Then, when two Republicans complained, Ritchie appears to have simply lied: He initially said he did not know how the participants’ email addresses got in the hands of his campaign. Now he acknowledges that he personally provided the list of addresses and requested that each person on it get a copy of his newsletter.
In the scheme of things, Ritchie’s original transgression was not huge. Apparently the list was provided to a bunch of people and could be used by any of them for just about any purpose. But Ritchie isn’t just anybody, and his excuse that the newsletter was mostly apolitical doesn’t hold water. When he, in his capacity as a constitutional officer for the state of Minnesota, gathers people for a publicly funded event, those who attend should not need worry that signing a register will bring them unsolicited material from candidate Ritchie — or from any candidate for that matter. If preventing that requires a rule change, Ritchie should see to making it, soon. As for his own campaign, he should make clear that this sort of transfer of material from Secretary of State Ritchie to candidate Ritchie won’t happen again.
Which leaves the secondary offense, the lie. As so often happens in politics, Ritchie compounded a relatively minor lapse in judgment by lying about it. For that, candidate Richie will surely, and deservedly, be called to accounts by political opponents.
12 Comments
Comment posted November 21, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
The nature of the problem I have admired and been inspired by Mark Ritchie. He has been a breath of fresh air and is bringing some energy to civic education and engagement. But this does concern me. The problem is not really that people who signed on a register at a meeting will be receiving materials they did not want. The problem is that state resources are going to promote one political candidate. When we have a system of campaign finance that requires careful accounting as to who is paying for what. And which does not allow public money to be used for campaigning.
Comment posted November 21, 2007 @ 11:37 pm
Goof, Yes. “Big” No Thanks for continuing the republican operative name game, all you had to do is put a screaming title, and I’d been confused about where this came from. The article itself is fine, but why on earth would you call this a “Big” goof? Please…
Comment posted November 22, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
And today, the sun will set in the West… I have to agree with Ag here…another conniving, lying Democrat office holder? Yawn.
Paging Dean Johnson, Matt Entenza, Dallas Sams, Hakim Ellison; meet your party at the ethics committee!
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 11:02 am
Heh! Leaving aside the irony of Swiftee taking anyone’s ethics to task (kinda like Hitler accusing Churchill of war crimes, as the saying goes), I really, really, really don’t think the Republicans want to see a full-scale probe of how Mary Kiffmeyer ran her office. (Think Carol Molnau on steroids.) The stuff she did deliberately is much worse than anything Mark Ritchie could do accidentally.
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
!! “The stuff she did deliberately is much worse than anything Mark Ritchie could do accidentally.”
Oh God, don’t leave us hanging like this! Which part was the accident?
Did Ritchie accidentally abuse the authority the voters trusted him with and disgrace his constitutional office..
or
Did Ritchie accidentally lie about it…
three times…on record…
or
Did Ritchie accidentally tell the truth?
Personally, I doubt that Ritchie is much bothered by this scandal…to a Democrat this is top notch material for a run for national office!
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
Good point on Kiff Let’s open up a full investigation upon the SoS office for as long back as we can go, that would be lovely. I don’t think the GOP wants that can of worms opened, but if they want to check out this minor goof by Ritchie, I say let’s open that can and see what Kiff did behind the scenes.
Comment posted November 21, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
The nature of the problem I have admired and been inspired by Mark Ritchie. He has been a breath of fresh air and is bringing some energy to civic education and engagement. But this does concern me. The problem is not really that people who signed on a register at a meeting will be receiving materials they did not want. The problem is that state resources are going to promote one political candidate. When we have a system of campaign finance that requires careful accounting as to who is paying for what. And which does not allow public money to be used for campaigning.
Comment posted November 21, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
Goof, Yes. “Big” No Thanks for continuing the republican operative name game, all you had to do is put a screaming title, and I'd been confused about where this came from. The article itself is fine, but why on earth would you call this a “Big” goof? Please…
Comment posted November 22, 2007 @ 6:30 am
And today, the sun will set in the West… I have to agree with Ag here…another conniving, lying Democrat office holder? Yawn.
Paging Dean Johnson, Matt Entenza, Dallas Sams, Hakim Ellison; meet your party at the ethics committee!
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 5:02 am
Heh! Leaving aside the irony of Swiftee taking anyone's ethics to task (kinda like Hitler accusing Churchill of war crimes, as the saying goes), I really, really, really don't think the Republicans want to see a full-scale probe of how Mary Kiffmeyer ran her office. (Think Carol Molnau on steroids.) The stuff she did deliberately is much worse than anything Mark Ritchie could do accidentally.
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 6:55 am
!! “The stuff she did deliberately is much worse than anything Mark Ritchie could do accidentally.”
Oh God, don't leave us hanging like this! Which part was the accident?
Did Ritchie accidentally abuse the authority the voters trusted him with and disgrace his constitutional office..
or
Did Ritchie accidentally lie about it…
three times…on record…
or
Did Ritchie accidentally tell the truth?
Personally, I doubt that Ritchie is much bothered by this scandal…to a Democrat this is top notch material for a run for national office!
Comment posted November 23, 2007 @ 5:53 pm
Good point on Kiff Let's open up a full investigation upon the SoS office for as long back as we can go, that would be lovely. I don't think the GOP wants that can of worms opened, but if they want to check out this minor goof by Ritchie, I say let's open that can and see what Kiff did behind the scenes.
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