GOP owes 20 Minnesota counties for Emmer recount costs
Tuesday, June 07, 2011 at 4:00 pm
- 11 Comments
The Republican Party of Minnesota owes nearly 20 counties payment for expenses incurred by the counties during the 2010 recount between Tom Emmer and Gov. Mark Dayton. The fact that so many counties haven’t been reimbursed in seven months led one Republican senator to offer to pay some of the bills out of his own pocket.
The Rochester Post Bulletin got a hold of a letter by Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, that called the GOP debt to the counties an embarrassment.
“This is embarrassing and painfully indefensible. This damages us not just on the local level, but statewide as well,” he wrote to GOP caucus leaders. “It is spreading through the political blogs, and must be a reason for much head shaking in water cooler conversations.”
Howe said he would donate money to help the debts be repaid.
GOP chair Tony Sutton told the Post Bulletin that the party paid eight counties last week and the party still had 20 more to pay off.
As Blue Stem Prairie notes, Sutton has missed his own promised deadlines to pay the counties.
The GOP and Sutton filed suit against several counties for not being swift enough in pulling together recount documents last fall.
“The unacceptable foot dragging of St. Louis and Pine Counties cannot persist,” Sutton said at the time. “The Emmer for Governor campaign and the Republican Party of Minnesota should not have to go to court to get counties to respond to data practices requests in a timely manner. We will continue to pursue any counties that do not promptly meet their legal obligations during this process. Minnesotans deserve better.”
The Minnesota Independent contacted the county auditors in St. Louis and Pine counties. Unlike two dozen other counties, they have been paid.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter11 Comments
Comment posted June 7, 2011 @ 5:15 pm
ooooooh, a pang of conscience… that needs to be squelched immediately… is there a cure in the good book so commonly referenced?
Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN
Comment posted June 8, 2011 @ 9:08 am
Screw That!!! Let the Tax Payer flip the bill.. That’s the GOP way..
Comment posted June 8, 2011 @ 1:07 pm
I’m confused. Can anyone tell me if the Emmer Campaign debt is for legally mandated county activities, i.e. activities required by election laws, or for law suits the campaign itself initiated? Just wondering.
Comment posted June 8, 2011 @ 5:23 pm
Wow. The GOP can’t manage it’s own money. How can they presume to manage the States?
Praise Jebus, God hates accounting, Amen.
Comment posted June 8, 2011 @ 7:27 pm
Republicans are fiscally responsible. On the campaign trail.
Comment posted June 9, 2011 @ 8:52 am
Carl, I am unable to locate specific sources to back up my understanding that it was the imperious MN GOP on the state level who “requested” (demanded is the better word) copies of all that paperwork from the counties, therefore that entity is responsible for county costs.
Comment posted June 9, 2011 @ 9:19 am
Lane,
You’re right, thanks. In other words, the Emmer campaign can’t pay it’s bills. The GOP still owes $500,000 from the last election and can’t pay IT’S bills. But they hold the purse strings of the state. Discouraging. Well at least they’re protecting .8% of the state population from a tax increase.
Praise Jebus, God hates Caesar’s money, Amen.
Comment posted June 9, 2011 @ 11:13 am
Carl, a gentle FYI: it’s – contraction of “it is”; its – possessive
I’ve lost count of how many times political campaigns and parties failed to meet their financial obligations timely. It would be wise of any vendor to require cash up front before providing any service – and that includes governmental entities, too.
Comment posted June 9, 2011 @ 2:31 pm
Republicans talk a fiscally responsible game, but they are all talk. In practice, they are nothing of the kind. They abuse fiscal policy for political ideology, not the good of the people.
I wonder how much LGA they cut to the counties they already owe money?
Comment posted June 10, 2011 @ 8:54 pm
GOP owes these counties and All Minnesotans owe Tom Horner one great big thank you. Without him in the race we’d be stuck with this yahoo Emmer and the most extreme right wing legislature this state has ever seen. We’d be Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana all rolled into one.
Thank You Tom Horner!
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
