Auditor: Minn. Secretary of State didn't misuse mailing list
The Office of the Legislative Auditor received a complaint last October after the names of participants in a civic educational meeting, hosted by the Secretary of State, showed up on Mark Ritchie's campaign mailing lists. Two of the participants accused Ritchie of acting inappropriately and misusing their names.
But after completing his investigation Legislative Auditor James Nobles says Ritchie did nothing illegal.
"Because Minnesota has a law that says all data collected by government is public unless specifically classified as not public, you really cannot have an expectation of privacy unless it is quite explicit in the law," Nobles said. "And in this case, the information that people provided to the Secretary of State's office was public data, and therefore it can be used by anybody for any purpose."
The report was not without criticism. Ritchie initially denied having any role in the mailing list matter. But he later admitted to the Star Tribune that he had shared the names with his campaign. That revelation prompted Nobles to expand his investigation and conduct interviews under oath.
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"I don't know if I would characterize it as a scolding, but it certainly sends a message to the Secretary of State and to others that when they receive a request from us in the context of a potential investigation they need to take it very seriously," Nobles said.
In a written response to Nobles, Ritchie disagreed with the claim that he had failed to provide a full and timely response to investigators. But otherwise, Ritchie was pleased with the report and its conclusions. Ritchie, who doesn't face re-election until 2010, said he was the victim of a partisan attack.
"You know, I don't know if it hurt me politically, but it certainly made me more aware that Karl Rove-style politics have come to Minnesota, and that that has changed our political landscape," he said. "And I need to be more aware of that in the future."
One of the two political activists who filed the complaint against Ritchie said he was disappointed with the legislative auditor's conclusions. John Tomczak of the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a pro-initiative and referendum group, was a Republican legislative candidate in 2006. But Tomczak said his motivations were not partisan.
"If seeing something that is wrong and out of place and then drawing attention to it, is strictly a Republican tactic, then I think the DFL is in trouble," he said. "This certainly was not some kind of a partisan orchestrated operation. The state Republican party had nothing to do with it."
Tomczak said as far as he's concerned the matter is over. But two Republican lawmakers and the GOP state party chair said that in spite of the auditor's findings, their questions about Ritchie will linger.
