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Often the Office of State Auditor is forgotten when it comes to statewide offices. Many people would be hard pressed to even tell you what the job entails.

“The first thing you learn as state auditor is to tell people what you do every single time you talk to them,” current State Auditor Julie Blaha told the DFL convention in May. “I oversee $60 billion in state activity, most of it at what level? Local.”

The office audits local government financial statements — that includes cities, townships, counties, school boards and other local jurisdictions. It does not have that authority to review the books, records and financial affairs of state agencies or offices. 

It’s a job with important oversight responsibility and it has, in the past, served as a launching pad for politicians with ambitions for higher offices.

Former Minnesota Govs. Arne Carlson and Mark Dayton both served as state auditor.

For Republicans, it’s the state Constitutional office they’ve come closest to winning since Tim Pawlenty was elected governor in 2006.

Four years ago Blaha beat Republican Ryan Wilson by just 8,435 votes. That close margin was a factor in Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth picking Wilson as her running mate as she campaigns for governor this year.

Next week, voters will choose which Republican runs for auditor in November.

There’s Nate George, the current mayor of Braham and an Air Force combat veteran, who easily won the party's endorsement earlier this summer. 

He said his experience as a mayor, a military veteran and Director of Licensing & Investigations for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Tribal Gaming Regulatory Authority gives him an advantage over the other candidates in the race. 

“I would say that I’m more qualified than those individuals because of that local government experience that I have,” George told KARE 11.

“My daytime job deals with government regulation and investigations, and so I lead a team of investigators that audits and investigates casinos here in Minnesota, and so we’re investigating theft and fraud on a daily basis,” he said. “We’re building those cases, and those are translatable skills directly to what the auditor's office does."

But George has also faced some scrutiny over his qualifications. He claimed he was a certified fraud examiner, but 

MinnPost reports he has not received that designation

 from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. His campaign told MinnPost that he is currently pursuing that designation. 

Another candidate for the auditor nomination is former state Sen. Scott Jensen, a family doctor who lost the 2022 governor's race to Tim Walz. Jensen says the auditor's job is about knowing how to run an organization.

“This is not a technical position,” he said. “This is a leadership position. This is an executive office.”

Jensen said his background in the Legislature, as a doctor and in working with several businesses, puts him in a good position for the job.

“It’s about enforcement of rules, ability, verification, internal controls, mitigating risk,” Jensen said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about building a team of people that are interested and motivated to collaborate with the other players that can help make Minnesota government work.”

Jensen, who dropped his plan to run again for governor earlier this year, said he’s not just searching for elected office.

“I am running to be the State Auditor. I certainly am not looking for a new career path as some sort of chronic politician,” he said. 

Another candidate, Will Finn, who ran as a Grassroots Legalize Cannabis party candidate in 2022 is also on the Republican primary ballot.

Whoever wins the Republican primary will take on DFL-endorsed candidate Zach Filipovich, a former Duluth city council member and an accountant, in November.

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The State Auditor is a role that doesn’t get as much publicity as other statewide Constitutional offices, but it has served as a launching pad for some politicians and came close to breaking the long winless streak for Republicans in statewide office races in 2022

Add State Auditor to the list of contested primaries on the GOP ballot

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