Gutknecht petition flap: The final comment?
The perhaps now infamous DFL lawsuit against Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer alleging she improperly accepted signatures on a candidate's petition in lieu of paying a filing fee is now over. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in very short order in favor of the Secretary of State.
In hindsight, given the rapidity of the judgment, the DFL probably would have been better off not bringing the suit. True, they had a good argument: The law, despite being specific elsewhere as to the time period in which petition signatures can be collected, is mum when that petition system is used by a major party candidate in place of paying a filing fee. There is no doubt that the law needs to be amended so that issues like this don't arise in the future.
One point needs to be made, however. Rep. Gutknecht says he uses the petition instead of filing fee option to prove he is a good fiscal conservative. And yet, by filing he uses up a certain amount of the Office of the Secretary of State's time, therefore burning taxpayer dollars. This is not a big deal. All candidates do the same thing.
Yet those who pay a filing fee at least in a token way reimburse the Secretary of State for her efforts. Gil Gutknecht does not. In other words, when Rep. Gutknecht doesn't pay, the taxpayers must.
Okay, so this is a small issue. $300 is nothing compared to the cost of the war in Iraq (at least $1.5 billion per week) and the tax breaks for the wealthy that Mr. Gutknecht has unwaveringly supported (in the $100s of billions).
But let's face it: Mr. Gutknecht has made a big deal about being a "fiscal conservative", which he claims he proves each election year when he makes the taxpayers foot his filing fee.
I'm afraid that Mr. Gutknecht has become a "fiscal conservative" in name only. After 12 years in office he has become too adept in the ways of Washington and too adroit in the political game of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
LP
NOTE: The case is online here.
In hindsight, given the rapidity of the judgment, the DFL probably would have been better off not bringing the suit. True, they had a good argument: The law, despite being specific elsewhere as to the time period in which petition signatures can be collected, is mum when that petition system is used by a major party candidate in place of paying a filing fee. There is no doubt that the law needs to be amended so that issues like this don't arise in the future.
One point needs to be made, however. Rep. Gutknecht says he uses the petition instead of filing fee option to prove he is a good fiscal conservative. And yet, by filing he uses up a certain amount of the Office of the Secretary of State's time, therefore burning taxpayer dollars. This is not a big deal. All candidates do the same thing.
Yet those who pay a filing fee at least in a token way reimburse the Secretary of State for her efforts. Gil Gutknecht does not. In other words, when Rep. Gutknecht doesn't pay, the taxpayers must.
Okay, so this is a small issue. $300 is nothing compared to the cost of the war in Iraq (at least $1.5 billion per week) and the tax breaks for the wealthy that Mr. Gutknecht has unwaveringly supported (in the $100s of billions).
But let's face it: Mr. Gutknecht has made a big deal about being a "fiscal conservative", which he claims he proves each election year when he makes the taxpayers foot his filing fee.
I'm afraid that Mr. Gutknecht has become a "fiscal conservative" in name only. After 12 years in office he has become too adept in the ways of Washington and too adroit in the political game of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
LP
NOTE: The case is online here.
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