SMRs and AMRs

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Minnesota Secretary of State's Office: Playing politics or merely incompetent?

We still haven't heard the reasoning behind the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision in Louis H. Reiter vs. Mary Kiffmeyer, the case involving the Rep. Gutknecht petition in lieu of paying a filing fee. Buried deep within the documents the Court considered, however, is at least one interesting tidbit.

For example, the Walz Campaign also considered submitting a petition in lieu of paying a filing fee. But according to Kerry Greeley, Tim Walz's Campaign Manager, the Secretary of State's Office told her twice that all signatures on such a petition must be collected between July 4 and July 18, 2006.

Here is the text of her affidavit for the Court:

I began working on Tim Walz's campaign for the United States House of Representatives in Minnesota's First Congressional District in March, 2006, as Campaign Manager.

Over the next four months, I contacted the Secretary of State's office several times with general questions on how to file and specific questions regarding the rules for Nominating Petitions in Lieu of Filing Fee.

I called the Secretary of State's office once in April 2006, two or three times in May 2006 and two or three times in June 2006.

I was told by different persons in the Secretary of State's office on at least two occasions that Nominating Petitions in Lieu of Filing Fee require 1000 signatures and that the petition must be signed between July 4, 2006 and July 18, 2006. The written information which they sent me and that they published on the official website confirmed this.

Because I was so advised, the Walz Campaign decide [sic] to pay the $300 filing fee and not take the chance of trying to secure 1000 signatures during the filing period.

Further Affiant sayeth not.

[signed] Kerry M. Greeley

A copy of the affidavit is on p. 15 of the Supplemental Memorandum in Support for Order to Show Cause on the Louis H. Reiter vs. Mary Kiffmeyer case webpage.

The question now comes to: Was the Secretary of State's Office playing political favorites or is it merely incompetent?

LP

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