SMRs and AMRs

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Post-Bulletin on Gutknecht petition lawsuit

No new news here, but since this article will disappear behind the Post-Bulletin firewall soon, I'll post it. Vox Verax has analyzed the possible outcomes on various posts.

Gutknecht makes his case to Supreme Court
Tue, Aug 22, 2006

By Matthew Stolle, The Post-Bulletin

An effort to strike U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht's name from the ballot reached the state Supreme Court this morning.

Lawyers for the six-term GOP congressman were expected to ask the court to dismiss a DFL lawsuit that challenges Gutknecht's place on the ballot. Louis Reiter, a Democrat from Elgin, argues that most of the signatures Gutknecht collected on a filing petition occurred before a two-week filing period and thus are invalid.

State law allows a candidate to file a petition in place of a $300 filing fee, and Gutknecht has availed himself of that option in every election since 1994. Never has he been challenged on those petitions until two weeks ago.

The lawsuit claims that the petition falls short of the required 1,000 signatures because most were signed before the July 4 to July 18 filing period. Alan Weinblatt, Reiter's attorney, says that if Gutknecht is allowed to submit four-month-old signatures, there are no limits as to how old the signatures can be.

"If there is no temporal requirement as to when the petition in lieu of filing fee must be signed, then a candidate may seek those petition signatures in August 2006 for use in the 2008 election cycle or for any election thereafter," Weinblatt writes.

But lawyers for GOP Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and Gutknecht say the time limit envisioned by the Legislature was only meant to apply to minor party candidates and those running independently. That window was not meant apply to major party candidates like Gutknecht who use the petitions not to gain ballot access but to avoid the filing fee.

Nor is this a violation of the equal protection clause, they say, because the U.S. Supreme Court has held that major parties and minor parties can be treated differently to avoid party splintering and factionalism.

Another Republican, Gregory Mikkelson, is running against Gutknecht in the primary. Gutknecht has expressed confidence that the lawsuit will be dismissed. However, if the state Supreme Court were to rule against him, his campaign would have to mount a write-in campaign to keep his candidacy alive.

Democratic candidate Tim Walz has no primary opponent.

Gutknecht was the only major party candidate to file such a petition in lieu of a $300 filing fee.

The state primary election is Sept. 12.

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