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Secretary of State battles critics in campaign newsletter flap
Before making his first run at elected office last year Mark Ritchie often heard that politics is a contact sport. Now the Secretary of State's in the middle of a flap that's all about contacts, specifically a list of names and addresses he shared with his reelection campaign. In the blogosphere Republican operatives feasted on roasted Ritchie the day before Thanksgiving. And Secretary Ritchie found himself admitting to one mistake but defending himself against other political jabs. It all began last April when Secretary Ritchie hosted a meeting for those interested in forming a state council on civic engagement. He invited hundreds of interest groups to the session, including Mark Giga of the Taxpayer's League of Minnesota. "They were forming a group to inform civic education in Minnesota to get more people involved in voting," Giga recalled in an interview with KARE 11. Giga and John Tomczak, a realtor and Republican activist who heads the Citizens in Charge Foundation, both received follow-up e-mails from the Secretary of State's office. One included a directory of those involved in the civic engagement project, including Giga and Tomczak. Ritchie's office created the directory to help the groups connect with one another. "When the group said that yes, we want a public directory of all the groups, it was important that every group be included who wanted to be, that no one be excluded," Ritchie explained. Ritchie maintains the directory became public information, available to anyone who wanted to become involved in the civic engagement project. But to Giga's and Tomczak's surprise the names in the directory became part of the Ritchie 2010 campaign mailing list. And they wondered how that happened. "It was a dear friend letter," Giga said of the Ritchie campaign newsletter that appeared in his e-mail in October. "I got a call from Jack and I went back and looked at it again, and I thought there was something odd with it." The October newsletter from the Ritchie 2010 campaign alerted readers of two upcoming events. One was a service marking the Wellstone plane crash anniversary and the other was a fundraiser featuring former Texas Democratic politician Jim Hightower. "I went back and read it and this was obviously a request for political contributions," Giga remarked. What stood out most was the following line: "If you can't make it to this event but would like to help me cover my campaign related expenses for this year, you can donate online here." The newsletter also included a link to Ritchie's campaign website. "There should be zero suspicion when it comes to something like this," Giga said. Giga and Tomczak suspected that Ritchie had taken information collected by his office at taxpayer's expense, and shared that with his campaign for political purposes. They wanted to know how Ritchie's campaign got a hold of their names and e-mail addresses, a questioned quickly echoed by some Republican lawmakers. They asked Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles to formally investigate the incident. Ritchie Shared List Nobles is looking into the matter, but Ritchie himself answered one pivotal question Wednesday. He said he urged a campaign volunteer to copy that directory to his civic engagement newsletter mailing list. "One of our volunteers typed in the names of the groups who said they were interested in civic education and civic engagement," Ritchie explained. Ritchie asserts the list of names and addresses was public information, and it wasn't a mistake for him to share it with his political campaign. "I asked our campaign to make sure that the groups who said we are interested in civic engagement to make sure that they got a copy of that newsletter." The real mistake, in his mind, was to include a fundraising pitch on that civic engagement newsletter. He intended that letter to be apolitical, because the point was was to keep those involved in the civil engagement process updated. "It is incumbent upon me to make sure that my newsletter is absolutely just devoted to all issues just around civic engagement," Ritchie said. Ritchie said the newsletter, and the list of people it went to, were completely separate from his direct fundraising newsletters. In fact, a much more direct appeal when to political donors at about the same time. "We have a list for direct solicitation letters that go to our donors and Democratic Party donors." The Perception Issue But Giga and many Republicans contend Ritchie crossed the line by giving his campaign names he collected in his official capacity as Secretary of State. "Maybe one list or one group of names going to his campaign isn't a big deal," said Giga, "But if it's multiple groups and multiple lists then we've got a serious problem." Dave Schultz, of Hamline University's Graduate School of Management, told KARE 11 even if there's no ironclad that any laws were violated it's still an issue of perception for Ritchie and anyone else who holds that position. "Clearly secretaries of state as chief election officials have to be beyond reproach. And this doesn't look good." Schultz said he believes Ritchie will weather this storm, but that he needs to clearly apologize to the public and assure constituents' information provided to the office under any circumstances can't be lent to his campaign or any others. "You don't want to be contacting your state representative or your Secretary of State, and finding out you're now going to be solicited for a contribution." As for apologies, the Secretary of State did not offer any to the citizens at large Wednesday. He pointed out the controversial newsletter went to thousands of other people who didn't complain. "Keep in mind there's 12,000 people. So two people in 12,000 did not want to receive the newsletter. And I apologize if they did not want to receive the newsletter." Public data or Private? Republican State Representatives Tom Emmer of Delano and Laura Brod of New Prague Wednesday called on the auditor Nobles to launch a separate investigation, into whether Ritchie violated the Data Practices Act by creating and mailing the civic engagement directory. Ritchie said every person listed in the directory agreed to be included in it, and were made aware it would be a public document distributed to anyone seeking the information. He added that the people of Minnesota need not worry about the integrity of the information on file in the Secretary of State's office. The office deals with millions of records, ranging from names of registered voters to business clients who file articles of incorporation. If the civic engagement project is a function of the Secretary of State's office, one might ask why not send the civic engagement newsletter from that office? Why make it a campaign publication? Ritchie explained he didn't want to lean on the taxpayers when it came to sending out updates about the project. He said other elected officials use campaign funds at time to finance town meetings and other events. "Many politicians get criticized for promoting themselves using the taxpayers money." Flogged by Bloggers But for Ritchie's critics in the Republican Party the newsletter is no longer the main issue. They're focusing on why Ritchie didn't tell reporters everything he knew when they first asked about it in October. On the site Minnesota Democrats Exposed, former GOP employee Michael Brodkorb wrote "Ritchie has been caught in a major lie as he attempted to cover up where his campaign received e-mail addresses used in a campaign solicitation." The bloggers were energized by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's report Wednesday that Ritchie admitted sharing the list of names with his campaign. The article noted that Ritchie, when first asked about the list in question, said only that it was public information. At the time he didn't reveal exactly how his campaign came by the names and e-mail addresses. It prompted the chairman of the state Republican Party, Ron Carey, to call on Ritchie to resign. Democratic Party chair Brian Melendez said the GOP's blowing an "honest mistake" out of proportion by trying to "manufacture a phony crisis." Ritchie told KARE this experience has taught him, among other things, partisan bloggers, political parties and opposition lawmakers at times work in concert for a coordinated attack. "There is a concerted strategy to try to paint me as partisan. I've run this office for nearly a year on a very nonpartisan basis."
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