FORMER INDICTED LEGISLATOR STARTS NEW CAMPAIGN BY IGNORING ELECTION LAWS
GOP Demands Otto Remove Potentially Illegal Campaign Material
The Republican Party of Minnesota raised questions yesterday about the campaign website of state auditor candidate Rebecca Otto. Otto’s auditor campaign website, www.ottoforauditor.com, actually displays Otto’s website for her house of representative campaign. According to Otto’s auditor website, it was “prepared and paid for by Otto for House…”
Since this website clearly benefits Otto’s campaign for state auditor and because her House of Representatives campaign is not in the process of being dissolved this could constitute a violation of Minn. Stat. § 10A.27, subd. 2(9) paragraph (a) which states:
(a) A candidate or the treasurer of a candidate’s principal campaign committee must not accept a contribution from another candidate’s principal campaign committee or from any other committee bearing the contributing candidate’s name or title or otherwise authorized by the contributing candidate, unless the contributing candidate’s principal campaign committee is being dissolved.
“One would think that a candidate who was indicted for distributing false campaign literature would want to start a new campaign by following Minnesota’s election laws,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Executive Director Corey Miltimore. “It appears that from day one of her campaign for the office of state auditor, Rebecca Otto is violating the law,” added Miltimore.
In 2003, than DFL State Representative Rebecca Otto and her husband and campaign manager, Shawn Otto, were indicted for distributing false campaign material during her special election. Otto’s campaign disseminated a piece of campaign literature that erroneously claimed her Republican opponent, Matt Dean, “put his own children in private school.” Dean, who defeated Otto in 2004, actually had one child who was attending a public school and another child scheduled to start kindergarten.
The charges against the Ottos were later dismissed because the presiding judge had concerns about the constitutionality of a portion of the state campaign ethics laws.
“Rebecca Otto should immediately remove the potentially illegal material from her auditor website, which appears to have already received over 11,000 hits, and start her campaign within the boundaries of Minnesota’s elections laws,” concluded Miltimore. Source: Republican Party of Minnesota, March 24, 2005
Since this website clearly benefits Otto’s campaign for state auditor and because her House of Representatives campaign is not in the process of being dissolved this could constitute a violation of Minn. Stat. § 10A.27, subd. 2(9) paragraph (a) which states:
(a) A candidate or the treasurer of a candidate’s principal campaign committee must not accept a contribution from another candidate’s principal campaign committee or from any other committee bearing the contributing candidate’s name or title or otherwise authorized by the contributing candidate, unless the contributing candidate’s principal campaign committee is being dissolved.
“One would think that a candidate who was indicted for distributing false campaign literature would want to start a new campaign by following Minnesota’s election laws,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Executive Director Corey Miltimore. “It appears that from day one of her campaign for the office of state auditor, Rebecca Otto is violating the law,” added Miltimore.
In 2003, than DFL State Representative Rebecca Otto and her husband and campaign manager, Shawn Otto, were indicted for distributing false campaign material during her special election. Otto’s campaign disseminated a piece of campaign literature that erroneously claimed her Republican opponent, Matt Dean, “put his own children in private school.” Dean, who defeated Otto in 2004, actually had one child who was attending a public school and another child scheduled to start kindergarten.
The charges against the Ottos were later dismissed because the presiding judge had concerns about the constitutionality of a portion of the state campaign ethics laws.
“Rebecca Otto should immediately remove the potentially illegal material from her auditor website, which appears to have already received over 11,000 hits, and start her campaign within the boundaries of Minnesota’s elections laws,” concluded Miltimore. Source: Republican Party of Minnesota, March 24, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home