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MDE EXCLUSIVE: NEW ALLEGATIONS SURFACE AGAINST RITCHIE; STATE EMPLOYEES RECEIVED EMAILS FROM RITCHIE’S CAMPAIGN
By Michael B. Brodkorb | October 30, 2007
Since the allegations broke on Minnesota Democrats Exposed that Secretary of State Ritchie may have used his official office to fund his political machine, I have received numerous emails from people questioning themselves as to why they have been receiving emails from Ritchie's campaign.
As with the Mr. Giga and Mr. Tomczak, these people informed me that at no time did they provide Ritchie's campaign with the specific contact information through which they received their solicitation for contributions from Ritchie's campaign.
I have received information this morning that certain state employees associated with Minnesota's Sesquicentennial events have complained about receiving solicitations for contributions from Ritchie's campaign. Secretary of State Ritchie's official office has an active role in Minnesota's Sesquicentennial events and his official website lists information about next year's events.
According to numerous sources who spoke with me on background, some state employees have received solicitations for contributions from Ritchie's campaign at their state email addresses. At no time did they provide Ritchie's campaign with the specific contact information through which they received their solicitation for contributions from Ritchie's campaign.
This new information widens the scope of the allegations against Secretary of State Ritchie.
Repeated requests for comment made to Secretary of State Ritchie's official office and Ritchie's campaign have yet to be returned. I will publish any response I received from Ritchie's official office or from his campaign responding to the specific allegations.
Please check back to Minnesota Democrats Exposed throughout the day for more information on this developing story.
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17 Responses to “MDE EXCLUSIVE: NEW ALLEGATIONS SURFACE AGAINST RITCHIE; STATE EMPLOYEES RECEIVED EMAILS FROM RITCHIE’S CAMPAIGN”
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October 30th, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Once again, nice job MDE. Ritchie needs to come clean about this unethical, if not illegal, activity. This story will continue to grow as he remains silent.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:41 AM
Holy cow! This is getting serious!
Ritchie needs to hold a press conference or something to deal with this.
MDE sometimes reaches on issues but this one is clearly a huge screw up for the Dems.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:37 PM
If Richie is using state office space for meetings on this issue, or state phones or state email, that too is unethical and potentially illegal.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:45 PM
The Public Employees Union AFSME handles my Delta Dental Insurance. Shortly before the last presidential election my AFSME union local said that an “update of records” was required to continue recieving Delta Dentakl benifits. That is the only time I ever gave the union a certain email address. Last Presidential election and to a lesser extent during the mid-term electionI was bomparded with the typical “pro-docratic-anti republican” AFSME type political messages via email.
If I had to take a guess I would say that AFSME was “sharing” email lists like the on for my Delta Dental “updating”. I recall some people at work who gave their work email address were bothered by getting “political” emails from the union after this.
Here is a “beartrap” trick for this. If you register domains at all or know people who do register domains. Services I use like http://godaddy.com and http://directnic.com all up to 100 email forwardings. I could, for example give an email address like example@soliah.com (not valid, just an example) that redirects that email to my regular email address. It’s usefull for instances where you might get spammed but if only
used for one specific purpose this is a way to catch the culprits.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:54 PM
Ritchie’s silence on this is deafening.
He’s in a very bad spot on this and needs to provide some sort of public explanation ASAP.
This is like when Entenza lied and avoided a statement over his dirt digging on Hatch. Which, I think MDE uncovered.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:54 PM
This just keeps getting deeper and deeper for the Secretary of State. At some point he will need to come clean. He should be the person in state government that is the most trustworthy with the citizens considering what his responsibilities are!
October 30th, 2007 at 12:55 PM
This is getting serious. It started as something that was certainly wrong but appeared to be limited in scope but as we learn more about this it’s becoming clear that this isn’t some small, isolated incident but rather part of a much larger calculated scheme likely directed by Ritchie himself. It’s time he starts answering questions.
Given the nature of what’s happening, we could be facing a Constitutional crisis in Minnesota unlike anything seen before.
October 30th, 2007 at 1:11 PM
Unbelievable. No, wait, it’s the DFL. Believable. Here’s what jumped out at me: He’s sending fundraising emails to state email addresses. It would be illegal for someone to respond to that email on a state address. why would the secretary of state put potential donors in a situation asking them to break the law to fund his campaign? Is he arrogant, ignorant or just stupid?
This man is in charge of our elections? Keeping addresses confidential?
October 30th, 2007 at 1:54 PM
I think the name Ritchie is of German origin. Loosely translated, it means “one term” or “wow, did I mess up”.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:17 PM
I wonder if MN Pooplius or Minnesota Monitor can break away from global warming or GLBT stories respectively to defend Comrade Ritchie.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:39 PM
If even half of this is true, a very serious pattern of corruption seems to be developing right before our eyes.
We need to be able to have confidence in our elections.
If our Chief Elections Officer is stacking the deck in his favor, or the favor of “his team” using (in part) my teams resources, he needs to be held to account.
This whole sordid story should make any voter concerned and outraged.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:05 PM
I am a county employee and have also been receiving Ritchie’s solicitations. I wasn’t sure why. I just assumed that the DFL assumed that anyone who worked for government must be a DFLer (which is not the case).
October 30th, 2007 at 3:16 PM
County Employee,
Were you at the Civic Engagement meetings?
October 30th, 2007 at 8:24 PM
W. James,
No, I was not at the Civic Engagement meetings.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:29 PM
Boy, I bet you guys now wish that Mary Kiffmeyer didn’t oppose a proposed Code of Integrity that would bar formal partisan activity by the office back in August of 2005.
So, keep your whining and harping going. It will be good practice when President Hillary Clinton is sworn in with all of the powers granted to the presidency over the years by the Republicans.
You guys are victims of your own short-sightedness.
December 10th, 2007 at 12:17 PM
[...] Click here for the complete post. [...]
December 10th, 2007 at 4:13 PM
Isn’t Mr. Carey the Governor’s Press Secretary? Ritchie’s hubris knows no bounds!