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DEVELOPING STORY: RYBAK FILES PAPERWORK FOR GOVERNOR

By Luke Hellier | November 5, 2009

Tom Scheck, from Minnesota Public Radio, has confirmed via Twitter that Mayor RT Rybak he has filed the proper paper work to run for Governor.  This filing comes on the same day that the MN Campaign Finance Board was meeting to discuss the campaign complaints against Mayor Rybak.

Developing story.  Check back to Minnesota Democrats Exposed for more information.

UPDATE FROM POLITICS IN MINNESOTA:

The Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (CFB) heard the GOP State Party complaint against DFL St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and DFL Mayor RT Rybak today–on the same day Rybak filed his campaign committee–in an 80-minute “executive session,” a closed door meeting not open to the public.

We won’t know what the CFB decided until it posts the decisions on their web site tomorrow at noon.  But significantly, the CFB made very clear that there will be two separate decisions, one in re Coleman, and one in re Rybak.

The gist of the GOP complaint is that both mayors were spending money running for governor without filing gubernatorial campaign committees. The law requires anyone who spends more than $100 running for an office to file a campaign committee for that office.  Details in the GOP paper here, here and here.

The significance of separate decisions could relate to how Coleman and Rybak handled how they spent money on gubernatorial campaign activities.

Here’s the difference between the two campaigns. Coleman detailed expenses he incurred on the gubernatorial trail in his mayoral committee reports.  Rybak says he spent his own money (and thus didn’t detail any expense anywhere).  TheCFB asked the state GOPers to detail the expenses, and the party tried to calculate Rybak’s mileage, here.  According to GOP calculations, Rybak racked up at least 1,900 miles on the hunt for governor, which, at the IRS figure of 55 cents a mile, adds up to $1,055.  Hilariously, I thought, Rybak said about his travels at the time that they were perfectly legal, and that “When the car gets empty I pull over…so far I’m not broke.”  (That’s from this Strib blog post.)

My prediction is that the CFB will give Coleman a pass.  He filed the expenses on his mayoral reports, and all is now moot now that he’s out of the race.

As for Rybak, it’s tough for me to fathom how the CFB could fail to rule against him, because the record is so clear.  [If you haven't already hit the links, the GOP details are compelling.]

More on PIM story here.

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