Mark Ritchie
WHO IS MARK RITCHIE? A COMPLETE BACKGROUND
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008As I wrote yesterday, no blogger or reporter in the entire world has written more posts or stories about Secretary of State Mark Ritchie other than yours truly. I am still reviewing the hundreds of posts that I have written about Ritchie and will be posting updates to this post over the next 24 hours.
I [...]
WHOOPS! E-MAIL SENT FROM SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE’S OFFICE ABOUT PRECINCT CAUCUSES DRIVES TRAFFIC TO PORN SITE
Monday, January 21st, 2008There are days when Minnesota Democrats make it far too easy to expose their embarrassing behavior. Today is one of those days.
Late last week, a representative of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie office sent an email to county election officials regarding Minnesota's upcoming precinct caucuses. The email contained a generic template for a press release [...]
SECRETARY OF STATE MARK RITCHIE’S UNDER OATH INTERVIEW WITH LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR JIM NOBLES; RITCHIE CLAIMS HE’S NEVER BEEN “ACTIVE IN A POLITICAL PARTY”
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and his staff were required to be interviewed by Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles under oath due to Ritchie's office's inability to provide reliable information to Nobles' office. Nobles was investigating allegations that Ritchie used his official office to fund his political machine.
In each interview, Nobles specifically discussed Minnesota Statue [...]
COMING SOON: RITCHIE’S UNDER OATH INTERVIEW WITH LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR JIM NOBLES
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008Since yesterday afternoon, I have been reviewing the interviews conducted by Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles with Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and staffers from his office.
I will be posting Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's interview later this evening. I will be highlighting one answer that Ritchie provided under oath that the dedicated readers of [...]
PIONEER PRESS EDITORIAL: REPUBLICANS WHO VOICED CONCERNS ABOUT RITCHIE’S CONDUCT “HAVE PERFORMED A VALUABLE SERVICE”
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008"It's also fair to say that people who sign up at a state-sponsored event should not then receive campaign material from the elected official who organized the event. And if the 'Republican operatives' helped make that clear – not just for Ritchie, but for every other politician at the Capitol – they have performed a [...]
STAR TRIBUNE EDITORIAL RIPS RITCHIE, MENTIONS POSSIBILITY THAT RITCHIE’S LEGAL PROBLEMS MAY NOT BE OVER
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008"Add the name Mark Ritchie to the long list of state and national public officials who have learned the hard way that trying to hide an error in judgment only magnifies the mistake.
If Minnesota's first-term DFL secretary of state had owned up when first asked about giving his campaign the names and addresses of people [...]
ANOTHER BAD PRESS DAY FOR SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008"Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie did not misuse state resources or violate any laws when he provided his campaign contact information from a civic engagement forum his office was sponsoring, the Minnesota Legislative Auditor said in a report released today.
But the report criticized Ritchie for failing at first to be forthcoming with the Legislative [...]
CAREY VS. MELENDEZ SMACKDOWN OVER RITCHIE AT DFL PRESS CONFERENCE
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
I called DFL Party Brian Melendez's move to have a press conference celebrate the report from the Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles that reported that Ritchie "did not fulfill his legal obligations" in answering Nobles' questions my "bonehead play of the day." While I think it was still a "bonehead" move to have the press [...]
BONEHEAD PLAY OF THE DAY: DFL PARTY TO HAVE PRESS CONFERENCE TO CELEBRATE REPORT THAT SAID RITCHIE “DID NOT FULFILL HIS LEGAL OBLIGATIONS”
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008There are days when the Minnesota DFL makes exposing Minnesota Democrats so easy. DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez is scheduled a press event for 1:00 P.M. today to celebrate the report from the Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles that reported Ritchie "did not fulfill his legal obligations" in answering Nobles' questions.
Ritchie receives a strong rebuke [...]
LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR REPORT ON RITCHIE: INTERVIEWS UNDER OATH SHOW HOW RITCHIE’S OFFICE PROVIDED ROADBLOCKS TO INVESTIGATION
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008In my post last evening, I eluded to reading the complete report about Secretary of State Mark Ritchie from Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles.
I have just received the transcript of the interviews Nobles conducted under oath with Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Catherine Mohn, executive assistant to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Bert Black, [...]
DID RITCHIE BREAK THE LAW BECAUSE HE “DID NOT FULFILL HIS LEGAL OBLIGATIONS” TO PROVIDE ANSWERS TO LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR?
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008This matter may not be over yet. I'm hearing that Nobles' report may have provided information that could be the basis of further legal action against Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. While Nobles' report doesn't have the force of law behind it, it does paint the image that Secretary of State Mark Ritchie's office didn't [...]
LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR REPORT ON RITCHIE A MIXED BAG: RITCHIE DIDN’T “MISUSE STATE RESOURCES”, BUT DIDN’T FULLFILL HIS LEGAL OBLIGATION TO ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008"Secretary of State Mark Ritchie did not misuse state resources when he organized civic education events and collected contact information from the participants. The events were appropriate activities of the Secretary of State’s office, and the contact information fulfilled a public purpose. He did not violate Minnesota law when he provided the contact information to [...]
LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR PRESENTS A PICTURE OF RITCHIE’S OFFICE OBSTRUCTING INVESTIGATION
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles has released his report on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. While I'm still reading the report, I found this portion very interesting:
"The fact that Mr. Ritchie did not acknowledge his action in the written response we received on November 9 created suspicion and led to our decision to require [...]
RUMOR MILL: LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR TO RELEASE REPORT ON SECRETARY OF STATE RITCHIE TOMORROW
Monday, January 7th, 2008Rumors are flying around in political circles that Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles will be releasing his report on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie tomorrow around 10:00 A.M.
Ritchie promised to be a non-partisan secretary of state, but was caught lying in the growing scandal surrounding allegations that he used his official office to fund his [...]
AFTER MDE POST, SECRETARY OF STATE MARK RITCHIE’S OFFICE INCREASES PROMOTION OF MINNESOTA PRECINCT CAUCUSES ON OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Friday, January 4th, 2008Yesterday, I wrote a stinging post how Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and his office were bucking precedent and burying information on Minnesota's upcoming precinct caucuses.
One of the examples I cited was that Secretary of Mark Ritchie's "Election and Voting" Meeting and Event Calendar didn't list the precinct caucuses as an event. Please note in [...]
BUCKING PRECENDENT, SECRETARY OF STATE MARK RITCHIE BURIES INFORMATION ON MINNESOTA’S UPCOMING PRECINCT CAUCUSES
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008Some days I wonder if Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and his staff are done even trying anymore. I wonder if they have given up. Today is one of these days. As I wrote earlier, I spent a few hours yesterday down in SD 25 to help the Republican-endorsed candidate, Ray Cox. After I got [...]
SOS RITCHIE MAKES LIBERAL BLOGGER’S LIST OF “WORST POLITICAL PERSON†IN THE ENTIRE STATE
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008Ouch:
"8. SOS Mark Ritchie — Well, well, looks like we are going bi-partisan this year. Ritchie let his ambition get in the way of….smart politics. Always looking for another way to raise money, Ritchie ventured into the forbidden territory of mixing campaign funding with his government job. He truly made Brodkorb's job way too easy. [...]
FROM MPR: “QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN RAISED BEFORE ABOUT RITCHIE AND THE HANDLING OF DOCUMENT”
Monday, December 17th, 2007Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) has profile story about Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on their website. The story is also being broadcast on the radio at various times. I was interviewed for the story. MPR's story states that "[q]uesions have been raised before about Ritchie and the handling of documents."
MDE FROM THE ARCHIVES: RITCHIE SAID “WE MUST HAVE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY IN OUR ELECTION OFFICIALS”
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
A dedicated reader of Minnesota Democrats Exposed sent me this clip of a then-candidate Mark Ritchie talking about how “we must have honesty and integrity in our election officials” during the 2006 elections.
I don’t believe most Minnesotans would use the words “honesty” and “integrity” to describe Secretary of State Ritchie these days as he [...]