State GOP taking new tack in Horner flap

Posted at 1:55 PM on June 17, 2010 by Tim Pugmire (4 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

The state Republican party is taking a new approach to its allegation that Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner received an illegal campaign contribution.

GOP officials filed a complaint today with the Office of Administrative Hearings
claiming Horner colluded with pollster Bill Morris and his Minneapolis-based research company Decision Resources Ltd. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board declined to investigate the same complaint last week because the issue did not fall under its jurisdiction.

Michael Brodkorb, deputy chairman of the state GOP, continues to allege that Horner received poll information from his former business associate well before the information had been made public.

"It's pretty clear to us, based on the evidence, that the campaign solicited and received a corporate contribution, and also that the campaign failed to be reimbursed or pay for any portion of the poll they received."

If an administrative law judge decides the GOP complaint has merit, the matter could be the subject of a hearing within a few days.

Horner's campaign manager, Stephen Imholte, said he was waiting to comment until after he had a chance to discuss the complaint with the campaign's attorney.

UPDATE

Horner campaign spokeswoman Marti Jones released this statement:

Today's filing by the state Republican Party is bogus and a waste of tax payer's dollars. This claim is yet again another desperate, false tactic to draw attention away from the issues because their candidate will not address the needs of Minnesota. The Horner campaign looks forward to addressing substantive issues with the Republican Party.

Comments (4)

This is an absolute joke. The MN-GOP is clearly terrified about Tom Horner with the polling numbers they are seeing. The only response they have is to file complaints and waste time doing so. They are not talking about issues or the budget. That is what Minnesotans want to hear.

Posted by Molly Fredricks | June 17, 2010 2:46 PM

Really. Is that the best the GOP can come up with? They must have a serious deficiency in their polling numbers as well as in financial contributions.

Posted by George Hayduke | June 18, 2010 6:44 AM

As the MN-GOP continues to move to the radically conservative right, they are fully aware that they will lose the moderates to Horner. They will do anything at all to prevent that from happening including filing red-herring lawsuits.

Posted by Stan P | June 18, 2010 10:26 AM

According to the SUSA poll that came out today, Horner is drawing more support from Democrats than Republicans, and higher support from liberals than from moderates.

I don't know if it's the Republicans who need to be concerned about Horner. If I were a GOP donor, I'd be contributing to his campaign and trying to build him up, the way they did with Peter Hutchinson or Ralph Nader.

Posted by Chris | June 18, 2010 11:20 PM

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