Quie tells candidate to remove his name

Posted at 10:51 AM on October 29, 2010 by Tim Pugmire (4 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, MN Legislature

A Republican state Senate candidate has apologized to former Gov. Al Quie after incorrectly listing him among her endorsers.

Norann Dillon of Plymouth, who's challenging incumbent Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL-Minnetonka, recently sent out a campaign flier to residents of District 43 highlighting several endorsements, including fellow Republican Quie. But the endorsement was news to the former governor, who remembered a different outcome from a meeting with Dillon.

"I said no, I'm not going to endorse you," Quie said. "I don't remember if I told her any reason why or not."

Quie, who made news last week when he endorsed Independence Party candidate Tom Horner in the governor's race, said he was initially upset about Dillon's flier. But he said he thinks a telephone conversation with Dillon this morning resolved the issue.

"She apologized," Quie said. " She's going to put on her Web today that I did not do that."

Dillon confirmed that she was planning to issue a correction on her campaign Web site. Dillon described the matter as a misunderstanding that came out of her earlier meeting with Quie.

"He said it was alright to use his name," Dillon said. "I've had other candidates tell me the same thing, and in those cases that meant endorsement. Perhaps for Gov. Quie it was not that explicit."

Sen. Bonoff offered a harsher assessment of the misstep.

"I'm not questioning my opponent's motives," Bonoff said. "But none the less, it is a misrepresentation, and that's unacceptable."

UPDATE

Here's what Dillon posted on her campaign Web site:

Earlier this year, Governor Quie, who lives in my district, expressed support for my campaign. I though this statement to be an endorsement. It was a misunderstanding between Governor Quie and myself, and I apologize for using his name on my recent mailings.

Told you I wasn't a politician.

Comments (4)

Norann Dillon's "apology" sure looks like semantic game playing to me. Now Quie "supports" her, but he doesn't "endorse" her?

I might be more convinced by this shaky line of argument, if she hadn't also backdated the apology to October 26th, so that it doesn't show up until you scroll to the bottom of her page. Not very cool, Norann. Do you just think people don't notice these things?

Posted by peter hill | October 29, 2010 5:09 PM

Not a politician Norann says. I'd say very much like a politician--a politician named Richard Nixon. He was good at lying and then trying to cover it up.

Posted by matthew knopf | October 29, 2010 8:34 PM

This was not a "misrepresentation." This was an honest misunderstanding between Dillon and the governor. Why would anyone intentionally misrepresent an endorsement? It would serve no purpose, as it would be sure to be called out. The only thing inappropriate here is imputing intent for which there is no evidence or rational motive.

Posted by Walter Hudson | October 31, 2010 5:48 AM

Why would a candidate intentionally misrepresent an endorsement? The harm done in it being made public that it was an intentional misrepresentation holds more chance for disaster than the gain to be had from the endorsement. Politics being an inherently public business, it assuredly will become public. Any logical person would have to assume that the error was a misunderstanding.

When a candidate missteps, and honestly corrects the issue openly and publicly, why should you be so quick to judge intent?

For those that automatically assume the error was intentional… your bias is showing.

Posted by Dan | November 2, 2010 2:16 PM

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