Look, I get it, Michael Brodkorb thinks he’s clever because he can read from the Republican playbook: when you don’t know what else to do, attack your opponent’s credibility and personal history. But there’s something more with Michael’s vile hatred for Secretary of State Ritchie. Something that I can’t put my finger on. Is it just the reality of a DFL SoS that stokes Michael’s fire, is it Ritchie’s determination to make sure everyone in Minnesota can vote, did he just really like Mary Kiffemeyer? I honestly can’t say, but with the GOP consultant bragging on his blog about how he’s about to drag the Secretary of State through the mud when we’re on the doorstep of the most significant recount in our state’s history, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a quick look at Michael Brodkorb’s odd infatuation with Mark Ritchie.
If you do a Google search for Mark Ritchie’s name on Minnesota Democrats Exposed you’ll come up with 203 results (and that’s with duplicates omitted). Michael has accused Ritchie of everything from being a partisan (gasp! you mean that’s what DFL means?), to a communist (many times; I think he’s had approximately a million posts on this), to being an eco-terrorist; yeah, that’s right, he accused Ritchie of being an eco-terrorist and then proceeded to milk 3 posts out of it.
He also many times accused Ritchie of misusing state funds and violating Minnesota law. To Michael’s credit, many in the MN GOP jumped on this bandwagon and even got the Legislative Auditor, Jim Nobles, to do a full investigation of it. Michael then proceeded to pump up the report and crow about Ritchie’s scandal (Sean had a post about that hilarity). Then the full report was released and guess what, the Legislative Auditor concluded after a thorough investigation that Mark Ritchie had done none of the above.
The truth is that Mark Ritchie’s biggest offense in the eyes of Michael Brodkorb is being a DFLer. He ran as a DFLer, he admits that while he strives to be non-partisan in his application of election law, he’s still a DFLer, he attends DFL events, he contributes to DFL candidates, the whole dirty nine yards! But you know what, he was also endorsed by the Star Tribune as the best candidate for Secretary of State as a DFLer. He also got endorsed by the Pioneer Press as a DFLer. He also immediately responded to claims of voter fraud on the part of Democrats by stopping the counting of affected ballots until the matter could be thoroughly investigated, as a DFLer.
Mark Ritchie is as clean as a whistle. And while we know that the NRSC has already been distributing multi-page attack manuals on Ritchie, I think even those might be more credible than Michael Brodkorb’s attacks at this point. Whatever Brodkorb’s deal with Ritchie is, it’s weird and it seems all too personal.
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Me: Hmm. Does Brodkorb have a vendetta against Mark Richie or what? I guess I’ll check MNPublius.
Not even kidding about that.
This reeks of the Republican tactics of 2000 in Florida. We can’t let it happen in Minnesota. There is no one, and I repeat no one in this entire world that I would trust more then Mark Richie to preside over this recount in a fair and impartial way.
Mark is a superstar, and Michael B. Broadcorp is a no-talent assclown. I think that about covers it.
You are so right in that this is right out of the republican playbook.
What I have never understood is why there doesnt seem to be any
recourse for such behavior? Maybe there is and the target’s just
aren’t interested in tying up the legal system? Thanks for bringing
this all out in the open.
Think like a Republican and the answer is obvious. Democratic Secretary’s of State won’t help Republicans steal elections. If we had a Republican SOS, the MN Senate recount would be as non-partisan, fair and balanced as the 2000 theft of the Presidency.
What’s interesting is Michael acts as if the SoS office lives in a vacuum and it is only there that someone’s personal political views can negate their professional non-partisanship.
Judges are non-partisan, but I’m pretty sure a good number of them vote in elections on both sides. Does this mean that if I get arrested, I can instruct my lawyer to inquire as to the judge’s political affiliation or look up his/her political donations, and if he/she is a Republican or has given to Republcians (of Libertarians, or Greens, etc), have him/her removed because he/she can’t be trusted to be impartial? A quick search on the FEC website for any donor who listed their occupation as “Judge” returns a few pages of results. Sure, not all are judges (some are at firms or businesses with “Judge” in the title - I just don’t have time to weed them all out), but some are. So can I have them removed without any professional proof of non-partisanship?
What about Republican SoS in other states? Every year there are recounts, not necessarily this big or important, but they do occur. If Michael feel that a partisan elected SoS is unable to be a non-partisan professional without any proof other then their partisan activities in their own personal time, does this not lead us down a slippery slope of not being able to trust the electoral process at all? After all, someone needs to oversee elections, and shouldn’t that person be someone who votes? And if they vote, are not partisan personally then?
Anyone close to the election process here knows it would be impossible to throw an election in Minnesota, just too many checks and balances in the process. If Coleman squeaks out a victory, I will be disappointed, but will not have lingering doubts about the legitimacy of the election.
I guess Mikey and company are just missing Mary Kiffmyere, who I recall liked to pal around with traitor and election rigger Rove. Sometimes smoke leads to fire, or as in this case, smoke leads to someone blowing smoke out their behind.
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Why do I think this man is imagining Mark Richie in compromising positions…
It was the Kiffmeyers who wanted to ban dildo’s. If that had passed, we would not have MB here today. Thus, MB owes her big time.
Mark Ritchie is as clean as a whistle.
check this out for Mr. “clean”
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/11916506.html
That about says it for MN Publius “journalism”.
DelJ, you owe an apology to dildos, everywhere.
Unfortunately, Michael has a personal vendetta against Democrats, period!!! Thus the name of his blog.
I do concur that if Mary Kiffmeyer was still SoS, we would not be having this discussion and Norm would be re-elected.
On to the recount!!!
Mr. Martin’s post might be credible if not for his numerous spelling errors (Has Mr. Martin heard of something called SpellCheck?)
It’s also impossible to say that Mark Ritchie is nonpartisan. He’s participated in some of the most highly charged hyper-partisan events of the last decade, including the WTO riots in Seattle.
Mark Ritchie is an incompetent idiot. Just a week ago, the SecState’s election results website was down about 2 hours. In 2007,that website got numerous totals wrong on school levy issues while the corresponding local newspapers got it right in the morning edition.
Mark Ritchie believes in counting all ballots. That sounds nice until you realize that he means count all ballots, regardless of whether the person casting the ballot is allowed by law to vote.
Mary Kiffmeyer didn’t want to disenfranchise people. She just wanted to strike a balance between voting & FOLLOWING MINNESOTA ELECTION LAWS.
Great….a mini-Mikie….
Wake me up in mid-December….
Sure seems like all the accusations about Ritchie are unfounded, inaccurate and well just plain lies so far. Don’t Republicans realize that crying wolf results in people not listening when real issues arise? I know they are trying to game the judges but this effort will result in questionable legitimacy if Norm pulls this out as well as excite the DFL base.
I have from good sources that the DFL is swamped with volunteers to work the recount as challengers and other roles. Anybody want to guess how many Norm votes get challenged? At the same time, what happens when there are not enough Republicans to cover every recount room? Will Republicans back Norm as strongly after losing the Presidency? What does the Republican base really think of a complete RINO like Normy?
Why not publish a picture of Michael Brodkorb? Putting Mark Ritchie’s picture in there just helps do the Republicans dirty work for them.
Gary Gross would have some credibility if he didn’t try to sell us on Kiffmeyer wanting to have every vote count. She and the republicans created fraud where there was none, just a lot of poor and minority voters. They know that the more people who vote, the less likely a republican will win.
Richie has done nothing yet but allow the process to continue. If he is screwing the state, why not sic the AG on him?
She just wanted to strike a balance between voting & FOLLOWING MINNESOTA ELECTION LAWS.
Yeah! That is why her attempts to “strike a balance” were struck down for VIOLATIING MINNESOTA ELECTION LAWS.
Her goal was to make it as difficult as legally possible for people to vote. Fortunately she failed. Those darn pesky laws!
Isn’t this just part of Michael Brodkorbs Permanent Irrational Personal Vendetta Against Any Minnesotan Who Disagrees With Him?
I have found that any comment that starts by drawing attention to someone elses spelling
errors, is usually followed by baseless blathering, so I stop reading right there.
One of the most brilliant people I know is also one of the worst spellers, but then
he speaks four languages fluently so I can see how his spelling gets mixed up.
When the spelling-gestapo come out to play, it usually means
they have nothing else to base an opposing argument on…JMHO
Gary Gross would have some credibility if he didn’t try to sell us on Kiffmeyer wanting to have every vote count. She and the republicans created fraud where there was none, just a lot of poor and minority voters.
Your proof of this is what? SPECIAL NOTE: ALLEGATIONS AREN’T PROOF. THEY NEVER HAVE BEEN.
Gary — you would be well served to remember this when you talk about ‘voter fraud’.
And, I think you’d also be well served to remember that the first defense of idiots is quibbling over grammatical errors.
Sean Broom
Mark Ritchie is doing a fine job. I understand he set the board for the recount with two supreme court justices and two judges from Ramsey county plus himself. Now if he were a documented partisan hack like Kiffmeyer, he’d pack the board with cronies and throw out every Norm ballot he could.
I hear people saying if people can’t vote right, their vote shouldn’t count. That’s just what the whites said for every black vote they threw out when blacks first got the vote.
People are more or less able to understand and follow directions exactly, but their ability to accurately color a circle isn’t the issue. The issue is who they wanted to vote in for Senator. The vote is a sacred thing and thank God we really count ‘em in Minnesota.
In spite of the noise from Brodkorb’s peanut gallery.
Gary, sometimes I write these things late at night and I make spelling errors. Here I made 3, sorry. If you’d like me to craft every post as if it’s a piece of my professional or academic writing, that’s just not happening, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.