reprinted from

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

A new chapter in auditor's race
 

Daily Globe, Worthington Daily Globe
Published Wednesday, August 23, 2006
 

The race between incumbent Republican Pat Anderson and DFLer Rebecca Otto for state auditor has continued to be intriguing since an editorial on the campaign appeared in Thursday’s Daily Globe.

The editorial was written shortly after Otto said that Anderson had been made more than $201 million in accounting errors in her report on special district finances. Anderson, at that time, denied any errors in the report.

Since then, Anderson — in the Friday edition of the Star Tribune — struck back at Otto, saying her foe overlooked $18 million in grant revenues for school districts in reviewing her report. “She made 18 accounting errors,” Anderson was quoted as saying. “Her analysis is completely wrong.” Anderson also contested Otto’s claim that she had found no errors in previous state auditors’ reports, noting that Judi Dutcher had to reissue an entire report on city and county fund balances for 1993 because of mistakes.

Otto followed fired another salvo Tuesday. A press release issued by the DFL stated: “With no fanfare or public acknowledgement, State Auditor Patricia Anderson this week released a corrected version of her report on special district finances after DFL challenger Rebecca Otto pointed out over $180 million in errors in the report last week.” It’s also noted that the report’s date remains Aug. 8, 2006, “and there are no footnotes indicating that the report was amended.”

Reached by telephone, Deputy Auditor Tony Sutton said Tuesday the only error in question was a typo that appeared in narrative (the report initially listed a total as $389.0 million; it’s now been changed to $569.1 million), while criticizing what he said were errors in Otto’s analysis of the report. (Sutton, incidentally is also secretary/treasurer of the Republican Party of Minnesota).

Even if the mistake was indeed merely a typo, as Sutton asserts, the decision to simply correct the error supposedly in question without any kind of outward acknowledgement does two things. It casts suspicion upon Anderson, and it gives Otto additional ammunition.