Reprinted from

We endorse for state offices:

Swanson, Otto and Kiffmeyer
State constitutional jobs
November 2, 2006

Minnesotans on Tuesday will be deciding who will hold the state constitutional offices of attorney general, auditor and secretary of state.
We endorse: DFLer Lori Swanson for attorney general over Republican Jeff Johnson; DFLer Rebecca Otto over Republican Patricia Anderson for auditor; Republican Mary Kiffmeyer over DFLer Mark Ritchie for secretary of state.
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Mike Hatch has served the state well as attorney general for eight years. And he, properly, gives his staff credit for much of that success.
Swanson has not only been a part of that staff, she has been the state’s solicitor general. She’s been in the courtroom trenches on behalf of the state on several key issues and she’s done a darn good job there.
Jeff Johnson has also done a good job in the state Legislature, helping steer some key bills through the legislative maze that is St. Paul, including an anti-meth measure, a tort reform measure and an eminent domain reform bill that he worked with state Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, to get into law.
The two provide Minnesotans with two good candidates for attorney general, which is definitely the most important statewide elective job other than governor.
Johnson has said a Swanson victory would be an extension of Hatch’s reign as attorney general and would continue what he has called too much a “politicization” of the office. We find that stance far too political itself. We counter that with three points:
1. Swanson has served the state and the attorney general well as solicitor general . We find that an incredible plus, not a minus.
2. Whether the office has been too “politicized,” as Johnson claims, is certainly open to legitimate debate, but we find that to be mostly partisan political debate. What matters to most Minnesotans is whether the office has been effective for them. We think that answer is a definite yes.
3. To suggest that Swanson is somehow a puppet for Hatch and will continue as one once he has left the office is absurd and, quite frankly, an insult to her professionalism and integrity.
We believe Swanson has the best qualifications and experience for the job. She has our strong endorsement for attorney general.
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Incumbent Patricia Anderson has been not been an invisible or quiet state auditor. She also has not been a good one.
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republican Auditor Anderson decided early on four years ago that she would be the point person to go after local governments, especially those in rural areas and extra-especially those on the Iron Range, in cutting Local Government Aid that flows from St. Paul to help fill a $4.5 billion budget hole.
She proudly claims that she took the lead in advocating and advancing substantial LGA cuts — in other words she was the most vocal supporter of cuts to local governments that led to substantial cutbacks in public safety and other day-to-day services and which then prompted increased property taxes on a local level.
Were the cuts to rural areas with less property value wealth than the well-off suburbs, which were spared, fair? Of course, she said.
Shouldn’t the Iron Range feel targeted because it took a double hit of LGA cuts and, for many communities, an extra loss because taconite aid for them is now factored into the LGA formula and is being phased in over a few years? Of course not, she said.
In fact, we were just some big whiners, according to the state auditor. “There was a lot of whining from some areas of the state, definitely from the Iron Range. We heard that the world was going to fall apart. But it didn’t. And we fixed the problem,” she said in an interview with the Mesabi Daily News in July.
Yes, it was a big problem to fix. And yes, all needed to share the pain. But there should have also been a much more equal sharing. It was not. The wealthy suburbs skated on by, while rural areas were left slipping and sliding and falling down. It wasn’t a pretty sight. And, most regrettably, it did not have to happen.
A state auditor should help local governments, work with them to make their operations more efficient and catch fiscal wrongdoing. A state auditor should not be in unnecessary conflict with local governments. Yet that has been the role that Anderson seems to have relished.
Otto has waged a good, solid campaign. She has armed herself with facts and figures and charts to show how local governments, especially in rural areas, have had to bear a disproportionate share of necessary financial cuts the past four years.
She has certainly made a good case for election as state auditor. And, just as importantly, Anderson has made a good case that she should not be re-elected.
Otto has our full support and endorsement.
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If there is one state office that should be as invisible as possible it’s secretary of state.
All most Minnesotans ask of the office is that their elections are well monitored, voter fraud is kept from Minnesota’s election days, voter turnout in the state continues to be the envy of all other states, and the office is well administered and kept as electronically modern as possible with funds available.
Minnesota had the nation’s best secretary of state in that regard for years and years in DFLer Joan Growe.
Incumbent Kiffmeyer has had her bumps as secretary of state, but none that have jeopardized the stellar tradition of the office. Overall she’s done a good job.
We are sure that Ritchie would also do fine in the office for Minnesotans. But Kiffmeyer has not done anything to betray the trust of Minnesotans as their secretary of state. She has our endorsement.