reprinted from

ECM Newspapers Capitol Roundup
 

8/11/06
 

Rebecca Otto sees herself as a bridge between state and local government in seeking auditor post
 

The DFL endorsed candidate for State Auditor, Rebecca Otto, Marine on the St. Croix, speaks at a legislative hearing during her term as a state House member.

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Rebecca Otto depicts herself as a bridge between state and local government and her opponent as a chasm.

“As I travel the state what I hear over and over from people who deal with her — they do not want to,” said Otto of Republican State Auditor Pat Anderson, who Democrat Otto is trying to unseat.

“It’s that abrasive style that she’s got,” said Otto.

For Otto, 43, the state auditor race was a reentry into politics which has been kind and harsh to her.

Otto, of Marine on the St. Croix, served on the Forest Lake School Board and later was elected to the House in a special election when a former state lawmaker joined the Pawlenty Administration.

But in a closely watched and hard fought race in 2004, Otto lost to Republican Matt Dean.

She got some good advice afterward not to say “Yes” or “No” to any new opportunity for at least two months, Otto explained.

So Otto and family — husband Shawn, son Jake — visited New York City, swam among the coral reefs of the Caribbean.

“I definitely considered never running for anything again,” said Otto. “Because it’s (politics) very, very difficult work,” she said.

But feeling change.

On a sunny day last year on the Capitol steps, Otto declared her candidacy for state auditor.

She is one of two major party candidates challenging Anderson, who is seeking her second term.

Lucy Gerold of the Independence Party is also trying to defeat Anderson.

Some of Otto’s criticisms of Anderson’s work as state auditor — a job which often produces blank expressions among voters when mentioned, Otto laughingly explained — have been voiced by Democrats for months.

Lapdog of Taxpayers League

Otto charges that Anderson is “pretty much the lapdog” of the Taxpayers League, and views the auditor’s celebrated study on local government aid (LGA) — one that concluded the more LGA a city gets, the more freely it spends — as the work of a ideologue in cahoots with other ideologues.

The result of this collusion is higher property taxes, Otto charged.

Otto questions Anderson’s oversight — or more specifically, addition and subtraction.

Last spring, Otto discovered errors in a Department of Education fiscal report, mistakes she believes the State Auditor’s Office should have pounced on.

“Why isn’t there any quality control?” she asked.

Otto also questioned the disappearance of three laptop computers from the Auditor’s Office this June.

(A fourth had been stolen earlier but contained no private data, according to media reports.)

Out campaigning

Instead of addressing the thefts, Anderson was out campaigning, charged Otto. “If we don’t need her at a time of crisis, then I don’t think Minnesota needs her period,” said Otto.

Otto views herself as bringing a blend of toughness — she was a seventh grade science teacher “for Pete’s sake,” she said — and reasonableness to the Auditor’s Office.

Her office will focus on compliance, but also assist local communities.

“This is all about helping them meet the needs of their citizens,” said Otto.

She views the bridge between the Auditor’s Office and local government as burnt; the relationship broken down.

“They (city officials) don’t trust her and they don’t like her style of leadership,” said Otto.

Indeed, Anderson unwittingly bolsters her candidacy, Otto argues.

“Why you go up to the Iron Range and call them a bunch of whiners because their property taxes went up, that’s worth some votes,” said Otto.

Anderson sees it differently

Not surprisingly, Anderson sees things differently. While saying she never believed the LGA study would make such a “splash,” Anderson attributed it to her own curiosity and the curiosity of other city officials. She was not acting at the behest of the Governor’s Office, Taxpayers League, or anyone else, she insists.

As for the stolen laptops — deemed an inside job, Anderson explained — computers in the Auditor’s Office are today literally cabled to desks, she said.

There is no evidence the data on the laptops has been tapped into, said Anderson.

She was campaigning several days after the theft of the three laptops were reported, but the situation had been dealt with, she said.

And as for the whiner comment, she was referring to Iron Range city officials’ past comments, not the general public’s.

And those errors Otto found were not in work from the Auditor’s Office, said Anderson.

DFL State Party Chairman Brian Melendez said he was optimistic about Otto’s chances — you’ve got to have an auditor who can count, he quipped.

But Republican State Party Chairman Ron Carey said he was “very bullish” on the odds of Anderson winning a second term.

Anderson has shown competence, said Carey, and Minnesotans reward competence with their votes, he explained.