Quick, who is Minnesotaís secretary of state?
Donít feel bad if you didnít know that. Itís one of those offices that suffers in silence. Same with state auditor. I bet you canít name her either.
The secretary of state is Mary Kiffmeyer, and thereís a good chance that people will get to know her name better in the coming months. Thatís because she has a legitimate and compelling challenger, Mark Ritchie.
Donít let your eyes glaze over yet. Bear with me. Ritchie has a good case against Kiffmeyer, if you believe him, and I do.
He has a couple main themes. One is that people are unhappy with Kiffmeyerís job performance. He says he has heard it from election judges and town boards. Thereís something to that. I heard dissatisfaction directed at Kiffmeyer at a county board meeting in May when the county was shorted $81,000 that it had been promised for precinct counting equipment. Kiffmeyer wrote in a May 1 letter that the county would have enough money from a federal grant to cover the cost of the ballot marking machines that it needs. Houston Countyís request for the money was denied because it is sharing its equipment and combining polling places. Essentially the county was penalized for being efficient.
Itís not often you hear a county auditor grumble about his state counterpart, but thatís what happened. It was kind of ironic too because Kiffmeyer had come to Caledonia in February with a giant check for $190,603.70. I guess thatís an important thing for politicians to do, although Iíve yet to see such a check cashed by Manon Hoscheit at the drive up window at Merchantís Bank. Now that would be a good photo opportunity.
Business people have their own stories about things that havenít been done properly or ethically, Ritchie told me in a phone conversation on July 12.
I like Ritchieís work experience with rural communities and on farm issues. But his knowledge of elections is perhaps his most impressive credential. In 2004, he served as national coordinator of NOVEMBER 2, a voter registration effort that got five million more people to the polls.
It was non-partisan, yet Ritchie feels that Kiffmeyer did not support it. It was difficult for groups like his to obtain voter registration cards. They didnít accept federally-issued identification cards as valid proof of residence. Thatís either poor management, or worse yet, partisan politics in a position that should be neutral.
Ritchie saw a similar trend when Senator Paul Wellstone died 10 days before the 2002 election. Ritchie had already voted by absentee ballot because he knew heíd be busy working on getting people to the polls on election day. He was able to vote again, but more in spite of the secretary of state than because of her.
Kiffmeyer should have done everything possible to make that election valid. Joan Growe did that in 1990 when Jon Grunseth withdrew from the governorís race with nine days left in the race. She worked for a fair election, and a Republican Arne Carlson was elected. Rudy Perpich reportedly never talked to Growe again. But she did the right thing. Thatís what a secretary of state is supposed to be like, Ritchie says, and that was not the case in 2002.
Wellstoneís death was an awful tragedy on many levels. But some good things did come from it. Ritchie went to a three-day Camp Wellstone program in 2005 that taught him the basics of running a political campaign. Wellstone himself taught Ritchie much more in person. They were good friends and worked together on rural development and alternative energy issues before Wellstone was elected in 1990. Paul spoke at a 50th birthday celebration for Ritchie in 2002, and gave a more somber speech at the funeral for Ritchieís daughter, who was killed by a drunk driver on Thanksgiving weekend of 2001.
But in the end it boils down to who do you believe. Politics is about trust. There are quite a few that donít cut it for me on that gut level. Ritchie does, in what he says and how he says it. I think he would be a good change for Minnesota. We need to keep our state election as clean as old Ikeís houndís tooth. And competent too. I think heíll do that.

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