Friends have been wondering how big the checks have to be that failed burrito baron and current MNGOP chair Tony Sutton needs to cut to Minnesota counties in order to pay off long-overdue recount costs.
A probable answer comes from behind the paid subscribers firewall at the Austin version of the Post Bulletin in the article County receives GOP payment, lesson:
As of three weeks ago, 31 counties still hadn't been reimbursed by the GOP, said Sharon Anderson, auditor/treasurer of Cass County. The total owed is about $31,000.[emphasis added]
The GOP still owes Cass County nearly $1,800.
"We have not received it," Anderson said Tuesday. "I've dropped that ball for the last couple of weeks; the reason I put that ball away is because our leadership spoke with the state party chair and the accountant and at least had a verbal assurance that as funds were raised, counties would get paid."
It's been frustrating, she admitted, but said she's been in regular contact with the Cass County attorney.
"I've lost patience," Anderson said. "I don't feel politically at liberty to go any further than the county administrators want."
Her position is an appointed one, unlike many of the state's auditor-treasurer roles.
Anderson hasn't spoken with Tony Sutton, the Republican Party chairman.
"Our leadership and association did the homework," she said, "and their advice to us is to keep sending the bill every month. I'm going to suggest to our county board that we should be invoking an interest charge on those late accounts."
Now, that figure is three weeks old, and presumably Sutton has paid a few more bills. Has he made a specific ask to contributors--or maybe to statewide Republican candidates who had money left in their kitties at the end of 2010? Say Pat Anderson's $3283 or Dan Severson's $8781?
That's a state fund, and if I understand things correctly, "Doc" can't roll the bucks over into a federal campaign committee if the charming Navy airman decides to sacrifice himself as the Official 2012 Republican U.S. Senate candidate to challenge centrist Amy Klobuchar.
There's that other guy's 2010 money, too, but he may have other plans for the fund.
But perhaps Sutton's mind is preoccupied with more immediate matters. The Star Tribune reports in GOP activists are questioning state chairman:
A bitter divide in the state Republican Party over expanded gambling has activists saying they want a closer look at the party chairman's ties to the anti-gambling group he helps lead and the tribal money that funds it.
Republican leaders want Party Chairman Tony Sutton to explain how GOP activists on a closely held party database began receiving e-mails from Citizens Against Gambling Expansion, a group funded in part by American Indian casino operators opposed to gambling expansion.
"If Sutton wants to be part of CAGE, then he's going to have to answer questions," said John Gilmore, a St. Paul Republican who supports Sutton.
Sutton said Wednesday there's no proof CAGE even has the list. The group's chairman, Republican operative Jack Meeks, said the group built its own database over the past several years.
"We don't give anybody the list," said Sutton, a CAGE board member. He said the latest accusations are part of a "smear campaign" by those who want to expand gambling.
Sutton and the GOP are between a couple of rocks; I will not speculate about the hard places, as we simply aren't that close.
Image: Tild's take from last summer still has currency.
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