The New Ulm Journal reports in Brown County still awaits GOP payment for recount:
Half a year after the November gubernatorial recount, Brown County is still awaiting payment from the Republican Party of Minnesota.
A total of $1,441 is still owed to Brown County, which covers the cost of employee time to hand count the ballots and the materials sent to the Republicans.
Brown County Auditor-Treasurer Marlin Helget said he was astonished by how long it has taken the county to receive its money.
"I have never heard of something like this happening before in all my time here," said Helget.
Brown County tends to vote Republican; indeed, voters there backed Tom Emmer by 52.46 percent in November (with Dayton garnering 31.45 percent and Horner 15.16 , so Bluestem has to wonder why Sutton's GOP would do this sort of thing to a friendly area. Because he can?
The Brown County Auditor-Treasurer notes that the MNGOP wasn't Minnesota Nice when asking for the data:
"They were pretty nasty and harsh. We just sent the stuff because we concerned about the legal risk," said Helget, "They were demanding everything yesterday. But, they turned around and didn't pay."
Helget said Brown County has repeatedly sent requests for payments to the Republicans since then, but have received no response.
"They act like they've never gotten our bill," said Helget.
Staff writer Josh Moniz reports that Sutton promises to pay:
Republican Party of Minnesota Chairperson Tony Sutton said the Party is working diligently to pay off all money owed to all Minnesota counties.
"I really wish we could have gotten it paid sooner, but we're paying it off as we can," said Sutton, "The Republican Party of Minnesota has been around since 1858. We will get this taken care of."
Sutton said that the repayment of select counties is being done in groups and that Brown County is in the next group. He said the repayment of that group will likely occur in the next few weeks.
Maybe Sutton could sell off some antiques the MNGOP has lying around and pay the bills.
Image: Tony Sutton's tender legal issues.
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