Bluestem has a long history of posting about "Count Them All Properly, Incorporated," the 2010 gubernatorial recount slush fund for which failed burrito baron and former state party chair Tony Sutton committed the Republican Party of Minnesota as the equivalent of an unknowing co-signer for a pile of debts.
Last month's revelation was news to everyone except Sutton and a small group of lawyers, seen and unseen, since he'd bragged last winter that unlike party finances, CTAPI's books wouldn't face public scrutiny. With the party under new management, the current occupants have owned up that they're disputing whether they have to pay Count Them All Properly's $719,000 unpaid legal bills.
In mid-December, Bluestem noted that Daniel Puhl, go-to FEC compliance guy for Minnesota federal office candidates and agent for the recount fund, had moved on to a higher calling as the CFO and Director of Administration for the Republican National Committee.
That move is now reflected in Count Them All Properly, Inc's filing at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. On December 15, papers were filed naming Mary Igo as CTAPI's registered agent.
According to December 20, 2011 annual filing, the new CEO is Maple Grove's Jon Richard Schroeder, owner of Maple Grove firm that represents manufacturers of heating and plumbing supplies. Schroeder has no record of large giving to the Republican Party on the state or federal level, according to databases at the Minnesotan Campaign Finance Board and the FEC. And while Maple Grove is located in SD32, there's no evidence of Republican activism by the businessman at the local GOP website (albeit the page hasn't been updated for months).
Igo is well-known in Republican circles; Schroeder, apparently not so much. Given the large role this entity now plays in determining the financial well-being of the Republican Party of Minnesota, it bears watching.
Image: The enduring legacy of Tony Sutton's fiscal genius, by Tild.
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