Yesterday, we posted a digest of news accounts of the unsuccessful case of MN23: State Supreme Court dismisses Patriot Princess pal's case about Dornink residence.
At the time, none of the sources had posted Hanson's response (above), but Minnesota Public Radio's Brian Bakst updated his coverage of the case, Court says state senator can remain on primary ballot, with part of Hanson's statement:
Hanson, a restaurant owner who says Dornink wasn’t forceful enough in taking on COVID-19 restrictions, has said she believes Democrats will raise their own residency challenge if he wins Tuesday.
“The Democrats, or anyone for that matter, have the wide open ability to file a new petition against Dornink and effectively knock him out,” Hanson said in a statement issued Friday night. “Let’s be honest, Dornink is damaged goods. With the evidence of the petition being unchallenged how can Dornink be trusted.”
Curiously enough, this is pretty much the argument that Jay Duggan made at Rocks and Cows in the July 14 post Dornink Giving Away Mower/Freeborn Senate Seat to DFL?:
If Gene Dornink is disqualified by the court after winning a primary the DFL candidate runs unopposed for MN Senate District 23 and wins, possibly giving the crazy shutdown, mask mandate, school CRT, no bail and no jail DFL a Senate majority. It is also possible courts could order a special election. Rocks & Cows made inquiries to friends and associates in and around Brownsdale. We did not receive any new and unique information, but the reports back mirrored Judy’s observations and inquiries. Reports and opinions that the Dorninks didn’t live in Brownsdale. The most interesting information returned as a result of our inquiry was a fact that should concern all Senate 23 Republican voters. Several folks said Judy and Rocks & Cows were not the only people that had made these series of inquiries, and that several others that had made those inquiries were known to be DFL voters.
Doesn’t look good for the home team. Judy Olson seems to have credible evidence Gene Dornink did not reside within Senate District 23 by the May 8th deadline or during the month after that, Rocks & Cows heard back similar accounts mirroring Judy’s observations, and it appears the local DFL is also inquiring about facts that could strike Gene from the ballot. We can also guess in today’s political world that somebody from the Secretary of State Office was kind enough to forward the DFL a copy of the filed complaint weeks ago. The Minnesota State Supreme Court is going to get the complaint and we shall wait to see what their ruling is. If the Brownsdale house has a municipal water bill showing the court little or no use in May and June going into July, Gene Dornink may yet have Senate 23 voters watching the DFL win unopposed or being forced into a redo special election next year. . . .
. . .In Walz’s “One Minnesota” full of DFL appointed judges that had no problem rewriting election law and jailing folks like Lisa Hanson for selling food in a shutdown, its not very hard to imagine a bad outcome for a Republican senator during a battle for the Senate majority.
Never mind that Chief Justice Lorie Gildea was appointed to the court in 2006 by Tim Pawlenty ad promtoed to chief justice by him in 2010. Nor that her late husband, Andy Gildea, served for twelve months as the Chief of Staff for the New Republican House Caucus. Some folks can't see the swamp for the cattails, we suppose.
Or come up with original arguments. Hanson really ought to give Rocks and Cows credit for this argument.
But as Walker Orenstein pointed out at MinnPost in Supreme Court dismisses challenge to lawmaker in Austin-area GOP primary race, Chief Justice Gildea didn't simply scold complainant Olson for sleeping on her laches. The investigation itself was lackdaisical and spotty:
. . . The court agreed with that argument, saying some delay in filing a petition can be excused because a petitioner needs time to collect evidence in order to challenge a candidate’s residency. “The record here, however, indicates that Olson did not act expeditiously or diligently in conducting her investigation,” says an order signed by Chief Justice Lorie Gildea.
For instance, Olson’s associates visited Dornink’s home in Brownsdale twice within four days of the candidate filing for office. But they waited 18 days to visit again. And then after visiting on June 15 and 16, waited another month to make a final visit.
“Because there were long periods in which Olson and her associates did nothing to investigate, the delay in conducting the investigation was unreasonable,” Gildea wrote. . . .
That's a far cry from the case of Bob Barrett, not of Taylors Falls, in 2016. At the St. Paul Pioneer Press, David Montgomery reported in Lawmaker doesn’t live in district, MN Supreme Court rules; ballot won’t count:
Barrett lists his formal address as a rental home in Taylors Falls, which is in District 32B. But he also owns a home in Shafer, just outside his district. Activists visited his Taylor Falls house 30 times over 15 days this summer and set up a trail camera to try to prove Barrett doesn’t actually live in the home.
They found little evidence the home was used, and that convinced District Judge George Stevenson to find Barrett didn’t live in District 32B. Barrett appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, but the justices declined to overturn Stevenson’s findings.
Hanson's friends failed to match that diligence. There's also the other precedence in the Barrett case. Montgomery reported:
The Supreme Court did, however, reject an argument from the plaintiffs that the November election should go forward without Barrett’s name on the ballot. That would have left just Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Laurie Warner and a write-in spot for voters in the northeast suburban district. . . .
The court found no reason to overturn the state law providing for a special election when a candidate is declared ineligible within 80 days of an election. In testimony Tuesday, justices were skeptical of the plaintiffs’ argument.
While both Barrett’s and Warner’s names will appear on November ballots, the results from that race will not be certified and voters in District 32B will actually pick their state representative on Feb. 14. The seat will remain vacant until then, with potentially major implications since control over the House of Representatives is being fiercely contested in November’s elections. The next session of the Legislature will begin on Jan. 3 with at least one of its 134 seats vacant.
Perhaps the law has been changed, but as the Wikipedia entry for Barrett notes, "On February 14, 2017, the seat was won by fellow Republican Anne Neu."
Could Hanson run in such a special election? Would Republicans endorse her? We're reading comments earlier posts about the Dornink residency challenge similar to this one from Minnesota First Congressional District Chair, Freeborn County Republican Vice Chair and Albert Lea resident Aaron Farris:
Were DFLers watching the property with the skill of those who went after Barrett in 2016? We also wonder why Hanson's friend Olson and her former campaign manager weren't able to study what a successful residency inquiry is actually conducted.
Related posts:
- MN23: State Supreme Court dismisses Patriot Princess pal's case about Dornink residence
- MN23 GOP primary woes: Dornink strikes back
- MN23: Patriot Princess supporter files residence complaint against Gene Dornink
- Hanson follows through on challenging Dornink; her campaign manager faces his own challenge
- COVID vaccine stealing guy gets booted from Lisa Hanson's Dodge County Courthouse hearing
- Freeborn County judge has a point about Interchange owner's counterclaims against state
- All in the badge: new MN NATF state coordinator convicted of 2017 impersonation of peace officer
- National Action Task Force: From the mixed-up files on founder Mr. Mark Emery [Boswell]
- Dornink to move to Glenville to run in District 23; "Patriot Princess" Lisa Hanson declares bid
Images: Hanson's response to the Supreme Court ruling; a comment on Facebook about the challenge from a prominent young Albert Lea Republican activist.
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