Julie Blaha won't seek reelection, Dan Wolgamott announces candidacy

In what seemed like minutes of Julie Blaha's announcement that she wouldn't seek reelection as Minnesota's State Auditor, Dan Wolgamott announced that he's running to replace Blaha. KSTP is reporting that "At least one of Minnesota’s constitutional officers plans to leave office at the end of their term. State Auditor Julie Blaha, a Democrat, announced Thursday morning that she won’t seek reelection in 2026. She was first elected to the role in 2018 and narrowly won reelection in 2022. The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) is a 'watchdog,' overseeing around $60 billion in local spending and focusing on how that money is being spent. The state auditor also serves on several state boards and councils, including ones that oversee state pensions and investments."

KSTP is being diplomatic in saying that the State Auditor is "a watchdog." The OSA is more of a purely political office than anything else. When Mark Dayton signed a bill giving counties the option of hiring private auditors, then-Auditor Becky Otto sued, saying that the office responsibilities were established by the Minnesota Constitution and couldn't be changed by simple legislation.

Otto lost the lawsuit, mostly because the OSA was established by the Consatitution but the responsibilities are assigned through Minnesota statutes. It's interesting that the article is 9 paragraphs long, with 7 of the paragraphs focusing on Blaha, 1 paragraph focusing on Ryan Wilson, who was the GOP candidate for Auditor in 2022 and this paragraph focusing on Wolgamott:

Within a few hours of Blaha’s announcement, Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL-St. Cloud), who is currently serving his fourth term in the Minnesota House of Representatives, announced his intention to run for state auditor.
When Wolgamott first started running 10+ years ago, Wolgamott was a real estate agent. He even touted that in one of his mailers, saying that his being a real estate agent helped him "bring people together."

Wolgamott is most famous for his DUI arrest. In this news report, the newscaster said that Wolgamott's blood alcohol content was .099, easily above the .08 blood alcohol content level needed for arrest:

Let's remember, too, that he blew that .099 in the mid- to late-afternoon. Wolgamott isn't qualified from a skills standpoint or from a physical standpoint. This begs the question of the DFL's motivation for this. The newscaster said that Wolgamott was caught on the liquor store camera taking a swig. What I saw in the video ia more than a swig. With the DFL tied in the House, did the DFL essentially push him out of his legislative seat in order to start fresh with a new candidate that doesn't have Wolgamott's baggage? Wolgamott voted for each of the DFL's most controversial bills. He's got a troubled home life and he's definitely vulnerable.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Has Sue Ek come face-to-face with DFL hijinks?

Image
Apparently, Minnesota state and county employees aren't that attentive to details. Last night, a frequent reader of this blog sent me a statement from House Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring ." She issued the following statement regarding vote tabulation errors, malfunctions, and discrepancies that have taken place in Sherburne and Scott Counties: The errors and discrepancies we've seen this cycle are intolerable and unacceptable. A free and fair election demands sunlight on the process. These incidents fuel distrust and raise questions about the integrity and accuracy of election results. Without an opportunity to observe or respond Sherburne County added newly-found votes to the total. Just a day later, Scott County announced an unspecified "ballot distribution error" and "ballot scanning malfunction" that triggered an abrupt re-scan of more than 20,000 ballots. There was less than two hours notice between the public announcement and the be...
Read more

Tim Walz doubling down on Gestapo speech

Image
When Tim Walz, Minnesota's DFL governor, delivered the commencement address for the University of Minnesota Law school, he didn't deliver the typical commencement speech. He delivered a highly partisan speech instead. Gov. Walz compared "federal law enforcement agents implementing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown to a Nazi-era political police force." He called ICE agents Gestapo. Let's compare the 2. The Gestapo's mission was to rid Germany of Jews. To the Gestapo, it didn't matter that these Jews were German citizens and had been decades. Thanks to the Aryan Clauses, Jews were considered subhuman and weren't really Germans. That's an awfully racist viewpoint. Is Gov. Walz accusing law enforcement officers of being racists? I.C.E. I.C.E. agents enforce laws that bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress have passed and that the president has signed. These immigration bills were negotiated between the 2 parties. The Aryan Clau...
Read more

BREAKING NEWS: counterfeit ballot alert in Minnesota

Image
How Difficult Should it be to Get a Ballot? By John W. Palmer November 4, 2024 Securing an official ballot for your ward and precinct normally requires registration to vote and either showing up at a polling place or securing an absentee ballot. Ballot security is a cornerstone of an election free of fraud. When the tailgate of a vehicle was left open and unattended revealing a large stack of blank ballots, Minnesotans were appalled. Imagine how you would feel when you learn that all it takes to get a reproducible ballot for your ward and precinct is to download a file from a government website. In Stearns and several other Minnesota counties, imagination is not needed. Right now, all you have to do is go to Minnesota’s Secretary of State’s website and download a file. Go to this website and select “Get a sample ballot”. Then enter your zip code and address and your ballot appears. Now you are able to download the ballot as a PDF file. Once you have the PDF file you can print as many ...
Read more