it’s been in all the papers<\/a>).<\/p>\nSutton was, I think, a transitional figure for the party.\u00a0 The MNGOP has always been a very top-down party, Sutton presided over a party leadership that opened up the party to the grassroots more than any previous one – but whose institutional inertia still was heavily loaded towards insiders.\u00a0\u00a0 Such is the nature of political parties (the DFL is about the same, only different – it’s all about insiders from the various non-profts that are carrying most of the water for the actual party these days).<\/p>\n
And it’s perhaps inevitable that Sutton’s record is mixed; he did a great <\/em>job of scouting up major donors in a tough economy.\u00a0 He also spent a lot of money – with good reason (we had an election to win, after two very bad cycles).<\/p>\nUnfortunately, his budget, in addition to being in deficit, was a bit opaque.\u00a0 A group of activists is circulating a flyer saying that the GOP needs to provide the Central Committee’s delegates need to get not just the budget, but all the information leading to <\/em>the budget, including a complete list of who the party owes money to, and how much.\u00a0 And until that happens, there is really no excuse for passing the budget as submitted.\u00a0 In the interest of disclosure, I was involved in writing thier flyer; the group involved represented a wide range of opinion; some long-time Sutton dissidents, some supporters with questions, some people who just want to see the party get on the right track and capitalize on the very real gains we picked up last election cycle.<\/p>\nHere’s the flyer:<\/p>\n
\nThe Republican Party of Minnesota Is Broke<\/strong><\/p>\nIt Is Your Job To Fix It. <\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0The MNGOP Is In Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Minnesota GOP is broke.\u00a0 Worse?\u00a0 Nobody knows how broke it is.<\/p>\n
Ask the leadership for a balance sheet – nobody can provide one.\u00a0 There is no transparency<\/em> to this party’s budget process. <\/em><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve read the party\u2019s list of creditors \u2013 and then <\/em>read in the Star\/Tribune <\/em>that the party owes people who aren’t on the list.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Good question.\u00a0 Nobody in this room can tell you<\/em>.<\/p>\nYou wouldn’t run your business this way.<\/p>\n
It’s our <\/em>job, as State Central Committee delegates, to fix this.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nState Central delegates are like a business’ board of directors; we provide a check and balance on management.\u00a0 \u00a0Delegates need all <\/em>of the party\u2019s information to make sound decisions. See Article II of the party bylaws for a job description.<\/p>\nWe Propose A Solution – And We Need Your Help.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We need a plan to eliminate excessive debt, increase fundraising and win elections.<\/p>\n
\n- We need full disclosure, accountability and transparency to form and implement this plan.<\/li>\n
- We need a line by line analysis of the budget; where do the numbers come from? Are they effective uses of money? Is old debt included in these numbers?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To get the information you need to do your job as a delegate, you need to vote “No” on the proposed budget.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
There needs to be a discussion on the budget, the plan to get out of debt and on the party’s leadership.\u00a0 Rubber-stamping the proposed budget will just kick the problem down the road.<\/p>\n
Vote “No” on rubber-stamping the proposed budget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A number of delegates are planning on submitting a motion to reject the budget and demand all of the needed information.<\/p>\n
Not sure I’ll be able to hang around long enough to see that.\u00a0 The acting chair is talking rules right now.\u00a0 The joke is that they’re trying to bore any dissidents to death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m at the MNGOP Central Committee meeting, at the Doubletree in Bloomington. It’s a pretty big day here; Tony Sutton resigned last night (it’s been in all the papers). Sutton was, I think, a transitional figure for the party.\u00a0 The MNGOP has always been a very top-down party, Sutton presided over a party leadership that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mngop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24681"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24683,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24681\/revisions\/24683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}