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Campaign finance board rules against Rybak
The Minneapolis mayor spent money on a run for governor before filing needed paperwork, but will not be fined if he reimburses his mayoral campaign.
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Gubernatorial candidate R.T. Rybak owes mayoral candidate R.T. Rybak $26,500, according to a Minnesota campaign finance board decision made public Friday.
The Minneapolis mayor spent the cash from his reelection campaign on a May poll that "provided support to a gubernatorial campaign by Mayor Rybak," the board said in ruling on a complaint from the Minnesota Republican Party. The board ordered Rybak to file a gubernatorial campaign committee and have that committee reimburse his mayoral committee for the cost of the survey.
Rybak, reelected Tuesday, will not be fined unless he fails to comply with the order, said Jeff Sigurdson, assistant executive director of the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. Because Rybak filed a campaign committee to run for governor this week, no fine is likely. Rybak's campaign said it disagreed with the board's finding, but accepted the decision and will comply.
Republican Party chair Tony Sutton said the decision shows Rybak "does not have the judgment to lead our great state" and accused Rybak of using his mayor's committee as a "slush fund."
As a first-time candidate for governor in 2002, Tim Pawlenty was fined $100,000 by the board for colluding with the Republican Party on campaign ads.
At issue in the Rybak decision was a $26,500 poll asking voters inside and outside Minneapolis not only about Rybak, but about four DFLers running for governor, as well as Pawlenty and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken.
The board did not conclude that Rybak's travel to gubernatorial candidate forums violated campaign finance law, the matter the GOP originally brought to its attention. Rybak paid for those trips himself, his attorney said.
The board also ruled on a similar GOP complaint against St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, saying he sought "nomination or election to the office of governor," but that he didn't use his mayoral reelection committee to fund that effort. Still, the board said Coleman, who opted out of the governor's race, probably spent more than $100 of his own on his statewide candidacy. Because he self-financed that effort, he need not have filed a campaign committee, but must submit a spending report next year, the board said.
Rachel Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164
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