Court to hear challenge of Gutknecht

08/15/2006

Conrad Defiebre, and MATT McKINNEY
Star Tribune
August 15, 2006

U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht should remain on election ballots because the petition signatures he presented in place of an election filing fee met the requirements for major party candidates, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer said Monday.

“There’s no limitation on the time of collecting signatures for petitions in lieu of filing fees,” said Kiffmeyer, who, like Gutknecht, is a Republican.

The Minnesota Supreme Court will make the final decision on a DFL lawsuit claiming that most of the petitions that Gutknecht filed on July 5 had been signed before a July 4-18 period prescribed by state law and that he therefore should be stricken from the ballot.

But Kiffmeyer said that ! time limitation applies only to independent and minor party candidates who must file nominating petitions to get on the ballot. Petitions for major party candidates such as Gutknecht, who are allowed to file for office simply by paying a fee, may be signed at any time, Kiffmeyer said.

“I believe this complaint should be dismissed,” she said.

Gutknecht, a congressman from southern Minnesota’s First District since 1995, was the only major party candidate in the state to submit filing petitions this year, saving his campaign a $300 fee. He has done the same thing throughout his time in Congress to highlight his fiscal conservatism and he touts the practice prominently on his campaign website. Never before has he been challenged on the basis of when petitions were signed.

Last week, Louis Reiter, 77, of Elgin, Minn., filed papers with the state Supreme Court seeking to disqualify Gutknecht. The filing was prepared by Alan Weinblatt, a DFL election att! orney, who argued the time limit for petitions applies to all ! candidat es.

If it did not, Weinblatt said, major party candidates could collect signatures years before an election and use them over and over again in succeeding years, an “arbitrary and ridiculous result,” he said.

Court applies law strictly

How one reads Gutknecht’s legal standing depends on which section of the law they refer to, said one legal expert.

“I think there are respectable arguments that could be made either way,” said Fred Morrison, co-dean of the University of Minnesota Law School. “Minnesota elections law is very complicated, largely because it has been built a little section at a time, and they are not necessarily consistent with one another.”

One of those sections would put Gutknecht’s reelection bid in jeopardy because of his collection of signatures outside of the normal filing period, according to David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University who also teaches elections law at the University of Minnesota Law! School.

“I think Gutknecht’s in trouble,” said Schultz, who added that his reading of that section is that it refers to both nominating petitions and to petitions filed in lieu of a filing fee. “The secretary of state’s got it wrong as far as I can tell,” he said.

Gutknecht’s candidacy looks less vulnerable under a subsequent section, said Guy Charles, a co-dean of the law school. “That section does not contain any restrictions on when you can gather the signatures,” he said. “The only thing it requires is that a number of signatures be collected. It’s an argument Gutknecht could make, a good-faith argument.”

The state Supreme Court has taken a very strict view of elections law, Schultz said. Each signatory on a petition, for example, must write not only their name but their address. If someone signs the petition after their housemate and uses “ditto” marks for the address, that person’s signature might be ruled invalid by a court, Schultz said.!

“The courts have very strictly construed the require! ments of the law regarding the language that you have on the petition,” he said.

If petitions for Gutknecht signed before the July filing period are thrown out, only 290 signatures would remain, Weinblatt said. To file for election as a U.S. representative, 1,000 petition signatures are required.

A second Republican candidate has filed for the First Congressional District seat and will appear on the primary ballot. He is Gregory Mikkelson, of Lake Crystal, Minn.

Kiffmeyer defended what she said are looser rules for filings by candidates of major parties—officially in Minnesota now the DFL, Independence and Republican parties—because they must meet stiff tests of support in previous elections to gain that status.

Russell Anderson, chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has ordered Kiffmeyer and Gutknecht to file formal responses by 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The court will then schedule a hearing.