Late last year, as he was campaigning for Minnesotans to send him a DFL Legislature, Gov. Mark Dayton traveled on a state plane with a campaign staffer to Bemidji and International Falls.
While the governor repaid the state $2,118
for the October 24, 2012 trip, it had not been clear until Monday that
Julie Hottinger, a Dayton campaign staffer, was along for the flights.
But according to documents newly uncovered by the Minnesota Jobs
Coalition, a Republican organization, Hottinger's name appeared on an invoice for the trip late last year.
Dayton has already received significant scrutiny for his late 2012
use of the state plane for the campaign purposes. He took several
flights as the election approached, which included campaign appearances.
He repaid the state for the political portion of the trips but they
have continued to raise questions about the appropriate use of state
resources by a government official.
During the October trip, Dayton had an official meeting with Bemidji
area officials, made a Bemidji area campaign appearance, flew to
International Falls for a campaign stop and then returned to St. Paul.
Spokesman Matt Swenson said the campaign paid for half of the cost of
flying Dayton to Bemidji, all of Hottinger's costs, all of Dayton's
costs to International Falls and back to St. Paul.
Asked if it is appropriate for campaign staff to join the governor on
the official state plane, Swenson said: "It is appropriate and our
policy that any campaign-related travel or travel expenses incurred by
campaign staffers is paid in full by the campaign, which is what
happened here. It is appropriate for campaign staffers to travel with
the governor to campaign events if that travel is paid for by the
campaign."
Ben Golnik, a former Republican Party staffer who heads the Minnesota
Jobs Coalition, said that Dayton's use of the state plane is troubling.
"This new information about Gov. Dayton's misuse of state resources
is very concerning," Golnik said. He also noted that some information
was redacted from the Coalition's request for public documents. The
redacted information included the signature line on an Air Travel
Request form for the Oct. 24 trip.
The Coalition's finding will not be the last word on Dayton's use of
the state plane. Later this month or early next month, the non-partisan
Office of the Legislative Auditor will issue a report on the governor's
office. That report is expected to include an assessment of the
governor's political use of state resources.
Swenson said the governor's office awaits guidance from the
legislative auditor and would not take its cues from the Minnesota Jobs
Coalition, which he called a "highly partisan right wing attack"
organization.
The 2012 flights have already been examined by one agency watchdog. In September,
in response to a complaint from the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, the
state's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board found that Dayton
violated the law by not disclosing his campaign debt for his campaign's
use of the state plane on several occasions.
In part because the media, including the Star Tribune,
had reported on Dayton's plan to repay the state for use of the plane,
the board decided that the lack of disclosure on campaign forms was
inadvertent. Because the omissions were not made knowingly, the board
decided the violation did not merit a fine.
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