Tony Sutton Can Run, But He Can’t Hide From Count Them All Properly’s Shadow

Sally Jo Sorensen once again shows why she’s worth five ordinary journalists and fifty hack stenographers:

As early as December 3, 2010, Bluestem posted about the troubles the Republican Party was having paying counties for recount costs. And while other bloggers pointed the finger at unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer as the cad, Bluestem leaned toward the hijacking of the recount by Sutton and Brodkorb…

[…]

As the months wore on, honest Republicans told us to look more at Count Them All Properly, a Republican shell committee set up by Sutton to handle the recount costs. Indeed, by July 2011, we asked Did Emmer finish paying party’s bills? MNGOP to pay failed burrito baron $100,000 salary and on January 2, 2012, we noted that Sutton’s secretive slush fund, Count Them All Properly, Inc., changes management.

We weren’t the only ones watching, and fortunately, Common Cause Minnesota acted on the growing clouds of smoke that might well mean fire:

On January 4, 2012, the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board received a complaint from Common Cause Minnesota (CCM) signed by Mike Dean, its Executive Director, regarding the Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM). Although not specifically identified as respondents, the complaint also made allegations that, if true, could result in statutory violations by Mr. David Sturrock, RPM treasurer, Count Them All Properly, Inc., a Minnesota corporation (CTAP), Mr. Dan Puhl, incorporator of CTAP, Mr. Tony Sutton, former RPM Chairman, and others.

The findings of the investigation that complaint triggered are online here and the supporting evidence here.

It sure looks like Sutton could face criminal charges if a county attorney ever decided to pursue the matter.

The big question for me here is: Will Sutton’s fellow members of the West Metro One Percent, the traditional ruling faction of the Republican Party of Minnesota, start pressuring these people to leave Sutton alone? The West Metro crowd has a lot of incentive to do so. If Sutton even gets the slightest hint that he’s about to be left unprotected by the West Metro types that bankrolled his rise to the top of the RPM, I expect that he might do what I suspect his good friend Michael Brodkorb did in regard to another matter — that is, he will make it known to all the right people in the RPM’s inner circles, as I expect that he has in the past, that he is quite prepared to let the general public — or a court of law — know where all the RPM’s bodies are buried.