A district court judge earlier this morning ordered St. Louis County to release the official county e-mails between Republican candidate, and county commissioner, Pete Stauber and the National Republican Congressional Committee. Up to this morning, the county had been resisting calls to release those emails. The judge’s order gave them no choice but to comply.
Stauber is running against Democrat Joe Radinovich in a hotly contested race to replace retiring congressman Richard Nolan in an ancestrally Democratic seat that has been trending red for several years now.
A total of twenty-two emails were released, showing definite political activity and coordination between Commissioner Stauber and the NRCC. The Duluth News Tribune has been covering this story well, even though their editorial board endorsed Stauber in the race. They noted that:
In one email, Stauber took an official correspondence from retiring 8th District Rep. Rick Nolan and forwarded it to the NRCC for strategizing purposes. The email, dated August 2017, said: “Look at this. I need Nolan’s anti‐Veteran votes to get people there.”
If any of you are thinking, so? So what if he used his county email account for these purposes? Here’s why — Elected officials are prohibited by county policy from using county funds, equipment, supplies, employees, or facilities in support of their own campaigns.
Will this revelation be enough to help Radinovich across the finish line? Hard to say as it will depend upon just how seriously folks take these matter of misuse of taxpayer resources. Simple fact is this — he used his county email account (and apparently a county clerk also) for campaign purposes in violation of county policy.
This story is developing so updates may be possible as the day(s) progress.
UPDATE: As Minnesota Public Radio rightfully notes, there were “no political bombshells”. Just messages that demonstrate coordination between a candidate and political operations.