Mark Ritchie
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| Mark Ritchie | |
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| In office January 2, 2007 – Incumbent |
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| Preceded by | Mary Kiffmeyer |
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| Born | 1951 Georgia |
| Political party | Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party |
| Spouse | Nancy Gaschott |
| Profession | Minnesota Secretary of State
Former president of non-profit agricultural organization |
Mark Ritchie (born 1951) was elected to be the 21st Minnesota Secretary of State on November 7, 2006. He is a member of the DFL. Mark Ritchie grew up in Iowa, and he graduated from Iowa State University in 1971. He and his wife, Nancy Gaschott, have lived in Minneapolis for 24 years.
In the 1980s, Ritchie worked as a high-ranking official in the Minnesota Agriculture Department where he became involved in an incident where he sent copies of confidential trade documents to members of Congress. According to a Star Tribune story, the U.S. trade representative at the time said that the documents were classified and that their release could have hurt the country's negotiating position with other nations. Ritchie, however, denied in the article that the documents were secret and said he had obtained them legitimately [1].
From 1986 until 2006, he served as the president of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a non-profit organization working with businesses, churches, farm organizations, and other civic groups to foster long-term sustainability for Minnesota’s rural communities. Ritchie also founded the League of Rural Voters
In 1994, Ritchie was a co-founder of the Global Environment & Trade Study, located at Yale University, which conducted research on the linkages and potential synergies between international trade and the environment. Also that year, Ritchie organized a conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Bretton Woods conference. The 1994 conference, held at the Mt. Washington Hotel, featured a return of many of the "old timers" who had attended the 1944 conference or other founding conferences for the postwar economic system.
In 2004, Ritchie took a leave of absence from the Institute when he was asked to lead National Voice, a national coalition of non-partisan organizations from across the country including church, business, and community organizations. National Voice included over 400 Minnesota organizations that formed the Minnesota Participation Project. The national media campaign, called "NOVEMBER 2," and these organizations helped voters find new ways to get involved in the elections. Their goal was to register and turn out over 5 million new voters nationwide. As part of this work, Ritchie appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Election Night 2004.
Ritchie was asked in 2005 to testify before the Midwest Regional Hearing of the National Commission On The Voting Rights Act about the importance of voting and the challenges minority voters faced in 2004 [2].
In 2007 Ritchie initially denied knowing how his campaign received a list of e-mail addresses of participants in a state-sponsored program. The list was used to send a citizen an e-mail asking for political contributions. After an investigation by the Legislative Auditor of Minnesota Ritchie admitted that he personally transferred the list, which he obtained in his official capacity, to his campaign.[3][4] State Republican leaders, citing inconsistencies from Ritchie regarding his role in his campaign's improper procurement of the list and its subsequent use for partisan political purposes, have called on Ritchie to resign. The incident, they say, betrayed the public trust and raised questions about Ritchie's ability to serve as a non-partisan overseer of state elections -- a primary responsibility of the Secretary of State. [5] The Legislative Auditor later announced that Ritchie had not broken any laws by allowing his campaign to use the e-mail list because it was public data. The Auditor, however, did say that Ritchie had "not fulfill his legal obligation to make a full and timely response to a request for information from the Legislative Auditor," although Ritchie disputed this statement [6].
- See also: Politics of Minnesota
[edit] Electoral history
- 2006 Race for state Secretary of State
- Mark Ritchie (D), 49.09%
- Mary Kiffmeyer (R) (inc.), 44.16%
- Bruce Kennedy (independent), 3.67%
- Joel Spoonheim (I), 3.02%
[edit] External links
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
- League of Rural Voters
- Campaign website
- Ritchie's Testimony before the Midwest Regional Hearing of the National Commission On The Voting Rights Act
- 2006 Election Results
- Minnesota Secretary of State
| Preceded by Mary Kiffmeyer |
Secretary of State of Minnesota 2007 – Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
