During the 2006 campaign, Michael Brodkorb’s MDE certainly questioned whether Mark Ritchie was as nonpartisan as Ritchie claimed. It’s 3 years later and questions remain as to whether Ritchie is as impartial as his DFL supporters tell us he is. This memo certainly suggests that Ritchie is still a partisan DFL activist:

Notice that this event isn’t a nonpartisan training program. It’s a training event designed to teach DFL union activists how to put together winning campaigns. the training includes conducting voter registration drives, doing voter ID and updating data bases and doing GOTV operations. The thing that I’m curious about is what they’re teaching about absentee ballots.

The fact that this training session is being held in a union hall doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that Mr. Ritchie’s role in this event is as an impartial Secretary of State. Considering the fact that the main campaigns will be represented at the event and considering the fact that the training is very DFL-specific, I’d say it’s unlikely that Mark Ritchie’s role is that of an impartial Secretary of State.

It’s important that we question whether Mark Ritchie ever stopped being the radical activist that helped start the leftist Campaign for America’s Future:

While Ritchie says that the office of Secretary of State should operate in a non-partisan manner, it should be noted that he’s listed as a founder and advisor to the Campaign for America’s Future, one of the left’s most partisan organizations. CAF shares office space in Washington, DC with Americans United for Change, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq and USAction. Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is run by Tom Matzzie, who also chairs MoveOn.org. This office space is located on K Street, the lobbyist capitol of the nation’s capitol.

The link for CAF’s founders was part of a post I wrote in 2007. Now that list has disappeared. What hasn’t disappeared from CAF’s website is the list of their board. A brief scan of CAF’s board made my eyes pop. Eli Pariser, one of the officers of MoveOn.org, is a board member. The deeper I dig, the more questions I have about whether Mr. Ritchie is nonpartisan. CAF’s treasurer is Robert Borosage. That name likely won’t trigger any alarms because he’s a below-the-radar operator. A quick search of Borosage’s name yields alot of fruit, thanks to the great work of DTN:

A former New Left radical and onetime Director of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Robert Borosage co-founded (with Roger Hickey) both the Campaign for America’s Future and the Institute for America’s Future. He also founded and currently chairs the Progressive Majority Political Action Committee, the activist arm of a political networking organization whose aim is to help elect as many leftist political leaders as possible. In addition, he is a contributing editor at The Nation magazine and a regular contributor to The American Prospect.

It’s impossible for me to think that Mark Ritchie ever stopped being a far left radical/anarchist, especially after finding Mr. Ritchie listed as a founder/advisor of CAF in OCTOBER, 2006:

Listed as “Founders or Advisors” as of October 2006: Gar Alperovitz, Ira Arlook, John Atlas, Morton Bahr, Peter Barnes, Ann Beaudry, George Becker, Berkley Bedell, Lara Bergthold, Paul Berman, Jules Bernstein, Mary Frances Berry, Susan Bianchi-Sand, Moe Biller, Norman Birnbaum, Arthur Blaustein, Barry Bluestone, Julian Bond, Heather Booth, Robert Borosage, Jim Braude, Thomas Buffenbarger, Marc Caplan, David Carley, Hodding Carter III, John Cavanagh, Bob Chase, Richard Cloward, Jeff Cohen, Mitchell Cohen, Barry Commoner, Ken Cook, G. William Domhoff, Douglas H. Dority, Peter Dreier, Dudley Dudley, Barbara Ehrenreich, Robert Eisner, Jeff Faux, Diane Feldman, Edward Fire, Dick Flacks, Nancy Folbre, Steve Fraser, Betty Friedan, Jeannette Galanis, James K. Galbraith, Herbert Gans, Paul Gaston, Thomas Geoghegan, Todd Gitlin, Chester Hartman, Heidi Hartmann, Tom Hayden, Denis Hayes, Roger Hickey, Jim Hightower, Adam Hochschild, Patricia Ireland, Amy Isaacs, Jesse Jackson, Christopher Jencks, Jaqueline Jones, Michael Kazin, Jackie Kendall, Charles Knight, George Kourpias, Jonathan Kozol, David Kusnet, Robert Kuttner, Rev. Peter Laarman, Thea Lee, Nelson Lichtenstein, Judith Lichtman, David Liederman, Joseph Lowery, Ray Marshall, Steve Max, Jay Mazur, Michael McCloskey, Gerald W. McEntee, Howard Metzenbaum, Harold Meyerson, S.M. Miller, Lawrence Mishel, Nan Grogan Orrock, Paul Osterman, Maurice S. Paprin, Richard Parker, Wallace Peterson, Frances Fox Piven, Ron Pollack, Robert Pollin, Steve Protulis, Miles Rapoport, Robert Reich, Frank Riessman, Mark Ritchie, Dennis Rivera, Cecil Roberts, Joel Rogers, Richard Rorty, Sumner Rosen, Richard Rothstein, Lillian Rubin, Arlie Schardt, Tom Schlesinger, Susan Shaer, Stanley Sheinbaum, Jack Sheinkman, John Simmons, Theda Skocpol, Francis Smith, Paul Soglin, Andrew Stern, John Sweeney, Linda Tarr-Whelan, John E. Taylor, Ellen Teninty, Robert Theobald, Richard Trumka, Katherine Villers, Philippe Villers, Ron Walters, Michael Walzer, Roger Wilkins, Linda Faye Williams, William Julius Wilson, Leslie R. Wolfe, Stephen P. Yokich.

Some of the people on this list are so far left that they’d make Howard Dean look positively moderate. Mary Frances Berry, Julian Bond, Betty Friedan, Tom Hayden, Patricia Ireland, Jesse Jackson, Gerald W. McEntee, Howard Metzenbaum, Harold Meyerson, Robert Reich, Andy Stern, John Sweeney and Richard Trumka are a who’s who of far left lefties. In fact, Mary Frances Berry used to carry a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book in her purse. That’s what a committed leftist does.

I’m not willing to believe that Mark Ritchie ever shed his radical leftist spots. That’s why I’m skeptical that his presence at this training session is as an impartial secretary of state.

In fact, I’d argue that Mr. Ritchie is still committed to advancing the DFL’s radical agenda. I haven’t seen proof that Mr. Ritchie hasn’t eliminated his radical spots. Until I see that proof, I’ll assume that he’s a bitterly partisan man.

Technorati: Training, Mark Ritchie, Robert Borosage, Betty Friedan, Mary Frances Berry, Julian Bond, Tom Hayden, Jesse Jackson, Robert Reich, Andy Stern, John Sweeney, Richard Trunka, Unions, Registration Drives, GOTV, Elections