State GOP chooses Sutton as new chair

A veteran of the party takes the reins at a time of uncertainty.

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

June 13, 2009

Minnesota Republicans decided Saturday to, in effect, go back to the future.

Members of the GOP's central committee elected longtime political operative Tony Sutton as their party chairman, at a moment when the party is simultaneously rebuilding and soul-searching.

"Yeah, we're in soul-searching phase, but I think we're coming to the end of that," Sutton said. "I think we're starting to get our sea legs back."

Sutton, who is stepping up from his current post as the state party's secretary-treasurer, formerly served as its executive director and has a political résumé dating back to Ronald Reagan's second term.

Sutton handily defeated two challengers, winning 195 of the 345 votes cast by committee members.

He beat Dave Thompson, a lawyer and former talk radio host, and Carrie Ruud, a former state legislator.

Sutton, who was endorsed for the position by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, waves off characterizations of his win as an insider beating a pair of outsiders.

"It was more a question of my experience versus inexperience that won people over," Sutton, 41, said. "It's silly to characterize me as a grizzled old-time party jack."

He conceded that the party, in Minnesota as well as nationwide, faces a steep uphill trek. "We've got to get back on track and start winning elections," he said. "We have to get back to our philosophical roots, so when we talk about fiscal responsibility, we mean it."

After eight years of a Bush administration in which "Republicans were spending money like crazy, a lot of right-of-center voters lost confidence in the Republicans," he said.

"It's not like people agree with [President] Obama's principles -- they've lost confidence in Republicans. We have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Being Democrats-light is not an acceptable course."

Sutton said he isn't worried that he faces a split within the party because of a growing faction within the conservative movement: libertarian supporters of Texas presidential candidate Ron Paul. Although many of the Paulites backed Thompson, Sutton said his "pretty broad coalition" contained several of the Texas congressman's supporters.

Sutton new job includes recruiting candidates, mobilizing grass-roots activity support and increasing voter turnout. Next year's election will be critical because the race for governor is wide-open and every legislative seat is on the ballot.

Sutton said he doesn't believe Pawlenty's decision to forgo a reelection bid will hurt the party in 2010. "One door opens and another closes," he said. "Rather than lament his decision, I'm looking forward to a vigorous endorsing contest."

Sutton, who also is a former deputy state auditor, also is chief executive officer of the Baja Sol Restaurant Group.

Central committee members elected Michael Brodkorb, who got his start in the party's machinery as a political blogger, as deputy chairman. And they elected David Sturrock, a professor of Political Science at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, to succeed Sutton as secretary-treasurer.

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184