__________UPDATE__________
It is interesting what a "Tax the Rich" foray onto the web can yield. Bill Cooper and the Suttons, here then here. If you want a taco to go with that mixed drink. Baja Sol and the Cooper-Sutton saga was in general known to me, but the eye-opener in that first linked item:
In 2006, Baja Sol, Inc. was purchased by franchisees Bill Cooper and Tony and Bridget Sutton to form a new company, Baja Sol Restaurants Group. Bill Cooper, Chairman and former CEO of TCF Financial Corporation, brings a lifetime of experience in building companies to this venture. Tony Sutton, former Deputy State Auditor for the state of Minnesota, provides 20 years of organizational leadership and financial oversight. Bridget Sutton brings 20 years of small business development and marketing.
Boy, Pat Anderson sure has kept that "former Deputy State Auditor" thing under a hat, all the while that Sutton-Brodkorb handling of GOP party finances, the debt revelation thing, was loading up that party's fan.
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| MinnPost image, link given below |
The picture, from here, dates back to where former GOP party official Trimble got the opportunity to bill substantial legal fees for a useless Emmer recount - I call Sutton and Trimble the "Crony Tonys," (although beyond party ties of commonality, leadership opportunity, I cannot really say that cronyism was a factor in that recount thing happening as it did among a party in hock - I just really like the ring of that phrase). Remember, MPR reported:
Some party backers are questioning where the party's money went and several expressed surprise when told about some of the spending. Thursday night the party's executive committee agreed to do an internal review of some of the expenses incurred during the past 2 1/2 years to try to dissect what happened, said a party leader.
Chief among their concerns are dollars paid to Tony Trimble, the party's attorney who argued unsuccessfully in the 2008 U.S. Senate recount and the 2010 gubernatorial recount. During Sutton's tenure, Trimble made more than $1 million, an amount leaders say was excessive.
Also on the party books was $221,000 paid to Strother Communications, a public relations firm charged with rebranding the party. One party leader said the effort never resulted in a concrete plan.
[italics emphasis added]
Party books being so secretive, and the guy who was running up expenses willy-nilly (with lawyer Trimble, billing meter running, never objecting) was Sutton.
Then, to now see Sutton actually had a shout-and-tout background as deputy State Auditor - there's enough there to unpin my BS meter off zero, to midscale or beyond to higher values.
You'd suppose and hope that being deputy Auditor would entail a learning curve on proper shepherding of funds. Of course, I believe Sutton has denied impropriety as a factor in his heading Minnesota's GOP. So, make it an expectation of a prudent learning experience, with prudent being perhaps a more elastic and less pejorative word than "proper." You have to wonder what Sutton's duties back then were, to earn the State's paycheck. Any readers having knowledge of his service record in that position, please leave a comment.