Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has some explaining to do, or so it seems. He was elected on the promise that he would depoliticize the office and restore voter confidence in the office’s integrity and impartiality.

Now, the DFLer is under fire for allegedly using his public office to supply his political machine with names and contact information to raise money for his campaign.

Mark Ritchie

The allegation comes from officials of two right-leaning organizations and was detailed Monday on the Minnesota Democrats Exposed blog, followed promptly by two Republican legislators calling for an investigation. Here’s our story about the controversy.

The complainants say that they participated in a “Civic Education” program run by Ritchie’s secretary of state office, and were asked to supply their e-mail addresses to the office. That was in April. Last week, they received an e-mail solicitation from Ritchie’s campaign.

Apparently, the contact info acquired by his taxpayer-funded office ended up in the hands of his political fundraising operation.

Ritchie says he did not authorize the use of the list for political purposes, and said he doesn’t know how it happened. But he goes on to say that the names and e-mail addresses are public information, available to anyone, including political campaigns.

Indeed, Minnesota’s data practices law says that government data is considered to be public, unless it is specifically exempted from the law.

So this information might, in fact, be public information, and would have to be provided to political campaigns if they request it.

Did that happen? Did Ritchie’s campaign request the information from Ritchie’s office? If so, how did Ritchie’s campaign know to ask for this list? Or did it submit a broad request for all names and contact info held by the office?

If that’s the case, even if it’s perfectly legal, wouldn’t it be prudent for Ritchie’s campaign to not ask for such information — to avoid the perception that he’s using his office resources — taxpayer resources — to aid his campaign?

The presidential election is more than a year away, but don’t forget that there may be an election barrelling toward you in a matter of weeks.

There are a dozens of municipal and school board races and referenda on the ballot on Nov. 6.

If you live in the Twin Cities metro area, our MyVote feature will help you figure out whether there’s an election in your city. If there is, it will help you learn more about the candidates seeking your vote.

You can find MyVote on the left side of the Politically Connected home page. Or go directly to it here.

All candidates in contested races were invited to submit a photo and information about themselves and their candidacies, including their personal and professional background, their list of endorsements and a statement about the most important issue they would tackle. If a candidate has a website, you’ll be able to click on the link and go directly to his or her site so you can learn more.

Using MyVote is simple. Just type in your zip code, house number and street, and you’ll get all the races that will be on your ballot.

Or you can choose, on the right side, to browse all the races in the metro area.

We’ll soon be adding information about the various school referenda on ballots.

If you live outside the metro area, you can find information about your local elections at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website here.

Rep. John Kline

We’ll be recording a new Pig’s Eye Podcast this morning. We hope to have it posted by about 10 a.m. Once we get in front of the microphones, anything is possible, but here’s what we expect to be talking about.

A fugitive on the lam takes the time — bless his felonious little heart — to post a comment on Politically Connected about our podcast.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s enviable 59% job approval rating.

More stirrings in the Minnesota congressional races, including an intriguing Democrat stepping forward to run against John Kline.

The U.S. Senate race, where Al Franken edged out Sen. Norm Coleman in the third-quarter money race.

By the way, if you have a question for the Pig’s Eye Podcast crew — Doug Tice, Lori Sturdevant and me — or want us to address a certain topic, leave a post here, or send an e-mail to politicallyconnected@startribune.com.

Two of the people who helped elect Jesse Ventura as Minnesota governor in 1998 are forming a new political consulting firm aimed at helping independents and third-party candidates.

Former Sen. Dean Barkley

Bill Hillsman, a Minneapolis ad executive, and Dean Barkley, who was appointed by Ventura to fill out the remainder of Sen. Paul Wellstone’s term after the fatal plane crash, will officially announce their plan on Thursday.

Barkley, a lawyer and small businessman, jumped into politics in 1992 because he was energized by Ross Perot’s presidential bid that year. Barkley ran for Congress and received a very credible 17 percent of the vote. He then ran for the U.S. Senate, and won enough votes to elevate the Independence Party (previously the Reform Party) to major party status under Minnesota law. That made it eligible for public campaign financing, among other benefits.

Bill Hillsman

Hillsman was the force behind Wellstone’s award-winning ads in his 1990 campaign. He’s also the author of “Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time.”

Hillsman and Barkley helped propel Ventura into the governor’s office and more recently they teamed up on the unsuccessful — but attention-getting — 2006 Texas gubernatorial campaign of Kinky Friedman.

They’ll be joined in their new firm — D’Amore, Hillsman, Oliver and Barkley — by two others.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is like that character you see in some war movies who strides confidently through the battlefield — upright, unfazed and seemingly protected by an invisible shield from the shells exploding all around him. That’s the image that comes to mind when looking at the new Minnesota Poll results we have on Politically Connected today.

The poll found that 59 percent of Minnesotans approve of the job he’s doing. In addition to the main story here, we also have graphics here and here.

This rating proves once again that Pawlenty is a breed apart. It’s a rock solid rating for any incumbent. And it comes at a time when there have been troubles in his administration and he has seemed hesitant. His health commissioner resigned after withholding data about cancer deaths on the Iron Range, and his running mate/transportation commissioner has been embattled since the I-35W bridge collapsed. Pawlenty himself came under fire for giving conflicting signals on a gas tax hike to pay for bridge repairs.

But what comes through in the poll results is a governor with broad, deep and unwavering support. He has majority approval among every group the poll measured, except for non-whites (47% approval) and Democrats (38%).

Consider these job approval ratings among:
Men: 60 percent
Women: 57 percent
18-39 year olds: 63 percent
40-59 year olds: 59 percent
60 and over: 53 percent
7 county metro: 59 percent
Rest of state: 58 percent

It’s not surprising, then, that Pawlenty has received national attention. By the way, he’ll be bringing some of his political glamour to the East Coast in the coming days. There’s a blog post from New Hamspire here.

How do you explain Pawlenty’s enduring popularity? When Republicans were swept away in 2006 by the Democratic tsunami, why is it that Pawlenty was able to hold his ground?