The judge involved in the case against Robert (Bobby) Deschampe alleging Mr. Deschampe violated election campaign practices dismissed the case on Monday, June 26.
Deschampe won all three precincts in the special election for the District 1 Cook County commissioner seat vacated by Frank Moe, who left after serving almost two years of a fouryear term.
After the count was in, Bobby received 254 votes to James (Jim) Vannet’s 148 tally.
In precinct one, Grand Portage, Bobby was awarded 107 votes to Vannet’s 20. In precinct two, Hovland, Deschampe garnered 88 returns while Vannet received 75. Precinct three, Colvill, was the closet race, with Deschampe collecting 59 votes and Vannet accumulated 53.
Deschampe was sworn in as the new District 1 Cook County commissioner on June 6 at a regularly scheduled county board meeting.
The claim was filed by Vannet, of Hovland, Mr. Deschampe’s primary challenger.
Vannet lodged a complaint with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearing alleging actions taken by Mr. Deschampe constituted a violation of the Campaign Fair Practices Act.
Mr. Vannet was notified by one of his friends that they had received a copy of Mr. Deschampe’s political mailer in her Hovland post office box. According to Mr. Vannet, his friend had picked her mail up on or about May 23-24. When shown the mailer, Mr. Vannet noticed that it didn’t comply with the election standards.
According to Mr. Vannet, the mailings didn’t have any addresses on the piece, and no contact name and no source of funding. “I filed my complaint with the Administrative Law Judge’s Office on May 26, 2017, because I felt the political piece did not follow the Minnesota Fair Campaign Practices Act,” he said at the time.
Upon first reviewing Mr. Vannet’s claim, the administrative judge moved the case forward. The matter proceeded to a probable cause hearing conducted by telephone scheduled Thursday, June 8, but Mr. Deschampe, while sending people to speak for him, couldn’t attend because of work. Two other sessions occurred with the judge over the telephone before the judge made his ruling.
As for the allegation about improperly putting campaign flyers into mailboxes, one of Mr. Deschampe’s campaign volunteers told the judge that he did so without Bobby’s knowledge. In his ruling, the judge said he believed that the volunteer acted alone, without any awareness of his (volunteer) actions by Mr. Deschampe.
Robert will fill the remaining District 1 term of Cook County Commissioner Frank Moe, who retired in December 2016 due to concerns about his health.
Mr. Deschampe is the first member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to serve on the Cook County Board of Commissioners since William Corcoran in the mid 1980s.
Had this case gone forward it would have been heard by a three-judge panel, but in Minnesota, at least, judges are loathed to overturn elections. Once the people have voted, the winner is usually decided at the ballot box and not in a courtroom.
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