CNN reports on fraud scandals erupting in Minnesota on Gov. Walz’s watch

Today’s pleasant surprise for the Trump campaign and everyone who’s not a fan of Tim Walz: A bit more than a month before Election Day, CNN does a long, detailed, and damning report about the scandals in Minnesota’s state government while Tim Walz has been governor:

A CNN review of audits – and the responses they prompted – as well as interviews with statewide politicians and pundits, found that Walz has been a hands-off leader when it comes to seeking accountability for episodes of fraud and mismanagement on his watch. What’s more, some state agencies headed by his appointees have responded defensively in recent months to the audits – a dynamic that Randall, who has worked in the department for 26 years, has found surprising.

Randall told a local media outlet this summer that the responses of some agencies to her audits have had a “shoot the messenger” feel of late. CNN reviewed more than a dozen reports from her office that held specific agencies responsible for allowing fraud, waste or mismanagement on their watch during the Walz administration. 

Some addressed high-profile scandals such as the pandemic fraud allegations and a troubled light-rail project – whose genesis predates Walz but is currently monitored by 17 Walz appointees – that has suffered from more than $1.5 billion in cost overruns. Randall’s office faulted that agency last year for a lack of transparency about rising costs and failure to ensure contractors’ ballooning price tags were justified. Others found holes in safeguards to waste or raised more targeted conflict-of-interest concerns, such as a state Department of Public Safety employee who received payments from the recipient of a grant that the employee oversees.

Randall told CNN that she knows of no personnel changes linked to any audit by her office since 2019, when Walz was sworn in.

Critics say that is on Walz, now the Democratic candidate for vice president.

CNN notes that not only have these scandals occurred on Walz’s watch, there’s little to no sign that Walz and his administration took much action to discipline those responsible:

Willie Jett, a member of Walz’s cabinet, seemed to feed into this perception when being grilled by state lawmakers this summer on the alleged meals-for-needy-kids scam, which revolved around a now-defunct nonprofit called Feeding Our Future.

An audit by Randall’s office found that the state agency overseeing the program missed key early warning signs.

Pressed on whether anyone in the Minnesota Department of Education had been disciplined, Jett – who was appointed by Walz in late 2022 to lead that agency – repeatedly said: “That’s not what MDE is about.”

Will this report change the outcome of the election? Probably not. Is it months behind certain other folks’ coverage of the campaign? Sure. But if a guy is going to be a heartbeat away from being commander in chief, the American public ought to get the fullest and most detailed portrait possible of how he’s managed the leadership positions he’s had so far.

Sure, Walz is folksy and does car repairs and wears a lot of flannel. But he doesn’t run an executive branch well, and waste, fraud, mismanagement, and conflicts of interest flourish when he’s the one minding the store. When it is exposed — usually by the state legislator’s auditor and local media, not by internal investigations within the executive branch — the response is lackadaisical and dismissive.

If this is the way Tim Walz runs the executive branch of the Minnesota state government, why would we expect anything different from the way he would run the executive branch of the U.S. government?