Rebecca Otto

Infobox_Governor

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imagesize = 150px
name= Rebecca Otto
|caption=
order= 18^th
office= Minnesota State Auditor
term_start=January 2, 2007
term_end=Incumbent
predecessor= Patricia Anderson
successor= Incumbent
birth_date= birth date and age|1963|07|9
birth_place=
death_date=
death_place=
spouse=
profession=Jr. High School teacher
party= Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
footnotes=

Rebecca Otto (born July 9, 1963) is the Auditor of the U.S. state of Minnesota. She is affiliated with the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). She also served one term in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 – 2004 and on the Forest Lake Board of Education. Before entering politics, she was a junior high school science teacher. She lives on a farm near Marine on St. Croix with her husband, Shawn Lawrence Otto, a filmmaker. She is the third woman to serve as Auditor.

Political career

She was initially defeated for the state house in 2002 by incumbent Mark Holsten. However, the seat opened after Holsten was appointed to the office of Deputy Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Despite a heavily Republican tilt to the district, Otto defeated Matt Dean in the special election. [http://www.forestlaketimes.com/2003/january/22.html]

Later in 2003, Otto and her husband were indicted by a grand jury for distributing false campaign material, a misdemeanor. Otto replied that the charges, filed by House Speaker Steve Sviggum were politically motivated and baseless. [http://www.forestlaketimes.com/2003/august/12ottocharge.html] Otto was supported by a number of individuals, including former Republican Governor Arne Carlson, who signed a letter criticizing the indictment. In December 2003, the charges were dismissed by a local judge and part of the law was stricken as unconstitutional.

The charges, however, impacted Otto's campaign and she lost her re-election bid in 2004.

Otto declared her candidacy for auditor in March 2005 and ran against the incumbent auditor, Patricia Anderson. She won the DFL endorsement and the general election in 2006, with the support of Carlson, who crossed party lines to support her during her legal ordeals and switched his support from Anderson to Otto in the 2006 election.

Electoral history

*2006 Minnesota State Auditor
**Rebecca Otto (DFL), 52%
**Patricia Anderson (R) (inc.), 41%
**Lucy Gerold (IP), 5%
**Dave Berger (G), 2%

*2004 MN State House Seat 52B
**Matt Dean (GOP), 51.59%
**Rebecca Otto (DFL) (inc.), 48.32%

*2003 MN State House Seat 52B (Special Election)
**Rebecca Otto (DFL), 54.30%
**Matt Dean (GOP), 43.47%

*2002 MN State House Seat 52B
**Mark Holsten (GOP) (inc.), 58.75%
**Rebecca Otto (DFL), 41.17%

External links

* [http://www.rebeccaotto.com/ Campaign website]
*http://ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=24679