T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter

State Auditor Rebecca Otto once considered politics so foul that she couldn’t imagine stepping into it. But she did.

Otto, a 44-year-old Democrat from May Township, trounced former State Auditor Pat Anderson last November to bounce back from a tough House of Representatives election defeat two years before.

“I love this job. I understand why the former auditors loved this job,” Otto said recently.

“It’s low visibility but the work you do is incredibly important,” she said.

Anderson has opined the DFL wave last election was so strong anybody with a DFL Party designation behind their name could have beaten her.

Otto views the election as a bit more complex.

“There’s a lot of factors that go with it,” she said. “Timing has a lot to do with it,” she conceded.

But Otto argues the “wave” translated into a three or four point gain for most DFL candidates.

And she won by 11 points — Otto credits her campaign, credits hard work, with winning a lot of those extra points. It’s never fun to lose — always fun to win, she explained.

“And I’ve been on both sides of it,” Otto said with a laugh.

Past & Present

In a high profile race in 2004 in House District 52B, it was the incumbent, Rep. Rebecca Otto, who came up short, losing a House seat she had claimed in a special election.

But both elections are behind her.

Now Otto presides over an office with about 115 employees and the duty to oversee the fiscal decisions of about 4300 units of local government.

Otto speaks of assisting local government in their duties — detecting unproductive budgeting trends early and through education, halting them before they become endemic.

Otto looks to making auditor office reports more accurate, easier to wade through, and more far reaching in terms of not just reporting data but spotting trends.

She wants legislators to read the reports coming out of the office. And that’s not always done, she noted.

Life’s paths

Otto talks of living life one day at a time.

But she also explains that she has walked down unanticipated paths.

Although she once found politics distasteful — told people that — Otto wound up serving on the Forest Lake School Board and then that short stint in the Legislature.

Now it’s state auditor, which might raise the question of what next?

People have spoken to her about a possible run for governor, Otto explained.

“There are people who love to plan your life for you,” she said, smiling.

That’s part of politics, she said.

Still, Otto doesn’t slam any doors shut.

“I have learned never to say ‘Never,’” Otto said.

“I guess what you have to do is keep your head,” she said.

Professor Larry Jacobs, Professor and Walter F. Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, said Otto could be seen as a possible gubernatorial candidate.

“Holding state wide elected office can be a stepping stone,” he said.

Indeed, one of Otto’s political heroes, former Gov. Arne Carlson, emerged out of the state auditor’s office.

But 2010 is a long way off — it’s hard to know who’ll run, Jacobs said.

Former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Ryback and former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza are all possible DFL gubernatorial candidates, he noted.

“So, it could be tight competition with some bigger names in the hunt,” Jacobs said.

For her part, Otto said she would neither run for another elective office, nor stay in her current one, unless she was or could contribute and work to make things better.

“We have a good thing going (in the state) and it didn’t happen by accident,” she said of people dedicating their talents to public service.

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