MINNEAPOLIS — State GOP chair Jennifer Carnahan Monday mounted a defensive against those who've called for her to resign from her post in the wake of a sex trafficking indictment against a Republican strategist and major donor.
Carnahan has adamantly denied she had any knowledge of Anton "Tony" Lazzaro's alleged trafficking activities. Lazzaro, who cohosted a podcast with Carnahan in 2020 and raised substantial sums of money for the party and Republican candidates, was indicted by a federal grand jury last week.
A raid of his Minneapolis condo netted $371,000 in cash, plus foreign currency and gold and silver bars, according to court documents. His co-defendant is Gisela Castro Medina, 19-year-old college student from Delano who has been identified as the chair of the University of St. Thomas College Republicans chapter.
That has prompted some of Carnahan's critics within the party to call for her resignation. She has characterized it as an attempted "coup" by people who actively opposed her re-election as party chair in April, and a "guilt by association" campaign.
"We are grateful for every contribution we receive, but there is no way for us to know the personal background of every contributor to our party -- even those donors with whom we have a regular and consistent relationship. To imply otherwise is simply wrong," Carnahan wrote Monday, in a letter to the state party's central committee members.
Her letter also included an itemized list of Lazzaro's contributions to Minnesota state and federal candidates and political organizations, which totaled more than $270,000 across several election cycles.
Carnahan said the party is setting up a separate bank account for the purpose of holding the money Lazzaro donated directly to the state party, which was roughly $37,000. The party will then donate that to charities, after deciding on which ones are appropriate.
David Pascoe, the state party secretary, sent a letter to party insiders Monday arguing that Carnahan can no longer effectively lead the party in light of the Lazzaro scandal. Carnahan shot back that attempts to remove her from office are actually more damaging to the Republican cause in the state.
She encouraged members of the party's executive committee to put her up for a vote of no confidence at Thursday night's meeting. It would take a two-thirds majority to oust Carnahan, or 10 of the 15 members of that panel. She's confident her opponents won't be able to garner that many votes.
Political analyst Steven Schier said it's difficult to know what's happening in the inner workings of the state's Republican party, but in the short term the optics aren't best for Carnahan and party faithful.
"There’s been a lot of staff turnover in the state Republican party, including just before the last election. That suggests turbulence, disagreement and discord before all these revelations about child sex trafficking," Schier told KARE.
"The question is whether the accumulation of all of this will be enough to force Carnahan out of her position. She podcasted with this guy, she really brought him into the party in a big way and really courted him and encouraged his role in the party."
The other option for Carnahan's detractors would be to force a meeting of the party's central committee, which is a group of 300 active Republicans. They would need to gather signatures of 15%, or 45 signatures, to trigger such a meeting. The process would take several weeks to unfold.
At Sunday night's meeting, the executive committee passed a resolution calling for a financial audit of the state party's books. The panel also approved a resolution to release former party employees from the non-disclosure agreements they signed when they resigned or were fired.
But Carnahan Monday said several executive committee members who voted in favor of that NDA resolution didn't understand what they were voting on at the time, and they'd like to rescind that action at Thursday night's meeting.
Sunday's meeting ended rather abruptly after it became apparent that at least one of the 15 members was providing leaks to Carnahan critic, who was posting them in real time on Twitter.
Beginning in 2017, Lazzaro served as an activist, commentator, strategist, and fundraiser both individually and through his political action committee. He was also actively engaged on behalf of Republican congressional candidate Lacy Johnson who ran against Rep. Ilhan Omar in 2020.
Lacy Johnson has said in social media posts that Lazzaro never worked for his congressional campaign, but KARE's request to the campaign for an interview with Johnson last October was answered first by Lazzaro. The follow-up arrangements were subsequently made by other campaign workers.
Carnahan also denied Monday that the state party paid any money to quell a sexual harassment claim against a Minnesota campaign staff member while he was working on the US senate runoff race in Georgia in January.
Minnesota GOP staff Monday also distributed a copy of a letter that Ronald Huettl Jr., the party's director of finance, HR and compliance, in support of Carnahan. He said he's worked for the party in various capacities since 1998 and sees Carnahan as a major plus.
"I see what is being waged against Chairwoman Carnahan as an attempted coup by a small minority of people who are bitter at losing the last Chair’s election, many who are on our executive board," Huettl wrote.
"Chairwoman Carnahan was elected with over 67% of the vote. A clear majority have confidence in the abilities of this Chair."