[1] Bob Pavlak served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II.
[1] In 1974, Pavlak lost his seat when he was defeated by Arnold Kempe, the candidate of the Democratic Farmer Labor Party.
On November 4, 1978—three days before the election—a Dispatch editorial mistakenly claimed that Kempe had missed 325 of 329 roll call votes in the legislature.
In its November 4 editorial, the Dispatch asserted that its editors "have seen nothing to dispute his [Pavlak's] research report that shows the incumbent voted four times in 1967-68 this out of more than 300 opportunities.
"[4] After the Dispatch published the erroneous editorial, Pavlak's campaign alerted the editors to the fact that Kempe's missed roll call votes occurred in 1977–78, not 1967–68.
[4] Moreover, Pavlak's campaign subsequently reprinted at least 1,800 copies of the flawed editorial and circulated them in the district just before election day.
Voters in the district filed a lawsuit alleging that Pavlak's campaign had violated state election law by reprinting and circulating the deeply flawed Dispatch editorial.
Article 4, Section 6 of the Minnesota Constitution provides that "Each house shall be the judge of the election returns and eligibility of its own members.
"[4] Accordingly, the justices concluded that "we have no jurisdiction to issue a final and binding decision in this matter, and our opinion by statute will be and by the Minnesota Constitution must only be advisory to the House of Representatives.
[3] Pavlak died of esophageal cancer at his home in West St. Paul, Minnesota on October 9, 1994 at age 70.