A Bluestem Prairie

Saturday afternoon at the MFU convention

We've had trouble logging on from our room at the Four Points Sheraton in Minneapolis, where we're attending the Minnesota Farmers Union convention. We'll blog later about an exciting new program that allows farmers to trade carbon credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange and other ag policy news, as well as the anticipated visit to the convention by Gwen and Tim Walz on their way back from Washington D.C. to Mankato.

We also had an interesting talk with folks from Track the Truth, who have a table at the convention.

Meanwhile, here's a round up of news about the Fighting First.

AFL-CIO BLOG: WINNING GAME PLAN--WORKERS TALKING TO WORKERS
While national observers credit Tim Walz's win to the Democratic wave, those closer to the district know that grassroots organizing had a lot to do with the win.  The Walz campaign was able to recruit and mobilize volunteers from throughout the district--especially in college towns. 

Allies who endorsed Walz almost rallied their members.  While Gutknecht bet that blue-collar workers in Albert Lea and Austin would be swayed by anti-immigrant appeals, they chose instead to listen to their friends and co-workers. 

The AFL-CIO blog reports:

In Minnesota, where Working America, the AFL-CIO community affiliate, signed up 24,000 new members between April and  September, activists turned around the state’s 1st Congressional District, where anti-worker Republican candidate Gil Gutknecht was a shoe-in to win, and elected Democrat Tim Walz.

Says David Wehde, Working America’s Minnesota director:

People…were fed up with the way that the country was going. They wanted to do something about it. When we won, the enthusiasm, the excitement, the validation that they all felt, was inspiring. Still, when I think about what we all did, I’m in awe.

In this audio feature produced for the AFL-CIO by Workers Independent News (WIN), we hear from Wehde and other activists who made it happen.

MANKATO FREE PRESS: THE WALZES IN WASHINGTON
The Mankato Free Press reports on the Walzes' adventures in DC:

..."I told my wife, I don’t think we can even remember everything that happened,” said Walz, the Mankato West High School teacher whose first run for elective office of any kind earned him a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. “... Overwhelming is such an overused cliché, but I don’t know what other words to use.”

Here’s a few of the moments he remembers from his orientation week:

The White House

When the Walzs arrived at the White House, part of a reception for all the new members of the House and Senate, three of the biggest names in the Bush administration acknowledged they’d paid at least some attention to his long-shot campaign to unseat six-term Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht.

“Talked to Karl Rove,” said Walz, who was cut off by the president’s famous political adviser as soon as he started to explain who he is. “He says, ‘I know who you are. You’re that teacher from out in Minnesota.’”

First Lady Laura Bush recalled her campaign visit, on behalf of Gutknecht, to the 1st District. Even President Bush may have made reference to the race, although it’s not quite as clear.

“He said, ‘I was at a quarry there,’” Walz said of Bush’s reaction to his Mankato home. “And then he chuckled.”

National stories about Walz’s candidacy often mentioned the attempt by Bush officials to block Walz from attending the president’s 2004 speech at the Mankato quarry because one of the students Walz was accompanying had a John Kerry sticker on his wallet. A 24-year veteran of the National Guard, Walz was offended that only supporters were being allowed to see their president, and the incident helped stoke his political involvement in the Democratic Party.

The House

While the White House reception was fun — and humbling — the visit to the House chamber in the Capitol was the most powerful moment of the week, Walz said. He was allowed to have his photo taken at the speaker’s podium and said he kept thinking of all the leaders who had served in the room.

Many of the people he’s met in Washington were amazed that Walz had never served in a lower-level elected office — that he was able to go straight from geography teacher to congressman, he said. So he believes his story reinforces the belief that any American has a chance to help lead the nation.

“For me to be standing there was to have everyone standing there,” he said.

Nancy Pelosi, the next speaker of the House, told freshmen members they will each be given the opportunity to pound the gavel and preside over the House early next year.

From the president to fellow newcomers, the theme has been working together regardless of political party, Walz said.

“I really liked what I was hearing from the president,” he said. “We’re going to be working together for two years, and he understands that.”

In his fellow freshmen from both parties, Walz said he was struck by the lack of egos and by the focus on solving the nation’s problems.

“I couldn’t be prouder to stand with them,” he said.

The details

Walz has a transition office now but no place to live. A campaign staffer, Chris Schmitter, is searching for an apartment for him. He’s interviewing potential staff for his congressional office.

He has decided to set up district offices in Mankato and Rochester for sure. And he’s thinking about how to ensure his congressional office is ready to serve constituents immediately when he goes to work Jan. 4.

“The politicking ends and the governing begins,” he said. “And that’s what I’m going to spend December doing, making that transition."

STAR TRIBUNE: DECORATING TIPS?
The Star Tribune focuses on the state's three freshman representatives' DC office plans:

Tim Walz never had to give much thought to interior design before he was elected to Congress.

He and the other two new House members from Minnesota likely won't know their committee assignments for a few more weeks. But after a Friday morning lottery, they at least found out where they'll be setting up shop. . .....

. . .Walz, also a Democrat, said the day before the lottery that he would have an aide pick his number. Nevertheless, he did it himself and got stuck with 32 out of 49. "That's why I never gamble," he said.

Both Walz and Ellison got offices in the Longworth building. Republican Michele Bachmann, who picked No. 20, will be in the Cannon building.

Walz, with the smallest office of the three, plans to give it a southern Minnesota feel, reflecting the First Congressional District, because "the people own that office.". . .

. . .The three also campaigned for committee spots this week.. . .

Walz covets a spot on the Agriculture Committee, and looked for agricultural backgrounds in candidates he interviewed this week for chief of staff.

ROCHESTER POST BULLETIN: OBERSTAR AND DM & E
Speaking of railroads and committee assignments, the Post Bulletin carries news of DM & E shifting fortunes in the nation's capital:

Powerful Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar will take a hands-on role to help solve Rochester's and Mayo Clinic's impasse with the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, Congressman-elect Tim Walz announced in a news release Friday.

Walz, a Democrat elected on Nov. 7 to represent Minnesota's First District, which includes Rochester, said he met this week with Oberstar, soon to be chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

"I had a great discussion with Congressman Oberstar concerning the DM&E loan," Walz said in the news release. "The congressman is interested in acting as a mediator in this matter and I value his advice and involvement."

Walz said he "strongly opposes" DM&E's $2.3 billion federal loan request.

"I continue to believe that this loan is an unsound investment for the American taxpayers and that mitigation for the city of Rochester is an insufficient remedy for what is wrong with this loan," Walz said.

More later from the Farmers Union convention.

 

Wes Walz: U. S. Representative in Minnesota's Fighting First?

We are well aware of Tim Walz's come-out-nowhere victory in the Fighting First, but we'd have thought by now his name was a household word.

Not so for the  folks at the Legislative Coordinating Commission GIS, where a pdf file has been put up with the Minnesota Wild's Wes Walz representing the district for the next two years.

The Walz Campaign threw one heck of a party at the Mankato Holiday Inn on election night, but we think we'd remember if the guy at the left was the one elected.

Wes Walz does play center, however, so we can see how the commission might get him mixed up with Minnesota's new moderate representative. Well, sorta maybe.

Here's the original file:  Download Cong06.pdf just in case the folks at the GIS read BSP and correct the map.

Hat tip to reader John S.

The answer is blowing in the wind: Coleman on DM & E

Ever one to know which way the wind blows, Senator Norm Coleman takes a strong stand on the DM& E, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin.  Now he's talking tough:

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Norm Coleman said Thursday that he will oppose an expansion plan by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad unless the Department of Transportation comes up with a plan to address the concerns of the Mayo Clinic.

"I need to soon see a mitigation plan," Coleman, R-Minn., said in a conference call with reporters. "If there isn't a plan, then I'll do everything in my prerogatives as senator to stop this project, either through the appropriation process or the legislation process."

Coleman said he wants to see something by the end of the year.

The DM&E secured federal regulatory approval for the project earlier, but it is now seeking approval for a $2.3 billion loan from the DOT's Federal Railroad Administration.

The project would rebuild 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track to reach the Powder River Basin coal mines. It would cost an estimated $6 billion, with $2.3 billion coming from the federal loan and the rest from private funding.

Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester oppose the project, arguing that the increased rail traffic could threaten the safety of the clinic's patients. The rail line runs only a few blocks away from Mayo Clinic, which wants DM&E to build a bypass around the city.

Mayo and Rochester-area officials praised Coleman's statements. 

As for what kind or amount of mitigation would be sufficient, Mayo spokesman Chris Gade said, "the best kind of mitigation would be for the loan not to be approved."

The train, on its present above-ground alignment, and Mayo Clinic cannot co-exist, said John Wade, president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce. The chamber, Mayo Clinic and Rochester's city and county governments form the Rochester Coalition that is fighting the railroad project and loan.

Were the train line to pass through Rochester underground in a tunnel, the plan might be acceptable, Wade said.

"I don't want to rule out any other options," he said.

Wade said he expects a mitigation plan, if it is worked out, to be negotiated by the FRA in consultation with the railroad and the Rochester Coalition.

Calls left with the DM&E and the Federal Railroad Administration were not immediately returned.

This made me want to look to see how tough Norm Coleman talked before the election that turned  Rochester blue.  Being a little short of time, I looked up the issue in Lexis-Nexis (we'll add links later when we have time to find these sources online).  The answers are below the fold.
 

Transcript of Tim Walz on NewsHour: "Inspiring the next generation"

The transcript of Tim Walz's appearance on PBS's NewsHour with four other newly-elected U.S. representatives is now online.  Read the entire transcript here.

Some highlights:

MARGARET WARNER: Let's start by having each of you tell us briefly why you came to Washington, beginning with you, Tim Walz.

TIM WALZ: Well, first of all, thanks for having me. I think the reason I'm here and what my constituents were sending me here to do was to have a vision for this country that would extend beyond politics, that would extend beyond the next election. And in southern Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic is located, and where leaders in renewable energies, they want to see a vision on what we're going to do in this country, in terms of health care, especially in terms of renewable energies.

And that's what I would like to see done early in these coming years. They don't want to see this incremental growth; they want to see massive growth when it comes to renewable energies.

***

MARGARET WARNER: And, Tim Walz, your background as both a veteran and as a teacher, how do you think that shaped your approach that you bring to this?

TIM WALZ: Yes, I do think it matters, because I think I represent the large number of people who never do serve in the legislatures, elective office, and I think that was one of the reasons they were looking at me.

People operate in a reality where they have to compromise, they have to get things done, where effectiveness trumps ideology. And they feel strongly about issues, but they understand the real pressing issues of the day are the ones that need to be taken care of.

So I'm very optimistic. And I agree with Dave on this. If this becomes just rhetoric, if the Democrats just give the rhetoric, it's bad for the country, and we all know that. So I think it's a golden opportunity for us, and I'm really encouraged by this freshmen class.

We do have a responsibility here, and the American people have given us that. I never said last Tuesday was a mandate for the Democrats. It was a mandate for America to fix the Congress, and that's what we're here to do.

***
MARGARET WARNER: Let's talk about Iraq. And, Yvette Clarke, you brought it up first. What role do you think House Democrats should play in reshaping policy in Iraq?

[snip]

MARGARET WARNER: Where are you on this?

TIM WALZ: Well, I'm not necessarily for a time table, if it's not based on milestones of success, more like Bosnia. What I feel was broken here -- and this comes from the Republican side, too -- people like Senator Hagel had their voices stifled.

The process in Congress is what was broken on this. We need to get back to finding a solution. We need to get a multinational force in there. We need to get the reconstruction done. It needs to be done with the idea, what is our long-range goal for the Middle East?

When we disentangle from this, we're disentangling with the vision of where we're going to be on this. And I think that's going to come out of this. This Congress is going to discuss that. We haven't discussed it on the floor of Congress, and now is the time.

So I'm confident we can get there. But I would agree there's a definite change of course. People say a time line; of course, there's going to be a time line we need these types of things done. But they need to be successful crossing through those gateways of success.

***
MARGARET WARNER: Finally, all but one of you has been through a grueling election, either in the primary or in the general. You're finally here...

TIM WALZ: Or both.

MARGARET WARNER: Or both.

So give me just briefly your impressions from this week. What does it feel like to be here finally?

[snip]

TIM WALZ: I think with me I walked in the Capitol for the first time -- it's the first time I'd been in the building -- and knowing that I'd been elected. And I went back to last Tuesday night after the election. I had a large number of my students that were there and that had worked on the campaign. I remember a young girl crying.

And I said, "We should be so happy." And she said, "I am happy." She said, "We really can change the world. You had us believing that." And I said -- when I walked in there, I got to think this is what it was. It's inspiring the next generation. I walked in there with students, walked in as the true citizen legislator. It was humbling, gratifying, and I guess, more than anything, I'm just incredibly optimistic.

Rochester Post Bulletin: Rove to Walz, "Where did you find the voters?"

Yesterday, Rochester Post-Bulletin Washington bureau staff writer Ed Felker reported on Walz's position on today's majority leader contest. According to the Post-Bulletin, he's not publicly taking sides.

Both Murtha and Hoyer helped Walz in his successful campaign for office. Murtha served as the attraction for a Veterans for Walz houseparty in Rochester, while Hoyer headlined a fundraiser in Minneapolis:

WASHINGTON -- The new Democratic House majority faces its first test Thursday with the selection of majority leader, an election that has Rep.-elect Tim Walz of Mankato getting a lot of attention.

Walz has declined to endorse either candidate, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland or Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for the No. 2 job under expected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

Both Hoyer and Murtha backed Walz in his campaign for the House's 1st District seat. Murtha appeared with Walz in Rochester, and Hoyer helped Walz raise money in Minneapolis, in addition to calling Walz in the campaign's final days to reiterate his support.

Walz said Tuesday that he is weighing Pelosi's weekend endorsement of Murtha, a decorated war veteran who came out against the war in Iraq last year to blistering criticism from congressional Republicans. "That's a big part in it," he said.

A veteran himself, Walz would not say he will side with Murtha in the secret ballot on Thursday and plans to keep his choice to himself until then. He has been talking to both candidates and their supporters for reasons to back one over the other.

"What's the best for our caucus and our country? That's what I'm trying to figure out," he said.

Felker writes that Walz met White House political director Karl Rove on Monday, and that Bush remembered the rally in Mankato that set Walz on the campaign trail:

On Monday, he attended a new-members reception at the White House, where he met President Bush and political adviser Karl Rove, who was convinced Walz would lose. "He said, 'we had the numbers on you, we thought we had enough, but where did you find the voters?'" Walz said.

Walz noted that President Bush remembered the Mankato rally in 2004 where he and two students were removed due to a John Kerry sticker on one of the students' wallets. "That was kind of fun," Walz said of the president's comment. Walz credits that event as one of the most important in his decision to run for office.

He called Bush's comments to the new lawmakers conciliatory. "There is a brand new tone. I think people understand the gravity of the situation ... it seems authentic to me."

Walz is aggressively working to score seats on important House committees:

Walz won't know for some time whether he will win his desired seats on the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and revealed that he is making a longshot bid for the powerful Appropriations Committee. "It's something I need to talk about. I don't necessarily think I'm going to get it, but I want people to know I'm not here to bide my time. I'm not here to not speak out and advocate for our district."

He said his victory over 12-year incumbent Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a Republican from Rochester, has gotten attention from veteran Democrats.

"They think this is a district that may be changing and you can be a voice for this movement that's coming," he said, referring to the practical, pragmatic politics he stressed in his campaign.

Walz in Marine Times: Veterans march to midterm

The Marine Times reports on theWalz win in Veterans march to midterm wins:

Also winning was Tim Walz, a retired Army National Guard command sergeant major who defeated Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a six-term incumbent, and will represent a southern Minnesota district. Gutknecht’s support for the Bush administration’s Iraq policy was an issue in the campaign with Walz, who enlisted at the age of 17 and served 24 years in the Guard, saying it was time to elect someone who wouldn’t rubber-stamp a flawed policy.

“There is no simple solution, but we can be assured that the answer is not to continue the current course of action without an exit plan,” said Walz, whose unit was mobilized and deployed to Europe in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The story is told in the student newspaper at Chadron State in Chadron State graduate elected to Minn. Congressional post.

PBS News Hour: "Health care and renewable energy"

Tim Walz was one of five freshman representatives featured on News Hour. 

Audio available here.

As goes Fillmore County, so goes the country

FILLMORE COUNTRY JOURNAL: COUP D' ETAT?
Editor John Torgrimson compares Tuesday's election to a coup d' etat he experienced firsthand in the Philippines:

When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty. Thomas Jefferson

One warm, sunny, tropical morning in December 1989, I stood in a refugee camp in the Philippines waiting for a bus to take me the four hours to Manila. The bus had been delayed because a coup was taking place in the capital as renegade military leader Greg "Gringo" Honasan tried to pry power away from People Power's Cory Acquino.

As we milled around talking about "what this all meant for the Philippines" American jets screamed overhead from Subic Bay Naval Base 30 minutes away. President George H.W. Bush had ordered American planes to take control of the skies over Manila, thus ending any serious attempt to unseat Acquino.

In many parts of the world, people use the sword to take power. In America we use the ballot box.

By all practical accounts, Tuesday's general election was a coup d' etat - the overthrow of the Bush government's way of doing things. While Democrats were the beneficiaries of voter discontent, Tuesday's election was less a celebration of all things Democratic and more a rejection of the direction our government was taking us in Washington.

In stock-market parlance, Tuesday's vote was a correction. It was about displeasure with the War in Iraq. It was also about the deficit and incompetence in Bush administration programs. In the final analysis, it was clearly a rejection of the way Congress was doing its business, dominated by partisan self-interest, corruption and scandal.

On Tuesday the people took back their government and gave a new Congress two years to show the American people that it is capable of our trust.

Godspeed.

In campaigning, Walz stressed that his bid was about ordinary people trying to repair their own government. Sound like Torgrimson and the people of Fillmore County were on that same wavelength.

COTTONWOOD COUNTY CITIZEN: TIM WALZ VISITS WINDOM
Since many small town newspapers are weeklies, news is just now getting published about last week's elections.  Walz's victory lap visit to Windom makes the paper this week:

Walz, a Mankato West school teacher, arrived in Windom about 11 a.m. on Friday. He spent close to an hour visiting supporters and others at the Minnesota Education Association office located on Highway 60-71, between the Windom swimming pool and Clark Properties.

"I'm proud to be a teacher going to Congress," Walz told the group. "We'll make ourselves as accessible as possible. "You often hear that a Congressman's door is always open. Of course it's always open. That door is yours. It belongs to you."

Walz said he plans to have full-time offices in Mankato and Rochester. He also intends to have satellite offices in Worthington and Winona.

STRIB ON VICTORY LAP: HOME ON WEEKENDS TO CHANGE DIAPERS
What can we say other than an affirmative "OINK!" to this lead:

Late last week, at one stop on a 10-city victory lap of the First Congressional District, one of Tim Walz's triumphant supporters handed him a cartoon of a winged pig.

"That's me, she told me," he said with a giggle, "Yep, I get to Congress when pigs fly."

Not that long ago, the prospect that Walz, 42, could knock off a well-funded, six-term Republican incumbent in a district that had sent only one other Democrat to Congress since 1900 indeed seemed about as likely as the day pigs take wing.

But now that Walz has defeated Rep. Gil Gutknecht, the circumstances of Walz's victory and his résumé could raise his profile above that of a typical congressional freshman. Walz was one of 28 Democrats who beat a Republican incumbent -- in this case someone untarnished by the GOP ethical woes.

And to the conclusion to Bob Von Sternberg's story:

Walz said he has no intention of wallowing in red-meat partisan politics. "I don't want to see us do what the Republicans did in '94," he said. "It's that kind of lockstep rigidness that got us into this mess."

His career as a high school geography teacher is on hold, as he has taken a five-year leave from the Mankato School District. During an orientation session earlier this week, freshmen members of Congress were told they were probably taking a pay cut; Walz joked that his congressional salary of $165,200 will be four times bigger than he has ever made as a teacher.

His wife, Gwen, will stay home in Mankato with their 5-year-old daughter, Hope, and son, Gus, who was born less than a month before the election.

"I'll probably sleep on a couch in my office for a while, but I'll be home on the weekends to change his diapers," Walz said.

Tuesday morning: Happy letter day

WINONA DAILY NEWS: THE REAL DEAL
Frequent letter writer Jim Gurley sings his new representative's praises in Walz an inspiration:

Tim Walz, our new congressman, is the real deal. His campaign, which was waged with energy, honesty and ideals, inspired me with the sure knowledge that there are indeed public servants today who are worthy of our trust.

We are truly indebted to Mr. Walz for his willingness to serve. Finally, we will have an intelligent, compassionate and engaged voice representing all of us in Washington. Thank you, Tim.

MANKATO FREE PRESS: HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT
Philip James Hart writes from St. Peter:

If I had been wearing a hat when I heard that Tim Walz had won Minnesota’s First Congressional seat, it would have shot off my head and up to the ceiling.

Never before have I been so inspired by a candidate for political office in my life. He is passionate, energetic, intelligent, and most importantly, honest. He brought those characteristics to his campaign, and I trust him to carry them on to Washington, D.C.

Even those who are strong conservatives and disagree with Walz’s values must admit that he, unlike so many politicians, actually showed normal citizens that they could make a real difference in the way our nation operates.

As an educator, Walz taught me that geography doesn’t have to be boring, and as a congressman, I believe he will teach us all that the federal government can work again.

Former student, Andrea Johnson writes from France:

It’s 7 a.m. here, and I have just woken up my neighbors yelling for joy on discovering Tim Walz’s electoral victory.

I would give anything to be back in my hometown, Mankato, to share this moment with my former high school teacher and all those who worked so hard on his campaign; who worked so hard to prove that democracy is still alive — that money alone does not decide an election and that passion, honesty and integrity can earn a man a spot in Congress.

I can’t wait to see him represent the First District the next two years.

Senior citizen Kathryn Doty sent in her thoughts:

We here in Mankato, woke Friday morning to a changed world. Our lawns, trees, roof tops were covered with a blanket of pure, white snow. It seemed as though the change in the weather was Nature, expressing the change the electorate of the United States of America has longed for.

Never, in my eight decades, plus six years of life, have I felt such a warm glow about all that our country, at its best, exemplifies. We were free to vote. We went to the polls without interference and woke in the morning without riots and civil war.

Our elected officials seem to have put their rancor aside and have expressed a willingness to work together to “bind up the nation’s wounds” to quote Abraham Lincoln, one of our finest presidents, and to move on. As we seek solutions to our problems, we realize conflict is inevitable, honest exchange of opinions and ideas is possible.

I am proud of us and wish President Bush would say to the world that fears and dislikes us, “This is what we really are. This is democracy. This is possible for you, too. We would like to help you accomplish this without carnage and long-lasting bitterness. God bless us all.”

 

KTSP: Walz in Washington

KTSP-5 reports on the orientation session for Minnesota's new U.S. Representatives.

View the video clip here.

There's vintage Tim Walz in the middle, with Walz relating a story about a benefits session, during which the new members of Congress are told by the presenter: "Now I know most of you are taking a pay cut" and Walz leaned toward an aide to quip that since he was a public school teacher, he'll be making four times what he ever earned before.

KSTP promises more at ten about the differences between the state's three freshman representatives.

OLLIE OX UPDATE: Here's the 10 p.m.clip, with Walz as the moderate in the middle.

Excuse us while we touch the sky: The prairie photographs of Jim Brandenburg

We'll be heading into the Cities this weekend for the annual Minnesota Farmers Union convention.

We do hope to slip away to the Bell Museum, where there's an exhibition of photographs by Luverne native Jim Brandenburg:

The Bell Museum's web site says of the exhibit:

“Touch the Sky: Prairie Photographs by Jim Brandenburg” is a tribute to the breathtaking vistas and iconic creatures of the tallgrass prairie. In more than 43 photographs, Jim Brandenburg chronicles the disappearing land that once made up the largest ecosystem in North America. Well known as a wildlife photographer, Brandenburg is also a committed conservationist and founder of the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation.

City Pages put the exhibition on its A-list of recommendations:

You can feel a missionary zeal seething through "Touch the Sky: Prairie Photographs by Jim Brandenburg." A master of bucolic repose, Brandenburg sheds his implacability and makes a stand in the tall grass prairie of his youth, straddling nostalgia and extinction as the landscape he loves disappears like drops of water in a hot frying pan. There are gaping wide-angle vistas that seem to swallow the void, as well as microscopic dramas of shimmering intensity. Purple gayfeathers cluster beneath a cloud spread like an eagle in the sky. A coiled rattlesnake flashes an angry eye in a photo of such razor-sharp clarity you can almost count the bumps on its purple tongue. Hundreds of bison spread across the Dakota countryside in a mocha-milky dreamscape, and impressionistic shots of swans and geese likewise fit snugly into a massive blur. Interspersed between these 40 or so righteous photos are wondrous chronicles ("Tens of thousands of wild fowl made a noise like thunder when they rose," 1847) and sobering facts ("Less than 1% of the Native tall grass prairie remains in isolated fragments"). Proceeds from this exhibit go to the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation, established in the photographer's hometown of Luverne, Minnesota, in 1999. —Britt Robson

The Brandenburg Foundation is dedicated to prairie preservation. Here's a 2002 MPR feature on Brandenburg's prairie restoration work, and a 2001 extended feature from the University of Minnesota.

Those readers  feeling more adventuresome can visit Blue Mounds State Park and take in Brandenburg's gallery in nearby Luverne. The park's  interpretive center is located in a former home of Minnesota writer Frederick Manfred (whose Scarlet Plume was passed from friend to friend when I was a curious school girl). In summer, Blue Mounds State Park is home to Blue Grosbeaks; a bison herd lives there year round, amid the seven-foot-tall big bluestem.

Our first post back in July evoked the image of the sparks that start a prairie fire and the new growth that a good blaze brings. May Brandenburg's photos help everyone understand this lovely place called prairie.

Winona Daily News: Mr. Walz Goes to Washington

Then we were like those who dream....

It was easy to repeat the Wall Street Journal's line that called Tim Walz "the Republican nightmare."  Harder to frame the race in terms of the energy and hopes of those hundreds engaged in getting Tim Walz elected.

The conclusion of James Bowey's piece in today's Winona Daily News gets it just right:

Chris Schmitter, the campaign’s field director, spent Election Day glued to his laptop, monitoring voter turnout in the campaign’s command center at the Holiday Inn.

The information he was getting from his monitors at polling places around the district indicated high voter turnout.

By 4 p.m., voter turnout in Winona County was 183 percent what they expected — good news for the campaign. By 11 p.m., precinct results were consistently showing Walz with a 53 percent to 47 percent advantage, and people began putting their arms around each other.

“Isn’t that what politics is all about,” Kahn said later. “A real faith in the possibility of what can happen when people get together and believe.”

Walz took the phone from Meredith Salsbery, and the room leaned closer. Gwen Walz stared at the floor. After a brief conversation, Walz hung up and said simply, “It’s over.”

And a room full of dreamers yelled for all the world the hear.

Go read the whole article.

MANKATO FREE PRESS: CAMPAIGN WORKERS SHARE VICTORY

                                           

Liz Mcloone (left to right), Jackie Bateman, Meredith Salsbery and Leah Solo graduated from Mankato high schools, went off to college and came back to work on Walz’s upstart campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht.
Matt Gorrie / The Free Press

The Free Press focused on four young campaign staff from Mankato:

At the end, all they had to do was put him on the stage.

They had worked tirelessly to create a sense of passion, optimism and credibility about their candidate and boss, a high school geography teacher from their hometown, a guy that virtually no one else had ever heard of when his race for Congress began.

But early in the morning of Nov. 8, that thing they’d struggled to create was happening spontaneously. They didn’t have to say a word.

Hundreds of people — gray-haired grandparents, blue-collar union guys, crazed high school kids, idealistic young adults and liberal professionals — were jammed, shoulder to shoulder and spilling out the doors into the hallway. They were, more or less, out of their minds when Tim Walz took the stage in the ballroom of the Mankato Holiday Inn.

Before Walz was finished making his victory speech, he was surrounded on the stage by the people who’d been crucial in painstakingly creating the momentum that eventually resulted in that surreal scene on election night.

“By the way,” Walz said, looking around at his key campaign staff, “the average age is about 23 up here.”

The Mankatoans

Four of the seven people he called to the stage were women in their 20s who had graduated from Mankato high schools, went off to college and came back to work on Walz’s upstart campaign to knock off six-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht. The four — Leah Solo, Meredith Salsbery, Jackie Bateman and Liz Mcloone — were integral to the campaign, particularly Solo and Salsbery, who were there at the start. . . .

A good read about a fun bunch.

PIONEER PRESS: "THE WALZ PHENOMENON"
The ability of a fresh face to come from nowhere and win in Minnesota politics has been given a name: the "Tim Walz phenomenon." In a Pioneer Press article about possible candidates to challenge Senator Norm Coleman we find the following (fortunately, Walz isn't mentioned as a candidate; it's important that he continue to serve the people of the First):

Political black belts say Franken and Rybak would have company; that Klobuchar's cakewalk over Republican Mark Kennedy will have Democrats quickly starting to raise money toward a move to the nation's Capitol.

Their numbers likely will include completely fresh faces, given the Tim Walz phenomenon. Walz, a Mankato teacher and military veteran, defeated incumbent 1st District U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht as part of the Democratic tsunami.

"Walz's victory was phenomenal in a conservative area, and against a six-term incumbent who usually would win by 20 points,'' Jacobs said. "The idea of party elders picking the nominee is going by the wayside. Republicans are now asking if Mark Kennedy was the best candidate to run this year.''

Mirror images of Walz will begin making themselves visible soon, predicted Vance Opperman, a Democratic activist and part-owner of the Minnesota Wild.

"One of the serious Senate candidates will be someone we haven't thought of today, perhaps from outstate,'' Opperman said.

We were surprised to see Opperman quoted in a discussion of Walz as a model, since his name doesn't show up in Walz's contributor lists, near as we can determine from searching FEC records. Perhaps something will turn up in the year-end report, and Opperman will recognize the next Walz upon first glance.

NEW YORK TIMES: WALZ DEFINES HIMSELF
In an article about the populist bearings of the incoming freshman legislators, Tim Walz defines himself:

As they headed to Washington for their orientation, many of the incoming freshmen still spoke like outsiders. Tim Walz, a Minnesota teacher, retired National Guardsman and newly elected House Democrat, described himself as “a farm state Democrat-soldier who’s concerned about the environment and civil liberties.”

He has seen how ugly the partisanship can get in American politics, Mr. Walz said, and is adamant about changing it. “I’m convinced that what we need to do is heal,” he said. “Tuesday was not a Democratic referendum; it was an American referendum. It’s not that the American people are so enamored with the Democratic vision, but what they believed is what we said about cleaning up corruption, having some real open debate. It just seems so broken.”