We weren't too keen on going down to Jackson on Wednesday afternoon to watch a forum for the First District GOP congressional candidates at the local Pizza Ranch: it had snowed the day before and the temperature was dropping. But then Michael McIntee contacted us to record the event on behalf of the Uptake.
It's an event that I probably would have bagged because it's a five hour round trip with potentially bad sections of winter driving, but McIntee's persistence finally persuaded us to hit the road. The event was listed on the Strib's Politically Connected calendar, the Uptake and (we were to learn later) the calendar for the Republican Party of Minnesota.
Once underway, we were happy we'd taken up the offer. A classic sunny winter afternoon on the prairie, Wednesday was one of those moments when we feel blessed to be from the country they call the Midwest. Pheasants cavorted in the fields, and as the sun dropped in in the west, the red lights on top the turbines of Cottonwood County's wind farms blinked a seasonal greeting. The iGods shuffled up cheery sing-a-long road tunes, and we dashed down US 71 while accompanying Lefty Frizzell on "If You've Got the Money, Honey" and Camper von Beethoven's "Take the Skinheads Bowling."
We made it to Jackson with about ten minutes to spare. Now, some of our urban friends laugh about political meetings held at Pizza Ranches, but the restaurants are truly good citizens in small towns, offering both tasty pizza buffets and accessible meeting rooms.
Entering Jackson's Pizza Ranch with a laptop, videocamera and tripod, we asked an employee about the meeting location and power outlets. He cheerfully led us to a meeting room at the back of the restaurant and pointed out power sources.
We identified ourself to the forum's organizer that night, an official with the Jackson County GOP BPOU, and told him what venues we were writing/taping
for (Uptake, My Main Street News, and a live blog for BSP), while identifiying their ideological leaning. He welcomed us and let us know where the candidates would be speaking so we could set up our video camera and tripod in the relatively small room. We signed in under our real name.
Randy Demmer was already in the meeting room. While we set up the laptop and the camcorder, Representative Demmer came over and introduced himself. We told him who we were and the online news sources and blog we represented. Demmer mentioned reading BSP occasionally. I brought up some mutual acquaintances from his home town of Hayfield, our college friends who had graduated from high school with him, and mentioned how MFU government relations director Thom Petersen had spoken favorably of ag-related bills they'd worked on together.
Southern Minnesota is like that: one big small town, where it's not too hard to find common ground and cordiality. Demmer was quite civil and asked some mostly insightful questions about blogging. We demonstrated how our aircard worked, and he assisted with setting up our tripod.
He wondered if we saw ourselves as a left-leaning counterbalance in the First to MDE.
We demurred, asserting words to the effect that a hick heifer blog written by someone with a poesy writing degree from the Ozarks Famous Writers School was surely no match for a blogger and experienced political operative who had once been research director of the MNGOP and had been paid to work for federal level campaigns like that of Michele Bachmann. The inquisitive and charming Representative Demmer left us to greet new arrivals at the meeting.
Brian Davis came in next, but sat down to eat some pizza with some of the people at the event. A young man sat next to us, setting down some Dick Day brochures, then got up to work the crowd, which was about 20 people by that point, not counting the candidates or their staff. Their ages ranged from middle school to senior citizens; they represented a range of rural Minnesotans, from a graying middle-aged man sporting a pony-tail, Harley hat and tee shirt, to local business men with well-manicured hands. Not bad for a winter's night after a snowfall.
Dick Day arrived last, and was greeted as "Senator," which caused one man sitting near me to ask another if he was a U.S. or state senator; the man answering pointed out that Day was running for Congress. We were having a heckova time getting our browser to load the web on our laptop, so we didn't interact much with the crowd.
Shortly thereafter, the organizer came over to say that there would be no video allowed. I apologized, and moved to put the Sony camcorder away. The event coordinator, who seemed deeply uncomfortable at the prospect of even a hint of rudeness to a stranger, hemmed and hawed for a few sentences about my presence at the forum. Apparently, no press had been invited to report on the event itself, though they could talk to candidates before or after the forum. Who knows how he let me slip in.
"It sounds as if you'd like me to leave," I said, trying to be helpful.
"Yeah," he said, noting that the forum really was just for Republicans.
"Well, okay," I said, then reminded him that I had openly identified my purpose, venues, and identity, and was curious what had changed since I signed in.
The candidates wanted me out, he said.
I indicated my surprise, since Representative Demmer had been quite cordial and we had mutual acquaintances. He mentioned that, the host said, adding that all of the candidates were in agreement.
I mentioned that I had driven 2 1/2 hours to get there. He apologized, but said that the Republican Party had rented the room. (He must have meant reserved, rather than rented, since when we called on Friday to inquire further, Pizza Ranch personnel said that the BPOU had gotten the room at no cost, as is the restaurant's policy when meeting goers order food).
He pressed me to tell him how I had found out about the event. I said I had seen it on the Uptake's calendar and perhaps elsewhere (see the screen shot above, from the Star Tribune's calendar in the Politically Connected section online). He said that one of the candidates must have posted the event listing online, as the Jackson County GOP BPOU had not done so. He reiterated that the event was just for "us."
I murmured my belief in free assembly, and started to pack up. No need to get snippy about it.
He walked away, and Brian Davis came over to introduce himself as I broke down the tripod, politely asking if I were covering the forum. I noted that I had been asked to leave at the request of all the candidates. Davis's quick wit rescued both of us from a potentially awkward moment: he suggested that perhaps I should run for office.
The reference to the history-altering explusion of then First Sargeant Tim Walz from a 2004 Bush rally in a quarry near Mankato broke the ice. We started chatting pleasantly about blogging and Congressman Walz's Rochester Iraq War Forum while I put my equipment away. Like Demmer, Davis was engaging and civil.
Senator Day did not come over to introduce himself, so I missed out on experiencing his charm first hand.
One of the 20 area residents sitting at the next table wasn't happy about my being turned out into the cold weather, but I told him that the right to assemble included letting private groups pick who could attend their meetings and the local GOP could make that call if it wished. He said that he had thought it was a bipartisan event; I reassured him that it was sponsored by the local GOP.
I left and went out into the single-digit degree weather for the long ride home, stopping only to visit with friends in Blue Earth County who had wanted me to meet their new kitty. On the way home, Lucinda Williams moaned about what she'd miss all the way to Jackson, while we contemplated the reluctance of the Republicans to have video camcorders and liveblogging in the room.
Perhaps they mistook me for a campaign tracker, and like the DFL at one of Al Franken's events, didn't want one there. Truth be told, we don't work for the Walz campaign in any capacity, and had just that day told a campaign staffer that they'd have to watch the footage on Uptake like everybody else. Earlier First District GOP candidate events had been covered by the New Ulm Journal, Pipestone Star and KEYC-TV. Perhaps the candidates were just shy Wednesday night. After all, Senator Day hadn't introduced himself.
Or maybe democracy is something that goes on behind closed doors for Republicans in Jackson County. I'd been told by a manic blonde that "at least" I'd been with "the right party" just before she shut the door behind me. Driving below the clarity of stars in a cloudless prairie sky, we contemplated hospitality's ubiquity amongst human cultures, the legion and ancient cautionary tales against its violation, and the long months ahead.
I was one of the organizers at the CD 5 forum for DFL Senate candidates a couple of weeks ago. Two Republican trackers came in, identified themselves as trackers, and set up their equipment in the exact middle of the front row. We weren't able to arrange a direct audio feed, but were quite happy to hook them up with a direct internet connection for live blogging, if they wished (no need for an air card, even).
The naughty thing we did was to set them up next to a broken chair that we had marked as reserved for Republican bloggers. They seemed to understand that it was a humorous sign, not intended as malicious. (The broken chair, of course, said more about lousy funding for public schools than about Democrats being exclusionary.)
Let's make the tent, bigger I say. I have full faith that at least one of those two Republican trackers will be a Democrat in 10 years, when he tires of being fearful of those who are different.
Posted by: Charley Underwood | December 09, 2007 at 02:10 PM