Glancing through the 2011 state campaign finance report for the Republican Party of Minnesota, Bluestem noticed that Patrick J. Haley was paid $24,287.13 for political consulting.That's more than Ben Golnik earned, so we grew curious.
A post on the Senate District 48 Republicans' Facebook page last August lists Haley as "Political Director-RPM for CD's 4, 6, 7 & 8."
His name had also shows up in CD7 Republican congressional candidate Lee Byberg's year-end report as "political director," earning the princely sum of $4500 in December, along with mileage.
Who is this political operative? Before signing on as manager of Mike Jungbauer's campaign for governor, Haley kept the aptly named blog called "Rantings from the Right." Nowhere is the subtlety of his thinking expressed better than in the final untitled post from July 17, 2009, which leads with the infamous picture of President Obama as a witchdoctor with a bone through his nose.
The picture, which was circulating through conservative email chains in 2009, drew criticism when it was posted to a Tea Party forum a couple of days after it graced Haley's blog. TPM Muckraker reports in Conservative Activist Forwards Racist Pic Showing Obama As Witch Doctor:
The election of our first black president has brought with it a strange proliferation of online racism among conservatives.
And we’ve got the latest example.
On Sunday night, Dr. David McKalip forwarded to fellow members of a Google listserv affiliated with the Tea Party movement the image below. Above it, he wrote: “Funny stuff.”
A screenshot of the "funny stuff" from Haley's blog is posted here.
Haley doesn't seem shy. A frequent letter-to-the-editor writer before being hired by the MNGOP Haley drew such headlines as Haley letter offended Klinzing and Haley in his local paper:
There are at least two Patrick Haleys in Elk River, and one of them has never written a letter to the editor.
Patrick R. Haley of Elk River will often get comments about letters from Patrick J. Haley, a conservative involved in local Republican politics.
Patrick R. would just as soon not be associated with Patrick J. as he “comes across as combative,” says Patrick R.
Direct letters are not the only issue Patrick R. has had to contend with in recent years. He also gets the political activist’s mail.
“I’ve tried to take care of it, but with little success,” he says. “I have even tried contacting the party. I have given up. I just throw it away now.”
This time when a letter was published he got a call from Elk River Mayor Stephanie Klinzing, who wanted to question him about the letter. He told her you have the wrong man. {snippet instory}Patrick J. challenged Klinzing’s motive for the recent Acts of Random Kindness campaign.
The mayor took issue with Haley, the letter writer, for implying that city funds went into the campaign.
“That is simply not true,” she said.
When asked by the Star News what he was trying to convey, he wrote that he was simply referring to resources used to put the sign together, and hours spent on this by city employees could have been better spent.
Congrats to the Republican Party for investing in one of the finest minds in central Minnesota. Were his discernment in opposition to random acts of kindness and his abilities as a photo editor when deciding to illustrate his objections to health care reform the tipping points in getting him the jobs with the state party and congressional campaign?
Screenshot: Patrick Haley's final post.
Another good posting...because of the obvious racism issue, it is not as funny as many of your posts but still informative. It's too bad that you have to work for a living and cannot devote full time to this blog. Keep grabbing that bull elephant by the tail and telling us what you see!
Posted by: T Pa or Coffee | Feb 17, 2012 at 09:08 AM