Bluestem Prairie

Emo Senator: Amnesia! Mike Parry forgets he's his own boss during MNSCU benefits hearing

As we tune in to the latest episode of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most beloved online telenovela, readers will be distressed but not surprised to see a relapse of our hero's amnesia.

Earlier last summer, loyal fans will remember, Senator Mike Parry forgot that he owns and operates a Godfather's Pizza in Waseca, and so was forced to accept the maximum in-session per diem, or see his family sent to the poor farm since the legislature was his only source of income.

He also collected a paycheck during the shutdown.

Now, in a hearing Thursday on retirement benefits for MNSCU employees (prompted by big rollovers of vacation time for top administrators), The Belle of Waseca County once again forgets that he's a small business owner and his own boss.

The Minnesota Daily reports in Legislators scrutinize MnSCU for sick and vacation time payouts:

Parry said companies usually force employees to use their vacation time so that they’re rested and perform well on the job.

“I’m forced to take [my two weeks], why aren’t they forced to take theirs?” Parry said after the meeting.

Distracted by another scandal in the Republican Party of Minnesota, our camera crew was unable to capture footage of Mike Parry looking in a mirror, talking to himself, and forcing Mike Parry to take two weeks vacation.  Or perhaps that's Dave Senjem's job, though we do not know of vacation time for our part-time legislators, who can, after all, claim per diem for weekends and holidays during the session, just as the Emo Senator does.

Such forgetfulness seems hard-wired in Minnesota Republican DNA these days, what with Tony Sutton forgetting to tell Pat Anderson about the $10,000 medical marijuana study he was conducting in 2010 when she came looking for help with gas money for her campaign for state auditor.

Or perhaps nurture, not nature, contributed to that study. Something had to make people want to eat those burritos.

Maybe Mike Parry congressional campaign consultant Ben Golnik knows what Sutton was smoking, since he's one of the "insiders" that MPR identifies in

Sutton seemed to favor the services of current and former party executive directors. The last three were awarded contracts to work for the Republican Party.

During Sutton's tenure, Ryan Griffin served as the party's executive director. But in addition to his annual salary of $85,000, he was also paid roughly $14,000 for consulting and legal work, according to campaign finance documents.

Sutton characterized the payments as a bonus for advising the party on legal issues during election season.

Two former executive directors of the party, Ben Golnik and Darren Bearson, also secured contracts. Golnik was paid $6,000 to help with the 2010 gubernatorial recount and to help Republicans win the Minnesota Senate. He's still owed another $8,000. Bearson's firm, Compass Point Strategies, earned nearly $50,000 for media and consulting work since 2009.

Whatever the case, memory or not, our hero loves a good party, and that's why Emo Senator has such a following. Tune in this week, as the legislature reconvenes, for more Emo Senator.

Image: Tild's artistic vision of the Emo Senator.

Past episodes below the fold.

Bleg: Like Bluestem's investigative blogging? Drop some coin in the tip jar

Not long at Bluestem started in mid-July 2006, the blog drew national attention to Tim Walz’s triumph over then-Representative Gil Gutknecht at their first head-to-head debate. A writer at Daily Kos used the coverage to explore why local blogging matters.

Since then, story after story has first appeared here, as well as commentary about news from Greater Minnesota that often pushes rural life and politics toward a broader audience.

Think for a moment about items that first appeared on the little blog on the prairie. Emmer’s mortgages. Buesgens' home foreclosure. Quist’s political resurrection. The NRCC’s lifting of a slogan for an anti-depressant in a much-ridiculed attempt at re-branding. Randy Demmer’s abuse of the per diem system while attending NRCC candidates' school in DC. 

Story after story has broken at Bluestem, which runs on my own dime and tips from individual readers. Since the breaking of the Giefer pardon story on Sunday, November 28, people have been asking how they might help with the investigative work Bluestem provides for progressive causes in Minnesota.

The answer is simple: leave a holiday tip for Bluestem Prairie.

Want more research and blogging from this site? Contribute via Bluestem’s tip jar. All contributions will go toward keeping Bluestem going by paying the expenses for the site and  for research projects.  I enjoy a frugal life in rural Minnesota, and will use each dollar carefully as I pursue leads and story ideas.

Can you spare a few dollars to help fund the best little blog on the prairie? Not comfortable with the tip jar? Email me for an address where contributions can be sent.

Thank you,

Sally Jo Sorensen

P.S. I continue to appreciate news tips as well; the Giefer pardon research started with a reader's tip.

A note on coverage of contested DFL endorsements on Bluestem Prairie

I'm editing a couple of YouTube clips about R.T. Rybak's cmapaign kick-off stops last week in Southern Minnesota. The first should be posted later today, and another tomorrow afternoon. The posts shouldn't be taken as an endorsement, as I have a consulting contract with the state party and thus Bluestem will not be picking a donkey in this race.

Earlier campaign trail coverage at Bluestem includes at post about Mark Dayton in Rochester, Margaret Anderson Kelliher's campaign announcement on her family's farm in Blue Earth County, and letters from rural supporters of Steve Kelley (Former State Rep. Darryl Mosel of Sibley) and Matt Entenza ( State campaign co-chair and personal friend Deb Hogenson from Nobles County).

I'm still hoping that the other DFL campaigns can send a letter from a supporter in Greater Minnesota sharing the reasons why their choice is the best person for voters in rural Minnesota. I'd am also happy to cover  Greater Minnesota campaign events in West and South Central Minnesota (within an hour and a half drive of McLeod County, or convenient to other events I might be covering in Southern Minnesota) by candidates in addition to Dayton, Kelliher and Rybak. Contact me via the email address found on this site. Since the consulting contract isn't related to my blogging, any travel comes out of my own pocket for content posted here--hence the travel restrictions.

Nor will Bluestem be taking sides in other contested bids for DFL endorsement,the Clark such as the Clark and Reed battle for CD-6 or the Pelowski-White face-off in Winona.

Image: All I want for Christmas 2010 is a DFL governor. (Waterford Christmas tree ornament).

Disclosure: New media contract with the Minnesota DFL

I've always promised readers that I'll disclose any assistance, contracts, or other renumeration that thics would suggest need to be transparent in order for reader to assess the work here.

One such project has come my way: I am now consulting on New Media training and strategy for the DFL. Hence, the following disclosure will appear in a sidebar my designer will be adding to Bluestem:

Sally Jo Sorensen, editor and proprietor of Bluestem Prairie, serves as a New Media training and strategy consultant for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

However, all of the statements, opinions, and views expressed on this site by Sorensen are solely her own, save when she attributes them to other sources, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Minnesota DFL, its staff, officers, elected officials, candidates, donors, precinct chairs, volunteers, and senate district and county unit officers and directors.

The opinions, statements, and views of contributing writers are their own.

This web site is not a production of the DFL, and the DFL does not necessarily support or endorse any of the contents on this site. 

The work doesn't involve any blogging for the party.

A note to tipsters: about those rumors....

McPherson Hall of Minnesota Central sent me a press release this afternoon about the newly formed Republican Party of Minnesota’s Health Care Coalition; another friend had sent a notice of the press conference in Rochester about the accompanying press conference. Both were appreciated, though I received the latter too late to drive to Rochester.

Another tip came in today as well, and while I respect the source very much, it's not the sort of thing that I'll run with on this site.

My readers should know that I'm simply not much interested in tips that deal with negative news about the  personal lives of public officials or local leaders, regardless of their party. Nor am I interested in repeating gossip while decrying it and searching for motives in the actions of those who are doing the talking.

Unless there's a direct impact on policy or that individual's ability to hold office because of the story--and that story can be confirmed--Bluestem has little concern about private and personal matters that I was taught were none of my business. 

Posting has been light this week while I read about policy questions, mostly checking out conservative proposals for health care reform (medical malpractice reform, deregulation of insurance by the states, etc.) as well as drafting a creative project. More on both as the week progresses.

Housekeeping: Bluestem Prairie "About" page updated

I edited the About page for Bluestem Prairie 2.0 this morning for those who might have questions about the site.  More posts later in the day.  Field reports tomorrow.

A letter praising Congressman Walz (and a note about Bluestem)

In its earlier iteration, Bluestem Prairie focused exclusively on Minnesota's First Congressional District and Representative Tim Walz. The site has since expanded coverage to Greater Minnesota and added additional contributors, but I still keep an eye on my native Southern Minnesota.

A recent letter by my friend Liz McLoone, Walz acts on behalf of working families, caught my eye in the Mankato Free Press. Liz writes:

Any time I see a letter to the editor using terms like “left-wing agenda”, I know the writer is desperately grasping at straws.

Which was the case with Eric Anderson’s letter, published June 21, criticizing Congressman Tim Walz. As a former Mankato resident (where I lived for over 25 years) and currently one of your neighbors, I felt compelled to respond.

We are lucky to have a brave and thoughtful congressman.

In the month of May alone Walz made a trip to the Middle East, announced airport grants for southwestern Minnesota, published surface transportation requests on his website, voted to create jobs, voted to make schools more energy efficient, voted for Common Sense Financial Reforms, and promoted the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

I don’t care what you call it Mr. Anderson, because the rest of us in southern Minnesota call it, moving in the right direction. We call it progress. We call it leadership. And we are grateful to finally have a congressman who asks for our opinion on the important matters facing working families and then acts on our behalf.

Good letter.

Bluestem will occasionally post about Congressman Walz's hard work, but we'll also be looking at Minnesota's Seventh, rural parts of the Second and Sixth, and the non-Range-Duluth-Tinberland section of the Eighth. (If you want to read about those latter, hyphenated places, quit dawdling here and go visit Minnesota Brown).

A tip jar has also been added, and in time, readers will also see ads and sponsorships. Moreover, BSP will be hosting some Country Conversations with progressives bloggers and a stab at a North-South dialogue with Aaron Brown of Minnesota Brown.

Photo: Tim Walz on the campaign trail in 2006, by Joe Lencioni of Shifting Pixel. Used with permission.