Demmer's "Taxpayer Association" award

GOP hopefuls Dick Day and Brian Davis have already done their district press tours, and now we find Randy Demmer (R-Backbench) follows their lead by talking to the press outside of the Hayfield area.

Today's Worthington Globe editorial gives an overview of the Demmer profile and the GOP's jonesing to get "their" seat back.  We'll have more about the editorial's lead and the state rep's appeal to farmers in a bit, but we'd like to focus on the editorial's conclusion for now:

Demmer is clearly a conservative; he is also a conservative with credentials. While we do stress we aren’t endorsing he or any other candidate at this time, we do note the race for the Republican endorsement — and the subsequent November 2008 election — should be quite intriguing. 

Indeed.  We too are intrigued by one of Demmer's credentials. His longer bio page (we've saved a screen shot to load later if the page is changed) and his campaign literature lists among his successes:

Taxpayer Association “Friend of the Taxpayer” Award

This claim is rather curious.  We weren't aware that the Minnesota Taxpayer Association gave out a "Friend of the Taxpayer" award; the Minnesota Taxpayer League does, however, when a state senator or representative gets a 70 percent or above on the TP League's session scorecard. We called the Minnesota Taxpayer Association and a kind representative confirmed our memory: the MTA doesn't give out such prizes.

Perhaps it is simply sloppy editing, as per the kerfuffle last year when a certain GOP blogger tried to make much out of a typo on Walz's campaign biography.  However, in Minnesota politics, knowing the difference between the Taxpayer Association and the Taxpayer League is fairly significant, especially when a Republican candidate is trying to persuade his or her base of the strength of his or her conservative creds.

Randy Demmer has indeed received the "Friend of the Taxpayer" designation--though his recent ratings have slipped below the 70 percent threshold required for that distinction--and, as Politics in Minnesota noted:

The reality is that Day's conservative credentials actually put him at an advantage with the GOP endorsing crowd. Day scores notably higher than Demmer on lifetime ratings with the Taxpayers League . . .

Again, the most simple explanation for the multiple mention of the "Taxpayers Association" gift of the "Friend of the Taxpayer" award is mere sloppy editing, rather than an attempt to confuse voters or to conceal Demmer's sinking rank from the group that once rated him highly.  What would the GOP base in the First think of such wandering from the true path of such impeccable conservative credentials?