These are the times that try our souls--or at the very least, our patience with ideological litmus tests. Especially those of the elephant versus rhino variety.
Thus, when we see the emerging new standard for candidates seeking GOP endorsement to be that of the "Platform Republican," we wince, for while politics might draw the true believer and activist toward pristine planks, the shaping of sound policy often involves compromise and more worldly consideration.
In the quest for endorsement in Minnesota's First, it looks as if some of Brian Davis's supporters have dredged up the report cards for the Legislative Evaluation Assembly as the sole measure for Representative Demmer's record in the Minnesota House. Evidence of this effort can be read in the comment sections here in a conservative blog and here in the Post Bulletin article, Controversy flares at Olmsted Republican Convention.
Since the Post Bulletin article and its comments will soon roll over into subscription firewall archives, we'll post a couple of the anti-Demmer remarks in the paper's comments:
Patriot wrote: February 24, 2008 9:45PM
More light shed:
www.mnlea.org . . .. . . Anonymous wrote: February 25, 2008 9:27AM
It is clear Demmer feels threatened by the momentumn of the Davis Campaign. Why else would he condone that sort of unethical beahvior? Maybe when the delegates study Demmer's 2006 voting record they will think twice about endorsing a moderate. He is not a platform republican.
Given the importance of the group's report card to those commenting, who are clearly Davis supporters, perhaps a look at the Legislative Evaluation Assembly Of Minnesota, Inc., is in order. On its home page, the LEA self-describes:
CREDO The Legislative Evaluation Assembly of Minnesota, Incorporated (LEA) is a non-profit, non-partisan corporation established to keep the citizens of Minnesota informed of both important legislation and the voting performance of each Senator and Representative in the Minnesota State Legislature. LEA bases its evaluation on the traditional American principles of constitutionalism, limited government, free enterprise, legal and moral order with justice and individual liberty and dignity. LEA encourages the use of the material in this Report, in whole or in part by any group or individual.
Given that the group is "non-partisan," we find it strange that the Davis supporters are using this instrument as a measure of party loyalty. Who are the officers and members of the Legislative Evaluation Assembly, if not Republican partisans?
There's no "About" page anywhere on the site, so we can't readily come up with a list of officers and board members. The organization is listed as inactive, according to a search of records at the Minnesota Secretary of State's office; the registration was filed in 1978. It's not found in the list of charities kept by the Attorney General's office; it's not listed among PACs or lobbying assocations at the Campaign Finance Board. Nor do we find mention of it in "All News" for all available dates in Nexis-Lexis. Its ratings do show up in Project Vote Smart's state level "Interest Group Ratings" under "Social Issues" But that's rather recursive, and we learn no more about the people behind the group.
The names of a few officers can be gleaned from looking at the pages that accompany the pdfs for each year's report. In 2007, we learn that the president was Gordon Anderson. He was vice president in 2005.
Indeed, according to the Org Whois database, the domain site is registered to Gordon Anderson:
Domain ID: D99656582-LROR
Domain Name: MNLEA.ORG
Created On: 14-Aug-2003 13: 31: 25 UTC
Last Updated On: 08-Aug-2007 13: 11: 36 UTC
Expiration Date: 14-Aug-2009 13: 31: 25 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status: CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status: CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status: CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status: CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID: GODA-03776809
Registrant Name: Gordon Anderson
Registrant Organization: Professors World Peace Academy
Registrant Street1: 2285 University Avenue West
Registrant Street2: Suite 200
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City: St. Paul
Registrant State/Province: Minnesota
Registrant Postal Code: 55114
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.6516442809
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX: +1.6516440997
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email: gordon@pwpa.org
Now, that Professors World Peace Academy moniker looks awfully suspect for those seeking conservative creds--sounds like the sort of place where Jack Nelson Palmeyer might gain a tenured chair. Indeed, the About page proclaims:
The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) is a tax-exempt non-profit educational organization founded to support the academic community’s role in the pursuit of world peace. PWPA publishes books, publishes the International Journal on World Peace, organizes conferences, and is forming a world academic network. It was founded in Korea in 1973 and presently has chapters in over 100 countries.
PWPA has received major support from the International Cultural Foundation and the Unversal Peace Federation. PWPA supports the development of the New World Encyclopedia.
Digging deeper, we find:
The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) was founded on May 6, 1973 in Seoul, Korea at a gathering of 168 Professors from Korea and Japan. The professors had held discussions of historical reconciliation that political and religious leaders had been unable to accomplish. National chapters were formed in both Korea and Japan. The Reverend Sun Myung Moon thought that such discussions were beneficial and gave it support to continue and expand on a permanent basis.
Wikipedia tells us matter-of-factly:
The Professors World Peace Academy is a project of the Unification Movement.[1]
It was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the well-known leader of the Unification Church. [2]
It established Paragon House, a publisher of scholarly and scientific books. It also publishes books under its own name. [3]
In 1992 it purchased the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. [4]
According to a July 1, 2001 op-ed about faith based charity published in The World and I and found in Nexis-Lexis, Gordon Anderson was then the secretary-treasurer of the Professors World Peace Academy and lived in White Bear Lake. While many PWPA instructors are not members of the Unification Church, in 1992 Anderson told the Washington Post that he was a member ("Church Bids for Legitimacy; Moon's Group Wooed a City to Buy University," May 26, 1992).
Anderson was also deputy to Chung Hwan Kwak, the director of the church's World Missions Center in New York, in 1988, when Kwak determined that a young Zimbabwean was the reincarnated son of Reverend Moon:
Kwak apparently determined that the Zimbabwean was the genuine article. "It was the way this brother had profound insights into [Moon's] Divine Principles, which is our main teaching," said Anderson. "There were insights Rev. Kwak had never heard before . . . insights as profound as Rev. Moon's." ( "Theological Uproar in Unification Church; Rev. Moon Recognizes Zimbabwean as His Reincarnated Son, " Washington Post, March 30, 1988).
But enough about the current president of the group setting the gold standard for being a Republican in Minnesota's First Congressional District among some of Brian Davis's supporters.
Let's take a look at the president whose term preceded that of Anderson: Judy Lindsay. Quite coincidently enough, while we were researching the LEA, our lefty blogging brethren over at MnPublius posted Republicans Endorse “Extremist” in 37B!, the seat vacated by retiring Republican moderate Dennis Ozment.
Find out more about why Ozment called her an "extremist," who wasn't electable, below the fold.
Where do we begin to talk about former Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board gadfly member Judy Lindsay, past president of the Minnesota Legislative Evaluation Assembly? Lindsay first ran for school board in 1993, a losing bid (Star Tribune, May 20, 1993). she came back two years later to run on a slate, although she was the only one on it to win.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press profiled Lindsay in a February 3, 2000, feature article, "Parent, Politician A Solo Voice; Lindsay Stakes Out Conservative Ground On The School Board." Here we find some gems about Lindsay's belief system. Her husband Mike was the vice-chair of the old Sixth Congressional District (now represented by John Kline).
The article dutifully notes:
In District 196, Judy Lindsay is voting the way a Republican school board member votes, she and her husband say. They say her presence on the board provides a balancing of views. Others have decried the arrival of a more politicized policy-making board.
Judy Lindsay describes herself and her positions as conservative. She opposes the Profile of Learning, the state's menu of skills students have to demonstrate before they graduate from high school. She recently questioned District 196's method of teaching evolution, saying it needs to stress that evolution is a theory and balance it with information about creationism. And she's made a choice that separates her from her fellow board members, one that voters have heard about around election time: The Lindsays send their three children to private schools.
"I don't have to worry about our values being undermined" at a private school, Judy Lindsay said recently. That includes her concerns about how evolution is taught and the Profile of Learning. When parents see that the public schools are "so into environmentalism and a multicultural, politically correct social agenda, they want out," she said. "I think that has caused a lot of people to pull their kids out."
There's a laundry list: creationism, anti-multiculturalism, and the rejection of environmentalism. When Davis's supporters claim he's more in line with the values of the First and cite the MnLEA's report cards as the measure by which candidates are to be rejected, do they mean these values? Or those of Rev. Moon?
But there's more to Judy Lindsay's record, like opposing levies proposed by the board she was on. We're sure that will be dug up in the months before November.
She challenged the moderate Ozment in the Republican primary in 2002, having battled the local GOP convention to a no-endorsement stalemate. The Strib reported that Ozment enjoyed help from the Sviggum-led House caucus:
There will be 41 legislative primary elections Sept. 10 _ 16 for Senate seats, 25 for House seats. And none of the four major parties is exempt; even the Green Party, Minnesota's newest major, has one.
"I hate primaries," said Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum of Kenyon. "It seems you ought to focus your resources on the general [election] instead of fighting each other."
Sviggum has in mind a particular primary contest, one in which Rep. Dennis Ozmentof Rosemount, a Republican House member of 18 years and a friend of the speaker's, is being challenged by Judy Lindsay, a school board member in the Rosemount-Eagan-Apple Valley School District.
It is probably the most visible primary in the south metro area and the race that Sviggum says occupies most of his efforts. . . .
. . .Similarly, House Republicans are circling the wagons for Ozment.
Sviggum himself has been door-knocking in Ozment's district, and said his House caucus may make an independent expenditure, a direct mailing, on behalf of Ozment.
Lindsay, 45, a two-term school board member, says Ozment "is a nice guy. I thank him for the work he has done, but I think it's time for new leadership."
Lindsay, who is supported by the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, a public policy group that advocates lower taxes, said Ozment's credentials are suspect.
Ozment, 57, has had several labor union endorsements over the years, including from Education Minnesota, the Teamsters, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
"These are not typical Republican endorsements," Lindsay said.
She was asked if she meant he is not conservative enough.
"How about not Republican enough," she responded.. . .("Parties raise primary concern;
Some legislative incumbents face an election challenge from within their own 'family,' Star Tribune, Star Tribune, August 11, 2002)
Histroy tells us Lindsay lost that one. She moved on to seemingly greener pastures, carrying her reactionary zeal to the fight for Arlan Lindner's bill that would have repealed Minnesota's human rights legislation:
State Rep. Arlon Lindner called a press conference Thursday to promote his bill striking homosexuals from Minnesota's Human Rights Act, but he didn't get much of a boost from the event.
Before his supporters had even left the room, House Speaker Steve Sviggum -- a fellow Republican -- took to the podium to reiterate that the bill was going nowhere in the House.
On top of that, a Senate version of his bill will get a hearing today, but the DFL-controlled Senate committee isn't likely to pass it, and even the sponsor has had doubts about the bill...
. . .Lindner's bill would remove homosexuals as a protected class under the state's Human Rights Act, as well as removing them from a list of recognized Holocaust victims.
Jungbauer's concern about the Human Rights Act is that some might want to use it to "force (an) agenda into schools" and other public places.
The current Human Rights Act says nothing in it should be "construed to mean the state of Minnesota condones homosexuality" or authorizes or permits the "promotion of homosexuality or bisexuality in education institutions." . . .
. . . Lindner, a sixth-term representative from Corcoran, didn't say much about his bill Thursday. He is already the subject of a House ethics complaint for saying he doubts gay people were persecuted during the Holocaust and that his bill would keep America from becoming "another African continent" because of the spread of HIV.
Instead, at his news conference, he let two suburban mothers speak in support of his bill.
"We are afraid of the sex pushers coming into our community and pandering to the curiosity of children and childlike adults," said Judy Lindsay, a Rosemount mother of three. That's what's happening, she said, because of Minnesota's human rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"We think the state has gotten involved in legislating immorality," said Maple Grove grandmother Linda Marquardt.
By coincidence, the speaker had scheduled a news conference in the same room just after Lindner's. Sviggum, R-Kenyon, took the opportunity to declare that Lindner's bill wouldn't get a hearing in the House, effectively rendering the bill dead.
Sviggum said the fervor over the bill and Lindner's comments has distracted from the most important issue of the session -- balancing the budget. . . .("Human Rights: Sviggum puts stop to Lindner bill," St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 21, 2003)
Ah yes, the golden years of Arlon Lindner, who also made waves by calling for a boycott of visit to the State House by the Dalai Lama whom he claimed headed a "cult."
Finally, Lindsay retired from the school board in 2003 to "devote more time to a nonprofit group she started that supports removing homosexuality as a protected behavior under state human rights laws" ("Schools hunt for cash; Departing board members say districts' top challenge is money," Star Tribune, January 7, 2004).
We're wondering if that group was Moms of Minnesota. It first showed up when Lindner was pushing his bill:
A lawmaker facing ethics charges for remarks his colleagues called anti-gay and racist brought some of his supporters to the Capitol on Thursday to back his efforts to remove state civil rights protections for gays.Rep. Arlon Lindner's bill would repeal the state's human rights amendment that protects gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Minnesotans from discrimination in employment, housing and education.
The Republican from Corcoran presented five supporters who described themselves as part of a group called Moms of Minnesota. They said the 1993 human rights act has cleared the way for schools to promote homosexuality in sexual education. (Lindner supporters say bill protects from 'sex pushers,'" Associated Press, March 20, 2003).
Her allegiance to Lindner was more certain than party loyalty, as she served as his campaign manager in his independent run for his seat, after Joyce Peppin was handed the endorsement for his seat by an embarrassed Republican Party:
The independent candidacy of state Rep. Arlon Lindner of Corcoran is causing a rift among Republican activists in his northwest suburban district.
In March, Lindner, a six-term veteran of the House, lost the Republican endorsement in a party caucus vote, but in July, he filed to run for re-election as an independent.
Lindner has ignited repeated controversies in the Legislature with comments about religion and gays. When the Dali Lama visited Minnesota, he called Buddhism a "cult." He also has questioned whether homosexuals were targets of the Nazi Holocaust.
Now some Republicans, including state party chairman Ron Eibensteiner, are charging that Lindner broke a promise to honor the endorsement. And Republican activists urged this week that other Republicans who signed Lindner's nominating petition renounce his candidacy, resign their party offices or face possible expulsion.
On Monday, party leaders passed a resolution calling for action against Lindner's Republican supporters who refuse to abandon his candidacy. At least one Republican activist already has resigned his party post.
Partly on the basis of his past controversies, Republicans in District 32A -- which includes Maple Grove, Corcoran, Greenfield, Dayton and Hassan Township -- gave their endorsement this year to Joyce Peppin of Hassan Township. She is a former public relations executive who is now a stay-at-home mom and is married to Gregg Peppin, a top aide to House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen. . . .
. . ."The Peppins are putting pressure on everyone they can," said Judy Lindsay, a Republican activist from Rosemount who is Lindner's campaign manager. "They're running scared. They know this is going to be a tough battle."
Joyce Peppin denied Lindsay's charge. "We're not putting pressure on anybody. ... Lindner's trying to run a smear campaign," she said.
We're left dazzled by the fact that both Dick Day and Randy Demmer enjoyed relatively good scores during Lindsay's tenure as president of MnLEA. No, it took Anderson taking the reins of power for this transformation to happen.
On the other hand, there are the delicious pictures from the 2005 awards ceremony. President Lindsay is captured in a grip-and-grin handing and award to former Rep. Phil Krinkie, while then Veep Gordon Anderson hands one out to Joyce Peppin. Looks like there might not have been any kissing and making up between Peppin and Lindsay.
Another officer LEA officer identified among the pictures is Secretary Walter Klaus, a former state representative who served from 1957-1971 and 1973-1975. Klaus was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, when the AP reports that he was an Alan Keyes supporter according to the August 3, 2000 story, "Minnesota Keyes backers upset he was shut out":
Walter Klaus, a Farmington delegate, demanded Thursday that a surrogate of George W. Bush ask the Republican nominee to let Alan Keyes speak before the convention adjourned.
The adviser, Tim Muris, told Klaus he could not fulfill the request.
"I suspect they're afraid of him," Klaus said. "The Bush campaign has not recognized him as a Republican of equal stature."
Klaus complained to Muris after the Bush aide briefed the delegation on Bush's Social Security plan. It marked a rare display of conflict at a convention designed to project party unity. But some others in the 34-member Minnesota delegation felt the same way.
An elector in 2004, Klaus remains an active member of the Twin Cities Republican Association.
Anderson, Lindsay, and Klaus are most prominently mentioned; we will leave the lesser board members off our look at the group, as this has gone long.
What are we to make of this group? Hard to say for outsiders. We asked several people we know who lobby both sides of the aisle and they didn't recognize the group ( by way of contrast, all were familiar with the Taxpayers League).
It may be best examined within that hermetic splendor that is its own web site. For in the earlier years, we see more moderate Republicans recognized by the LEA.
In 2003, for instance, Sheila Kiscaden and Paul Koering are given honorable mention in the Senate. Rochester's Kiscaden had been chased from the GOP in 2002 into the arms of the Independence Party; she retired in 2007 and the seat was taken by a Democrat. Paul Koering's score was reduced to 33 out of 100 by 2006 and was used by his primary opponent that year--an opponent who seemed more motivated by Koering's coming out of the closet than by ideology.
Also praised in 2003? An honorable mention to Senator Steve Dille, who in an act of political courage just days ago sided with the bullet-proof majority in the Senate's override of Governor Pawlenty's veto. There's also a photo that year for Senator Dick Day, Davis's rival who has decided to skip the endorsement process.
In 2003, Day was feted by this group. It now has edged further into the right's version of the politically correct. And Rep. Demmer? He received a 79 for 2003, equal to that of Eric Paulsen, Connie Ruth, and any number of other Republicans serving in the House.
We must wonder, then, what the choice of this obscure group's rating signals. The self-marginalization of the Republican Party? Why ever would the followers of Davis, a novice candidate, select that? Why would voters in the First?
Good research.
The National Republican Party likes to consider it a BIG TENT party … Well, it is very obvious that that the MN-GOP tentpoles are re-enforced by MCCL, NRA, Taxpayers League of Minnesota and now Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform.
Any wonder why you see more independent voters checking the DFL block at the ballot box ?
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | March 10, 2008 at 05:44 PM