Did Senator Scott Newman understate the role of former legislative aid Kim Kelley in Senate District 18 Republican activism?
An analysis of the social network that weaves Newman and local Republican activists together suggests that the Hutchinson state senator was being less than candid in his sworn testimony.
When State Senator Scott Newman was asked about his now-former legislative aide (LA) Kim Kelley, in the probable cause hearing conducted by the Senate ethics subcommittee last month, his answers made it seem like her serving as a staffer for the Senate Majority Caucus was a case of the strength of weak ties.
In the hearing last month, the senator leading the DFLers' questions was trying to establish why the aide might have assumed the authority she did; questions about the hiring and training of the aide, as well as how well Newman and the aide knew each other were raised in the hearing. Those questions weren't answered.
Senator Newman stated for the record (and under oath) that he had maybe met Kim Kelley once, at a parade in Dassel, her hometown, that she had gone to Bethel, that she wasn't politically active as far as he knew. In this Uptake video archive of the subcommittee meeting, Newman asked about how he knows his assistant at the 1:36:43 and 1:46:18 marks in the video.
He hesitates as if he has little knowledge of her life, and has to think before he remembers, counsel at his side.
The subcomittee found no probable cause to investigate an ethics complaint filed by four DFL Senators after Newman's aide sent an email to the Minnesota Nurses Association saying that the legislator wouldn't meet with members of groups that supported or contributed to his opponent's campaign.
But a review of local Republican activists and of Scott Newman's social network on Facebook suggests a somewhat different story.
Kim (Danielson) Kelley: Republican activist
Serving as an alternate or delegate to a state convention is one standard operating definition of party activist.
According to the web site for a local Republican BPOU, in 2010, the Meeker County GOP elected Kathy Danielson to be an alternate to the Seventh Congressional District and state Republican conventions, along with a Kim Danielson.
A Republican activist in Meeker County who wished to remain anonymous describes Kathy Danielson as an old-school long-time Main Street Republican activist in Meeker County; Meeker County is part of Senate District 18. Another source who knows Danielson said that Kim Danielson is Kathy's daughter.
Online sources such as wedding registries and a church ministry blog note that Kim Danielson and Ben Kelley were married on August 7, 2010. Their respective Facebook pages say each attended Northwestern College in Roseville.
Facebook pictures show that Kim (Danielson) Kelley is indeed Kathy Danielson's daughter, as the young woman with her hand on Danielson's shoulder is the same Kim Kelley pictured in her husband's profile shot as well as her own.
Thus, while still Kim Danielson, Kim (Danielson) Kelley was an activist in the Meeker County Republican Party, apparently caucusing there and attending the county convention, then representing the BPOU at the congressional and state conventions.
Perhaps Kim Kelley or Scott Newman didn't attend the same county convention, CD convention or state convention, and their paths never crossed.
The social network
There are other connections, however. The elder Danielson is a friend of Senator Newman's wife and other Republican activists in Senate District 18.
Unlike some of us, Senator Newman's wife Ginny isn't particularly social online. Following a pattern that's not unusual for rural women) she has friended only 38 people, mostly local people and family. As the screenshot to the right illustrated, her husband Scott is there, and Lindsay Ramanathan, who was the contact person for at least one Scott Newman campaign event, according to the Hutchinson Leader.
Weighing in with another small network of 100 Facebook friends, Kathy Danielson lives across Dassel's Willis Street from former 7th CD Chair and Meeker County GOP Haapala.
Danielson is also a Facebook friend of Haapala and Lindsay Ramanathan. Haapala is a Facebook friend of Ben Kelley, Kim Kelley's spouse, and Ramanathan.
Haapala owns Computer Samurai, which most of the people in this network "like" and which supplied web hosting services to the Newman campaign. Like the Danielson, he was elected as an alternate to the CD7 and state Republican Conventions.
While Scott Newman isn't a Facebook friend of Kim Kelley and Kathy Danielson (and who would blame 1hem for unfriending each other if they indeed had ever been Facebook companions), theirs is a network of friends, family and neighbors, with Kelley's mother tying them together.
A late parade
It is possible that beyond attending Republican conventions on behalf of Meeker County'd Republican party, Kelley only participated in one parade, then found herself fortunate enough to be hired as a LA for the Senate District in which the county she is active in is part.
Did Scott Newman and Kim Kelley never cross paths at party meetings--despite mutual contacts and interests shared by their wife and mother respectively--and meet only at one of the very late parades in the Senate District's campaign circuit?
The parade in Dassel is part of Red Rooster Days, which occurs on Labor Day weekend, while the caucuses and conventions took place through February to late April. Scott Newman was endorsed in a separate senate district convention in Silver Lake.
It's possible. And as Senate personnel files are exempt from the Minnesota Data Practices act, an inquiry determined--it's not possible to learn whether the young woman who successfully applied for a position with the state senate mentioned knowing Senator Newman.
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