Bluestem hasn't paid much attention to the raging arguments online about redistricting, mostly because there's only so much time in a day, regardless of how important an issue redistricting might be. Those who want to follow the game should start with Minnesota's community sites on the left and right: Minnesota Progressive Project and True North.
There's also a fine investigative piece out from ProPublica about conservative money coming into the process, mentioned by the Minnesota Independent's Andy Birkey in Undisclosed money flows into Minnesota’s redistricting process. Birkey's post also takes a look at the cash flow from the left.
The names that turn up in the ProPublica report? Annette and Jack Meeks, or at least their home address and the Freedom Foundation that they're now associated with. Readers will probably remember that Annette Meeks was once CEO of the Center of the American Experiment, before being voted out and founding that there Freedom Foundation.
That connection loops this post back the Minnesota blogosphere debate and the name in our headline. Over at True North, the blogger who wrote up DrawTheLine MN: Giving “Potemkin” A Bad Name is having a hard time matching names and places on the state's political map.
Since Bluestem believes that Mitch Berg is as fine a conservative blogger as one might find anywhere, we're here to help him as he looks --and fails--to identify Republicans on the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting. Having failed to find more than one Republican on the Commission, Berg quite logically concludes that Draw the Line Minnesota has constructed nothing but a progressive Potemkin Village in Citizens' Commission. Fair enough based on the research he presents.
But given Berg's completely solid credentials as a blogger and researcher, it's a bit puzzling that he missed spotting Kent Kaiser. Having enlisted our Pretend Internet Boyfriend Mr. Google as unpaid intern on the prairie, we found a lot of connections between Professor Kaiser and Minnesota's conservative Republicans.
Berg writes:
Kent Kaiser of St. Paul is a professor of communication at Northwestern College. Previously, he served as the communications and voter outreach director in the office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. While with the Secretary of State’s office, he serviced as liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau and on the boards of Kids Voting Minnesota and Kids Voting St. Paul.
Yet again – not a single political contribution found.
Since Berg uses criteria in addition to political contributions to assess other members of the commission, it's fair to look beyond contributions for evidence of Mr. Kaiser's political leanings.
Mr. Google reports that Kaiser is a senior fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, where he's been posting articles since 2009 or so. The bio on the latest article:
Kent Kaiser is an assistant professor of communication at Northwestern College in St. Paul, a Center of the American Experiment senior fellow, and a native of Silver Bay who formerly served as communications and voter outreach director for Minnesota Secretaries of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, and Mark Ritchie, a DFLer.
Kaiser was brought into the SOS office by Kiffmeyer and stayed trough the beginning of Ritchie's first term. His much publicized report, No Longer A National Model: Fifteen Recommendations for Fixing Minnesota Election Law and Practice, was published by the CAE in 2009.
Nancy Laroche blogged about this report on True North in Kent Kaiser: Fixing Minnesota Election Law and Practice at the time of the release in 2009, giving a hat tip to MDE's post about the report,WILL MARK RITCHIE DO THE RIGHT THING?
Kaiser wrote letters published in the Scandia and St. Cloud papers supporting Michele Bachmann's bid for Congress in 2006. Mitch Berg himself commented on a discussion of one of Kaiser's LTE's in the old 2006 election blog, Bachmann v. Wetterling. In 2009, Kaiser offered a Star Tribune counterpoint defending Bachmann's remarks about not participating in the 2010 Census.
Kaiser was also on the Late Debate with Jack and Ben, a conservative podcast that's included on True North, to discuss redistricting back in August.
Berg and Kaiser are both on @ulookgoodinred, a twitter list kept by Bridget Sutton, wife of Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton. Kaiser is the adviser to the Northwestern College chapter of the College Republicans, according to his biography on the conservative reilgious private college's website. That biography also notes:
He has served as a political communications consultant to numerous first-time candidates for public office, including two who won seats in the U.S. Congress.
Berg might look into that, just in case Keith Ellison is on Kaiser's client list. That might help build his case that Kaiser has no GOP cred.
Photo: Via TCSocialscene, Kent Kaiser with Jeb Bush after the former Florida Governor's April 26 presentation on education. Kaiser is so not a Republican on True North today.
Poor Mitch! That, madam, wins the Oscar for Best Administration of Butthurt by a Rural Progressive Blogger onto the Virtual Buttocks of a Conservative Blogger.
Soon to be a major motion picture!
Editor's note: Bluestem intended no boot-in-the-buttocks moment. This is simply a poor country blog.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Sep 27, 2011 at 03:08 PM