By all public accounts, Minnesota Representative Rich Murray is much beloved by his family and friends.
Take, for instance, the Precious Moments-quality affection that drips from the prose of the letter to the editor of the Albert Lea Tribune, Granddaughters know special man, submitted by Murray's daughter, Michelle Hanson, in the week before the 2010 election:
As I drive my girls around town I hear coming from the backseat “There’s Grandpa Rich’s sign! Look another Grandpa Rich sign! While my other daughter sits and chants vote for Grandpa Rich. Vote for Grandpa Rich. Vote for Grandpa!” It brings a smile to my face to hear how proud my little girls are of their grandpa. Even though they are only 5 and 3 years old, they know how special of a man their Grandpa Rich is.
This just gives me yet another reason to be proud of my dad. While most people sit around talking about what should be done in our community and state; there is my dad out doing something about it. This is why he is running for office and why you should vote Rich Murray on Tuesday. He is the right man for the job and he will represent House District 27A with pride.
GrandpaRich won the competitive seat by a mere 57 votes.
That affectionate regard by family and friends remains clear, if one examines the list of Murray's family and political friends who showed up at last Friday'at a special redistricting panel meeting in Mankato. However, accounts of the meeting in the Mankato Free Press and the New Ulm Journal suggest that Grandpa Rich no longer takes pride in the Mower County part of his district.
In Panel meets in Mankato to consider redistricting, MFP veteran political reporter Mark Fischenich reports:
A large contingent of Albert Lea residents spoke in favor of ending a four-decade marriage of that city and Austin in a single Senate district. Several said Albert Lea has less in common with Austin than it does with rural areas to the west, with some specifically mentioning Blue Earth and southern Waseca and Blue Earth counties.
The New Ulm Journal's Josh Moniz writes in Redistricting panel holds southern Minn. hearing:
With the rest of the communities at the hearing, there was two major requests from the speakers: don't divide the city of Mankato and split the communities of Albert Lea and Austin into separate districts.
The Austin and Albert Lea division had the most speakers, with the general theme being that the two cities have grown apart with different objects. The consensus was that Albert Lea had become more rural, while Austin remained a corporate focused town.
These are fascinating claims. Despite the speakers' notion of drift, Austin and Albert Lea remain 22 miles or so apart as the crow flies on I-90. And while it is true that Albert Lea may not be the meat packing center that it was before the 2001 Farmland Foods fire destroyed the old Wilson plant, that fire occurred before the court issued the current district lines on March 19, 2002.
Albert Lea's largest employer is now the Mayo Clinic Health System, which suggests that that the population's affinities lie more with Rochester than charming small towns like Blue Earth County's Good Thunder or Faribault County's Winnebago. Perhaps the speakers were merely struggling with the notion that a non-profit like the Mayo system is still a corporation.
Newspapers in both towns are owned by the same company, frequently sharing stories. A staff member will be going to Kuwait in November to report on local National Guard soldiers deployed in that Middle Eastern country, for instance.
That drifting apart of the two towns may be in the mind of the beholder, especially if the mind is Republican.
And while Grandpa Rich Murray, who testified at the hearing, may no longer be proud of Mower County, and its corporations, his family and friends still love him and want him to have a "rural" district so much that they headed to Mankato to speak about the need for lumping Albert Lea into a "rural" district.
The district they wanted is very close to that drawn in the plan proposed by Republicans and vetoed by Governor Dayton.
The Friends of Grandpa Rich
Who are these steadfast companions? A friend who attended the hearing says that none publicly identified themselves as Grandpa Rich family members and supporters to the five-judge panel.
Given that the list of those who spoke at the hearing is available, Bluestem thinks that the public process of redistricting might benefit from shining a bit of sunlight on the relationships, especially since, like Grandpa Rich's daughter, they showed little reluctance to declare their allegiances to the world in the run-up to the 2010 election.
One person who testified for ditching Democratic-leaning Mower County was Michelle Hanson, the Murray daughter and proud mother who wrote the Grandpa Rich letter. Another member of the Albert Lea Brigade was Jonathan Murray, who made Representative Murray a "Grandpa Rich" once again this summer.
And the friends on the list? There's former candidate Matt Benda, whose failed campaign bid gave $275 to Murray’s campaign when Benda terminated his own committee. A frequent LTE writer in the Albert Lea Tribune, Benda shows up on Freeborn County GOP page as part of the “current party leadership team."
Paul Overgaard, an 81-year old ex-legislator who served from 1963 to 1972, was on the docket. Overgaard and his wife together gave $650 to Murray.
According to the friend who attended the hearing, this Friend of Grandpa Rich claimed that Governor Wendell Anderson “put Austin in a district with Albert Lea in order to get rid of me.” The legislative lines that were in effect for the 1972 elections were drawn by the federal courts, not the legislature or governor. Bluestem hopes that the judges on the panel will keep this in consideration when reviewing Overgaard's testimony.
Another frequent letter writer, Alan Arends testified. Chair of the Freeborn County Republicans, Arends gave $450 to Murray. The Freeborn County GOP page describes him as “Team Leader of the current party leadership team.” Kathleen Jacobson, another current leadership team member listed on the Freeborn County GOP page, also spoke to the panel.
None of the testifiers revealed their family or campaign ties to Murray to the judges. Instead, they described themselves as ordinary citizens or by their occupations.
Bluestem suspects that Albert Lea hasn't become more rural. Rather, Grandpa Rich would like a more Republican district, given the slim margin of victory he enjoyed in 2010. Hence, the decidedly non-Republican shame expressed by his camp followers at Grandpa having to represent corporations.
Photo: Rich Murray. For the love of all that is sacred, don't force this Republican Grandpa to continue to represent a place dominated by corporate interests. What will the job creators say?
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