Senator Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, and Bluestem disagree on a lot: the need for public support for new pro sports stadiums, the marriage inequality amendment, Ellen Anderson. I nonetheless respect her intelligence and political skills--and progressive friends who live in her district find her approachable and reasonable.
The bill attempts to skirt the serious First Amendment problems in a bill like the one authored by Minnesota's pork princess, Sen. Julie Rosen, last session.[emphasis added]
The hot link refers to an ever-so-learned legal commentary about the bill posted by the author last April 19, in which Rosen was singled out among the senators signing on to ag gag, despite the fact that Senator Doug Magnus was the bill's chief author (the writer is silent about Magnus). Though referred to Magnus' own committee, the bill never got a hearing.
Senator Rosen had her name stricken from the bill ten months ago, but that doesn't stop the heroic blogger from singling her out this evening, although four authors remain on the junk bill--including DFLers Rod Skoe and Dan Sparks.
Perhaps the writer intends "pork princess" in an entirely innocently referential way, a nod to Rosen's ex-husband's involvement in meat packing. In that case, it's simply an indicator of sloth in research, since American Foods is a beef processing concern.
Or maybe by "pork," he means Rosen's support for a new Vikings stadium. Fair enough--though Bluestem would think that the blogger might have actually mentioned the stadium if that were his gripe.
Or could the writer's focus on Rosen simply mark a cheap sexist shot at a woman legislator? Perish the thought. What progressive man would ever sink so low as that?
Photo: Senator Julie Rosen, the go-to girl for ag-gag blame.
While their politics may seem outlandish to those more middle-of-the-road, Shimanski and Gruenhagen are both genuinely friendly and open guys, and so I trust they'll settle this dilemma as the post-dueling era gentlemen that they are.
Four area Republicans vie for just two seats in the Legislature. 21B's Paul Torkelson and 24B's Tony Cornish are now both located in District 23B.. . .
In the Senate, District 24's Julie Rosen now shares a constituency with District 25's Al DeKruif.
Those legislators were at work in St. Paul when the news broke, so the details remain up in the air.
But one of them says he'll be running again in 2012 regardless.
Rep. Tony Cornish (R - Good Thunder) says, "I like my job. I plan on staying here. I like being chairman. No matter what happens, I'm pretty sure I'm running again, no matter who it's against."
The new district pairs Torkelson with Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Vernon Center). In fact, Torkelson's portion of Watonwan County is added to what was almost exactly Cornish's prior district.
Torkelson said he will run for reelection regardless of the district he ends up living in. He said that he is not yet willing to release any detailed plans on his future prospects.
"I'm going to find a way to come back, but the new maps make that challenging," said Torkelson, "But, it's too early to say exactly how that will work out."
Moniz's article suggests one possibility for Torkelson to remove himself from Cornish's home ground:
One possibility open to Torkelson is to move so that he can represent the new district in Brown County. His portion of Watonwan County in his new district only covers three townships and less than 5 percent of the county.
While it may be a sacrifice for a farmer legislator to move into town in order to preserve his political life, it's probably a better alternative than facing down the former Lake Crystal police chief and crappie cop.
And a move to New Ulm would be the best sort of conflict avoidance, since the charming German-American Disneyworld is now in incumbentless 16B. Torkelson has until May to light out to the territories.
The last two redistricting efforts, in 1992 and 2002 have reflected this demographic change. This year, 2012, will bring the largest changes to date.
The biggest effects will be seen in the legislative map. Here on the Iron Range, the last two redistricting efforts have endeavored to protect incumbents to the degree possible. However, the continued loss of population on the Range has pushed this approach to a breaking point. Lake Superior to the east, Canada to the north, and the even more population-starved plains counties to the west mean there is nowhere else for district lines to go but south. [emphasis added]
. . .Congressional redistricting could also be dramatic. For all the drama over potential DFL challengers and the prospects of incumbent freshman Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), this simple little map could turn the race upside down.
Already, the race for Congress in Minnesota’s 8th District will be unlike any seen before. Between the vast amount of outside spending, the shifting population and political dynamic of the region and the grind of a nation going through large changes, we can’t predict what will happen. Tuesday will be a big day in the story.
Ah, poor Chip Cravaack. Where will he end up? Bluestem suspects the retired pilot and his career will be heading south along with redistricting. Or east, as it were, and he's very, very sad about the potential loss of friends on Minnesota's Iron Range.
- A new Republican redistricting proposal that would carve the Iron Range out of the 8th Congressional District is vehemently opposed by the congressman representing that district.
"Some say it's advantageous for me to be drawn out of the Range. I disagree. I'm completely committed to fighting for Range workers and their families," U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack said regarding the proposal that triggered several calls to his Washington office, many of them from Range residents.
The Iron Range has a tradition of a strong DFL majority representation for the past several decades. But Cravaack bucked that history with a stunning defeat of 18-term Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar in 2010. Even though Oberstar won most precincts on the Range, Cravaack sliced deeply into the DFL stronghold.
"There was a lot of chatter toward the end of last week and then this week. It's not a formal plan, but it's out there and the congressman wants people to know he's not supportive of it," said Ben Golnik, an advisor for Cravaack's re-election campaign.
Chip Cravaack does so love the Range and North East Minnesota. Ben Golnik says so.
The North East Area Labor Council is calling on Representative Chip Cravaack to hold more town hall meetings during the President's Day congressional recess.
Members of the Labor Council want Cravaack to come back to his district between February 21st to the 26th to hold town halls and an open meeti ng in Duluth.
As good as gold, two days later, Cravaack's crack communications team kindly emailed Bluestem this helpful notice all the way from the Beltway that the first term congressman is indeed holding a town hall on Tuesday evening:
Cravaack Announces Royalton Town Hall
Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, February 21, U.S. Representative Chip Cravaack (MN-8) will host a town hall meeting in Royalton, Minnesota. All town hall meetings are open to the public.
“These town hall meetings are a great opportunity for me to hear directly from my constituents in the Eighth District about the issues that matter to them,” said Rep. Cravaack. “I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say, as well as sharing with them what I have been working on as their representative to Washington.”
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Royalton Town Hall Meeting Royalton American Legion 103 North Maple Street Royalton, MN 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Nestled beside the placid lanes of Highway 10, and home to the famous pirate's den and souvenir shop of Treasure City, the quaint hamlet of Royalton straddles Morrison and Benton Counties, placing it in both CD 6 and CD 8.
While Cravaack might push farther south in his district or farther west, it's difficult to see him having a Town Hall meeting any more southwest without incurring the wrath of Congresswoman Bachmann. Or much more distant from Duluth.
It's possible that the location could be an accidential stroke of planning genius after the judges release the map of the new congressional district. Under Republican plans, Royalton might gain a far more central place in Chip Cravaack's geography of power.
Royalton would be more centrally located in Cravaack's new turf and his new constituents could get to know him better Tuesday night, should the judges stick close to Anderson's inspired work.
Not that Chip Cravaack likes Anderson's plan or any other that takes him away from all of his dear friends on the Range. Of course not.
And at least he'll be in the district where he lives--be it numbered Seven or Eight-- on Tuesday, rather than with his family in their second home in New Hampshire.
Will that be enough to satisfy everyone? Sadly no. The Brainerd Dispatch reports in Occupy Brainerd event to target Cravaack that dirty hippies are upset about the time he spends in New Hampshire with his family:
The theme of the event, according to organizer Terry Sluss of Baxter, is “Congressman Cravaack: New Hampshire is still not in the 8th District.”
Sluss said the boundaries for redistricting will be released for Minnesota late Tuesday.
Michael Bars, a spokesman for Cravaack, said Cravaack’s home is in North Branch. When his wife was promoted and transferred she tried to commute, but it was too difficult a strain on the family since Cravaack was commuting to and from Washington, Bars said.
The family has a second home in New Hampshire.
Earlier this year, MPR noted the relocation in Cravaack plans to spend more time with his family...in New Hampshire. While New Hampshire is unlikely to be in the Eighth or Seventh after Tuesday, both the Occupiers and Bar will likely continue the thumb-wrestling over quarrelsome definitions of residency.
The Seventh and the Eighth maybe inverted, Royalton may take a central place in the state's landscape, and the triumph of Representative Sarah Anderson's mad skillz with her own private GPS may finally be complete.
Images (top to bottom) Screenshot of Royalton press notice; Noted MNGOP cartographer Sarah Anderson; Royalton on county and state maps; Treasure City; Representative Anderson's awesome congressional redistricting map.
Vicki Oakes, chair of the Big Stone County Planning and Zoning Commission, wasn't happy with the 100 restless citizens seated in front of her at the board meeting on Thursday night in Clinton, Minnesota, population 449.
Upset by the possibility that beloved granite outcroppings in Ortonville Township might soon be blasted into aggregate for concrete, they'd organized, circulated a petition, written letters to the editors of local papers, and marched singing anti-mining tunes and carrying handmade pro-rock, pro-ball cactus signs to the Clinton Community Center.
Some weren't respecting her authority, throwing out loud suggestions about what she could do with the conditional use permit (CUP) sought by Strata Corporation, a Grand Forks sand and gravel corporation running gravel pits across the upper Midwest.
Not that the suggestions that "You could just vote no" were profane or vulgar. Just out of order. But not too out of order, since sheriff's deputies were on hand to keep the peace, and the motley crowd of cattle farmers, small business people, students, Dakota activists, Republicans, DFLers, writers, artists, and local food growers had parked their signs outside.
But Oakes, Community Development Coordinator for the City of Ortonville, was letting her temper flair during the informally managed meeting. When citizens clapped, booed or recorded proceedings on cell phones, she slapped them down.
Welcome to pitchforks and torches, Minnesota Western Boundary Waters Nice style.
***
The dominant model for protest--Tea Party or leftward--is the Alinsky model: pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In Big Stone County, home to fewer than 5300 souls, this can be a bit awkward, especially when the argument isn't about stopping development, but rather, what sort of development is best to keep Big Stone County from continuing to hemorrhage people as residents take off to Sioux Falls or the Cities.
The quarry would pay a projected $20,000 a year in aggregate taxes to Big Stone County and Ortonville Township annually. It is projected to create six to eight jobs.
That's not a lot by metro terms, but on the western border away from any mini-metropolis, those jobs are hard to come by. The successful but aging farmer who seeks to lease his land to Strata Corporation frames the development in those terms.
Understanding Gayle’s story seems important as it has a pivotal impact on what the landscape will look like along the headwaters of the Minnesota River 130 years from now. It is a story filled with hard work, entrepreneurism, humor and a big love of life in a small town of western Minnesota. . . .
Hedge believes the county will benefit from the proposed quarries with six to eight new seasonal positions for Big Stone County and a combined tax revenue of approximately $26,000 a year. “Those employees will fill some of the many vacant houses available in Ortonville, ” Hedge said. In addition, he plans to set up a fund for the City of Ortonville through $50,000 received from Strata Corporation in exchange for the agreement to mine the land for the next 130 years.
In Big Stone County's scale of things, that's a generous endowment. Hedge is a respected member of his community who is looking to the longterm, 130 years into the future. Queenan's article doesn't spell out what entity will administer the fund (the City of Ortonville or a community foundation) but even quarry opponents appreciate the caring qesture.
Others suggest that the rock outcroppings--and the wildlife refuge and bike trail near them--have a more enduring economic value. Cherveny writes:
Lodging and hospitality industry revenues in 2010 in Big Stone County totaled $4.1 million, with tax revenues to all sources of $282,000, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
The environmental harm — the loss of yet another endangered rock outcrop — and what mining operations ultimately means to the area is what brought Duane Ninneman to Clinton on Sunday. Blasting and crushing rock and loading trains are all certain to add silica and other dust to the air and cause noise pollution to the detriment of residents in the area, he explained.
A Big Stone County resident and consultant with Clean Up the River Environment, Ninneman has been helping residents opposed to the project. “Our concern is our residents and making sure their way of life is a good way of life,’’ said Ninneman.
For Vicki Oakes, the dilemma isn't an abstraction, but a professional tension. In addition to serving as the Community Development Coordinator for the City of Ortonville, Oakes serves on the Western Prairie Waters Regional Tourism board.
***
Big Stone County resident Duane Ninneman also takes a long view, but sees things from a different perspective as a member of the Minnesota River revival movement. If it issued cards, he'd carry one, but the intentional community building that's been going on among sustainable development advocates hasn't gotten around to that part yet.
Instead, the movement members have built groups like CURE (Clean Up the River Environment), sustainability projects, the Meander art gallery crawl, eco-tourism and community building. While there's oppositional organizing, as the case of the fight against the Big Stone II coal plant and the protest signs at the Clinton meeting, the folks along the Upper Minnesota River are more interested in teaching the art of hosting than selling the metrics of the Alinsky methods.
CURE Executive Director Patrick Moore, a mainstay on Montevideo's Main Street, hands me a flyer for the Art of Hosting Training that the group is sponsoring in early May at the Prairie's Edge Resort and Casino in Granite Falls. The Art of Hosting, the document tells me, attempts to heal the broken relationships between people.
In the conflict in Big Stone County, Moore seeks to stop the relentless march of the permit process so that citizens can hold the sort of "courageous conversations" that they need to have about what sort of communities they and their children should enjoy. A musician and river enthusiast, he peppers his conversations with notions of respect, compassion and dialogue for everyone.
Right now, he and his friends in Big Stone County are talking about the interim ordinance that the Ortonville Township Board of Supervisors passed to give residents time to talk about what they want for their community. MPR's Mark Steil reports in Quarry plan faces more hurdles:
And there's another potential roadblock for the project. The Ortonville Township Board has passed a moratorium on new projects like the proposed quarry. The township plans to set up its own planning and zoning commission which would have to approve Strata's plans. Strata officials say they are reviewing the township action.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has consistently upheld the authority of townships to govern themselves and pass their own rules. It's part of the tradition of local control in Minnesota, one that's threatened by players far away from Big Stone County.
***
On Friday afternoon after the Clinton hearing, I receive a blast action alert from the Land Stewardship Project, which keeps a field office in Montevideo that promotes local food and sustainable, family-scale agriculture. Organizer Bobby King cuts to the chase about the threat to local control, specifically interim ordinances like that approved by the Ortonville Township board:
House File 389 will make it more difficult for citizens who want their township, county or city to take action and protect the community from unanticipated, harmful development. The bill weakens the power of local governments to enact interim ordinances (also called land use moratoriums). An interim ordinance allows local governments to quickly put a temporary freeze on major development. This power is essential when the community is caught off-guard by unanticipated and potentially harmful proposals, especially those from corporate interests and outside investors, such as big box stores like Wal-Mart or a large-scale factory farm. An interim ordinance freezes the status quo and gives the community time to review or create the appropriate zoning ordinances.
UPDATE: House File 389 was tabled at the Jan. 26 hearing in the House Government Operations and Elections Committee due to our phone calls and e-mails and strong testimony in opposition. Now new language for the bill is being proposed as a “compromise.” However, this new language still dramatically weakens local control and is NOT a compromise. Under this new proposal, after a project applies for a permit the local unit of government has a short window of time in which to enact an interim ordinance. If they miss that window, then the proposed project is exempt. The clock starts running before any public hearing — by the time there is a hearing, the clock could be run out. . .
In short, taking away one of the tools citizens in Big Stone County just implemented to stop the clock for a timeout and conversation. Gutting local control has long been a goal of developers and Big Ag, but with self-professed enemies of big government now in control of the state capitol, the odds for big government to neuter little government has never been higher.
Indeed, part of the rushed conversation about Strata in Big Stone County arises in that same paradox: thanks to a "reform" in the permitting process, Big Stone County has only 60 days to review a permit application under most circumstances, following recent reforms of the process.
Ortonville Township isn't alone in the questions it's taking time to ask about mining by enacting a moratorium.
Across the state in Southeastern Minnesota, Goodhue, Wabasha and Winona Counties have adopted interim ordinances to review the impact of silica sand (fracking sand) mining as the natural gas boom and attendent use of hydrologic fracking to abstract gas from shale fires demand for the fine sand.
Citizens on the other side of the state have packed committee and board hearings, held community meetings and physically blocked trucks hauling fracking sand. Those who argue for development talk jobs; those who oppose the strip mines talk water quality, dust, property value, natural beauty, property values--and jobs, created by tourism from people seeking the loveliness of the Upper Mississippi's driftless region.
***
Neither a need for dialogue nor the Ortonville Township Board of Supervisors was slowing down Big Stone County Planning Commission Chair Vicki Oakes in Clinton on Thursday Night.
And despite a rising series of complications and permit conditions involving dust, water quality issues, livestock health, road access, rare plants, and other issues, Oakes was pushing for "consensus," which looked more like taking a vote and getting a simple majority agreement than the generally accepted definition of consensus.
This seemed odd, as many reasonable people in the crowd thought that perhaps the discussion might have led rational people to conclude that the site wasn't a particularly good choice for the operation, especially since there are so many other areas in the region where rock could be mined. Indeed, some observers later wondered why huge piles of tailings from old quarries couldn't be crushed for aggregate--and that doing so might cost Strata less, thereby increasing profit. No time for dialogue on that.
Nor was Oakes buying a suggestion from a board member that perhaps Strata simply be allowed to have one quarry, for 30 years, so that the impacts of one mine could be assessed after one generation. Instead, she appeared to be on board with the notion that a permit for 130 years was the only reasonable approach for mining on the difficult site.
She also wanted the public to sit down and behave, though apparently she deemed representatives from Strata as having enough interest in the project to allow them to approach the tables where she sat to conduct side conversions that weren't clear to the rest of us.
Indeed, it was difficult to note just who was speaking in the meeting, since Oakes tended not to call on board members by name before they spoke. Since the meeting was only being audiotaped (with videotaping forbidden), I knew that it would be hard to tell who said what when I got the tape, so I tried shooting video with my cellphone.
No dice: Oakes snapped at me to stop, and a few seconds later warned: "I better not see that posted on the Internet."
The board voted 5-3, with one abstention, to recommend passage of the CUP by the County Commissioners. Since the vote wasn't videotaped for all to see, a staff member at CURE created the graphic above.
After the meeting, I snapped some closeups of the board; Oakes ordered me to "Stop it." I indentified myself as a reporter/writer from a blog. She seemed more angry than ever (one suspects that rough treatment in a local online forum may have influenced that rage).
A few moments later, I approached her like my hand extended to shake and attempted to introduce myself and name the place where I publish, but she snapped at me to stop again. I asked once more if she wanted to comment --a request met with a resounding no.
Perhaps she might profit from taking in that training on the Art of Hosting in May--as may I.
Photos: The vote in Clinton (above; photo by BSP); the site in Ortonville Township (middle;photo by Anne Queenan); Vicki Oakes after the meeting ( below; photo by BSP).
Each day, Bluestem finds more reason to head to the Jeffers' Petroglyphs to carve Tom Wolfe's edict (about the disadvantage of the novelist in the age of absurdity) into the sacred red rocks.
Take the recent episode starring Sarah Anderson, the Republican representative from Plymouth, which the editor believes to be located in the near western suburbs of Minneapolis, rather than Massachusetts or England. In an attempt to deride Minneapolis Mayor Rybak, Sarah Anderson provides a clear demonstration of her expertise, via our friends at The Uptake:
Fun facts:Anderson chaired the Republican redistricting effort in the House. Rochester, Minnesota, home of the world-famous Mayo Clinic, is Minnesota's third largest city. Bluestem recommends that Anderson head south on Highway 52 to the Med City, where Congressman Tim Walz, a former social studies teacher, will cheerfully give her a lesson in reading maps.
Greater Minnesotans are used to people not knowing where to find Darfur or Ceylon, but Rochester shouldn't be a problem.
Glancing through the 2011 state campaign finance report for the Republican Party of Minnesota, Bluestem noticed that Patrick J. Haley was paid $24,287.13 for political consulting.That's more than Ben Golnik earned, so we grew curious.
A post on the Senate District 48 Republicans' Facebook page last August lists Haley as "Political Director-RPM for CD's 4, 6, 7 & 8."
His name had also shows up in CD7 Republican congressional candidate Lee Byberg's year-end report as "political director," earning the princely sum of $4500 in December, along with mileage.
Who is this political operative? Before signing on as manager of Mike Jungbauer's campaign for governor, Haley kept the aptly named blog called "Rantings from the Right." Nowhere is the subtlety of his thinking expressed better than in the final untitled post from July 17, 2009, which leads with the infamous picture of President Obama as a witchdoctor with a bone through his nose.
On Sunday night, Dr. David McKalip forwarded to fellow members of a Google listserv affiliated with the Tea Party movement the image below. Above it, he wrote: “Funny stuff.”
A screenshot of the "funny stuff" from Haley's blog is posted here.
Haley doesn't seem shy. A frequent letter-to-the-editor writer before being hired by the MNGOP Haley drew such headlines as Haley letter offended Klinzing and Haley in his local paper:
There are at least two Patrick Haleys in Elk River, and one of them has never written a letter to the editor.
Patrick R. Haley of Elk River will often get comments about letters from Patrick J. Haley, a conservative involved in local Republican politics.
Patrick R. would just as soon not be associated with Patrick J. as he “comes across as combative,” says Patrick R.
Direct letters are not the only issue Patrick R. has had to contend with in recent years. He also gets the political activist’s mail.
“I’ve tried to take care of it, but with little success,” he says. “I have even tried contacting the party. I have given up. I just throw it away now.” This time when a letter was published he got a call from Elk River Mayor Stephanie Klinzing, who wanted to question him about the letter. He told her you have the wrong man. {snippet instory}
Patrick J. challenged Klinzing’s motive for the recent Acts of Random Kindness campaign.
The mayor took issue with Haley, the letter writer, for implying that city funds went into the campaign.
“That is simply not true,” she said.
When asked by the Star News what he was trying to convey, he wrote that he was simply referring to resources used to put the sign together, and hours spent on this by city employees could have been better spent.
Congrats to the Republican Party for investing in one of the finest minds in central Minnesota. Were his discernment in opposition to random acts of kindness and his abilities as a photo editor when deciding to illustrate his objections to health care reform the tipping points in getting him the jobs with the state party and congressional campaign?
The screenwriter furrowed her brow as she read the end-of-year campaign finance reports from The Emo Senator's state and federal races. Could it be as she feared? Had the Belle of Waseca County, Mike Parry, R-ALEC, suffered yet another bout of his famous amnesia?
The malady strikes our hero so often when it comes to money and holding office. Just last year, he defended taking full per diem because he had no other income during the session--forgetting that he owns and operates a Godfather's Pizza in sunny Waseca, Minnesota.
What office did Mike Parry campaign for once he declared himself a candidate for Congress? Judging by his congressional committee's spending, he didn't put out for mileage to drive around the sprawling First Congressional District, which extends across southern Minnesota from Wisconsin to South Dakota.
Other congressional campaigns in Minnesota's rural areas, like Republican Lee Byberg's race against Blue Dog Collin Peterson in the Seventh, are ponying up for gas. Several staffers are reimbursed for gas in incumbent Tim Walz's report.
How does our hero travel these distances without spending money on gas? Astro-projection? Teleportation? A sprinkle of former senator Dick Day's famous foo-foo dust? A sudden burst of charity on the part of campaign volunteer Ben Golnik, who accompanied him on a two-day from Winona to Worthington?
The screenwriter doesn't know, but did find that in Mike Parry's other campaign, he was filling up at local gas stations quite regularly. There's the state campaign finance reporting of gas purchases: $48.50 on November 15; $73 on November 18; $71 on November 25th, $48.65 on December 2; $64.06 (including a car wash) on December 12; $68 on December 16.
For that much gas, Mike Parry must have doorknocked much of his district for the state senate campaign in November and December.
Indeed, the state report shows a great devotion to the state bid. Mike Parry purchased and activated a phone on September 3--the first phone for the state level campaign in 2011--and began paying Verizon for phone service on October 7, with a charge of $123.52, followed by payments in November of $153.44 and December of $148.03. There are no phone or cell expenses in the Congressional campaign report to the FEC.
Parry also purchased other equipment for the senate campaign. On November 28, he visited the Owatonna Office Max and purchased card scan equipment for $182.94. Radio Shack supplied a power strip and USB cable on October 1 for $34.18 and there's the Ipad purchased a few days later from the Apple Store in Bloomington for $688.32, a better way to tweet spiteful remarks about the staff at the governor's residence perhaps--though maybe not Walz.
Then there's the dedication of Senator Parry's state campaign workers, who drove all the way to The Cities (or was it Duluth?) to attend a campaign meeting on October 6 at Pizza Luce, where they ordered $76.03 worth of food and beverages. Persumably, they forgot--like Parry himself back in early summer--that The Belle of Waseca County owns a Godfather's Pizza. Certainly, it's more forgettable fare than Pizza Luce.
Another indication that Parry may be carrying on a state senate campaign: using that campaign committee's dollars--reported as campaign expenses--for 2012 dues and county fair registrations. There's the $185 going toward 2012 dues for the Faribault Chamber of Commerce, for instance.
And residents of Steele County can look forward Mike Parry's appearance at the Free Fair as a state senate candidate, since the state-level committee shelled out early for a $500 SCFF sponsorship on November 16, 2011. (All earlier fair sponsorships had been paid at the time of the fair, held each year in August).
Forgetful as our hero is, certainly he'd never forget that state campaign funds can't be spent on federal campaigns.
Indeed, Emo Senator was so intent on campaigning for the state senate, that he closed the year with only $42.95 in his committee's account. Now that he's back on track for campaigning for congress--having only spent $3402.14 last year, while banking $29,182.86--we'll no doubt see more spending from that account. Tune in again!
Or maybe it will be more foo-foo dust renewable energy used for mileage, since the Emo Senator now recalls only congressional campaign stops since October, according to the Owatonna People's Press:
Parry, a Waseca Republican whose district includes all of Steele County, announced in October he was running for the Republican nomination. Since then, he has scheduled many meet and greet events at the crack of dawn.
“Part of the reason is that I’m a seated (state) senator and so I’m working all day long up at the Capitol,” Parry said. “We’re taking Saturdays and Sundays and we are doing meet and greets all over the First District.
These are the headlines that try readers' souls. An urban legend, like hell, is not easily conquered, as Mike Parry's continued campaigning against an imaginary EPA dust rule demonstrates.
One has to hand it to Huckle Media, publishers of the Owatonna People's Press, for at least putting Senator Mike Parry's notion of "common sense" within quotation marks. In Parry discusses ‘common sense’ there's this gem:
“Does it make good common sense for Congressman Walz to vote against agriculture?” Parry asked. “It’s exactly what he’s done. He voted against the Cambodian and Panama trade agreements. That’s about a $9 billion export market for this state of Minnesota.”
Parry said Walz has supported the Environmental Protection Agency, which Parry says wants to control the dust coming out of the back of a combine.
Walz wasn't against agriculture, but concerned about other issues. The Rochester Post Bulletin reported in October:
Walz voted for the South Korea Free Trade Agreement saying it will benefit farmers in southern Minnesota. But he voted against agreements with Colombia and Panama. He said he has serious concerns about Colombia's human rights record and corruption and instability in Panama.
“I believe that as the leader of the free world, the United States must be guided in its trade policy by our values,” he said in a written statement.
Bluestem agrees that a rule against combine dust would be devastating to farmers. However, far more devastating to the political process is basing campaigns on pure cow flops, as legendary Minnesota politician Magnus Johnson liked to point out about the Republican platform of his time.
Earlier this year, Republicans found what they saw as an ideal talking point to illustrate a federal bureaucracy gone batty.
The Environmental Protection Agency, they warned, was trying to regulate something only God could control: the dust in the wind.
“Now, here comes my favorite of the crazy regulatory acts. The EPA is now proposing rules to regulate dust,” Rep. John Carter (R-Tex.) said on the House floor. He said Texas is full of dusty roads: “The EPA is now saying you can be fined for driving home every night on your gravel road.”
There was just one flaw in this argument: It was not true.
The EPA’s new dust rule did not exist. It never did.
Still, the specter of this rule has spurred threebills to prevent it , one of which was approved Thursday by a House subcommittee. It sparked a late-night battle on the Senate floor. GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain cited it in a debate as a reason to eliminate the EPA.
The hubbub over this phantom rule — surely one of the most controversial regulations that never was — involved a slow-moving federal agency and a Republican Party with the EPA in its crosshairs.
"Common sense" like that possessed by Mike Parry makes nincompoopery completely redundant.
Photoshop image: Fiddle-dee-dee on geography and facts, Flouncette O'Parry. Image by Tild
Bonus: Some campaign advice from Weird Al Yankovic:
A tipster with the barking fantods emailed Bluestem with a comment he felt was racist dropping from the tender lips of Martin County GOP stalwart Neal Breitbarth.
My correspondent took exception to the remarks at the end of Local turnout reaches new high, published in the February 8, 2012 Fairmont Sentinel:
Breitbarth is optimistic the high turnout means positive things for Republicans in Minnesota. Addressing the crowd at the Holiday Inn, he said, "Maybe we can get this monkey off our back in Minnesota and actually vote for a Republican for president."
Bluestem doesn't find the remark to be racist. Breitbarth wasn't comparing the president or health care reform to a monkey (a racist trope), but employing a shopworn figure of speech about addiction. Having a "monkey on your back" comes from the jargon of heroin addiction; Breitbarth was slamming Minnesota voters, not the President.
It's true that Minnesota hasn't gone into the Republican column in a Presidential race since Nixon was elected in 1972, but it's hardly persuasive to tell voters that picking Democratic candidates is the equivalent of political vein popping. "Hey, dumb junkies...."
Neal Breitbarth, who has served numerous times as a GOP delegate, wasn't surprised by the outcome [the Santorum win].
"Health care is the biggest drag on Mitt Romney, and the biggest issue in the nation is Obamacare and getting rid of Obamacare," said Breitbarth, a Santorum supporter.
Curiously, Breitbarth didn't have a problem with Romney's record on health care reform two years later, when he served on Romney's 2008 Minnesota statewide steering committee. He was a Minnesota Republican State Central Committee member at the time. It's astonishing what Obama's support for a policy could change it so drastically for Neal.
It gets better.
The Sentinel breathlessly reports about the "record" turnout for the presidential caucus and plays stenographer for the local Republican activists carrying on about how the turnout in one of the reddest Minnesota counties means that Santorum or whomever will be the next Nixon. According to the paper, 234 people cast their votes in the straw poll.
No wonder why Neal is so high about getting that DFL monkey off the back of Minnesota; Bluestem only wishes that he would quit bogarting whatever it is he's smoking.
Movie still: What Martin County Republican Neal Breitbarth's figure of speech suggests about Minnesota's voters.
Scrolling through my Facebook wall late yesterday afternoon, I noticed this post by a state representative:
During our extended floor session, Rep. Cornish sends photo to all DFL representatives with subject: Crime Bill on My Desk. It contains only a photo of a gallows with two empty nooses.
Yet another way to fostering the bipartisanship the public so desires, as well as promoting public confidence in the institution as well on Cornish's part.
I messaged the House member to see if I could have the email forwarded; a screen shot is at right. What a kidder, that Tony Cornish.
Given the symbolic meanings that gather around nooses these days, meanings differing by race, age and other factors, perhaps one might have wished that the chair of the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee might have been mature enough to control his wit for a moment, or at least reflected on the possibility that his colleagues on the other side of the aisle might not all share his taste in rick-rolling emails.
It's not as if he's just a poor country blogger or something. He's actually a poor country chief of police. UPDATE: Reader T.Pa Or Coffee notes: "By the way, Cornish is no longer a police chief. He resigned so that he could do a better job as a legislator." Point taken. [end update].
But there's something else that might have given him pause if he grasped a larger sense of history: the role hanging played in Minnesota's decision to end the death penalty. In 2008, the Star Tribune's Brian Leehan reviewed that story in Botched hanging led state to halt executions:
A small item in the Wednesday Feb. 7, 1906 edition of the Minneapolis Tribune reads, "Sheriff Miesen has arranged to test the rope and gallows upon which William Williams is to be executed next Tuesday at midnight."
Ramsey County Sheriff Anton Miesen's test seems to have been successful, but it didn't keep the execution of Williams at 12:31 a.m. on Feb. 13, 1906, from being a hideously botched affair that resulted in him being the last person executed in Minnesota.
Double murderer William Williams was certainly guilty of killing his former lover (a teenager) and the lover's mother, but his death was cruel, if not usual:
Sheriff Miesen was confident of his rope's strength, and the proper functioning of the trapdoor of his gallows, but his math was faulty in calculating both the height of Williams and the gallows platform.
As the condemned man dropped, his feet hit the floor.
A lurid description in the next day's issue of the St. Paul Daily News said that William's "neck stretched four and one-half inches and the rope nearly eight inches."
So deputies quickly grabbed the rope and pulled it upward, then took turns holding Williams' feet off the ground for almost 15 minutes while the life was choked out of him.
The death certificate stated that the cause of death was strangulation.
The debacle, and the newspaper coverage of it, gave ammunition to those in the state Legislature who opposed the death penalty.
House member George MacKenzie, R-Gaylord, had tried to abolish capital punishment in Minnesota in 1905 and again in 1909. He succeeded in 1911 when Republican Gov. Adolph Eberhart signed the legislation into law.
But Bluestem suspects Cornish didn't have that in his mind--or much else--when he decided to send the "Crime Bill on My Desk" email to colleagues while they were meeting in chamber. Perhaps he should just stick to the little handcuffs pin he loves to wear.
The photo can be found on Cornish's Facebook page in an album called "Arizona Trip 2012" that documents a short stay in Tombstone. The caption below the photo there? "The Only Sure Cure for Repeat Offenders." Stay classy, Representative Cornish.
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