As loyal fans of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most beloved telenovela, tune in to the latest episode, we find our hero, Mike Parry, exchanging reading glasses and affection with endorsed DFL CD8 Congressional candidate Rick Nolan. While Nolan has something Emo Senator doesn't have--his party's endorsement--Parry had reading glasses as their paths crossed while filing for office at SOS Mark Ritchie's place/
Both enjoy the presence in their lives of Cravaack campaign advisor Ben Golnik, who also advises Parry. Common ground indeed.
The latest incidence in the life of the Belle of Waseca County surely helps set that certain tone Parry wishes to establish for voters in the First Congressional District.
Parry told Rochester Post Bulletin reporter Heather Carlson:
1st District Republican congressional candidate Mike Parry was the second candidate to file for office at the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office in St. Paul. The state senator from Waseca said he wanted to be among the first to file for office to show voters he is willing to put in the hard work necessary to defeat three-term DFL incumbent Tim Walz.
"It really sets a tone for people when they see that. They know that I'm aggressive and I'm out early and I'm working late and they know that this is the type of person I am," Parry said.
Carlson missed telling her readers about the charming exchange of reading glasses Emo had with CD8 endorsed DFL candidate Rick Nolan. Forum political reporter Don Davis, who appears to actually have been on the scene at the Secretary of State's office, reports in Hugs and smiles as Minnesota’s election campaign opens:
The first four Minnesotans to file paperwork to officially become candidates were lined up at the secretary of state’s counter Tuesday, three of them filling out the forms. But Rick Nolan, Democratic candidate in the 8th Congressional District, had not started.
“It’s embarrassing,” Nolan said. “I left my reading glasses in the car.”
State Rep. Mike Parry, a Republican running in the 1st Congressional District, swiftly reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his glasses and handed them to Nolan. The Democrat, laughing, slipped them on and slipped his arm around Parry.
The two had not met before waiting in line Tuesday, but they appeared to be old buddies.
“I hope he doesn’t get fingerprints on my glasses,” Parry joked as a now-sighted Nolan finished his paperwork.
The two from opposite parties and opposite parts of the state hugged and headed back to the campaign trail, where each faces a primary election challenge.
As we leave that tender scene of manly bromance, fans can only wonder what Parry (and Cravaack) advisor Ben Golnik must have been thinking, other than a certain gratitude that the only Forum newspaper in Minnesota's First Congressional District is the Worthington Daily Globe, over in Nobles County, in the lesser populated corner in the district.
Surely, word of the embrace at the SOS office would never reach Rochester and destroy that aggressive, hard-charging tone Parry told the PB marked his early arrival at the Secretary of State's office. Will Nolan and Parry continue to share reading glasses? Will Don Davis catch them in the act again, while the chaste Heather Carlson's coverage ignores the public display of affection, supplying only the campaign talking point of the hard-charging face of Mike Parry?
Stay tuned.
Images: Emo Senator by Tild (above); In this Parry campaign photo, Don Davis (rear) catches Rick Nolan (middle) and Mike Parry (front) filing for office after exchanging a pair of reading glasses. You won't read that story in the Rochester Post Bulletin.
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