One indication of the shifting sands of the Republican Party of Minnesota?
Glen Menze, who received 27.67% of the vote when he ran as the 2008 endorsed Republican party congressional candidate in CD7, has filed for the United States Senate under the the Independence Party banner.
Menze has already snagged one political party's endorsement. On May 22, the Post Bulletin printed Whig party provides a political alternative, a letter to the editor announcing that a different third part had endorsed Menze:
The Minnesota Whig party convention was held May 20. The Whig party has a proud history in national and state politics. Four U.S. presidents were Whigs: William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. Also, the first territorial governor of Minnesota was a Whig.
The big news is that we endorsed Glen Menze as our candidate for the U.S. Senate. Glen is an experienced campaigner who is both fiscally conservative and socially moderate. His main issues are fiscal responsibility, campaign reform, health care, and banking reform.
On health care, he supports universal access to basic medical care with payment on a sliding scale. The Whig party also supports energy independence, tax code simplification, and a strong national defense.
Kurt Bills must be quaking in his boots from this challenge by a former Republican.
Image: Bluestem has chosen a painting of a memorable Whig leader to illustrate this post. William Henry Harrison. According to his Wikipedia entry:
Harrison died on his 32nd day in office[a] of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.
Peggy Ployhar, a former Quality Assurance Analyst in the medical device industry and recent Special Needs Coordinator for the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators, officially added her name to the Faribault School Board race Tuesday afternoon.
“In order for our schools to keep up with those changes and still provide quality education to our increasingly diverse student population, adjustments need to be made,” she said in a release.
“Putting more revenue into a school structure which no longer works for the majority of our children in District 656 is something we can no longer afford, fiscally or socially,” she said.
Peggy states: “The dynamics of who we are as a community have changed over the years. In order for our schools to keep up with those changes and still provide quality education to our increasingly diverse student population, adjustments need to be made. Putting more revenue into a school structure which no longer works for the majority of our children in District 656 is something we can no longer afford, fiscally or socially. I am willing to work hard to see those changes made so the quality of our public education in Faribault is consistent and relevant to the needs we are encountering now and in the future.”
I guess for me to answer the question, “Why are you running for school board?” is all the more poignant since I am the mother of three school-aged children whom I choose to home school over enroll in the Faribault public school system. Well, my answer is this: I am running for a position on the Faribault school board because I am grieved over an educational system that is not meeting the needs of the children in our community (our test scores do not lie on that fact).
So what are those test scores? And what is the school system like? In the Great Schools profile of the district, Bluestem learned that the district's Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment-II scores are fairly low, but there's more. While the data is old, it reveals a student population where 43 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunches. The student body is also significantly more brown than the rest of Minnesota.
The suggestion of a new levy came up in board meetings during the budget cuts in March. In their final decision, the school board took $350,000 from the district’s general fund and $549,000 from the district’s Separation/Severance Costs fund in order to reach their goal of $1.3 million in budget cuts.
Elsewhere on the site, Ployhar calls the school system "an ugly festering cancerous growth" that "any amount of money" couldn't rectify without "changing the core of our educational system," while proposing a "complete quality assurance audit" and staffing cuts.
Why cuts can solve the local schools' problems while no increased revenues can't isn't really explained.
She does propose a system where classrooms are open for intense scrutiny:
Classrooms need to be visited, monitored and reviewed frequently, not only by school administration but also by school board members, parents, and concerned citizens. Through this process, problems in the schools will no longer just be heard about or by word of mouth be told they were resolved, but instead they will be seen, realized, documented, followed up on, and eliminated.
Is she proposing LEFs like those supported by the Public Education Network--or what, exactly? If anything, she seems to be following the trend that privileges evaluating and punishing schools over actually devoting resources to educating.
While one can understand the need to cut budgets in the wake of revenue shortfalls, why does Ployhar connect changes in the community and diversity to the need for budget cuts? What's that thing Faribault can't afford "socially"?
Perhaps she can use her campaign blog to shed some light on just what she means about the Faribault Schools. Her most recent experience with a household member attending a public school comes not from Faribault, but from that nearby bastion of indoctrination, the Kenyon-Wanamingo system.
In one "Shedding Light" blog post from the beginning of May, Questioning All Things For Truth, Ployhar brings it up, without naming the particular school:
The other morning as our exchange student was leaving for school our oldest son said to her, “Have fun learning everything they tell you.” She of course smiled and happily skipped out the door with every intention to do just that – believe everything she was being taught in school as completely accurate and legitimate. Naturally she did not understand the underlying reality my son was referring to, which is reiterated in the Proverb above, because she has never been taught to question but rather just believe and integrate into that belief system what she has been told. In contrast my children have been taught to question everything. That is, my children question new ideas until they come to a point where they can prove the idea they have been taught with certain evidence – solid truth.
For Ployhar, that solid truth is the Bible and she advises that any path with doesn't reconcile with the Bible should be abandoned.
Certainly, as a resident of the United States, she has the right to believe that. However, she doesn't have the right to speak for the exchange student, who is herself a blogger.
The cheerful Indonesian teenager dwelling in the Ployhar domicile isn't attending the Faribault schools, but rather catches a bus for the Kenyon-Wanamingo schools. In Joyful is always there when I try :D, she writes about learning from the local school, the family and from the Ployhar's church community.
And while English is her second language and some of her reflections are a bit difficult to parse, the intensely happy young woman seems to be more of a critical thinker than her host mother gives her credit for, however little the student employs Ployhar's single standard of "Biblical truth" for assessing everything.
. . .Challenge is always there whenever you decide to leave your comfort zone. I enjoyed facing the challenge during my stay. Because I believe challenge gives me the joy when I had passed it.
During my stay, I go to Kenyon-Wanamingo High School. It is interesting because my host family do homeschool. It means they do not go to the same public school that I go to. I learned the system of the homeschool that my host family does, basically they do more exploration about their school materials and they have more flexible time. . . .
One thing I like about living in the diversity is when there is nobody even bothers with what you decide on. I enjoyed being in the church community that my host family goes to. I found such a good friendship in the youth group. I do not mind to learn what they believe in and I felt excited to share about what I believe. From that I know we all have the commonality. It was also such a joyful for me to join the church retreat for three days in the middle of fall, in which we all found the fellowship among the youth in that church. It was such an interesting thing when my friends in that retreat saw me doing my worship praying. They thought it was something strange, but I told them I was doing my pray. It just the way thing happened when people do not really familiar with a thing. So, it is important to share what people have not understood about.
Photo: Peggy Ployhar and her family, including the Indonesian exchange student. From the Ployhar campaign website.
As we return to another episode of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most watched telenovela, now in its extended summer primary season, we find our hero, Mike Parry, the Belle of Waseca County, being savagely attacked by Christian conservative Republican Allen Quist for an alleged indifference over Medicaid fraud.
In an email sent to supporters, Quist claims Parry told members of the First District Republican's Central Committee earlier this month, "There is no fraud." He said that Parry failed in his duties as chairman of the Senate Government Innovation and Veterans Committee by not calling a hearing after federal investigations into potential Medicaid fraud in the state were launched. . . .
Parry's principle paladin points a finger back at Quist:
Parry campaign spokesman Ben Golnik said Quist is misrepresenting what Parry said and it "is outrageous" to suggest the senator from Waseca does not believe there is fraud in the state's Medicaid system.
While low-information voters in the GOP base may think that the two are arguing over which contender has the potential to be meanest to poor people who so don't deserve heath care because they are poor and obviously scamming someone, the "fraud" has to do with overpayments by the state to HMOs. Carlson explains:
Minnesota's program came to Grassley's attention after the state announced UCare was donating $30 million to the state. The federal government argued it was a reimbursement for Medicaid overpayments and that it should get half of the money. The state ended up agreeing to send half of the money to the federal government.
Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson has said the problems with the state's Medicaid program stem from contracts with HMOs that were signed during Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration.
Golnik tells Carlson that the overpayments aren't an indication of fraud, but Parry so too believes there is fraud in the system. There's more over at the PB; go read the whole story.
Earlier this year, the DFL tracker taped Allen Quist's press conferences about the allegations, posting the eight Youtube episode online. Mike Parry claims that the DFL only tracks him, and that this is an indication that the Democrats fear the Emo Senator. Fiddle-dee-dee!
Stay tuned for future episodes.
Image: Mike Parry, the Emo Senator, photoshopped by Tild.
The Faribault County Register reports that Representative Bob Gunther told Blue Earth residents gathered at a Town Hall that "very possible scenario has been studied" about solving the logistical problems posed by an amendment to the Minnesota state constitution requiring voters to have a state-issued photo ID with their current address on it.
Several persons voiced concern over the new proposal to require photo ID cards to vote. The legislators said the decision will be made in November by the voters themselves, and would be a constitutional amendment. . . .
Local citizens had plenty of questions about how persons without driver's licenses will be able to get a photo ID card.
Gunther and Rosen say the voting cards would be available at courthouses across the state.
"Every possible scenario has been studied," Gunther says. "We will make this work."
Representative Gunther must have been burning the midnight oil in a fortress of solititude somewhat, since that assertion will be news to the rest of the Minnesota legislature, including those members who voted to put the amendment on this fall's ballot.
Because constitutional amendments are broadly worded, GOP Sen. Scott Newman’s bill leaves the details of implementing Voter ID for later. He reiterated that both the fiscal impact and the policy provisions of a Voter ID bill would have to be decided by next year’s Legislature.
If voters approve the measure in November, lawmakers next session would have to figure out how such a system would work and pass a separate law. . . .
Newman pushed off discussion of cost until 2013 because of provisions in his bill that require lawmakers to later iron out the specifics of the proposal.
“We don’t really have any solid fiscal note, and it is speculation,” Senate Finance Chairwoman Claire Robling said before the amendment passed onto the Senate Rules and Administration Committee last week.
The amendment, which polls show highly favored by the public, would require voters to show a photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Despite highly publicized campaigns against Voter ID, many opponents seem resigned to the likelihood that it will pass.
But even if it does, it would be up to the next Legislature to fill in the statutory blanks of how the system would work, since the wording of the bite-size amendment speaks only in generalities.
. . .[Mary] Kiffmeyer, a former secretary of state, called the amendment “very self-executing,” meaning that much of it would operate even without enacting language. So voters would still be required to present “valid government-issued photographic identification” at the polls.
But there’s no clarity on how that system would work or what the future holds.
Kiffmeyer is the chief author of the bill in the House.
What was Gunther trying to say when he answered legitimate questions from his constituents? And is he trying for the ACLU's $1000 reward for evidence of voter impersonation when he talks about voter fraud in Fairmont in the 2010 election?
The presence of Guidera at the 2010 meeting creates a "discrepancy" between ALEC statements that News Corp., which owns Fox News Network, joined the corporate front group in 2012, Wilce reports.
“At times a bill is seen as the easy solution to a tough problem, yet that bill may create even more problems. Todd (Kruse) and his team cut through the puffery to reach the core issues with clear, conservative policy solutions,” said Bill Guidera of News Corp, an ALEC member based in Minnesota.
ALEC is currently developing a Southeast Regional Field Team with the experienced leadership of ALEC board member, Rep. Earl Ehrhart of Georgia, and there will eventually be a total of seven regions building upon the success of the Central Region.
ALEC members are encouraged to share their ideas as ALEC develops an expansion plan that is synchronized with our members’ legislative priorities.
Todd A. Kruse is ALEC’s Senior Director of Regional Field Teams. He is based in Minnesota and can be reached at 612-423-5621 or [email protected].
By working with ALEC State Chairs, the Regional Field Team helps to advance Jeffersonian principles and raise awareness of ALEC model legislation at the grassroots level in legislators’ own backyards. “The Field Team is ALEC’s personal lifeline of information, contacts, experience and assistance provided to us right where we need it – at our door,” said Missouri Rep. Jane Cunningham.
The Regional Field Teams appear to have been abandoned by ALEC after a change in its national office. Kruse does not appear to work for ALEC now (the connection is omitted from his online biography), although he remains active in Minnesota's conservative community.
On a friend's Facebook post of the MinnPost article, retiring state senator and champion of sanity Linda Higgins reminded readers of SF 2117, which passed out of Mike Parry's State Government Innovation and Veterans committee.
Not to be left behind in this rapture or the struggle for endorsement over Quist, Mike Parry is also a co-sponsor of the legislation that establishes a "Legislative Commission on United Nations Agenda 21."
Oh good.
David Thompson and Al DeKruif are the other sponsors, while my dear friend Mary Franson is the chief author in the Minnesota House, with Sondra Erickson getting her back on HF2558.
A pamphlet at the state convention the first shot? Not likely.
Update: On Facebook, Senator Linda Higgins (DFL-Minneapolis) has noted SF2117, which passed out on Quist congressional rival Mike Parry's committee. SF2117, authored by David Brown, established the Legislative Commission on United Nations Agenda 21 Establishment. Now we're really not sure why Harris thinks the pamphlet was the first shot, since the convention took place after the session closed. See Missing in Minnpost Part II: Parry is co-sponsor of SF2117, establishing the Legislative Commission on United Nations Agenda 21 for more. end update.
Southern Minnesotans collectively are baffled as to how intelligent Twin Citians miss so much of the richness of Allen Quist's intellectual endeavors. Next to frac sand, hogs or field corn, it's one of our richest raw commodities, but it takes national attention to one of his periodic bids for office for the rest of the state to appreciate this. Again.
Were they devoted Quisters (sort of like birders, except we keep life lists for Allen and his Quistian followers), things like the menace of Agenda 21 would come as no surprise. Opening up the worldview of the Quistians is as rewarding as getting permitted for a frac sand mine, though hardly as lucrative.
The pamphlet may be the first shot across the bow in Minnesota on behalf of a movement sweeping the country. Anti-Agenda 21 and anti- sustainability, it has its roots in the Tea Party and other libertarian groups who oppose any kind of smart growth, urban planning, density, mass transit and environmental regulation.
Well, if it's the first time she saw it, it must be the first shot, given that Harris has a lot of credentials valued by Minnpost, including experience as an investigative reporter, a masters degree and institutional underwriting for her column at Minnpost by not only the McKnight Foundation but the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative as well.
Sadly no. This isn't the first shot by nearly a decade.
Allen Quist, who led the balloting at the end of the epic 23-round Thrilla in Vanilla at the Republican CD1 convention at the historic Kato Ballroom, lately has been touring Minnesota's Tea Party circuit for months, warning about the terrors of Agenda 21, as well as lecturing about it from the bully pulpit of his congressional campaign website, after being one of the founding fathers of the Blue Helmet Fear Club, Agenda 21 Chapter.
Warnings about Agenda 21 have been standard fare among Minnesota's Tea Party gatherings, have been for months.
For instance: somehow Harris's keen investigative research skills missed this presentation to the North Metro Tea Party's October2011 monthly meeting:
And this wasn't Quist's first Agenda 21 talk to a Minnesota Tea Party gathering. Back on July 11, 2011, the SW Metro Tea Party hosted Quist's presentation (Facebook notice here and SW Metro Tea Party page here).
But despite this recent froth of anti-Agenda 21 meetings by major Tea Party chapters in Minnesota, Bluestem supposes that the Smart People in the Twin Cities will follow Harris's leading and take her narrative of wondering who is behind the obscure New World Order conspiracists at KeepMNFree.
This site appears to have begun posting about Agenda 21 in Srring 2012., but the Great Morrow forbid that information that doesn't support an writer's angle in presenting a new shiny object be considered--and so better for a writer to take up an obscure group than to ask North Star Tea Party Patriot spokester Walter Hudson, who probably wouldn't be shy about answering Harris's questions.
And the Tea Party meetings reflect a long-term concern about Agenda 21 on the North Star State's rightwing. Quist's been campaigning on Agenda 21 for months--and talking about it for years with his Minnesota friends.
President Obama is supporting a UN arms treaty that could bring international gun control to the United States and slap America’s gun owners with severe restrictions. This treaty is part of the Agenda 21 master plan which requires that international gun control be applied to all countries. . . .
Quist is a nationally recognized author and speaker on numerous topics including the federal No Child Left Behind law, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the myth of global warming, Agenda 21, integrated math, and the controversial International Baccalaureate curriculum.
If you choose freedom, then there is a counter to Agenda 21 and its Sustainable Development program. It’s called Freedom 21, and it’s quickly growing into a “freedom movement.” Freedom 21 is not an organization. It is a loose coalition of groups and individuals who believe that our nation’s Founding Fathers had it right when they established this nation as one with tightly controlled reins on government. The Founding Fathers believed that all individuals were born with their rights of individual liberty, and that government’s job is to protect those rights as individuals pursue their own dreams and goals. That’s the basis for the Freedom 21 agenda.
Freedom 21 was organized nine years ago by Henry Lamb (Environmental Conservation Organization), Tom DeWeese (American Policy Center), Craig Rucker and David Rothbard (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow), and representatives of Eagle Forum. Today, this group is joined by The Chicago-based Heartland Institute, Edwatch of Minnesota, Freedom Advocates from Santa Cruz, California, Sovereignty International, Stewards of the Range, OKSAFE of Oklahoma, and the American land Foundation, based in Texas.
But the record goes even farther back before Quist is explicitly named--but Edwatch, the group Julie and Allen Quist helped found, is there from the get-go on nationwide anti-Agenda 21 activism. The Quists and EdWatch were there at the beginning on uberconservative organizing against Agenda 21, as was Bachmann.
MoJo's Tim Murphy took a look in 2011 at the connection between Freedom 21, EdWatch and Michele Bachmann's anti-sustainability agenda. Murphy wrote:
Bachmann's penchant for asking conspiratorial questions didn't go unnoticed by her colleagues. Her Democratic opponents in the state senate came up with a nickname for Bachmann and her followers: "Black Helicopter Republicans"—a nod to fringe types who believe the United Nations is running covert missions in their backyards.
In the state Senate, Bachmann took up another favorite issue of Agenda 21 opponents—mass transit, which they believe will prompt the displacement of citizens into confined areas and the elimination of privately owned automobiles.
As the Minnesota Independent reported, Bachmann bashed "impractical and expensive" public transit in her campaign literature and called light rail a "black hole" for funding. She voted to cut off funding to a commuter rail project connecting St. Cloud to the Twin Cities—a line that cut through the heart of her future congressional district—and cosponsored a bill to abolish the regional rail authority.
Perhaps Harris and her sources--and MinnPost's editors--haven't noticed, but the Bachmann-Quist wing of Minnesota have been fighting their fears of an Agenda 21 planet for nearly a decade in Minnesota. Maybe Harris needs to get out to more Republican and Tea Party events--or Nexis--or state senate video archives--more often if she wants to refrain from shooting blanks about the first shot in Minnesota's Agenda 21 skirmishes.
Update: At least one GOP-endorsed candidate for the Minnesota House has connected Agenda 21 with the Met Council. Given the voter index, it's unlikely he'll win, but it doesn't support that notion that there's no anti-Agenda21 chatter out there.
Images: Allen Quist, by Ken Avidor (above); the North Star Tea Party Patriots' January Agenda21 program.
Perhaps he hasn't heard what breathing in all that frac sand dust will do to a body; he certainly seems to have missed the point of the raft of interim ordinances passed by counties, townships and cities in Southeastern Minnesota: that the scale of frac sand mining makes it unlike the friendly neighborhood gravel pits where so many of us learned to rock hunt, shoot or drink beer.
Activists had been telling Bluestem that they hoped Governor Dayton might impose a statewide moratorium while we sort out new rules to deal with the coming tsunami of frac sand mining operations. The Stine AP interview (MPR version) dashes those hopes:
Stine said he sees only a limited role for the MPCA in an emerging mining issue — frac sand mining in southeastern Minnesota. It's been dealt with primarily as a local issue so far, and Stine said he doesn't envision that changing.
He said the silica sand sought by oil and gas companies that use it for hydraulic fracturing in other states is similar to sand and gravel that have long been mined in Minnesota, and has always been regulated locally. He said the MPCA and health department are providing advice to local governments that seek it.
Is that arrangement working? It seems just peachy for the large corporations that want to open dozens of new large operations, but not such a boon to small towns. In March, Paul Tosto reported in an MPR News Primer [on] Frac sand mining:
Where do we stand in Minnesota and Wisconsin?
Right now, we're in a bit of a standoff. Despite the money to be made and the clamor of businesses to open new mines, many officials in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin are starting to pull back the reins as they rethink the social and environmental costs.
Wabasha, Goodhue and Winona counties in Minnesota and Pepin and Eau Claire counties in Wisconsin have already adopted moratoriums on new mining operations, although Eau Claire County's is for just six months, the Associated Press writes. The Winona County moratorium is the shortest of all, expiring on May 1. The cities of Red Wing, Lake City, Hay Creek and Florence also have passed moratoriums.
Houston and Filmore counties recently agreed to a one-year ban on new mines. City of Winona officials used an emergency meeting in mid-March to pass a one year moratorium on any new or expanded silica sand mining operations within city limits.
By comparison officials Wisconsin's Trempealeau County have not seriously considered stopping the growth of the frac sand mining, the La Crosse Tribune reports.
Officials say they want more time to study frac sand mining. But state lawmakers, concerned about fairness for companies and landowners, have filled bills in the Minnesota House and Senate that would check the power of local officials to limit moratoriums.
If there's a middle ground in the frac sand mining debate, it has yet to be discovered.
The proposed legislation would have narrowed the time frame for local governments to pass interim ordinances (moratorium) that give them time to write rules for development. The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld the rights of townships and local government to set rules; they cannot, however, stop projects on a whim.
The governor's office never publicly signaled how Dayton would react if the legislation passed in both houses and reached his desk. It would be quite the coup for the frac sand mining industry next session if the legislation makes it to Dayton's desk and approval. Then the MPCA can leave the matter to local government, while the state takes away any real power it would have had to reduce the impact of this juggernaut or stop reckless projects.
(Of course, those living in Southern Minnesota knew about this nightmare, but like common knowledge about Allen Quist, it's not real for our progressive overlords in the Metro until some big national venue tells them to be outraged. We also do not envy their dilemma as they struggle to put aside environmental concerns in order to support the Dayton administration's pro-corporate bent on this one.) Nor does the piece get into the more recent discussion of the fracking industry's economic bubble.
But Bluestem digresses.
Cantarow's excellent piece on frac sand mining in Wisconsin--also run in the Nation, Salon, and Huffington Post--should be an eye-opener for those who haven't been paying attention; Bluestem doesn't expect Stine to open his eyes, even if he does manage to pull his head out of the ever-growing sand piles.
It's impossible to grasp the scope of the devastation from the road, but aerial videos and photographs reveal vast, bleak sandy wastelands punctuated with waste ponds and industrial installations where Wisconsin hills once stood.
When corporations apply to counties for mining permits, they must file "reclamation" plans. But Larry Schneider, a retired metallurgist and industrial consultant with a specialized knowledge of mining, calls the reclamation process "an absolute farce."
Reclamation projects by mining corporations since the 1970s may have made mined areas "look a little less than an absolute wasteland," he observes. "But did they reintroduce the biodiversity? Did they reintroduce the beauty and the ecology? No."
Studies bear out his verdict. "Every year," wrote Mrinal Ghose in the Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, "large areas are continually becoming unfertile in spite of efforts to grow vegetation on the degraded mined land."
A spill at a sand mining facility in Wisconsin has dumped an unknown amount of sand and other sediment into the St. Croix River and wetlands near the Minnesota border, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources confirmed Thursday.
The sand-laden water may have harmed aquatic life, but DNR officials said it's too soon to know the extent of the damage. They plan to conduct a full investigation with the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. National Park Service, and Burnett County Conservation officials.
"I'm sure there were things living there that are going to have difficulty living there now that they're covered with sand," said Tom Woletz, a senior manager at the Wisconsin DNR who specializes in sand mining and other industries related to hydraulic fracking.
To paraphrase an old saying: Frac sand water isn't healthy for children and other living things, regardless of how invigorating legal "persons" like corporations might find it to be for their bottom lines.
There's more:
The rapid growth has left state and local officials scrambling to oversee the industry. Two years ago, Wisconsin had five frac sand mines and five processing facilities. Now it has 63 mines and 36 processing facilities, according to current DNR figures.
County officials are responsible for approving new mine sites, but they are not required to regularly inspect the facilities, said Burnett County Conservationist Dave Ferris.
"We go out on an occasional basis," Ferris said. "We did not have any particular inspection regime in our permit." . . .
Jill Medland, environmental coordinator at the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, said the incident shows the danger of allowing a sand mining facility so close to a pristine waterway.
"It seems that there's such a demand for frac sand that things are getting permitted quickly without full environmental review, and then things happen that should or could have been avoided," she said.
There have been other spills in Wisconsin over the last year. Yeah, not asking for any state standard has worked out so well for Scott Walker's Wisconsin.
Will this sort of thing be duplicated in Mark Dayton's Minnesota? The attempt to gut the ability of local governments to slow down the process while writing land use policy is likely to come back in the next session.
Between redistricting and retirements, the next legislature will be considerable different than the one that's kept us entertained for the last two years. The DFL caucuses are gunning to regain control. It's not too much for progressive Minnesotans to ask candidates from all parties where they stand on local control, especially in the light of runaway corporate frac sand mining.
If the DFL wants to market itself as a contrast to Walker's Wisconsin, perhaps it might pick an environment standard or two or three that will do so, rather than endorse an economic race to the bottom of the sand pits proposed for Greater Minnesota.
Photos and Video of frac sand mining operations in Scott Walker's Wisconsin, by Jim Tittle. Used with permission.
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.
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.
Over the last few months, Bluestem's editor has been helping out a grassroots citizens group in Western Minnesota. The experience has left us deeply appreciative of the area's signature landscape of granite outcrops and prairie waters, but even more impressed by the need for good government and local control.
A Facebook posting by state representative Rick Hansen suggests a great opportunity for public service for those who appreciate both: running for supervisor of their local Soil and Water Conservation District. Hansen himself started his political career as a soil and water conservation district supervisor.
I didn't know Hansen yet in those days, but I remember how excited friends who had helped with his campaign were the November he was elected. His trademark expertise on natural resource conservation was as valued then as now in the House. Hansen holds degrees in biology and soil management. Supervisors don't need technical degrees, however.
This isn't a high-profile office, but a chance for genuine public service helping provide soil and water conservation services to owners of private lands while developing policy and long-term conservation plans. A number of civic-minded friends across the state serve on their county soil and water boards; the positions are unpaid but they do get compensation for attending meetings and expenses.
From a press release Hansen posted:
SWCD supervisor positions are filled through general elections on November 6. Individuals who wish to be on the ballot in 2012 must file for the election between May 22 and June 5.
SWCDs are local units of government that manage and direct natural resource management programs at the local level. Minnesota’s 90 SWCDs cover the entire state and generally follow county lines. Districts work with landowners in both rural and urban settings to carry out programs for the conservation, use, and development of soil, water, and related resources. Managing private lands, whether agriculture, forest, lakes, or urban, is key to Minnesota's quality of life.
“Districts fill the crucial niche of providing soil and water conservation services to owners of private lands,” said Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation District President Dr. Kathryn Kelly. “Serving as a SWCD board supervisor is very rewarding. It is an opportunity for locally elected citizens to develop policy and long-term conservation plans for their district.”
Interested citizens should file a Minnesota Affidavit of Candidacy (available from the county auditor), along with a $20 filing fee. All candidates for state and local offices must state on the Affidavit of Candidacy that they are eligible voters, will be at least 21 years of age when assuming office, and will have been residents of their nominating district for at least 30 days before the general election. Supervisor candidates must live in and file from a nominating district. Candidates are elected at-large on the ballot*. SWCD Supervisors are not paid a salary; however, they do receive compensation for attending meetings and are reimbursed for expenses.
More information on the filing process can be obtained at the Minnesota Secretary of State web site, www.sos.state.mn.us. Persons interested in finding out what nominating district they live in and which supervisor positions are open for election should contact their local Soil and Water Conservation District office. A directory of SWCDs is located at http://www.bwsr.state.mn.us/directories/SWCD_Dir.pdf and a list of SWCD web sites is available at www.maswcd.org/SWCDs_On_The_Web/swcds_on_the_web.htm.
*except for Washington Conservation District in the Twin Cities, where candidates are elected by each individual nomination district within the county.
Think about it, but not for too long. Filing closes on June 5.
In this Morning Hot Dish E-Newsletter, this item is presented as "Morning Dish":
Tracker badge
It seems in 2012 political trackers are the new black. Whereas once candidates complained about the trackers -- young operatives hired by political opposition to record a candidate’s every move -- they are now bragging about them. First District Republican congressional candidate Mike Parry boasted at his endorsing convention that Democrats feared him so much he was assigned a tracker. (Despite that, the convention deadlocked and Parry will face a primary with Allen Quist.) And Monday, Eighth District Democratic congressional candidate Rick Nolan told his supporters about his tracker: “He’s a young guy named Brady, and you’ll see him pretty much wherever you see us, recording speeches, taking pictures and making notes,” he said in a fundraising plea.
Yes, repeating a claim without scrutiny is Rachel's new black. (Since the Morning Hot Dish carries her byline, Bluestem will assume she concocted this vacuous cleverness).
Parry claimed that the DFL only assigned a tracker to him but not to Quist. The fact? The tracker was assigned to both of them.
But apparently newspaper reporters in the age of twitter won't let facts get in the way of their own stylish cleverness.
Unlike the DFL, Bluestem didn't assign a tracker to Quist and Parry--all we needed was Tild and Avidor--as we consider them both equally mockable as well as unelectable to Congress.
LeftMN, the new package for Cucking Stool, is a new blog run, by its own description, by four urban white guys. Without smart urban guys like this, bumpkins could never do get any DFLers elected.
What you can see when looking at those numbers is that the only time Democrats do well in the district is when that Democrat is named Kory Kath.
Left out of Petrangelo's equation? Tim Walz's wins in 2008 and 2010 in House District 26A. And something else.
But Petranglelo has a formula that transcends the facts, and that formula allows him to write "the only time Democrats do well in the district is when that Democrat is named Kory Kath."
After all, being able to make analysis with confidence is far more important:
This means that its [sic] hard to know if a district is voting the way it is because of its partisan lean, or because of candidate quality. Or even both. And because the quality of candidates will be different in every legislative race in the state, you can’t compare those districts to one another based on past legislator performance, because you don’t know if the votes were for the candidate or the party.
To be clear, you still have these issues with candidate quality in statewide and nationwide races, but the difference is that every person in the state is given the chance to vote on those candidate options.
That means that to the degree candidate quality is skewing the numbers, that skew should effect all districts about equally. This is why Cook PVI uses Presidential numbers to measure the partisan nature of congressional seats instead of the results of the actual congressional elections.
In a partisan metric such as PVI, you want to control for candidate quality as a variable and using numbers from the legislative races themselves doesn’t do this, instead, it amplifies the problem.
To answer NorthernMNer’s question then, you want to use numbers from races that everyone in the state had a chance to vote on.
Even under this formula, Petroangelo isn't looking at a 2006 statewide race in which a DFL candidate trounced her Republican opponent in the counties that make up the district. The last time Bluestem checked, Amy Klobuchar wasn't named Kory Kath.
So Walz and Klobuchar are winning Democrats in Kath's district who aren't named Kath, but because Petroangelo is so enamored of his formula, and Walz's election isn't part of his cherished metric, he'll not even use Walz's name, going so far as to claim no other Democrat wins in the district. Not even Klobuchar, who ran a statewide race.
That's awesome writing and analysis. Without smart urban guys like this, rural Minnesotans would be totally lost and never able to elect Democrats.
Photo: Tony Petrangelo, so much more brillant than you.
As we return to the latest epsiode of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most watched telenovela, the War of the Letters returns, with well-known Owatonna religious authority and letter writer Bob Nesbit rising to Allen Quist's defense.
Betty Quiring’s letter, “Quist displayed poor behavior,” on May 2, 2012, was extremely misguided and incorrect. Her analysis of the two Republican candidates for endorsement was totally distorted compared to what really took place.
I also was a Steele County delegate to that 1st District convention in Mankato back on April 21 and barely survived the 23-ballot endorsing marathon.
Mike Parry fits the definition of a politician perfectly. He’s loud, thinks the world of himself and proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was the bully of the convention — not Quist. The big difference between the two candidates is that Quist is a statesman while Parry is just another politician, of which we already have way too many of both in St. Paul and Washington.
Allen Quist has forgotten more about Constitutional governing than Mike Parry will ever hope to learn. Those, like Parry, who yell and shout others down to try to impress the voters usually don’t know what they are talking about. The same goes for neophyte delegate Betty Quiring. And, as the old saying goes, “Birds of a feather, flock together.”
As Quiring's letter was published in paper's across the district, we're likely to see Nesbit's epistle elsewhere as well.
In another development, more Twin Citiesbloggers have begun to notice the Mother Jones piece on Quist, a week after it was published. It's curious that so much progressive love is now being lathered on the retired professor and Norseland farmer. Using the standard that Parry applied to himself--attention from the left and the companionship of a DFL tracker--like this one--the casual reader might wonder if Quist is the frontrunner in the primary.
Stay tuned.
Image: Mike Parry, the Belle of Waseca County, in his new bonnet.
Minnesota's social media environment was deeply enriched yesterday by a bunch of guys--many on the left and one on the right--circling around and praising each other's daisies.
Though it's only May, and Kurt Bills' chance of getting elected to the United States' Senate is about as likely of those enjoyed by Francisco Franco (in other news, he's still dead), the smartest guys on the Internet have decided that comparing Ron Paul, Bills' ally and perpetual Presidential candidate from Texas; Bills, a one termer from Rosemount; and, Keith Downey, an aspiring state senator in the burbs, to the worst genocidal monsters of the twentieth century was felicitous rhetoric.
Did someone convene a focus group in France Avenue in which this trope emerged as winning language for DFL candidates?
On Facebook and other social media, Bluestem found male acquaintances passing around John Hugh Gilmore's What I Saw At The Hemp & Raw Milk Revolution with all the satisfaction of 1970s-era boys who had just discovered Hustler magazine. Oh, the fine pleasures within that prose.
But then, Gilmore is not a recently acquired shared pleasure of liberal men--last summer when he was facing charges stemming from berating Muslim women on the streets in downtown Minneapolis, several members of the same boys' club privately urged both Bluestem and Phoenix Woman of FireDogLake not to write about the escapade by their dear friend from twitter. Never mind the women, complete strangers he scolded on the street for their religion and manner of dress. Gilmore was acquitted, but video footage of his performance on the street reveals behavior no progressive ought defend.
David Duke admirer Ron Paul addressed the convention in the afternoon on Friday. MC walked out. It wasn't very brave, just honest. It wasn't like hiding Anne Frank although if Duke and Paul had their way, MC's carriage house would be full up. Paul called for legalizing hemp and raw milk to much applause. How so called party leadership could remain on the dais while he spoke is a mystery. When they look in the mirror they must not see anything.
If Ron Paul "had his way," there'd be second Holocaust? Really? Overwrought much, John?
But it's not so much Gilmore's intoxicating prose that is troubling, as its embrace by progressives. What's up with this? Those who are given to lecturing others (like Bluestem) about framing, messaging, and winning words like this sort of thing?
But the monstrous framing of the sorry state of the Republican Party of Minnesota isn't confined to the blogger who lost party office because of an influx of Ron Paul supporters in his district.
One of the lead authors for LeftMN, the shining new box into which the Cucking Stool has been placed, cranked up his ire against Keith Downey and newly-endorsed Kurt Bills. In Keith the Smartest Guy in the Room I, a post that contrasts Republican state senate candidate Keith Downey with DFLer Melisa Franzen, one of the smartest urban white guys on the blogosphere (LeftMN's admirers tell us so) works up a head of steam, concluding:
Downey is the kind of guy who would have been right up front with the all the British evangelicals arguing against sending food to Ireland during the famine, and also arguing against the repeal of the Corn Laws, because the potato blight was God’s way of teaching the Irish to become self-sufficient . Better to let a million people die, says Kurt, than abandon moral principle!
Or kill and starve five million, as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia in its longing to return to the year zero.
We’ll be better off in the long run.
We’ll explore the depth of the craziness of the economic and monetary fantasy world of Keith Downy and his fellow traveler Kurt Bills in future posts.
Yes, boys and girls, Keith Downey and Kurt Bills are the sort of people who will kill and starve five million people, just like Pol Pot. (We might be persuaded that they embrace as certain sort of mild post-modern souperism, on the other hand).
Surely, this is the sort of rhetoric that will help Melisa Franzen win a senate seat in Edina. Perhaps Bakk's Senate Caucus volunteers will adopt it for doorknocks. That will work.
No doubt Amy Klobuchar's campaign staff have grown tired of the bland safety they enjoy and will spend her banked millions on that one.
Bluestem's editor agrees to drop her objections to hyperbolic comparisons if it means she won't have to endure any more insufferable lectures about framing, message discipline, or George Lakoff from urban progressives white guys. Do we have a deal? We'll even let you compare Mary Franson to Josef Stalin.
Photo: Pol Pot and a pal, or Kurt Bills and Keith Downey. Whatever.
As we return to the latest episode of Emo Senator, we find that our hero, Emo Senator Mike Parry, has put on his best bonnet and joined the convention and campaign circuit, with his rival, Allen Quist, doing the same.
Just before hitting the road, however, the Belle of Waseca County sent out tweets and a Facebook page announcing his "legislative leadership team," because voters so need to be reminded of Emo Senator state shutdown, floor session and committee hearing episodes.
Minority Leader Senator Bakk has said the session was one for the record books, and a fact check by MPR agreed that Bakk claim gets history right:
Before leaving the Capitol for the year, Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL- Cook, bemoaned what he called the "biggest do-nothing legislative session in our state's history."
"We're going to use 250 calendar days," Bakk said. "That, members, is the second longest calendar days since statehood. We're going to pass, assuming this bill gets signed and the Revisor's bill gets signed, about 245 bills. Members, that's the fewest number of bills that has been signed into law since 1869."
Bakk's claim is basically correct. . . .
Bakk is also correct that 245 bills became law this session. That's the fewest since 1869, when the same number of new laws were put on the books.
One isn't quite sure what Parry's legislative leadership team accomplished in the legislature, but the response on the campaign website--which allows comments--has been enthusiastic:
Reader Comments (4)
Vote for Walz! Vote for Walz! Vote for Walz! Vote for Walz! Vote for Walz! Vote for Walz!
Emo Senator fans will be happy to learn that their are no hard feelings on Mr. Brodkorb's part. Brodkorb resigned as Parry's volunteer campaign manager after being fired by the State Senate the week that Amy Koch stepped down as Majority Leader. Following her retirement as Majority Leader, word broke that her was forced to vacate the office because of an inappropriate relationship with a male staffer.
The City Pages was first to address rumors that Brodkorb was the staffer, and Brodkorb's lawyer later revealed the relationship as his legal wrangling over his dismissal from the senate continued.
I had a good opportunity to give some background on International Baccalaureate at the State Convention yesterday. It's an UN education program that exists to create "world citizens," and officially endorses the UN Declaration of Human Rights where there are no inalienable rights of life, liberty and property. The convention reaffirmed its opposition to IB in the platform.
And the Convention agreed with him.
Both candidates mentioned being in parades across the district, two of which celebrated Norwegian Constitution Day, or Syttende Mai, so perhaps there's something to it.
Image: Emo Senator Mike Parry, by Tild (above); Allen Quist, by Ken Avidor.
Update! Emo Senator's handlers must read Bluestem, because they have deleted the "Micheal Brodkorb" remark. However, so that our credibility is maintained, we did clip a screenshot and present it below. Also removed: the note about Walz's 2010 support from former US Senator Dave Durenbergy (R) and former Governor Arne Carlson (R). This is less egregious, as neither has endorsed in 2012.
Meanwhile, other charming comments are coming, including this gem:
Glad to see the Honorable Amy Koch in your list of "advisors". Will she help your campaign remember the importance of marriage?
A Minnesota man with suspected ties to white supremacist groups planned to attack the Mexican consulate in St. Paul, believing it would stir debate on immigration amnesty issues ahead of the 2012 presidential election, according to a federal affidavit obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Joseph Benjamin Thomas also told an undercover FBI agent he considered himself a "domestic terrorist" instead of an American and would risk his life for the white supremacist movement in the event of a "race war," the FBI affidavit said.
The document, recently unsealed in federal court, provides new details about the investigation into Thomas' alleged plan. He was indicted in April on drug charges, though authorities had been watching him and another man since 2010 as part of a domestic terrorism probe.
That one guy from the Nazi rally! He's always there, and he'll tell you that he's carrying weapons. At the raucous Austin rally last month, local police identified him as Joseph Benjamin Thomas, 38, of Mendota Heights. After trying to join the Nazi rally but being detained when a Mower County Deputy noticed he was wearing body armor and carrying a knife, he was questioned and stated he also had an expandable baton and a stun gun, according to the police report. He was disarmed but allowed to pick up the weapons later. At Saturday's rally at the Capitol, he appeared to pull some kind of weapon in the scuffle after another rally attendee knocked a protester off his bike. (Photo: Thomas at the State Capitol on Saturday (left) and at neo-Nazi rally in Austin, MN on October 17 (right).
In addition to the planned bombing of the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul, Forliti notes other focuses of Thomas's interest, as well as his engagement with Sam Johnson, who led small neo-nazi rallies in Southern Minnesota in 2009 and 2010:
n addition to the plot against the consulate, the FBI alleges, Thomas had collected license plate numbers of people with Barack Obama bumper stickers and had asked an associate to volunteer at a left-leaning bookstore to obtain customers' addresses.
The affidavit alleges that Thomas and another man arrested in April, 31-year-old Samuel James Johnson, were trying to form a supremacist group with a militant wing. . . .
The affidavit alleged Thomas wanted to carry out the attack on May 1, a day used in recent years by activists in the U.S. to hold rallies for immigrant rights. But he later said the attack couldn't happen that day, blaming personal reasons and noting more police were in the area, the affidavit said. . . .
Thomas also suggested placing hoax explosive devices along the May Day parade route in the Twin Cities, saying he had video of prior parades so he could identify parade participants.
Marchers told me that they knew a neo-Nazi named Sam Johnson was following the march video taping it. I fell back and went up to him and asked him if he was with the National Socialist Movement, but he denied it. But I've since Googled up his photograph and I've positively identified the man as Sam Johnson. He's repeatedly posted on white supremacy websites, gone before the Albert Lea City Council demanding they do something about immigration reform, and he's called a rally in his home town in a month too. I imagine we'll soon see his video of today's march on his NSM website. I noticed, he never engaged the crowd but always hung back 50 yards or more. Why--he was afraid of them. Craig Stellmacher
Afraid? Or do we learn in hindsight that Johnson was capturing the videotape footage that Thomas mentioned to the undercover FBI agent? Johnson and his videocamera turn up at the 8:44 point in the Uptake/Stellmacher video below:
Bluestem try to get a copy of the affidavit to learn more about what these men had planned and who they identified via parades, licences and bookstore patronage. Stay tuned.
Today's Morning Take provided an assessment of this weekend's Republican state convention endorsement contest for the United States Senate seat now held by Amy Klobuchar:
According to numerous sources, Rep. Kurt Bills has a lead in delegates going into the convention. The surprise is that most people predict that fmr. state Rep. Dan Severson is in second, and war veteran Pete Hegseth is in third. The estimated percentages compiled from GOP insiders are 35-38 Bills, 30- 32 Severson, 15-20 Hegseth and 15 uncommitted. ENDORSEMENT: One possibility like 2002, is a long drawn out endorsement fight. The difference is that unlike 2002 when fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty battled businessman Brian Sullivan, is that most GOPers don’t think they can defeat Klobuchar. The Governor’s seat was open in 2002. WATCH: If Hegseth is knocked out early, he is more likely to consider a primary run, if he hangs on for a few hours of balloting, he may try to block an endorsement so that he can go to a primary.
Already, the race is taking on Parry-Quist levels of nastiness on twitter.
But another matter entirely makes Bluestem laugh: a post of a Hegseth email at Residual Forces under the headline: Actual Momentum. A name(emphasis added) made familiar in the 2008 CD1 congressional race reappears:
Elected officials and Party leaders
Sen. Gretchen Hoffman
Rep. Larry Howes
Randy Gilbert
Bev Aplikowski (CD 4 Chair, former)
Mark Westpfahl (CD 2 Chair)
Diane Johnson (CD8 Vice Chair)
Brian Davis
Brian Davis, who now faithfully serves the Republican Party as a member of the finance committee for the Olmsted County BPOU, brought back memories of freshman Tim Walz's re-election with 62.50% of the vote to Davis's 32.93*% (IP candidate Greg Mikkelson snagged 4.48% of the votes cast).
The recognition of Brian Davis as an "Elected official and party leader" says a great deal about the state of the Republican Party of Minnesota, not to mention Hegseth's strength. (We leave the presence of smiling RINO Larry Howes on the list for the consideration of conblogger Gary Gross, who is in far better a position to define the term than the dirty hippies on the Bluestem Prairie are able).
But as we tune into the latest episode of Emo Senator, Southern Minnesota's most watched telenovela, we find that district leadership has courageously opted to put the past behind them and repackage the primary as a totally awesome opportunity to get to know both Republican candidates and their ideas.
We can't wait.
CD1 Republican chair Dave Kruse pitched the primary to the Mankato Free Press and KEYC-TV. The latter news source reports:
First District GOP chair Dave Kruse says allowing voters to decide during the primary election is the best option right now.
"This gives them a chance to campaign, to debate and take their message forward, so I think it's a good thing for our party," Kruse said.
Dump Bachmann blogger and ace cartoonist Ken Avidor woke the Bluestem editor from the sleep of the just this morning with news and a link to the appearance of Bradlee Dean's Junkyard Prophet's at the Community Center in lovely Caledonia, Minnesota.
Ken raised the question: will Allen Quist crowd surf at the event in Minnesota's First District, ala progressive Minneapolis mayor's recent dive with Trampled By Turtles?
Bluestem thinks that both Quist and Parry will probably be hanging out in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday night, hoping to secure dollars and volunteers for their First Congressional District from among the powerbrokers and activists at the MNGOP state convention, though an annual town festival might attract them to Caledonia.
Bradlee Dean is no longer the toast of Republican politics. It's also curious what or who brings him to Caledonia so that people in Houston County need to exeprience first-hand what caused the "buzz" that hit the Minnesota House last spring and a small town in Iowa earlier this year.
Or perhaps Dean is just trying to find lost souls worn out at the end of the town's annual celebration of Norwegian exuberance, Syttende Mai.
Does lovely Caledonia really deserve this?
Cartoon: Allen Quist crowd surfs, by Ken Avidor. Used with permission.
Not content with losing by using the services of Dave Thompson and David Strom, the Lee Byberg campaign announced yesterday that Minnesotans for Marriage Deputy Campaign Manager, former Bachmann Chief of Staff, consort of midget wrestlers and country music promoter Andy Parrish will advise the Republican campaign to unseat Blue Dog Democrat Collin Peterson.
Lee Byberg, the Republican-endorsed candidate for Minnesota's 7th Congressional district, will be taking advice from GOP strategist Andy Parrish. Parrish will carry the title of general consultant.
Andy Parrish is known for his Karl Rove style tactics. He has deep roots in Minnesota politics.
In a news release sent out Tuesday morning, Byberg's campaign included this biography of Byberg.
Over the past decade, Parrish has served Minnesota from grassroots efforts to St. Paul, and then on Capitol Hill, as Rep. Michele Bachmann's Chief of Staff.
In 2006 he ran Bachmann's campaign, guiding an effort that made Bachmann the first Republican woman to be elected to federal office from Minnesota. Parrish's leadership of her 2010 re-election campaign earned him the nickname "Maestro." The campaign produced a record-setting $13.5 million in fundraising for Bachmann, along with 420,000 calls to voters and 40,000 doors knocked-on in the final five days before her decisive victory.
"Andy Parrish is a superb campaign strategist, and I am thrilled that he agreed to guide our campaign strategy," said Lee Byberg.
A Nexis All-News search reveals that Andy Parrish has never been compared to Karl Rove, although Rove did appear at a Bachmann fundraising during the 2006 race for the open seat vacated that year by Mark Kennedy, who went on to be crushed in the United States Senate race by Amy Klobuchar.
Outside of the Byberg press release, Bluestem could find no published evidence of the use of the nickname "Maestro" to describe Parrish. GOP insiders that Bluestem contacted could not recall hearing it, although one openly speculated that the name might well exist inside Parrish's head.
Will Parrish work in the tradition of Byberg consultants like Dave Thompson, who ran for the state senate and supplied communications support for the MNGOP in 2010, in addition to aiding the Byberg campaign?
The addition of Parrish to Byberg's staff should amp up the Anti-gay Tinkerbell factor already present in the Seventh. Peterson was an original sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, and voted for DOMA in 1996, telling the Star Tribune that "'I don't believe in it. Period,' he said." (Matt McKinney, "Defense of Marriage Act; Bill opposing gay marriage is creating political unrest // Same-sex marriage is a major tug-of-war issue between gay activists and politicians who oppose such unions," June 24, 1996, Nexis All News, accessed May 16, 2012).
Emo Senator fans will be happy to learn that their are no hard feelings on Mr. Brodkorb's part. Brodkorb resigned as Parry's volunteer campaign manager after being fired by the State Senate the week that Amy Koch stepped down as Majority Leader. Following her retirement as Majority Leader, word broke that her was forced to vacate the office because of an inappropriate relationship with a male staffer.
The City Pages was first to address rumors that Brodkorb was the staffer, and Brodkorb's lawyer later revealed the relationship as his legal wrangling over his dismissal from the senate continued.
And the Convention agreed with him.
Both candidates mentioned being in parades across the district, two of which celebrated Norwegian Constitution Day, or Syttende Mai, so perhaps there's something to it.
Meanwhile Arch Rival Tim Walz was returning part of his salary to the US Treasury (the only Democrat to do so, the National Journal reported) and introducing legislation aimed at helping homeless veterans. Fiddle-dee-dee!
Image: Emo Senator Mike Parry, by Tild (above); Allen Quist, by Ken Avidor.
Update! Emo Senator's handlers must read Bluestem, because they have deleted the "Micheal Brodkorb" remark. However, so that our credibility is maintained, we did clip a screenshot and present it below. Also removed: the note about Walz's 2010 support from former US Senator Dave Durenbergy (R) and former Governor Arne Carlson (R). This is less egregious, as neither has endorsed in 2012.
Meanwhile, other charming comments are coming, including this gem:
Since all but one of Parry's team voted to put the marriage inequality amendment on the ballot in November, it's a fair question.
The deleted comments: