The local paper here in the home of Bluestem's world headquarters reports that state senators Scott Newman and Mike Parry will continue to dog Secretary of State Mark Ritchie about voter restriction.
The rest of the state thinks Senator Newman should get a hobby.
Hutchinson Leader staff writer Jorge Sosa reports in Newman presses case on voter ID against Ritchie:
Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, Sen. Scott Newman said Monday that he and Sen. Mike Parry are pressing on with their challenges to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s alleged inappropriate campaigning against the Voter ID amendment. . . .
Judge Bruce Johnson with the OAH last week dismissed the senators’ complaint with that office. Last month, the campaign finance board declined to investigate the allegations.
UPDATE: On November 7, 2012, the day that the Hutchinson Leader article appeared in the print edition, Chief Administrative Law Judge Raymond R. Krause denied Newman and Parry's motion for reconsideration. Here's the document announcing the decision: OAH Chief Admin Law Judge Raymond Krause's Letter Denying Reconsideration of Newman & Parry Complaint
Really, Scott: take up beekeeping. [end update]
Tuesday, voters dismissed the amendment itself, along with the Republican caucus majority in the Minnesota Senate. Earlier this year, Republicans in Minnesota's First Congressional district's primary dismissed Mike Parry in favor of Allen Quist.
Newman's co-conspirator Mike Parry has been talking to his local papers as well, a fact that should have Democrats across the state cheering.
Just before the election, Owatonna People's Press staff writer Derek Sullivan reported in Owatonna Representative, Senator will watch Election Day from the sidelines:
With Parry off the ballot, a new face emerged. Businessman Vern Swedin (R-Owatonna) will try and keep Parry’s district, now mostly included inside newly-created District 24, in Republican hands. One of the first people Swedin contracted when he considered a political career was Parry.
Swedin lost to Owatonna small business owner and school board member Vicki Jensen, who becomes the first DFLer to represent Steele County in the Minnesota Senate since before Al Gore invented the Internet.
Parry told the OPP that he's not yet done with politics:
While in August, he suffered his second ballot box defeat in four years, Parry hasn’t ruled out another political campaign.
“I’m sure folks in Minnesota will see me again in two years,” he said.
Bluestem encourages progressive readers to send fruit baskets to Parry, accompanied by cheerful notes suggesting that he run for statewide office. With the Belle of Waseca County on or near the top of the 2014 MNGOP ticket, perhaps the entire congressional delegation could fall into DFL hands.
Photo: Scott Newman is so not taking no for an answer.
MCFPB finds Newman & Parry complaint against Ritchie "insufficient to require an investigation"
Sen. Newman is so not happy when rural people talk about his voter restriction amendment
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