Gruenhagen editor worked to free "man of mystery and intrigue" at core of Bachmann probe

Dave Racer, who edited Representative Glenn Gruenhagen's Health Care in Crisis: Is Government the Solution or the Problem?, has a walk-on role in today's Kevi Diaz story in the Star Tribune, ‘Man of mystery’ is behind Michele Bachmann campaign cases:

Waldron’s arrest made him a cause celebre in the Christian network back in the States. Among those who came to his defense was Twin Cities writer Dave Racer, who became Waldron’s de facto publicist, churning out news releases decrying the Ugandans’ “trumped up charges.”

Racer, who is also a close supporter of Bachmann’s, says he is now trying to stay out of their current campaign ethics standoff, which he calls a “sad thing.” But he says this about Waldron: “You wouldn’t think of Peter as your typical conservative evangelical pastor. He’s more a man of mystery and intrigue.”

By Waldron’s account, it took a call from President George W. Bush to get him out of jail. The Star Tribune has not been able to verify Bush’s direct intervention, but Racer and another associate who worked on his release say it was handled at the highest levels of government.

That associate is D.C. political consultant Bob Heckman, who had worked with Waldron on the Bauer campaign and kept high-level contacts in the Bush White House. Heckman is also the aide who brought Waldron into the Bachmann campaign in Iowa.

In 2011, Bluestem looked at a joint Racer-Gruenhagen event in Glenn gone wild: Gruenhagen co-authors bill to ban tribal gambling compacts; will speak at Mystic Lake Hotel on August 15.

We found Racer's views on health care and background to be quite charming:

And then there are the Coalition's lobbyists (actually, they're registered to lobby for the coalition's indvidual trade associations): Ralph Weber, Greg Sailer, Greg Dattilo and Dave Racer (who is managing the event).

Only the last name rings a loud-sounding bell, since he's something of a honcho on the right.

In 2010, Racer headed Minnesotans for Personal Choice and Competition in Health Care, an independent election campaign committee (IECC) which endorsed candidates and toured the state to put on Town Hall Meetings Scheduled to Inform Insurance Agents about Impact of New Federal Healthcare Law, warning about HCR, which would:

lead to the demise of the insurance markets, increased costs and federal control of health care, and the potential for health care rationing.

Racer attracted scornful attention while speaking in St. Louis in 2008 when he said "no one dies because they don't have insurance." Of course not: they die from the diseases or accidents they can't afford to have treated when they don't have insurance.

And Racer once chaired the old Reform Party when it backed Pat Buchanan ( a candidate who prompted Jesse Ventura and other Minnesota moderates to bolt and form the Independence Party). (Greg Aamot, "Buchanan speaks at convention to renew Minnesota's Reform Party,"The Associated Press State & Local Wire, April 7, 2000, Nexis All News, accessed May 11, 2010).

He managed Alan Keyes 1996 Presidential bid ("Speak up! You can be heard!" U.S. News & World Report, February 19, 1996, Nexis All news, accessed 5/12/2011).

But he's probably remembered best, if at all, for the tempest that was stirred up by a text on the Minnesota Majority's site in 2007. Rachel Stassen Berger reported for the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Minnesota Majority's Web site features an issue paper on health care, which backs consumer-driven health care and claims that racial diversity and single-parent households negatively affect health in the United States.

"Black women, for a variety of reasons, are more prone to underweight babies than are Caucasian and Asian women. It is not surprising that Sweden has a lower infant mortality rate, or that Japan has a longer life expectancy than the United States does. They are nearly racially pure; we are not," says the Web page, written by public speaker and former radio talk show host David Racer.

The Agents Coalition's event site claims that "[t]he lobbyists that represent the Agent Coalition's members are tops at the State Capital."

Are the rest of them at the level of Dave Racer? If so, the backgrounds and beliefs of the architects of the market-driven health care reform now being promoted by the new Republican majorities in the Minnesota legislature might be worthy of a closer look. Who has Glenn Gruenhagen's ear?