Early morning Saturday, Bluestem posted Ghost link at Rochester Post Bulletin: "Mike Benson to run for Congress against Walz", naming one apparent Republican candidate against Walz. We are not sure why the Rochester Post Bulletin pulled the story, other than possibly wanting to break the news sometime other than on a late Friday.
We predict that the story will reappear when Benson is read to announce.
Meanwhile, Bluestem is especially pleased to read Former Rep. Al DeKruif may challenge Walz in the New Ulm Journal.
Despite the headline, the body of the Josh Moniz article makes it clear that DeKruif served in the Minnesota senate (not the House) for two years during the short term created by redistricting. (State senators ordinarily serve four years, with a two-year term at the top of each decade while district lines are withdrawn.)
In March 2012, the Mankato Free Press reported in Al DeKruif steps out of legislative race that DeKruif chose not to move to a nearby open district because of family concerns:
DeKruif briefly considered running against Rosen before announcing a week ago that he wouldn’t challenge the 10-year veteran but was considering moving to an open district just north of his rural Elysian home.
As recently as Saturday, DeKruif told delegates at the Blue Earth County Republican Convention that he was still conflicted about making the move, mentioning his 32-year-old son Jason, who has cerebral palsy.
“I can’t displace him very far,” he told the delegates. . . .
By Sunday afternoon, the owner of the Sakatah Trails Resort and a transportation consulting business reached the conclusion that moving his residence was the wrong decision.
“I need to do what is best for my family and businesses,” DeKruif said in a written statement. “After all, it is Minnesota families and job creators that led me to serve in the first place.
That seat--Senate District 20--was won by Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield). DeKruif had defeated Dahle in a different configuration of the political universe in 2010.
DeKruif: Blog fodder heaven
Why are we so happy? In his two short years in office, the Madison Lake area businessman produced some awesome fodder.
Take The Pogemiller prophecy; or, Senator Al DeKruif's secret history of the MN government shutdown, in which DeKruif showed real leadership by taking his legislative pay during the government shutdown in 2011 because of something Larry Pogemiller did.
DeKruif also supported Mike Parry's notion that members of the Republican senate caucus had no obligation to follow the leadership of former senate majority leader Amy Koch during the shutdown negotiations. (Parry had no trouble later following the suggestions of her lover, Michael Brodkorb, who ran Parry's own campaign to unseat Walz until the scandal became public.)
And then there's the Agenda 21 stuff. Yes, DeKruif joined Senator Dave Brown (R-Becker) in supporting the cockamamie Bircher blue helmet phobia about sustainable planning, wetlands and buffer strips.
We may have found our next telenovela star to replace the cancelled "Emo Senator."
DeKruif's background
Moniz has more on DeKruif's background:
He was elected to the former Senate District 25 by 44 percent of the vote in a close three-way race and served in the Minnesota Legislature for the 2011 - 2012 session. When the redistricting process put him into the same district as fellow Republican Sen. Julie Rosen, he declined to take up another run for office.
He is the owner and consultant of DeKruif Enterprise, Inc., which handles permitting and planning for "super load" truck hauls across the country. The business separately handles moving large electric transformers into both nuclear and coal-fired power plants. He is also owner of the Sakatah Trail Resort near Madison Lake.
DeKruif's legislative record is available online. He became an Assistant Majority Whip in 2012, in the leadership shake-up that followed Koch's stepping down as Majority Leader.
Most of the bills that DeKruif sponsored that became law were minor tweaks. Governor Dayton vetoed DeKruif's bill to require E-verify-ication of all new state employees. The bill had no co-sponsors in the Senate, and Ernie Leidiger, Steve Drazkowski and Peggy Scott sponsored the bill in the Minnesota House.
MinnPost's Joe Kimball reported in Gov. Dayton vetoes E-Verify bill for job hires as unnecessary duplication:
In his veto letter (PDF), Dayton said Minnesota already has a federally audited process that checks the identity of new employees and whether they can be hired under the federal mandates.
Dayton also said an audit found lots of problems with the federal E-Verify program, showing it is vulnerable to fraud and inaccuracy. And he noted that many, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, opposed the bill and want immigration issues to be handled by the federal government, not the state.
Indeed, expansion of E-verify on the federal level, which would expand the program from reviewing seven percent of new hires to all new employees in America, is part of the Senate bill now under consideration. The Christian Science Monitor reports in US immigration reform: Why 'E-Verify' screenings, while flawed, will pass:
At the heart of immigration reform proposals in Congress is an idea that’s simple in concept but very difficult in practice: keep illegal workers from getting US jobs by conducting checkups on all the new hires at employers across America.
This idea of new-hire verification is highly popular. With 85 percent support from the US public, it is the most strongly supported of five basic elements of immigration reform, according to a February Gallup poll.
But the system, known as “E-Verify,” has shown plenty of flaws as well as promise in its early years of being available (but not widely required).
The problems: Many illegal immigrants slip through the cracks and win employment, while many legal workers face significant bureaucratic challenges – sometimes even losing their jobs because government databases deliver an erroneous “nonconfirmation” of their status.
Is E-Verify ready for prime time?
The short answer may be that, ready or not, here it comes. ...
Check out the details at CSM. Not all of the opposition to E-Verify comes from the left. In May, the online paper reported in Rand Paul's beef with immigration reform bill: the E-Verify system that libertarians fear that including photo-ID in E-verify is the path to a national id card:
“Many see measures contained in this bill, such as a strong E-Verify and a ‘photo tool,’ as a means to control unlawful immigrants’ access to unlawful employment. I worry that they go too far,” Paul wrote in the Washington Times. “I will fight to remove the photo tool from this legislation because I think it will become a national ID.”
Here's what Paul is referring to: The Senate immigration bill contains language that would, over the next five years, expand the nation’s current photo database system to include all Americans, not just foreigners and US passport holders. Employers would use photos in the database to help validate an employee’s identity. Currently, the system does not use photographs for identification and is rife with identity theft, as illegal workers use stolen Social Security numbers or forged documents to gain employment.
Paul reiterated his opposition on the Michael Medved Show on June 12. The younger Paul's objections echo those of his father, former congressman Ron Paul, who wrote in February that Immigration 'Reform' Will Turn the US Into a Police State. Given the importance of the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party in Southern Minnesota Republican politics, this might be a sticking point for endorsement for DeKruif. With his son seemingly working toward a 2016 presidential bid, the Paul Factor isn't going away.
Dekruif also endorsed losing 2012 contender "Emo Senator" Mike Parry over Allen Quist, who trounced Parry in the Republican primary. The First Congressional District Republicans are now chaired by Quist's home county's Carol Stevenson. Bluestem suspects Stevenson will be professional in managing the endorsement process; we note her leadership only to point out the supremacy of the Quist wing of the Republican Party in the First.
Who are the others? We anticipate a clown car, as we've heard Senator Julie Rosen is once more taking a pass on this one.
Photo: Al DeKruif, the man who maybe would be Congressman, with Minnesota Viking Jared Allen at a Sheriff's Youth Benefit, via DeKruif's old senate committee website. Bluestem believes that the message on Allen's gag T-shirt riffing on a logo associated with people living with disabilities just goes to show that the Vikings can't all be Chris Kluwe. (Allen does support Homes for Wounded Warriors, so while he's not p.c., he's not a clod).
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Not sure if you were tongue in cheek about why the Post Bulletin pulled the story. They clearly goofed on an embargoed story; the cutline on the photo reads "Mike Benson talks at his home about his intention to run for Congress against Tim Walz DFL," so they got the story from him and had to accept his terms.
Editor's note: We were tongue in cheek.
Posted by: Max Hailperin | Jun 16, 2013 at 03:37 PM
With apologies to Woody Guthrie:
"Goin' for a ride in the Clown Car, goin' for a ride in the Clown Car..."
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Jun 19, 2013 at 09:30 AM