PoliticsMN's Michael Brodkorb doesn't seem to share documents via Scribd at his blog, so it's unclear from the broad outline whether at least one sitting Republican member of the Minnesota House would get endorsed under the proposed endorsement policy broadly outlined in Chairman Downey Proposing Dramatic Changes to MN GOP Endorsement Process.
Brodkorb writes:
Keith Downey, chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, is pushing the creation of an “endorsement policy” to identify guidelines and criteria for endorsement by the Republican Party of Minnesota. A copy of the draft “endorsement policy” was provided topolitics.mn.
The proposed policy from Chairman Downey establishes the following new requirements:
- Candidates seeking endorsement cannot have run as a DFL or Independence party candidate within the last two cycles.
- Cannot have run a primary against an endorsed candidate in the last two cycles.
- Cannot be endorsed if candidate has been a party officer in another political party.
Brodkorb notes that "It would prohibit converts to the Republican Party, like Michele Bachman, Norm Coleman and Ronald Reagan, from ever being endorsed by the party," but he misses one obvious case of a sitting House member: state representative David FitzSimmons (R-Albertville).
Prior to becoming active in the Republican Party of Minnesota, where he served as a county chair and managed Tom Emmer's gubernatorial campaign for a bit, FitzSimmons served as an officer in the far-right Constitution Party.
The Daily Paul reported in Republicans in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District elected Chairman David Fitzsimmons, a supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul:
Fitzsimmons became Wright County's party chairman earlier this year and joined the local party leadership just two years ago, along with the increasing participation of Republicans who supported Paul's presidential campaign.
He was the congressional district's coordinator for the Paul campaign, and was an officer in the state Constitution Party earlier in the decade.
Another source reports that he served as chair.
Bluestem thinks this purity test is an odd move on the part of the Republican Party of Minnesota to shrink the talent pool, and thus award Downey and whomever helped draft this postmoronic text the 2014 Charles A. Berg Award for Partisan Excellence.
The honor is named after notorious party hopper Charles "Charlie" A. Berg, who more or less served the hardy souls in the West Central Minnesota counties of Big Stone, Chippewa, Douglas, Grant, Lac Qui Parle, Pope, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, Yellow Medicine (depending on the configuration of the senate district) for four terms as a DFLer, Republican and independent.
We will share little of his record or personality, only to say that he makes both Republican Torrey Westrom and Democrat Lyle Koenen look like the milkmen of human kindness and intelligence--and will cause many readers to pine for the civility and gentle wit of the late Gary Kubly.
Brodkorb and party purity: That was then, this is now
There's also a certaindelicious irony in watching Brodkorb post about the new rules. As Brianna Bierschbach reported in MN GOP bans 18 Republicans who supported Horner, while a party official himself, Brodkorb helped steer the MNGOP toward the path of purity. Bierschbach reported:
On Monday, DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez released a statement about the motion, saying the GOP was “shrinking” its tent.
“The Republican Party of Minnesota has been changing quite obviously over the past several months, but never has their sharp turn to the right been more direct than in this weekend’s vote to ban 18 moderates from serving in their party processes,” he wrote. “The Republican Party has clearly chosen to represent a narrow fringe of ultra-conservatives and exclude the majority of Minnesotans — first in their policy positions, and now in their internal party processes as well.”
Longtime Republican activist Joe Repya agrees. Repya left the party in 2009 after the election of GOP leadership Tony Sutton and Michael Brodkorb, who he called “childish street bullies and thugs.” Repya made a run for the Independence Party nomination for governor this year.
To give Brodkorb his due, he later argued for a return to a big tent Republicanism in My Republican friends, the system is broken admitting his own role to the MNGOP purity drives while serving as deputy chair:
I’ll be the first to admit that in the past I have been too focused on the actions which calculate into the 20 percent allocated to the actions of the traitor and not on the 80 percent actions of a friend of the party. In retrospect, this was the wrong approach.
It's been remarkable to watch Mr Brodkorb's changes of heart (and we do wonder sometimes what the root of these transformations has been). This isn't the first shift, as he's gone from dating a former NSA operative and secretly taping his friends' telephone conversations to being a champion of questioning Hennepin County's use of Kingfish phone data snooping.
The human potential for redemption is endless. Just ask Charlie Berg.
Photos: David FitzSimmons, Republican state representative and former Constitution Party officer (above); Charlies "Charlie" A Berg, a Minnesota legend (below, MSHS).
If you enjoyed reading this post, consider giving a donation via mail (P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or paypal:
Comments