The Litchfield Independent Review reports in GOP vote to endorse Urdahl delayed:
Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Acton Township, will have to wait to see whether he receives his party’s endorsement.
At the Meeker County Republican Party convention Saturday in Litchfield, Urdahl was nominated to receive the endorsement, but party members also nominated a Grove City resident, Kyle Greene.
If only Urdahl had been nominated, the party could have endorsed him at Saturday’s convention. But by nominating Greene, party members “automatically” triggered a separate endorsement convention, Meeker County Chairman Darrin Anderson said. A separate convention is required because Urdahl’s district, 18A, also includes portions of both Wright and McLeod counties, and delegates from these counties did not attend Saturday’s convention in Litchfield.
Greene spoke briefly at Saturday’s convention, describing himself as “one of the people.” “I’ll tell you right now, I’m not a politician,” he said. He said his main issues in a campaign would be judicial reform and government accountability. “One thing the courts are not doing is following the law,” Greene said. . . .
While Greene has yet to file his campaign committee with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board (see 18A) he has filed a lawsuit that was denied review by the state supreme court and unsuccessfully appealed citations for driving after his license was revoked:
On appeal from convictions of driving after suspension and driving after revocation, appellant argues that the district court failed to respond to perjury and deprived appellant of the constitutional right to a speedy and fair trial. Appellant also alleges judicial bias. We affirm [the courts' decisions].
The crux of appellant's argument is that the district court improperly ate lunch, on the day of the driving-after-revocation trial, with Judge Drange, the district's chief judge and an individual whom appellant is suing in federal court. In support of his argument, appellant points to the district court's allegedly “one-sided rulings.” But a careful review of the record establishes that the district court diligently considered each of appellant's numerous motions, granting his motions as to venue and a fair trial, promising to attend to the law library issue, and initially reserving appellant's motion regarding a speedy-trial violation. Additionally, the district court denied the state's motion to issue an arrest warrant for appellant's failure to appear at the pre-trial conference in Stevens County. Because appellant's allegations of judicial bias are without merit, appellant is not entitled to relief on this ground.
The judge affirmed the convictions; the reasons for the revocations are described in the decision. Greene also pled guilty in 2006 for possession of marijuana in his motor vehicle in 2005 [Case No. 49-T8-05-003373] and has been ticketed for other minor driving offences.
Let's hope that Greene is sincere in his bid for office and files with the campaign finance board.
There was no word in the article about when the endorsing convention will take place. Urdahl, the Republican lead on the House Legacy committee, is now serving his sixth term. Although Representative Urdahl votes with his caucus consistently, right-wing conservatives in his district, which includes all of Meeker County, with parts of McLeod and Wright Counties, are quick to toy with his endorsement.
In May 2012, Jake Grovum at PIM reported in Local GOPers consider Urdahl endorsement after Vikings vote:
A single delegate in the new Senate District 18 is trying to get local Republicans to pull Rep. Dean Urdahl’s endorsement because the five-term lawmaker voted in support of the Vikings stadium last week.
The delegate, Dean Mahlstedt, has asked that the Senate District 18 GOP reconsider its endorsement because of the vote. . . .
Urdahl kept the endorsement and won handily in November. At the Republican endorsing convention in 2010, those with doubts about Urdahl's purity withheld the party's nod until the third ballot, even though no other candidate was seeking endorsement.
Photo: Dean Urdahl in a donkey basketball game at the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Middle School in 2009. Via the Howard Lake Journal.
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