Former Elbow Lake mayor, retired teacher and wrestling coach Jay McNamar (DFL, Elbow Lake) may have the endorsement of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and Farmers Union, as well as years in western Minnesota, but to Jeff Backer, he's "Metro Jay."
Not just Metro Jay, but--leaping lesbians!--apparently a metrosexual funded by gay money because he voted to make marriage equality the law of the land.
In a recent fundraising letter, the endorsed Republican candidate for Minnesota House District 12A lamented
. . . . the widespread national network of liberal homosexual activists who have rewarded "metro" Jay McNamar with tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions for his vote for gay "marriage." In fact, Metro Jay has received over $20,000 in contributions from similar homosexual activists across the country.
Backer goes on the claim that his opponent simply doesn't care about schools and his local community. However, McNamar's devotion to Elbow Lake and its schools is well known. Perhaps one of the best stories illustrating the character of "Metro Jay" is this one from the life of Republican MN07 candidate Torrey Westrom:
Shortly after his accident, one of his teachers and a wrestling coach, Jay McNamer [sic] , encouraged Torrey to come out and try wrestling. Coach McNamer [sic] later learned the special rules for a blind wrestlers and kept encouraging Torrey to join the team.
Yeah, that guy's an uncaring tool of Outside Forces. However, we wonder about Backer's fear of Outsiders and The Metro. Indeed, we have to wonder why such a fellow as Backer wants to go to St. Paul.
Photos: Anti-homosexual money candidate Jeff Backer and Minority leader Daudt , via Facebook(above); his anti-homosexual money fundraising letter (below). We redacted the first names of the people that were written above the "We can win this!" for their privacy.
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Minnesota House candidate Jim Knoblach's record went on trial in dueling radio ads that ran recently in the St. Cloud area.
Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, is challenging Rep. Zachary Dorholt, DFL-St. Cloud, in the Minnesota House District 14B race. The district covers east, north and central St. Cloud and Haven and Minden townships.
House DFLers got an early start to campaign advertising in late August with a radio spot touting Dorholt's record and criticizing Knoblach. Knoblach's campaign responded with an ad addressing some of the claims.
Here's a look at a few major points at issue in the ads — and at who's telling the truth or straying from it.
A point about a 2005 government shutdown is ruled "This claim is tough to deem true or false," while both sides on a point about Social Security are deemed true.
But Knoblach's response to charges that he voted to raise his own pay are ruled misleading. Sommerhauser writes:
Who voted to raise their own pay?: Knoblach voted to increase his own pay as a legislator.
Knoblach's counterclaim in his ad that "Dorholt voted for an even larger pay increase amendment" is misleading.
The House DFL ad started the exchange by blasting Knoblach for voting to increase his pay.
Knoblach voted in 1997 to increase lawmakers' pay by 5 percent. Knoblach said lawmakers hadn't had a pay increase in about 20 years when he cast the vote.
"It's like any other job. Occasionally there needs to be a pay increase," Knoblach said. "A 5-percent pay increase was reasonable."
Dorholt voted in 2013 for a constitutional amendment that would create a commission to set lawmaker pay. The amendment would have to be approved by voters in 2016 to take effect.
Knoblach said similar commissions created in other states gave big raises to legislators. And it's true some proponents of the Minnesota amendment have hinted they think lawmakers are underpaid.
But there's nothing in the constitutional amendment Dorholt voted for that would increase lawmakers' pay or require the proposed commission to do so.
"We've spent $100 million on a website that doesn't work," Knoblach said.
Dorholt didn't shy from defending the health care law. He said it will help many of the patients with whom he works as a mental health counselor.
"People are getting quality care who had no care before," Dorholt said. . . .
Knoblach told the paper after the debate that he supported repealing the index on the new minimum wage. Lovely.
Sommerhauser also notes that DFLers are pushing in another race in the St. Cloud area:
The first-termer [Tama] Theis and [Dan] Wolgamott, a real estate agent and high school football coach, are the contenders in the House District 14A race. The area historically has voted Republican, but DFLers are optimistic they can make a play for the seat this year.
We'll be watching for developments in both races.
Photo: First-term HD14B legislator Zach Dorholt (DFL, St. Cloud).
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Willmar is the largest city in Minnesota without a four-lane highway. This city has been ignored, and commercially strangled because of this. We’re told, “There is no money.” . . .
It is true that environmental studies have just begun on those two segments of Highway 23, just the beginning of a long road to four lanes. The one bright light is Rep. Mary Sawatzky who has spearheaded some movement in getting Highway 23 studies going. Much applause to her.
Again … How many lives is it going to take before not only Minnesota Highway 23 but the bigger issue, U.S. 12, becomes a safer and commercially advantageous four-lane highway to our cities of west central Minnesota?
We live down the road on Highway 23, and believe he makes a very good point about the need for better roads in western Minnesota.
It's also good to see a tireless first-term legislator recognized for her hard work.
Photo: Mary Sawatzky
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The next curious thing is this "clean coal" that Newman fancies exists. He writes:
Unfortunately, some in Washington and right here in Minnesota would like to eliminate coal production all together. Most energy experts believe clean coal and natural gas are the best options available in the near term for low cost, environmentally friendly energy production. Destroying the clean coal industry will hurt all Minnesotans, and especially those in Northeastern Minnesota, where coal production not only keeps energy costs down, but provides good jobs. Do not be fooled. You cannot call yourself an advocate for the middle class, while at the same time supporting policies that will disproportionately harm middle and lower income individuals and families.
That's energy production from coal that he's talking about, since coal isn't mined in Northeastern Minnesota.
How clean is the coal that's shipped in and the power plants that produce electricity in Northeastern Minnesota? From what we read, those plants are going to get cleaner. In July, Minnesota Public Radio reported in Minnesota Power reaches deal on coal-fired plants:
. . . A decade ago the utility relied almost completely on coal to provide cheap electric power to the region's iron mines and paper mills. Today, Minnesota Power derives 20 percent of its electricity from wind, and plans to eventually have a resource mix made up of roughly one-third coal, one-third natural gas and one-third renewables.
Last year the company announced plans to retire one of its three, smaller, less efficient coal fired generators at its Taconite Harbor plant in Schroeder along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It also plans to convert two units at the Laskin plant in Hoyt Lakes to natural gas.
The utility is also investing $350 million in pollution control upgrades at the state's second largest coal fired plant, its Boswell facility in Cohasset. When that's completed next year, the plant's emission rates "will be among some of the lowest in the country" for sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, according to the EPA.
Still up in the air is the future of the two smaller generators at Boswell. The EPA settlement calls on Minnesota Power to either refuel or retire those units, or scrub still more pollutants from the smokestacks.
Burning coal is responsible for producing about 40 percent of the world’s electricity, but it produces three-fourths of the more than 12 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted during electricity and heat generation. To make coal nonpolluting, that carbon dioxide would have to be captured before it’s emitted and permanently locked away under the earth. But despite years of research, not one of the coal-fired power plants in the United States does this.
Nevertheless, coal-fired power plants still supply much of the world’s electricity, and coal reserves in the U.S. and elsewhere remain plentiful and affordable. For these reasons--and because of the coal industry’s political clout--the DOE has invested more than $3.4 billion toward carbon-capture and storage technologies.
Today’s most advanced carbon-capture technology, called amine scrubbing, is effective and mature, but it’s too expensive. . . .
Or perhaps Newman was thinking of Excelsior Energy, the Failed Minnesota clean-coal project [that got] help with its debts, as the Star Tribune reported in May 2013:
Excelsior Energy, the Minneapolis-based company that never delivered on its promise to produce electricity with clean-coal technology, is getting government help to clean up its debts.
A development agency for the Iron Range, where the company’s ill-fated coal-gasification project was to be located, on Monday approved the outline of a deal that will allow the company to skip further payments on $9.5 million in state loans dating back to 2002.
The Mesaba Energy Project, which was to have been built by 2011, never got off the ground as the recession cut electrical demand, no utility wanted the power and the fracking boom cut the price of natural gas, leaving clean-coal projects unable to compete. . . .
If elected Attorney General, Newman will fight for clean coal, regardless of what bills the state legislature passes.
Such brilliant understanding of energy policy and the job description of the state attorney general has attracted some of the finest comments Bluestem's friend had ever read on Facebook. Don Evanson, a real person from the Winona area, commented:
Don Evanson So-called renewable mandates have driven up the energy portion of our utility bills by 30%, and that is nothing to say of the taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Further, solar needs to be backed up with a spinning steam-driven turbine, an standby to go on-line when the sun isn't shining.
Is the diminished heat of the sunshine, robbed by solar, and the diminished wind power, robbed by wind turbines affecting our weather patterns?
Burning fossil fuels? Not a problem. But those solar panel and wind turbine are depleting the sun and the wind. For the Newman base, this causes weather to change.
It's not an original thought on Evanson's part. In 2009, Texas Congressman Joe Barton earned national attention for claiming that wind turbines diminished the wind.
Evanson didn't get the joke--but like Newman, he'd love him some "clean coal."
The sponsored post:
Images: The MNGOP Solutions Center banner (above) and Evanson's comment (middle).
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We also see that the place and time for the now-cancelled meeting has been posted. That should help those of us planning to attend not have to drive into the Cities.
Here's the screenshot from this morning (note the date hobering in the lower righthand corner:
Of course, it has to be totally unlikely that there's any relationship to the cancellation of Thursday's meeting and our earlier post.
We'll update this post when we learn why the meeting was cancelled.
Photo: The Lake Superior Boardroom, via the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest.(top); before and after screenshots from AURI's events page. Both screenshots were taken Tuesday, September 16, 2014.(below).
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UPDATE September 16, 2014: We've learned that AURI has cancelled Thursday's meeting and will post more when we learn why. Learn more in our latest post,AURI cancels September 18 board meeting. [end update]
While the average Minnesotan might not know of the existence of the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), it's a resource for ag producers that grew out of the farm crisis of the 1980s.
Bluestem knows several fine family livestock farmers who've gotten technical assistance for developing better bacon and such things.
At the regularly scheduled board meeting on Thursday, several controversial bylaw changes are up for consideration. If passed, Bluestem is told that apparently two board members (possibly more) would immediately be bounced off the board, one who represents the Minnesota Farmers Union and is the Lac Qui Parle County MFU chair (Bluestem's editor is an MFU member and serves on the policy committee); the other is state representative Andrew Falk (a farmer who serves our district in the state legislature; his family's seed company won the Grand Champion ribbon for soybeans this year at the Minnesota State Fair).
Both people are respected in our communities (mileage may vary on the latter according to partisan affiliation), and so these changes are concerning.
But if the public wanted to attend this meeting and watch the debate over the changes (Bluestem is told that there's an ongoing argument about whether the alterations are legal), we might have a difficult time finding out where and when the board meeting takes place.
Two days before the meeting, here's what's visible on AURI's website:
We hovered our mouse pointer over the date (bottom right hand corner) when we took the screenshot about an hour ago. Here's the events page listing and here's the specific page for the meeting, where the place is still: "Location TBA" and no time is provided.
UPDATE: A reader searched the State Register, and the place and time was not published there, either. [end update]
There's new language in Minnesota's open meeting laws that allow information to be posted via websites, and the entire statute can be found here. It would seem that since AURI is posting its meeting schedule online, changes in the schedule--like place and time--should be posted at least three days in advance.
Information for meeting planners online at the hotel's website show the location of the Lake Superior Boardroom, and the photo the hotel provides suggests that the meeting site isn't really designed to accommodate members of the public who are curious or concerned about the activity of the board.
We'd recommend that members of the public get there early so that hotel staff have time to find extra chairs.
What are the proposed by-law changes? What's the discussion? We'll have more about this as the meeting approaches.
Photo: The Lake Superior Boardroom, via the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest.(top); screenshots from AURI online assets (below).
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A helpful reader sent Bluestem a link to a new article by John Russett in the Red Wing Republican Eagle, GOP's top office hopefuls call for change, along with a brief note, subject line, "since you're on the Dan Severson beat . . ."
So at "a roundtable to discuss tax policy and business issues," the guy who wants to run an office that has an entire division devoted to Business Services decides not to talk about that division but instead about auditing the voting system.
There's that. We also noticed that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson isn't quoted in the article.
Instead, Russett devotes five paragraphs in the ten paragraph article to Randy Gilbert, while Severson gets 3 paragraphs about auditing the election system. The men share two paragraphs.
Given the past history of ambitious Minnesota men using the state auditor's office as a springboard for a flip into the governor's residents--witness Arne Carlson, Mark Dayton (a little time delay on that one) and most recently, Matt Entenza's pricey primary bid--we might even suspect that Jeff Johnson might actually run for governor some day.
Randy Gilbert, GOP candidate for state auditor, said Friday that voters should look at the upcoming elections as a job interview, not an election.
Gilbert joined Jeff Johnson, GOP gubernatorial candidate, and Dan Severson, GOP secretary of state candidate, at the St. James Hotel Friday afternoon as part of a roundtable to discuss tax policy and business issues facing Minnesota voters.
And there's nothing guaranteed to motivate voters than discussing audits in a group job interview.
Photo: Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson caught a ride with Severson and Gilbert while hitchhiking to Red Wing.
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During a September 5 visit to the Athens of Minnesota's west central prairies, endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson told Morris Sun Tribune staff writer Kim Ukura that he wants to audit state government.
The ginned up shame of running a candidate for auditor--an auditor, mind you, not a senator or Supreme Court justice--who played cuddle bunny with a realtor would be gone, while Johnson's nearly invisible run for governor would totally be no problem if simply transfered to the down ticket race.
. . . During an interview with the Morris Sun Tribune on Friday, Sept. 5, Johnson said his top three goals have been consistent since he started his campaign in 2013: business climate and job creation, measuring taxpayer programs, and education. . . .
Another goal Johnson has emphasized is a plan to audit every program that taxpayers fund, starting with human services programs because they are easiest to measure.
“Those that are actually doing what we claim to want them to do, we should celebrate those programs,” said Johnson. “The ones that don’t, the ones that we fund because it makes us feel good as politicians or because we’ve always done it that way, we need to end those programs and redirect that money.”
We're not sure what programs politicians fund to feel good, but given the earlier history of this year's auditor's race, what with Entenza's good will offering to the United States Postal Services with all that direct mail and Gilbert's charming visits to open houses, the auditor's job must be where we can all learn what pleases them.
To curb state spending and shrink the size of government, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson wants to hire a private auditing firm to evaluate the effectiveness of all Minnesota state agencies and programs. . . .
Some major elements of the plan remain unclear, such as the total cost and when such reviews would begin. Also to be seen is whether the Legislature would make such a broad-ranging review part of its budget, considering agencies and programs are already reviewed regularly by the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor. . . .
A spokeswoman for the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers said no state has appeared to have ever conducted a review of this scope before. That organization is comprised of government officials in charge of state finances.
There's that.
Photo: Johnson was recently seen hitchhiking near Murdock, sources say.
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Given the uproar over Republican state supreme court endorsee Michelle McDonald's pending DUI trial, eccentric views on court reform, and the subsequent flight of party and endorsed Attorney General candidate Scott Newman and Jeff Johnson from her side, Bluestem was curious why Dan Severson had been so quiet.
Although Severson's focus began to shift from perceptions of judicial corruption to election corruption, he still maintained his contacts in this segment of the Republican base in this video from 2011:
One can even see the cowboy hat of McDonald sponsor Bonn Clayton in that video.
However, nothing compares to the nearly 41 minute interview with documentary filmmaker Bill Windsor for his epic film, Lawless America, that was uploaded in 2013:
In the video, Severson shares a view of family court very similar to that espoused by McDonald. He also noodles the idea that the United States is a police state because we call law enforcement "the police," inveighs against no-fault divorce and of course, declares Minnesota's election system to be the absolute worst in the country.
Nor does he have kind words for current secretary of state Mark Ritchie, who is retiring at the end of this year.
Severson is running for the open seat, along with DFL-endorsed candidate Steve Simon,IP endorsee Bob Helland and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Odden, according to the filings at the OSS office.
We'll update this post with transciptions of some of the more interesting segments of the interview, as well as more about Bill Windsor's Lawless America.
UPDATE: Highlights:
On judicial abuse (4:15): I think that the issue for me as a legislator was to ensure that the balance of powers that our Founding Fathers had put together were realized, that they enacted, that they were protected. And right now I believe very strongly that the judiciary has moved far beyond the confines of our constitution, are legislating from the bench, and we have people who are given to power.
One of the other problems that we have in the legislature as well is that we have a lot of lawyers who get into the legislature for the sole purpose of being visible enough to get elected to the bench or to be appointed to the bench. And then they been worked hard with the Quie Commission Report and the rest to try to suitcase their ability to stay on the bench once they get there so they don't things like the . . . .statute that basically says they can;t have their past rulings recorded, that was struck down in the courts, I think it was . . .the Republican Party v. White, that was struck down, so the bottomline is that they're absolutely vulnerable in terms of how they have been ruling and that's what precipitated the Quie Commission Report and the push to go to a retention election, which would take away the ability and the power of the people to make the decision instead....
15:30: People don't pay attention until it affects them. The problem with this problem is that you don't know when it's going to affect you or how it's going to affect you.
And once you get scooped up into the system, and it begins to work against you, you have no recourse. You can completely lose your God-given and natural rights as a United States citizen, as an American citizen that's subject to the confines of the guy that's sitting on the bench.
And so I think it is probably better to be pro-active instead of reactive in this particular situation. we can take back our judiciary. we can take back that branch of government but we have to hold the bench accountable and we do that through the election process.
We have to take away all of the protections that the judicial branch has put up to keep them incumbent, to keep those powers on the bench. We need to diversify those powers. The attorneys' licensure should never be held by the courts, they should be held independently, and the court should be able to be as close to the people as possible. That's what our founders really intended. . . .
On the police in America (17:25):
Windsor: People just don't have a clue. We don't have constitutional rights here anymore. The judge just does whatever he wants, law enforcement does whatever they want.
Severson: Yep and I think a good example of that, Bill, you know, is when our founders put together the whole concept of the peaceable community and our law enforcers were called peace officers. And now they're police.
And what do you relate police to? Police is a police state.
Something that orchestrates the behavior of the people because they have to adhere to a certain conduct. And that was never the intent. The intent was to keep peace in the community, to be kind of like the Mayberry where you don't carry around a gun, you just try through a relationship, try and make sure everybody is living within their own rights and are not becoming onerous to the community. [Editor's note: guns in the Andy Griffith Show via the Internet Movie Firearms Database].
And it's unfortunately that with power comes--power corrupts absolutely, And so we've kind of come to a police state as well. And many of the llargers areas where the police have taken, probably for self-preservation means, more authority than they should be but they, it creates fear in the community because sometimes those people who are hungry for power abuse that power and it gives the police a bad name.
I'd prefer to see them go back to peacekeepers, you know.
Family law (19:24): . . .in the family law, the provisions that we have now, there's so much room for abuse. It's dysfunctional, because it's not working to keep the family together, it's just working to be an arbiter, and that's not really their goal. That should not be there, they should not be put into that situation.
We have a lot of good peace officers who get stuck in a bad situation. But then again, I bring that back to the whole judicial side and the failure of that.
And for me I believe in Minnesota that is in the form of no-fault divorce. I think that has been one of the most damaging pieces of legsiation toward our family coherence, for the ability to maintain a family. It's just bad legislation and it needs to be repealed.
. . .When you get into the meatgrinder, you have no intention of getting in there, but all of a sudden--I'll tell you , when I was doorknocking as a legislator and I go around and I met with so many--particularly young men who had been through this because of the no-fault divorce, they've been, their marriages have been dissolved, and now they're being taken to the cleaners. They were behind in child support so they'd lose their drivers license and now they could get to their jobs and it's a tremendous downward spiral.
And I'll tell you honestly, both parties are bad in this process in terms of family law. Republicans have been as bad as the Democrats. And we need some real reform in how we begin to restructure and bring the family protection back into our statutes.
Minnesota elections (26:45): We ran for Secretary of State in 2010 because you know we have a corrupted voting system in Minnesota.
The worst.
And we have a guy in there now who is the worst of the worst. Mark Ritchie. He is partisan and he does not serve the best interests of the people of Minnesota. He serves the best interests of the far left progressive agenda and he's just not doing the will of the people.
The Tea Party (39:09) I think there's a growing movement, though, of people who take a look at the Tea Party, people who want to be knowledgeable about what's going on in their government and so they're forearmed in this process and I think that's want this is, this is part of tha process...
Representative Dan Severson = Author of HR 1632 Jack Graham - Candidate for Minnesota Attorney General Greg Wersal - Candidate for Supreme Court Justice Rob Hahn, IP Candidate for Governor Tim Kinley - Christian imprisoned for using the bible to teach religion to his own children Bob Oden - Jury Nullification Leslie Davis - Repubiican Candidate for Governor Bradley Dean - You can run but you can't hide Nancy Lazaryan - Long time Judicial Reform Activist others to be announced
While Severson soon started focusing on "election corruption," the fact of the 2013 interview demonstrates that he hasn't abandoned the cause of "judicial corruption."
Images: Dan Severson in the Lawless America interview (above): Andy fires Warren's revolver at fleeing suspects in "Aunt Bee Takes a Job" (episode 6.13) via the Internet Movie Firearms Database. While the Andy Taylor character did not carry a gun, his deputies did. Barney Fife's lack of skills was a running gag in the show (below).
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The organization has made a change in their program services and ceased street teams ministry fall of 2013. The street team ministry was the heart and soul of the daily outreach but in order to have a larger captive audience the radio and event ministry will be pursued stronger.
We're not sure how radio is a captive audience, though if Dean's still getting school assembly gigs, a case can be made for that definition.
And there's this expense for suing Rachel Maddow:
In addition to Bradlee Dean Smith, his wife and her parents, Midas Resources and Genesis Communications Network mogul Ted Anderson (who brings us Alex Jones) and Gun Owners of America president Larry Pratt serve on the Sons of Liberty board of directors. GCN distributes the SOL radio show.
The Dove television network will be carrying Bradlee Dean’s series My War beginning September 16, 2014. The series will continue over the course of several months every Tuesday at 8:30pm PST, with repeats at different times during the program schedule.
Tune in for more updates.
Bradlee Dean came to national attention when a prayer he gave as guest chaplain in the Minnesota House questioned Presiddent Obama's faith, and later when he unsuccessfully sued Rachel maddow for defamation for discussing what he said on his show.
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Go to endorsed Republican Secretary of State Dan Severson's website today, and you'll see the material captured in the screenshot above on the petition page under his causes menu. Click on "Read the Petition" and this text pops up:
In the 2010 election in Minnesota less than 5% of Minnesota’s active duty military members votes were counted. Current state policy is to count those votes last after all others. We believe that our active duty military vote should be counted first and in its entirety. If you agree, please sign the petition below. This petition will be delivered on 9/11 to Mark Ritchie, current Minnesota Secretary of State and Rep. Steve Simon, Chair of the Minnesota House of Representatives Elections Committee.
Tell them you support the initiative to have our military’s vote counted first!
In the post, we also checked out his claims, discovering that there is no state policy to count military absentee ballots last. In Chippewa County, where we live, the county auditor's staff counts all absentee ballots together, including those sent in by service members on active duty.
Since Thursday was September 11, we contacted the Office of the Secretary of State (OSS) and Representative Simon's office to see if the petition had been delivered, as those signing it had been promised.
OSS Communications Director Nathan Bowie emailed us to say, "No, we did not receive the petition." The legislative assistant to whom we spoke at Representative Simon's office said that no petition had been delivered on Thursday; she was at the office all day she noted.
Curious, we emailed the Severson campaign to learn the fate of the petition. The campaign emailed back:
Hi Sally Jo, no we decided to do it next week right before they mail the ballot.
Given that individuals signed a petition stating that it would be delivered on September 11, a day on which we remember the attack on the Pentagon as well as that onthe towers in New York City, Bluestem has to wonder what's up with a campaign that changes plans without notice.
Moreover, we are left shaking our heads at a campaign that will time the promotion of inaccurate information about the process of counting absentee ballots cast by active members of the military to the distribution of those ballots.
For information about the process, we recommend that readers visit the Military and Overseas Absentee Voting page on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.
As we have pointed out, counting ballots cast by active duty military personnel first does not address the issues of low voter participation by this set of voters. We encourage all readers who are eligible to vote in the state of Minnesota to do so.
We'll keep looking for him as we look at Stuff Dan Severson says.
With the retirement of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, the OSS is an open seat. Severson is vying with endorsed DFL candidate Steve Simon, IP endorsee Bob Helland and Libertarian Party candidate Bob Odden, according to the filings at the OSS office.
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In a recent survey by the First Amendment Center, 61% of Americans could name Freedom of Speech as a right guaranteed by the First Amendment, but only 23% could name Freedom of Religion. In the same survey, while two-thirds of Americans either strongly or mildly agreed that the First Amendment requires a clear separation of church and state, more than half (53%) incorrectly agreed that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation.
With religious illiteracy so widespread, it should not be surprising when we see it displayed by candidates for public office, though it is especially disturbing in this context. In the 2010 election cycle, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Minnesota, Dan Severson, argued in radio interviews that there was no requirement for separation of church and state because the U.S. is a Christian nation. More prominently, during a debate between the two candidates for U.S. Senator from Delaware, Republican/Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell expressed bewilderment when told that the Constitution prohibits the government from establishing any religion, replying: "You're telling me that's in the first amendment?" (Both Severson and O'Donnell lost their election bids.)
Virginia Wesleyan College is a small Methodist liberal arts college in Norfolk, Virginia; the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom explains the Wesleyan Connection here.
Severson's position on separation of church and state surfaced last week on KKMS-AM, during "The Word of Truth" radio show, in a conversation with Pastor Brad Brandon of the Berean Bible Baptist Church in Hastings. Brandon was in the news lately for endorsing candidates from his pulpit on Sunday.
"Quite often you hear people say, 'What about separation of church and state?'" Severson said on the show. "There is no such thing."
"We are a nation based on Christian principles and ideals, and those are the things that guarantee our liberties...when you begin to restrict our belief and our attestation to our Christian values you begin to restrict our liberties."
"You simply cannot continue a nation as America without that Christian base of liberty," Severson said.
In an interview Wednesday, Severson said the First Amendment's prohibition on Congress establishing a religion or preventing its practice "doesn't say that religion cannot influence government. It was always intended."
Actually, the framers made a religious test for office unconstitutional.
While Brad Brandon may have made news in 2010 for the interview and for endorsing candidates from the pulpit as Doyle notes in the article, he also played a role in the 2012 debate over the amendment to restrict the right to marry. The Strib's Rachel Stassen-Berger reported in Marriage amendment supporters apologize for Hitler references:
The group pushing the marriage amendment apologized Monday after its director of church outreach told at least a couple small groups that the other side is using techniques similar to Adolf Hitler. . . .
At an event recorded by the rival campaign, the Rev. Brad Brandon tells a group in Brainerd that Hitler suppressed religious freedom and that religious freedom is at stake in the marriage fight.
“We’re not saying that one side or the other is equal to Adolf Hitler and the atrocities that were committed in Nazi Germany,” Brandon said during a presentation that included a huge picture of the German ruler. “What we are simply saying is that when a totalitarian dictator takes place and wants to suppress the voice of a group…. they use certain tactics.”
The informational sessions were recorded and shared by Minnesotans United for All Families, the lead group trying to defeat the amendment. . . .
A couple weeks before the Brainerd event, Brandon made a similar pitch at a public seminar in Woodbury, which was attended by at least two other Minnesota for Marriage staffers, including its communication director.
But in 2010, former Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer introduced him. Kiffmeyer shares Severson's dim view of the separation of church and state. (Paul Schmelzer interviews her here about the often cited claim that she told the audience at a 2004 National Day of Prayer that "the five 'most destructive words' in American life today are 'separation of church and state.'"
"If there’s any question, we’re at war," he said. “War for democracy. War for the values our party stands for. ... Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Severson, unopposed at this convention, not only won endorsement but received big cheers as he questioned the integrity of current Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.
Severson said that photo ID will be the No. 1 issue of the campaign.
"That was a bad election in 2008," he said.
After winning endorsement by acclamation, Severson compared his situation to the days when he was in his fighter pilot, ready to hit the sky. His plane was equipped with bombs, missiles and cannon.
“But we needed fuel," he said, noting that his campaign needs to be fueled by money.
Minnesota voters rejected that analogy in 2010, a banner year for Republicans running for the state legislature, perhaps on the notion that the person overseeing elections might do well to avoid such comparisons.
Photo: Pastor and radio show host Brad Brandon (left) and Dan Severson (right). Via Word of Truth Radio "About Brad" page.
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One thing I observed over time was that some politicians are more in tune with we among the grassroots than others. An immediate standout was Dan Severson, then a state representative from Saux Rapids. In a time when many Republicans weren’t sure what to make of the Tea Party, and just as many were not naturally inclined toward the new movement’s positions on the issues, Dan Severson sat comfortably among us as a rogue advocate of causes like judicial reform.
Severson, who was Tea Party before there even was a Tea Party, promised to get government off the backs of the people.
Severson didn't score his party's endorsement for U.S. Senate, and was famously so shocked by what he called "immoral" pickups in the elections by the DFL that November that he famously declared that he'd leave the state.
Since he didn't followup on that promise, Bluestem has been reviewing just what makes the man so Tea Party (it's not just the frequent guest appearances at meetings and rallies), and begin a review of recent public statements that illustrate his agenda.
How so? Since most Minnesota kids just went back after Labor Day, we'll start with our review of Severson's incendiary rhetoric about public schools.
MNGOP Where Do We Go From Here 1/30/2013
However tempted, Severson remained in Minnesota after the 2012 Republican debacle, taking part in a panel discussion sponsored by Look True North and Real Capitol View, and hosted by Mitch Berg and Jeff Johnson.
When asked what might bring young people into the party, moderate activist Sarah Janecek said beginning just before the 46 minute mark:
So how do we appeal to the young people? I think Marianne [Stebbins] just hit it on the head, and Andy [Parrish] is going to hate this too, but look at the demographic data of the wave that's coming. Younger people don't care about the social issues and younger people grow up around--look at the numbers and I don't have, I didn't bring an ipad and I'm happy to follow up by posting something on Facebook, but I think where Ron Paul really appealed to young people was on the social issues, on the fiscal issues that Marianne just described.
Severson replied:
. . . We got--our public schools have become a machine that is socializing socialist values.
And so we have to have some pushback. I'm a big advocate of education choice. Vouchers, you know, actually giving the parent the ability to choice where their children go, and have voice in that process. That's part of it.
We have to fix our educational system because they are programming our kids, they aren't teaching them.
We're just wondering what those "socialist values" are--and Severson's simplistic notion that values are somehow "programmed" into students. Bluestem suspects that if teachers were able to implement such measures, they'd punch up the program for high test scores.
Around the 58:30 point, Rosenblum stated that they like to "see how far" candidates will go on policy, and so asked about the U.S. Department of Education. Severson replied with the standard conservative rallying cry of abolish it, and then says (59:08 time stamp):
I'm a big voucher kind of guy. I believe the parents should have the opportunity to send their children wherever they want to go to get a voucher that says "this is where I believe my child will be best served.
I believe that creates a free market system that actually makes the educational systems have to become more customer oriented, they're going to have to serve the customer.
I'm a substitute teacher, you know I was a substitute teachers for a while and both of my parents were teachers, and its very worthy and honorable profession but I think the unons have become too strong,. they have perverted the whole process of our education system and made it more about sustaining their jobs than about educating our children. So I'm a firm beleiver in getting rid of the Department of Education.
Listen here, beginning at 58:08 for the transcript above):
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One wonders if Severson understands the origins of the student debt crisis in a similar appeal to market dynamics on the part of those touted the "high tuition, high aid" model for higher education. We've seen what happens when funding follows the student. It's not pretty, especially when the funding of the individual student's future--rather than schools themselves--begins to be framed as "welfare," as has been the case with aid to college students.
Severson certainly enjoys injecting inflammatory rhetoric into statements; students are "programmed" with "socialist values" while teacher unions have "perverted" the system. The election of DFL majorities are "immoral."
Do Minnesotans want this sort of language and vision from their Secretary of State? We'll be looking at more from Severson in the coming days.
Photo: Dan Severson at the 2012 Rally the Right, in Andover, Minnesota, sponsored by the the North Metro Tea Party Patriots, according to the blogger who posted the entry at A Future Free. Photo credit: Bachmann for Congress.
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Bluestem's editor nearly spit out coffee laughing at this item in Blois Olson's Morning Take for Tuesday:
CD7: Yesterday the Minnesota GOP released a video of Rep. Colin Peterson campaigning in Arkansas and offering seats on the House Agriculture committee. WATCH: http://bit.ly/1xCEMeWNOTE: GOPers are noting that Peterson chose to attend this fundraiser in Arkansas rather than attend a flood diversion project in Breckenridge.
Why is this so funny? First, we're mildly surprised that the Republican Party of Minnesota is suddenly adverse to House leadership talking about offering seats on the ag committee. After all, Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reported in 2010 that Boehner promises Demmer a spot on the Ag Committee.
Perhaps Keith Downey can ask Speaker Boehner for an apology.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton met with Wilkin and Richland county leaders, state legislators, area farmers and citizens Wednesday in Breckenridge, to hear their views on the F-M Diversion Project and the negative impacts it will have on area property owners.
In a packed Wilkin County courtroom, Minnesota State Rep. Paul Marquart, who criticized the Diversion Authority over the Oxbow-Hickson-Bakke ring dike project in July, said the Diversion Project needs to follow a process, follow Minnesota state law and ensure that Minnesota is protected. . . .
Westrom was there, but isn't quoted in the article, and he's not sure how he feels abou it--since it's another issue he hasn't done much about, as our google search, nexis review and other searches reveal. Curiously enough, Westrom is supposed to represent Wilkin County in the state senate.
Dayton’s condemnation was followed by a statement from Minn. Congressman Collin Peterson on a local news station. For the past two years Peterson has been a steady and tireless voice of reason trying to broker a compromise between the Diversion Authority and its opponents. He has met with both sides separately, together, and with other leaders, acting as a moderator by prodding and pushing both sides to come to an accommodation. . . .
Who's been AOL on this issue for Minnesota residents? Not Peterson.
Photo: Peterson (foreground) discussing conservation efforts in the Red River Valley. Via the Dickinson Press.
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His Republican challenger, Westrom, a state senator and attorney from Elbow Lake, Minn., is hoping that Peterson’s electoral hot streak comes to an end before his own does. Peterson, 70, has held the seat since 1991; Westrom, 41, hasn’t lost an election since he first ran for the state house at age 23.
Speaking of turd blossoms, we're tracking down rumors that Karl Rove will be in Minneapolis for a high-priced fundraiser for Torrey Westrom on Septemberr 24 at the Hilton. Must be that "working class" touch that the MN07 Republicans chatter about in emails to supporters.
Photo: The incumbent Peterson defeated (left).
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Republican Party of Olmsted County Chairman Bruce Kaskubar is a member of the committee. He had been leaning towards not holding a convention because of the added cost and expense. He made a motion to not hold a convention but have the committee vote to show their support for Hagedorn. But during the discussion, Kaskubar said some questioned with the Republican Party of Minnesota's constitution required that candidates be formally endorsed in order to receive access to party resources. In the end, he said the committee vote was nearly unanimous in favor of the endorsing convention.
Carlson notes that the convention will take place in Mankato.
According to the pre-primary fundraising report on file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, the CD1 RPM had $13,266.81 cash on hand on July 21, 2014. The southern Minnesota Republicans not appear to have a federal account registered with the Federal Election Commission.
Hagedorn is challenging Mankato DFLer Tim Walz for the district.
Photo: A recent headline in the Star Tribune. Photo by Stacey Burns.
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A friend on the Seventh Congressional Republicans' email list shared the following fundraising pitch from the loyal opposition under the subject line, "Beer and Football":
...are just some of the few great freedoms Americans get to enjoy. But as working class Minnesotans, we are taxed to death and soon we won't be able to afford these simple luxeries.
I've got news for you. Its only going to get worse. If we let the Democrats take charge of the house our already bloated government is going take more from our ever shrinking savings. They won't stop till they take everything! . . .
Bluestem isn't sure who absconded with the committee's spell check program and apostrophe in that contraction of "it is" in the second sentence of the second paragraph, but we hope the cad gives both back.
We also hope that the Republicans in Minnesota's Seventh District discover that Americans enjoy more than a "few great freedoms" in addition to the simple enjoyment of beer and football.
Screenshot: The Seventh District Republicans' email. Please, start over, and try not to campaign on restricting the freedom to marry and vote.
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Jim Knoblach liked endorsements from prior elections so much that he put them on this cycle's campaign lit. But the organizations that made the endorsements?
Not so much.
At least, that's the sense we get in reading an exchange of letters to the editors in the St. Cloud Times.
Now in an election battle with first-term DFL legislator Zach Dorholt, Knoblach served the St. Cloud area in the Minnesota House from 1995 through 2006, when he tried running for Congress.
In a letter published on August 17, 2014, Julia Stewart and Linda Hamilton wrote the Times editors in Nurses back Dorholt, not Knoblach:
It's recently come to our attention that printed campaign materials from former Rep. Jim Knoblach continue to name the Minnesota Nurses Association in the past endorsements section. This information is misleading to voters and misrepresents the campaign endorsement process.
The 20,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association select candidates for endorsement based on their positions on issues important to nurses, patients and working families. This process happens each election season. While some candidates might be endorsed in one election season, they may not be in the next.
During the 2014 endorsement process, Knoblach did not respond to MNA's request to participate. Rep. Zach Dorholt, however, did respond and his answers showed him to be an advocate for nurses and deserving of the endorsement of our 20,000 members.
MNA can report unequivocally that Knoblach has not been endorsed for the 2014 campaign season, and only Rep. Zach Dorholt has succeeded to finish the endorsement process.
Voters across Minnesota and every district should question the endorsements of all candidates and not be misled by implications of blanket endorsements. Candidates should list the date of an endorsement in their literature.
I am writing to respond to a recent letter from the Minnesota Nurses Association. They questioned my listing their name under the heading "Past Endorsements" in my campaign brochure. They claimed this was "misleading" because, although they endorsed me in the past, I was not endorsed by them this year.
That brochure was printed in May. At that time, neither they nor other groups had made endorsements this year.
They have just issued this year's endorsements. Most groups like them wait until after the primary before issuing endorsements. Thus, I have not been misleading anyone by using this brochure these past few months.
It was always my plan to come out with a new brochure in late August, when the campaign heats up. That brochure is at the printer.
I did not choose to seek the nurses' union's endorsement this year.
Why?
First, they represent only a small minority of area nurses, namely government employees working for the state and Stearns County.
Second, the leadership of this union has become very partisan, this year only endorsing two Republicans (both incumbents) while endorsing 95 Democrats.
You read that right: he valued an old endorsement enough to list it in his literature piece, but now publicly scorns the group.
We're baffled. Is the endorsement worth something? Must it be aged? What's he telling voters here?
Former Rep. Jim Knoblach wrote Aug. 25 ( "Endorsement note was reasonable") saying he felt he was reasonable in listing prior endorsements on a campaign mailing.
I feel he was being deceptive. Upon looking at this mailing, Knoblach also listed receiving the Minnesota Police & Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees endorsements. Those are both associations that have already endorsed our Rep. Zach Dorholt for this election.
While the brochure is correct in saying that they are "past endorsements," it comes off that these are endorsements he expects to receive again, not endorsements that he is not even going to try and attain this election.
If this is the type of deceptive campaigning Knoblach is going to run this fall, it is not one that I want to represent me in St. Paul. . . .
Perhaps Knoblach can write again and tell readers why he valued old endorsments, but not the groups that made them.
Image: The fox and the grapes; what once were lucious fruit are now simply sour.
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A few weeks ago I went to the debate between state Rep. Shannon Savick and Peggy Bennett. Mostly, I wasn’t surprised by what either candidate said. Rep. Savick is running on her record of accomplishments such as paying back the schools, funding all-day kindergarten, balancing the budget and pushing through the funding for the dredging of Fountain Lake.
Ms. Bennett is running on the stance that she advocates less government. Which leads me to my one surprise of the evening. When asked how she felt about what the Minnesota Legislature did to support education, Bennett said she has a problem with the government providing programs such as free breakfasts for students. That, she said, should be the responsibility of the parents.
Really? As a teacher she should know and be concerned that a hungry student cannot learn. She should know many parents are just getting by, working odd hours or multiple jobs. Making breakfast is the ideal but not the reality for most families.
So that makes me wonder. If Ms. Bennett became a representative, would she throw aside practical solutions to real problems? Would she reject what’s good for our students or other citizens because it conflicts with her small government idealogy?
I know I don’t want a rigid person who votes lockstep with her party representing me.
Here's a clip of the answer (from a longer video):
While Bennett says she supports early childhood education, she certainly doesn't spendany time arguing for it. Instead she frets aloud beginning at the 46 second mark:
I do have a problem, and I struggle over this because I see the state and the US government, the federal government, starting to raise our children. All these good programs, from breakfast to whatever, are good but it takes responsibility away from the parents and puts it on to the state and family is the core to our society.
And every time we do that, we weaken the family. We need to find ways to strength the family. We need to find ways to lift up the economics in our area so people can support themselves.
We need to find ways to get the poverty kids to have the language that they need and all those things.
So that's a struggle for me. It's important, I would definitely support early childhood education as I do regular education, but at the same time, I want to be very careful that we do not take things away from our parents because everytime we do, it weakens the family.
This is gibberish. Bennett both thinks early childhood education is good, but it's bad because it weakens the family.
But the real opposition came from a little-known organization called Education Liberty Watch, mostly in the person of its president, Dr. Karen Effrem. Headquartered in Maple Grove, the group opposes any state role in early education — even, during the last budget cycle, opposing kindergarten readiness assessments and preschool screening.
The accepted research that sold the aforementioned list of business leaders on the idea that investing in early ed would provide handsome returns? Education Liberty Watch disagrees, offering research of its own showing that “intact families and high levels of religiosity” are the key to closing the academic achievement gap. . . .
Effrem testified before the legislature several times during the recent session, on topics ranging from the importance of the two-parent family to the dangers of early ed and the “perverse incentives” privately funded scholarships would create for the poor to allow their children to be raised by others. . . .
Bennett talks about "good" things coming from ECE, but ramblies on about the state taking over child rearing.
Researchers say access to early childhood education is a critical step in ensuring that students do well from the start. Studies have found that gaps in learning are already wide when children enter school; children living in poverty, for example, know far fewer vocabulary words than their more-affluent counterparts.
Megan Gunnar, director of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, points to years of research showing students who attend quality pre-K programs continue to do well not just academically but in other areas as well.
"They were more likely to finish high school, they were more likely to get a job, they were less likely to be incarcerated," she said.
Even if the academic benefits of pre-K programs fade in later years, as Gunnar said some studies have suggested, the social and decision makings skills students gain will help them throughout life. University of Chicago economist James Heckman has found that quality early education yields a 7 to 10 percent return for every dollar spent.
Funny, but we suspect that programs that foster success in school and work, while statying out of jail, probably strengthen families.
Photo: Peggy Bennett, struggling to talk about early childhood education. To watch the full video taped by Dan Borland, click here.
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The state’s top child protection official wants to scrap a law her agency helped pass four months ago that made it more difficult for social workers to investigate maltreatment cases.
In May, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill that forbids county child protection agencies from considering past abuse reports that were rejected when deciding whether to investigate a new report.
In the wake of the Star Tribune story on Aug. 31 about the death of 4-year-old Eric Dean, some of those same legislators say they did not realize what they had voted for, and now are calling for a law that will require agencies to consider all prior abuse reports.
“I don’t see why we would restrict past use of information under any circumstances,” said Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato.
Erin Sullivan Sutton, the assistant commissioner for children and family services for the Department of Human Services, said the law passed in May codified what had already been common practice for years. . . .
The language on what to do with screened-out abuse reports was introduced by DHS, Sullivan Sutton said, which was later wrapped into an omnibus bill that included dozens of new laws. “A screened-out report must not be used for any purpose other than making an offer of social services to the subjects of the screened-out report,” the law says. DHS pushed for the change to make the law consistent with its September 2012 guidance that counties should not consider any prior maltreatment history when considering what to do with a new report. . . .
Read the entire Star Tribune article. [end update]
The Star Tribune had reported in Lawmakers: Child-protection system failed Eric Dean that Westrom was planning to make changes to state rules after hearing from constituents outraged about the death of the abused boy, who was a resident of his district.
We were curious what leadership he had taken in the issue before the headline news (his sponsorship of bills while serving in the Minnesota House and Senate are found here).
While researching the issue, Bluestem learned that a minor change had been made in the law, after a more ambitious bill introduced by Senator Jeff Hayden was watered down. On June 3, 2014, the Chronicle of Social Change's Daniel Hempel reported in Not For Your Consideration:
Minnesota responds to three in ten reports of child abuse. Could a policy that precludes consideration of prior allegations be to blame?
Faced with serious concerns about its response to reports of child abuse, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) will consider amending a critical line in its guidance on child abuse screening this summer.
Over the spring, reporter Brandon Stahl of The Minnesota Star Tribune wrote a pair of stories chronicling the wide inconsistencies and low rate of investigation of alleged child abuse in the state’s 87 counties, alongside the tragic fate of seven children who died after child protective services contact in 2013.
In addition, a bill to amend the state’s screening practices was signed by the Governor last month. But the original legislation, which was the outgrowth of a 2012 audit that alluded to many of the problems Stahl would later describe in sharp relief, was so pared down in the state’s two-year legislative session that the new law’s effectiveness is left in doubt.
This leaves DHS with the difficult task of creating consistency across the state’s 87 counties, which range from the urban and suburban areas around Minneapolis to small jurisdictions abutting the great North Woods. . . .
Watch the Senate floor session debate on the conference committee report here.
Photo: Torrey Westrom campaigning Congress at the Ottertail City Parade, via Facebook. Westrom is challenging veteran U.S. Representative Collin Peterson in Minnesota's sprawling Seventh District.
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