Bluestem has posted quite a bit about endorsed Republican candidate Dan Severson, but it's the fleeting nature of blogging that such ephemera surfaces, then disappears.
With no excuse absentee voting underway and the November general election looming, we gather our fugitive pieces here to regale you, along with some additional gems we've been hoping to dissect.
But first, a reminder of how Dan Severson earned the name "Teflon Dan," and its connection to outrageous statements.
Prophetic intercessor Cindy Jacobs promised Dan Severson that Jesus would make him Teflon:
Was Dan Severson running for Minnesota Secretary of State in 2010--as he is in 2014--or to be God's own non-stick cookware?
Just months before he declared his candidacy in October 2009, self-proclaimed prophet and New Apostolic Reformation leader Cindy Jacobs delivered "prophetic words" at the Deborah Company Midwest Convocation in Bloomington on Saturday, July 25, 2009, promising the Minnesota Republican that he could "to be able to say outrageous things and still have favor. I'm going to give you favor - I'm going to make you Teflon."
Read the rest here. Jacobs is the lady who claimed the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" caused birds to drop from the sky.
As we noted in Center For The Study Of Religious Freedom cited Severson as example of "religious illiteracy," the Star Tribune reported in 2010 that:
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 [pictured above]. 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.
Actually, the framers made a religious test for office unconstitutional. And readers may recall Brad Brandon'a own outrageousness from the marriage equality debate.
Outrageous things
1. Military absent ballots are counted last under a Minnesota state policy
As we first noted in Dan Severson's claims about counting military ballots don't seem to be supported by facts, Dan Severson claims on his website:
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.
It's simply not true, as our research revealed.
And now there's that pesky text about delivering the petition on 9/11. That too, hasn't happened, though we have yet to check this week. On September 12, 2014, we reported So not 9/11: Severson SOS campaign delays delivery date for "Military Votes First" petition that the campaign planned to deliver the petition just before voters could receive absentee ballot. But as we learned in our September 22 follow up, Severson campaign still hasn't delivered "Military Votes 1st" petition to MN SOS, House Elections, that promise wasn't kept either.
2. Law enforcement should follow the example of Mayberry and not carry guns
In Lawless America: Dan Severson on judicial corruption, family court & the police state, we related the contents of a 2013 interview in which Severson said:
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].
So Severson points to a fictional television show as the model for law enforcement--and gets that wrong as well.
3. Schools program kids with socialist values
In Tea Party extremism? Severson slammed public schools for programming "socialist values" we noted Teflon Dan said:
. . . 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.
Okay then.
But it's not just our schools. It's Duluth, too, which Severson said "“tends to be” a "socialist enterprise" at the at 2:14 time stamp at the Youtube of GOP CD8 Convention, uploaded April 12, 2010.
4. Floor debates in the Minnesota House were battles between good and evil
This is from an old post, 2011's Off his meds?: Senate candidate Severson literally saw evil on floor of the MN House:
Perhaps it's appropriate that Hutchinson Leader staff writer Jorge Sosa's November 16 article, "In God they trust," is only in the print edition, given that Senate candidate Dan Severson admits to having an inner life worthy of a governess in a Henry James novella.
Let's turn that screw. Sosa writes:
Recalling his time in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Severson said, "There was a battle on the floor and it was literally between good and evil, between those who understand the word of God and those who do not."
And hear we thought it was a policy and budget thing.
5. The 2012 Minnesota election was immoral
As we noted in a September 22 post:
Veteran Forum Communications political reporter Don Davis wrote in Republicans can’t believe returns as DFL rejoices:
Dan Severson stood in disbelief watching election returns.
The former Republican state representative and two-time statewide candidate watched election night as Fox News called the presidential race for Democratic President Barack Obama, and his mood got worse from there as an unexpected Democratic wave formed.
He did not understand.
“It’s immoral,” he said at the Minnesota Republican Party post-election gathering in a Bloomington hotel. “I’m in a state of disbelief. If that’s what Minnesota wants to do, I’m not a Minnesotan for long.” . . .
The Forum Communications piece was late picked up by City Pages.
6. Voters without photo ID can just wait in the cold for hours
Severson once said at the Minnesota stop for the Constitutional Ride Across America that "this country is not a democracy," and he's apparently not much into this equality stuff, either.
He wants "express voting" as we noted in MNSOS: Dan Severson touts "express voting" while reporters decline to ask what's new in plan. But he doesn't stop there. In Brainerd voter objects to Severson's attitude about having non-express voters stand out in cold, we wrote about an interview with Severson on Tim Kinley's "Speechless."
At the 53:41 point, Severson said about voluntary photo ID/express voting:
Now, if you don’t want to do it, be my guest. You can go over to the side and wait in line two hours in the cold. That’s fine.
7. Democrats are committing voter fraud by mailing out absentee ballots this year
This one is priceless, illustrating a fundamental misunderstanding of the process he wants to oversee if elected as Secretary of State. In MNSOS: Teflon Dan Severson tells Daily Agenda he's confused about absentee voting process, we shared this gem:
Asked by Olson about what he perceives to be voter fraud, "Teflon Dan" Severson recites his usual list of debunked anecdotes, then adds a new one at at the 25 minute mark:
Blois Olson: When you bring up this no-excuse absentee voting which is being touted this year, it's being used by candidates of both parties, any pitfalls you see potentially here that are concerning or that may cause some issues with this year's election?
Dan Severson:Yeah and I think, one of them was brought to me attention just a couple of nights ago, I was up in Sleepy Eye and a couple I had not met before came up to me and said, "You know, we have a daughter who was 18 years old when she last voted in Minnesota, that was basically eight years ago. She got, she moved down to Kansas. We got a absentee ballot to our house. She hadn't voted in these eight years and she got, we got a ballot at our house for her to fill out and mail in."
Well, she doesn't live in Minnesota anymore but there's a ballot that just happened to occur on their doorstep and I'm kind of going, how do they know this is her--
Olson: --Right--
Severson: --number one and how come all of a sudden this is has happened? Well, this is the whole "no excuses" early voting and there are lists that are out and the Democratic Party mined that list and basically said, "Hey we think that you should vote," and that fact of the matter is, she doesn't even live in Minnesota anymore.
Now what's the security of that particular ballot?
In fact, the DFL was distributing applications for ballots to individuals on the counties' voting lists, a perfectly legal and accepted practice to encourage voters to request their own ballots. (Read more about the process at the link.)
We may have to have another Seven by Severson next week, since this material should be putting the SOS in coverage of the Secretary of State's race.
Sadly, no one in the legacy media seems to be paying attention to Severson's claims enough to bother to fact check or review the man's record.
Bonus: Severson wants to return Secretary of State's office back to standard set by Mary Kiffmeyer.
Visit DFL endorsed candidate Steve Simon here; Simon has written and worked to pass most recent changes in Minnesota's election system. Bob Helland is the endorsed IP candidate.
Screenshot at top: We're speechless too that nobody's looking into what the guy who might be elections boss says he thinks about the process and government itself.
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