Over at MinnPost, the ever-excellent Cyndy Brucato reports in The odd congressional candidacy of David Benson-Staebler:
David Benson-Staebler, Republican candidate for John Kline’s seat in the Second Congressional District, has already made quite an impression among the activists and obsessives paying attention to the race at this early stage — largely due to the candidate's comments in an introductory news release and on social media.
Among other things, in a news release distributed at the first Republican candidate debate, Benson-Staebler called Black Lives Matter “a ruinous movement which… has done tremendous damage to African-American and its own communities.”
Then there was this: “For the good many, I would seriously consider punitive punishments against anyone violating the law out of a bigotry against my being Caucasian, male, and heterosexual as prejudice.” . . .
Benson-Staebler has echoed those remarks with similar posts on Twitter. Such extreme comments — coupled with Benson-Staebler’s previous work as an operative for Democratic candidates in Virginia and New York — have actually prompted suspicions that he is not a Republican candidate at all, but a mischief-maker solely in the race to offer inflammatory rhetoric that will taint the entire Republican field.
And there's this:
Benson-Staebler said his political change of heart evolved over time, starting from his days as a philosophy major at St. Olaf College. He currently lives in Morris, about 200 miles away from the Second Congressional District, adding another question mark about his candidacy. He says he is planning to move into the district shortly.
Given that the Republican Party has a surfeit of candidates seeking its endorsement for the open seat in Minnesota's Second Congressional District, and none at at here in Minnesota's Seventh against the proven Blue Dog war horse Collin Peterson, Bluestem would like to extend a modest suggestion to our loyal opposition that would kill a bunch of birds with one stone.
Run Benson-Staebler in Minnesota's Seventh. State senator Torrey Westrom didn't work out so well in 2014 and he has his Elbow Lake and vicinity seat to defend in 2016.
Given the recent discovery by the rest of the political world of the peculiar rhetoric in social media accounts kept by the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party, Bluestem thinks that he'll fit right in with the little party activists on the prairie and Benson-Staebler can redirect his moving expenses toward a campaign against the Detroit Lakes Democrat. (Not that he really has to live in the Second to run there, as Republican Jason Lewis and DFLer Mary Lawrence can attest).
He's no Jack Whitley, but Benson-Staebler should fit right in with the pop-media-meets-political performance-art discourse culture on the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party Facebook page that Bluestem's been documenting since August.
Material post on the Facebook page like:
- Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party Facebook page warns fans about cilantro
- #MN07 GOP Party Facebook page deletes post calling George Soros a "Nazi National Socialist"
- Islamophobic comedy continues as MN07 GOP Facebook page shares another urban legend
- MN07 GOP Facebook page spreads pants on fire outrage over PBJ sandwich ban urban legend
- MN07 Republican social media maven detects Collin Peterson's creeping covert communism
- MN07 Republicans freak out over Halloween ban while Comrade Collin lures Miller on manly hunt
It's a match made in political heaven, and as a progressive, poor country blogger, neither I nor my rescue cat gain in any way from this modest suggestion.
Photo: Benson-Staebler, who could be the man of the hour in Minnesota's Seventh. Via MinnPost.
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