On Wednesday, legendary Range newsman Bill Hanna got snippy about former state representative Joe Radinovich's career path, but a millennial whippersnapper had beat him to the scoop about the young man's new job.
By over a month.
In Nolan picks re-election campaign manager Hanna writes:
It didn’t take long for former state Rep. Joe Radinovich of Ironton to land yet another political job — his third in a year.
Radinovich is U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan’s new campaign manager for his 2016 re-election campaign.
Radinovich was still a state legislator at this time in 2014, but would relinquish his seat last January following his defeat at the polls a year ago by Republican Dale Lueck of Aitkin.
He was then appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton as an assistant commissioner of the Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board.
That lasted less than a year. It was announced at the IRRR Board’s December meeting that Radinovich had resigned from the agency to pursue other interests.
It had been widely speculated that Radinovich would run for a state Senate seat in 2016, which could still happen.
But for now he’s heading up Nolan’s quest for re-election in what should be a tough rematch with Republican challenger Stewart Mills, also of the Brainerd area. Mills narrowly lost to Nolan in 2014.
Radinovich, 29, told the Brainerd Dispatch last January after being named to the IRRRB post that he believes a young person will have a dozen different careers in a lifetime. He’s well on his way to that goal. He’s now had three of those in 11 months, although all of them are wrapped in politics.
And how was the Radinovich announcement made?
Through an email seeking campaign donations, of course. . . .
Well, not really. In reality, the news had already been reported on November 24, 2015 in a larger story by Zach Kayser at the Brainerd Dispatch.
Yep. Four and a half weeks before. Under the subhead "Radinovich to manage Nolan campaign" in Nolan defends Syrian refugee position, young Kayser wrote in the story posted on November 24:
Nolan confirmed that he plans to hire former DFL Minnesota Rep. Joe Radinovich to be his campaign manager. Radinovich has not yet been officially hired and he still has to put in his notice for his position at the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, Nolan said, but he's expected to start at the campaign after the first week in January.
Nolan said Radinovich was a good choice in every regard.
"He's an exceptionally bright, exceptionally capable guy, and he's got a good heart," he said. "He's one of us, he grew up with us here."
Heck, even the Twin Cities media twitterati got schooled by the Dispatch reporter two days before Hanna printed his crotchety copy:
@ZWKayser sorry Zach, I missed it
— Brian Bakst (@Stowydad) December 29, 2015
Now get off Bill Hanna's lawn.
UPDATE: A reader drew our attention to Hanna's earlier report in the December 27, 2015, Hibbing Daily Tribune, IRRRB OKs nearly $2 million worth of projects, wherein the legendary Range newsman writes:
Board Chairman Rep. Tom Anzelc of Balsam Township announced that Joe Radinovich of Ironton had stepped down as assistant commissioner at the agency.
Radinovich was appointed to the position last January by Gov. Rudy Perpich following his defeat in a re-election bid the House 10B legislative seat.
Anzelc said Radinovich was leaving the post to pursue other opportunities. He is considering another run for the Legislature in the 2016 election.
Bluestem hopes the Star Tribune's crack investigative reporter Jennifer Bjorhus gets to the bottom of this, given that Radinovich, born in April 1986, was not yet five years old when Perpich left office in January 1991. While Perpich died in 1995, he was Minnesota's longest serving governor, and perhaps his larger-than-life persona continued to hold sway, at least on the Range.
Radinovich is also a quick study and the young boy might have made an impression on Perpich while he still walked among us. It bears looking into.
Photo: A recent photo of Joe Radinovich, via twitter.
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