In MN Jobs Coalition tracker Kip Charles Christianson jostled parade volunteers at Raymond Harvest Fest Parade, Bluestem examined the tracker's aggressive and physical behavior in a small town parade. The post included the full text of a letter from DFL MN17A candidate, former state representative Andrew Falk.
Falk's letter to the editor was published in last week's Clara City Herald; in the Wednesday, September 7 edition of the small-town paper, Mike Thein, a supporter of freshman state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg responds.
It's a mighty peculiar document, not just in terms of Thein's omission of the most vexing part of The Kipster's behavior (bumping into and pushing volunteers), but in Thein's invention of a false equivalence between physical aggression in a parade by a MN Jobs Coalition tracker and "negative ads and hate mailings" from the left-leaning Alliance For A Better Minnesota.
Thein writes in part (the paper isn't online):
Now here is the irony of Andrew's letter: Tim Miller has experienced the very same tactics and more from groups like Alliance for a Better Minnesota for years. By the way this is a DFL Super PAC! These types of groups have followed Tim Miller around for over two years and attacked him relentlessly in negative ads and hate mailings while supporting Andrew with praise.
Thein cites Alliance for a Better Minnesota as an author of "negative ads and hate mailings" against Miller. Like the MN Jobs Coalition's Legislative Fund, keeps an Independent Expenditure Political Committee and Political Fund, in this case the Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund.
While the progressive group did run cable, radio and online ads against MIller close to the 2014 election, we didn't recall the Alliance for a Better Minnesota Action Fund sending any "hate mailings" about Miller in 2014--or since. Until a week ago, Bluestem's world headquarters was located in Minnesota House District 17A.
We checked our recollections about ABM's independent expenditures in 2014 with the political fund's year end report for that year, and sure enough, the group's action fund didn't spend a dime on any kind of mailings in 2014. Nor has the PAC spent a dime on any kind of independent expenditures against Tim Miller so far in this cycle (2015 and 2016).
On the possibility that Mr. Thein might have gotten "issue" junk mail from ABM itself that berated Miller, we contacted ABM Executive Director Joe Davis to see if the group had sent this type of mail into the district. Davis replied:
Nope we haven't mailed anything negative on Tim Miller this cycle either, issue or otherwise. Thanks for checking!. . .
One has to wonder what group Thein imagines is relentlessly sending "hate mailings" to his mailbox for the last two years and more. Perhaps he can be specific in his next letter to the editor, including PAC reports filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
Independent expenditures, both for and against Miller are available here, while those related to Falk in 17A are here. In 2014, we looked at a mail piece Education Minnesota sent to its members in our posts, MN17A: Is Ed Minn portraying Tim Miller as an "uncaring ogre"? A Bluestem factcheck and MN17A: Is Ed Minn portraying Tim Miller as an "uncaring ogre"? Union spokester responds.
In the meantime, the imaginary ABM hate mailings just aren't the same as a tracker who bumps into and pushes volunteers walking in a small town parade, and that leads us to the final point about independent political funds that Thein brings up on behalf of Miller:
. . . The difference is Tim Miller knows it's part of politics and our rights to free speech and expression. Even when mailers, tactics, or comments are hurtful to Representative Tim Miller he will defend their rights to say it.
The fact of the matter is Representative Tim Miller is a good, honorable man and someone I call a personal friend. . . .
That's certainly a different attitude about negative mail than what Miller's wife expressed in 2014. Moreover, Mrs. Miller linked the independent expenditure to Falk. Perish the thought that Miller and other Republican candidates might want to have it both ways about attack pieces from PACs.
And Thein's final defense raises the question: does Miller himself think that physical aggression in parades is acceptable behavior? Or is it simply the phantom ABM Action Fund "hate mailings" that he's willing to defend?
Photo: Mike Thein, who sees nothing wrong with a tracker getting physical with an opponent's supporters in a parade. Does his personal friend Tim Miller agree? Photo via Facebook.
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