As Monday's primary in the special election Minnesota House District looms, a news round-up is in order. At the Waseca County News, Dana Melius reports in Republican primary battle heats up; polls ready for Monday vote:
Turnout was expected to be light Monday for the District 23B special primary.
Two Republicans — party-endorsed candidate Jeremy Munson and Watonwan Commissioner Scott Sanders — are vying for the right to move on to the Feb. 12 special election to fill the Minnesota House of Representatives seat which opened due to a Nov. 28 resignation by veteran legislator Tony Cornish.
But a late, heated debate among key players in the Republican party may prove to bring additional voters to the unique Monday election.
a mid-January endorsement of Sanders by Cornish sparked a growing debate among District 23B and state Republicans. Former Sen. Al DeKruif, the Republican chairman of Le Sueur County, countered with a harsh commentary criticizing Cornish and his decision to go against the party-endorsed candidate.
“Tony Cornish just spit in the eye of every Republican caucus goer...by personally endorsing someone other than the GOP endorsed candidate,” DeKruif wrote.
But DeKruif added these comments: “Tony’s judgement has been compromised; in more ways than one!”
It was a thinly-veiled mention of Cornish’s resignation after the seven-term legislator resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Cornish responded back via Facebook posts and continued to back Sanders while also criticizing DeKruif’s commentary that he had no right to play a role in the District 23B special election. Cornish also send some within the GOP were spreading “fake news” about Sanders’ stance on gun rights.
Cornish added in one Facebook post: “I endorsed Scott Sanders because he is the candidate I trust to defend your 2nd Amendment rights. Period.” ...
There has been some recent chatter about the fake gun group I've warned people about before. Please read this letter some of my pro-gun colleagues and I wrote a couple years back. DO NOT believe any of the mud this fake group spreads -- they're only doing it to take money from good folks like yourselves! Shameful.
I endorsed Scott Sanders because he is the candidate I trust to defend your 2nd Amendment rights. Period.
Cornish shares a Scribd document that might look familiar to Bluestem readers:
Pro-Second Amendment Legislators' Letter Disavowing Minnesota Gun Rights (MGR). Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
The document was embedded in our post, Sixteen pro-Second Amendment MN House members disavow Minnesota Gun Rights. We're happy to supply the public record. Just the facts.
The potentially surprising Melissa Wagner
Moving along: at Minnesota Public Radio, Tim Pugmire reports on the fued in Republicans face off to replace Cornish in MN House noting at the end of the story:
. . . The winning Republican will face DFL candidate Melissa Wagner in next month's special election.
Wagner, a school social worker from Lake Crystal, said she was planning to run for the seat before Cornish's resignation. Despite Cornish's long hold on the office and the district's Republican leanings, Wagner said she believes voters want a change.
"They want a new voice and some new ideas to come. I've even had some support from some people who said, 'I've never voted for a Democrat before, but I'm going to vote for you,'" Wagner said. "Some of those people have even supported me financially. I find that very encouraging."
Minnesota DFL Party chair Ken Martin is also upbeat about Wagner's chances. Martin says the political winds could help his party make gains in many areas this year.
"There's not one seat in this state that Democrats couldn't compete in, including in 23B," Martin said.
Mr. Martin might be on to something, given upset Democratic victories in special elections in deep red districts in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Our hunch is that Sanders would be more difficult to beat than Munson.
Munson: The Party Man
The online-news source the Mankato Times ran a letter supporting Munson from Protein Sources pork producer partner Paul FitzSimmons, Munson earns voters support. (Republican Party state treasurer Bron Scherer is another pork partner). For Bluestem, the most interesting passage in the letter is this tidbit:
Jeremy has been very active in GOP Local, State, US House District 1, and National politics, while helping with campaigns from our local races on up to National races. He has proven to me to be able to take conservative positions and articulate those positions without pause. And for his hard work on these causes and his willingness to serve at every level he has my support.
Indeed, researching Munson's history in the Republican Part in southern Minnesota clearly demonstrates that this ability to pivot with the party is unparalleled. Witness his 2016 caucus-era remarks about Donald Trump in the Mankato Free Press last winter. Mark Fischenich reported in Area voters reject Clinton and Trump on March 2, 2016:
Blue Earth County Republican Chairman Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal said an intense dislike for both Clinton and Trump appeared to motivate people showing up at GOP caucuses.
"I think people are really upset, but they're also scared of choosing a candidate who could be such drastic thing for the party," Munson said of Trump.
He sensed the big turnout at West High School included Democrats and independents who were looking for a non-Trump alternative to Clinton on the general election ballot, viewing Rubio as someone who could maybe topple Trump for the nomination and lessen the possibility of a Clinton presidency.
"That also shows the distaste in Minnesota for Hillary Clinton," Munson said. "I think they really came out in force to vote for Rubio. They really dislike Trump."
And now? Tim Krohn reported in One year after elections, area Republicans remain behind Trump:
Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal has full-bore support for Trump.
"I'm really satisfied with his performance so far. Obviously we want him to implement his full platform and we see a lot of resistance from Democrats and even from our own party. It's frustrating," said Munson who was Blue Earth County GOP chairman last year and is now chair for the 1st Congressional District.
He said some of his GOP friends may be less enthusiastic about Trump's performance so far, but are still on board.
"I have heard from people who voted for him that are cautiously optimistic but aren't as vocal in supporting him. They're frustrated they didn't repeal Obamacare, but that's not him, that's because of people like Rand Paul and John McCain.
"He's showing the country that if we want to see his agenda passed, we need to send Republicans to the House and Senate."
Munson said Trump's personality doesn't bother him at all.
"What drew me into politics is I don't like career politicians, like a lot of people on both sides. So we finally elected a man of the people, a regular citizen to be our president, and we got what we voted for. He's not a polished politician; he's doing what we'd do if elected as an average Joe. He's trying to build a coalition and he's draining the swamp," Munson said.
"And he's trying to circumvent the media, which is important because there's so much spin from the media."
Munson said he thinks conservatives and liberals should both appreciate one thing about Trump.
"He's not like Obama who when he got frustrated he'd use executive orders. Trump is being constitutional and going back to the Congress to get things passed, not using executive orders."
Okay then. According to the Federal Register (an official federal government source, not a part of the media), Trump signed 55 Executive Orders in 2017. In October, CNN reported in Trump is on pace to sign more executive orders than any president in the last 50 years:
Why does it matter? Because Trump was a vociferous critic of then-President Barack Obama's use of executive orders -- casting them as a purposeful end-run of the legislative branch.
"Obama goes around signing executive orders," Trump said in February 2016. "He can't even get along with the Democrats. He goes around signing all these executive orders. It's a basic disaster. You can't do it."
Trump said that same sort of thing regularly on the 2016 campaign trail. It was a perfect way to make the case that Obama was an out-of-control executive, trying to push his liberal agenda on the country via fiat.
Which makes the fact that Obama had signed roughly half of the executive orders at this point in 2009 as Trump has signed so far in 2017 rich with irony.
Trump allies will note that the bulk of Obama's executive orders came late in his second term, making these sorts of early-on comparisons inaccurate.
It's true that we don't -- and can't -- know how many total executive orders Trump will sign by the end of his first four-year term. But, Obama actually signed more EOs in his first term (147) than he did in his second (129), according to statistics maintained by the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. That total of 276 executive orders for Obama was less than the 291 signed by George W. Bush in his two terms and far fewer than the 364 EOs signed by Bill Clinton over eight years in office.
Yep, Munson can certainly articulate a talking point with the best of them--even if 2017's talking points don't mesh up with 2016's. Apparently, Republicans only remember Kurt Daudt's 2016 criticisms of Trump.
Harassing running dog infidel Tony Cornish, on the other hand, caught the attention of DFL-allies at Alliance for a Better Minnesota in late April 2016 when Representative Tony Cornish Endorse[d], Then Delete[d] Post In Support Of Trump. Whatever the case, it does seem that the disgraced Republican was loving him some Donald before Munson adopted his support of Fearless Leader.
Minnesota House Republicans on Twitter.
Not a peep about the special election.
Mankato Free Press reports on kerfuffle
In Primary to decide GOP 23B candidate set for Monday, Trey Mewes reports:
. . . Munson and Sanders have had a somewhat contentious competition over the past few weeks. Munson beat Sanders and captured more than 75 percent of the delegates who attended a GOP district endorsing convention last month. Sanders filed for office earlier this month.
Sanders has said he respects the endorsement process but felt the election process was too short for the endorsement to effectively work, which is why he wants the thousands of conservative voters in District 23B to decide on the Republican candidate.
Sanders' approach has angered other local GOP officials, who say he's taking away from Munson's ability to campaign against DFL endorsee Melissa Wagner, of rural Lake Crystal, for the February special election.Further controversy erupted when Cornish publicly endorsed Sanders earlier this month. Cornish still holds sway in the district, which has decisively voted Republican in state legislative elections since 2002. Other state lawmakers have endorsed Sanders, while local and state GOP officials support Munson.
The two candidates have similar views on how the state of Minnesota should be run, but Munson has focused his campaign on health care solutions and price transparency on medical treatment. Sanders has made jobs and economic development his top priority. . . .
Monday's primary will be one to watch. By Golly.
Image: Will the long shadow of Tony Cornish, pictured above, sway ordinary voters to break with partisan activists? We'll all know on Monday night.
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