UPDATE, October 9: The Rocks and Cows and National Guard Cooks of the North page is either no more or private. However, there's Rocks and Cows of The North and National Guard Cooks The Sequel up now, though without the old content. The new group, established today, has far fewer members, but that could change. [end update]
On Friday, MinnPost's Greta Kaul reported on Why Paul Thissen isn’t waging a normal campaign for Minnesota Supreme Court. We'd been wondering why Thissen might have to worry about getting re-elected, even after reading the article, which closed:
But also said he’s also taking the challenge from MacDonald seriously. After running multiple times, she has some name recognition and has captured significant shares of the vote in previous elections, he said. “We have a serious opponent … this is her fourth run for the office.”
At the Fargo Forum, the McFeely Mess podcast checked out the race in Minnesota Supreme Court candidate Paul Thissen says judgment matters, draws distinction with opponent:
Justice candidate MacDonald has history of suspension, discipline measuresMinnesota state Supreme Court justice Paul Thissen joins podcast host Mike McFeely to discuss his race against Michelle MacDonald, a candidate who had her law license suspended and has faced discipline from her peers. Thissen says judgment matters and believes his track record separates him from MacDonald.
But not everyone in the North Star state has doubts about about her competence and all that. One group that's taking her seriously--and supports her over Thissen--is Rocks and Cows of Minnesota. Let's take a look at who Rocks and Cows of Minnesota is, then why the movement is supporting MacDonald.
On its front page, Rocks and Cows of Minnesota describes itself:
We are working on turning Rocks and Cows into a true political organization that will survive and continue to fight, well past this upcoming election. We will be fighting for all of us in the outstate, or to us, the Greater State of Minnesota. Therefore we have filed to become a Political Hybrid PAC, that makes only independent expenditures. . . .
From the Governor right down to the school board member, Rocks and Cows will be providing continual updates on issues, votes, and general performance. . . .
With 100,000 members across the movement, one thing is very clear, we will no longer endure being marginalized. We will be silent no more…! HERD STRONG is HEARD STRONG!
We can't find a state level political action fitting this description in the Minnesota Campaign Finance And Public Disclosure Board's Recent committee and fund registrations database, nor does anything come up on the federal level.
Now, the first two of those links go to the same Facebook page--with 37,400 some members--while the Southern Minnesota group is unavailable now on Facebook. The message on the page:
The Recall Governor Walz Facebook page is a private group with close to 60,000 members which uses the harhtag #RecallWalz.org.
The Recall Walz web page? Conservative Minnesota media site Alpha News' Judah Torgerud reported in Recall Walz group attempts to remove governor for a third time:
Along with grassroots support from citizens, Recall Walz has organizational help from Action 4 Liberty, a group that has previously petitioned for the removal of Walz’s emergency powers. They also have support from state Rep. Jeremy Munson, who is a moderator on the Recall Walz Facebook group
Ballotpedia's Tim Walz recall, Governor of Minnesota (2020) page includes Chief Justice Lorie Gildea's dismissal of the first two petitions. Irony alert: Gildea's spouse, Andy Gildea, recently retired as a staffer for Munson's New House Republican Caucus.
Those are the powers behind a group that's supporting MacDonald over Thissen. Here's a screengrab of the side-by-side comparison on the group's Current Minnesota Supreme Court Race:
Apparently all that history of suspension, discipline measures matters not.
On its "Our Team" section on Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's About Page, we read:
Seeing a need to correct the tides of deprecating, disregard for anyone outside the metro, we formed our organization to wake the silent majority. We’ve consistently grown since then, all thanks to the huge number of amazing Rocks and Cows. Our organization is made up of many amazing individuals and organizations. More information on affiliate groups coming soon!
We're happy to deprecate this nincompoopery from from our vantage point in Summit, SD, where we literally look down on the fertile farms and lovely conservation acres of west central Minnesota. Withholding information about MacDonald's sketchy legal reputation--especially in a time when conservatives fret about child abductions--boldly goes where no satirist has gone before.
Of course, part of this organization's membership is a Facebook group whose members by and large don't understand that the Babylon Bee is a satire group.
Related posts:
- Rocks & Cows Facebook group members decry Ilhan Omar's son John--er Bruno Mar
- She'll be back: Michelle MacDonald emails supporters that she's running for Justice again (2014)
Photo: From Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's frontpage. The billboards are the creation of one of the movement's member groups.
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