UPDATE #2, November 23, 5:44 p.m.: In a letter, embedded in the new Bluestem post, MN Attorney General Keith Ellison graciously declines invitation to Erik Mortensen's party [end update]
UPDATE, November 23, 3:55 p.m.: Since we posted this article this morning, Ricardo Lopez has reported Incoming GOP state legislator planning Thanksgiving gathering in defiance of Walz COVID-19 orders at the Minnesota Reformer, and Torey van Oot closes Two Republicans join Minnesota House Democrats in urging coronavirus caution with this:
Not all Republicans share West's outlook. On Sunday, GOP Rep.-elect Erik Mortensen, who will represent the Shakopee area, posted a letter online inviting the DFL governor to a Thanksgiving gathering at his home.
The party, set to include darts, a bonfire and "a handful of constituents that live outside my personal residence," would violate Walz's latest executive order limiting private social events.
For himself, Mortensen vowed to continue to carry on in a tweet:
The America hating and anti-freedom media outlets are attacking me; trying to make me back down. But I will continue to be a warrior for everyone’s individual rights whether they appreciate it or not. https://t.co/wTeBVEDsMJ
— Erik Mortensen (@RepMortensen) November 23, 2020
[End update]
Governor Tim Walz's new coronavirus restrictions, detailed at Minnesota's Stay Safe Plan on the state's COVID 19 Response page, includes this item "Gathering outdoors is allowed with immediate household members ONLY."
That's prompted state representative-elect Erik Mortensen, R-Shakopee, to ask ". . . some close personal friends over next week for a get together . . . "
Back on Friday the 13th, Alpha News reported in Newly-elected GOP rep joins four incumbents who defected from Kurt Daudt’s leadership that Mortensen would join the New House Republican Caucus. Careful observers might have guessed this, given the number of Jeremy Munson signs in the election night watch party photo (from Facebook) at the top this post.
Here's Mortensen's first Facebook post about his backyard gathering, from November 20:
Just in case there were doubts about the invites to Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison, Mortensen posted the letters on Sunday (with the details of the party blacked out since it's not like he's asking the whole state over):
#StandUpToWalz Governor Tim Walz has gone too far and I will not obey his illegal and unconstitutional orders telling me...
Posted by Representative Erik Mortensen on Sunday, November 22, 2020
Lawn darts, beanbag toss and civil disobedience...
Meanwhile, a tweet by Representative-elect Mortensen prompted a tweet by liberal writer David Brauer:
This is the yutz that replaced @BradTabke. Pot party candidate got 7.4% here. Tabke won 2 years earlier in a two-way. What a downgrade for Shakopee. https://t.co/PGwSkccXyO
— David Brauer (@dbrauer) November 23, 2020
Given this copy in the Alpha News article, we had thought Mortensen was just a party-pooper:
Daudt was reelected to his leadership role during a House Republican Caucus meeting last Friday, which Mortensen claims he wasn’t invited to but attended anyway.
Mortensen said he plans to “pull back the veil” on what’s really happening at the Capitol and expose “how shady so much of this is.”
“I went into that meeting. They had no idea I was coming, which made it a lot of fun,” Mortensen said in a recent video. “They even tried to kick me out. They tried to pull me aside and say, ‘you need to leave or pledge that you’re going to join this caucus.’”
Mortensen won the Republican primary in August over former Rep. Bob Loonan, the House GOP’s preferred candidate for the seat. In his video, Mortensen said “establishment Republicans” spent “tens of thousands of dollars against” him, including the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, an organization founded by a former Daudt staffer.
“Unfortunately, that group elected the minority leader all over again, Kurt Daudt, and that person has lied to me repeatedly, he’s campaigned against me,” said Mortensen. “There’s no way I could look up to that person as a leader.”
In a recent email to his supporters, Mortensen confirmed that he will join the New House Republican Caucus when he’s sworn in, a decision he made after attending Friday’s caucus meeting.
“Unfortunately, Rep. Kurt Daudt was elected as minority leader again. Of course in his press release, Daudt made it sound like his support was unanimous but I can assure you that was not the case,” said Mortensen. “There was a lot of division in the room, other lawmakers even thanked me for speaking out against his leadership.” . . .
Perhaps being left out is where Mortensen got the idea to invite Walz and Ellison. Or he could simply be a yutz, as Brauer writes.
The MN Jobs Coalition spent $4,940 in independent expenditures (IE) against Mortensen and $2470 for his Republican primary opponent, according to its filings at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. That was the only Republican-leaning IE spent against Mortensen this year, according to data at the state campaign finance board, which indicates a total of $124,284.33 was spend for and against the race.
Most of the IE spending in the race was sprinkled about by the conservative Freedom Club PAC ($39,914.85; $30,914.85 pre-primary); and the state of Virginia-based Make Liberty Win PAC ($62,745.22; $28,102.63 pre-primary) according to pre-general campaign finance reports online at the board.
Looks like the pro-Mortensen conservative money-bags outspent the MN Jobs Coalition. Details, details.
Related posts:
- Facebook fundraising: Jeremy Munson cashes in on "Give to the Max Day" for political campaign
- MAGASOTA's surprising speakers list for Northfield Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 Saturday
- MN55A: Mortensen deletes fake news about Tabke's views after area hunter calls him out
Photo: An election night party, via Mortensen's Facebook page. No doubt about it, this one's a party animal. Or maybe not. If the Facebook embeds become unavailable, we'll fill the holes with screengrabs.
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