Earlier today, we wrote a nostalgia post, MNGOP House candidates & county's COVID-19-Holocaust analogies prefigured Greene's views.
A report about Minnesota's Seventh District by Tom Lyden at Fox9 News, Grassroots or Astroturf? Congressional candidate says he was tricked into running by RNC strategist, prompts another review of our back pages. (It is, after all, Bob Dylan's 80th birthday).
Blind and permanently disabled, Kevin Ne Se Shores is accustomed to navigating life’s obstacles, but it has never stopped him from pursuing his third-party political ambitions.
Still, he was surprised by the unsolicited call he got in June of 2020 from a man who encouraged him to run against Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN) as a candidate for the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party.
Unknown to Shores, the man who called encouraging him to run was a Republican strategist, Kip Christianson, who at the time was on the payroll of the Republican National Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission.
On the day of the filing deadline, June 2, 2020, Shores said Christianson made a seven-hour roundtrip to pick up his notarized ‘Affidavit of Candidacy’ in Moorhead and delivered it to the Secretary of State’s Office in St. Paul, 45 minutes before the filing deadline.
Shores said Christianson also paid the $300 filing fee with a money order.
"I said, ‘How much is the filing fee?’ and he said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ And again, I’m assuming this is the Grassroots Cannabis Party," Shores said.
Shores said he only learned Christianson was working for the Republican Party after the election.
Christianson, a Harvard graduate from Monticello, has a resume that includes being a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, a treasurer for the Minnesota Young Republicans, and a candidate tracker for the MN Jobs Coalition. He also ran unsuccessfully for Minnesota Party Co-Chair.
Christianson told the FOX 9 Investigators he never misrepresented himself as a member of the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party. But when asked specifically if he ever told Shores he was a paid Republican strategist, Christianson said, "No comment." . . .
The name Kip Christianson may be familiar to readers. Back in 2016, we reported in MN Jobs Coalition tracker Kip Charles Christianson jostled parade volunteers at Raymond Harvest Fest Parade:
On August 22, Zach Kayser reported in the Brainerd Dispatch that Cruel words - and rocks - thrown at local legislative candidates. While the pelting of a DFL candidate with pebbles by onlookers and a threat made to a GOP candidate were not acceptable, the rudeness seemed random and freelance.
Not so an episode during the Raymond Harvest Fest parade last weekend, when a paid tracker aggressively inserted himself into a DFL parade unit for two House candidates, Andrew Falk, 17A and Mary Sawatzky, 17B. Both candidates served in the Minnesota House, but lost their seats in 2014 in races that were heavily targeted by independent political committees.
For the larger picture, we recommend Catharine Richert's 2015 report at Minnesota Public Radio, 2014 Minnesota campaign cost at least $28 million.
Shortly after the Raymond parade--we were packing for our move and therefore missed it--we started hearing about a rude tracker from friends who had walked with the candidates. Willmar labor activist Steve Pirsch's Facebook post is a mild reaction:
Walked with Andrew Falk and Mary Sawatzky in the Raymond Harvest Day parade we were joined by a photographer from the Jobs coalition he was taping and taking pictures I am sure they will be used as a negative towards our candidates. Pretty sad that the republicans waste their money on such dirty tactics.
Andrew Falk shared a letter to the editor about the incident on Facebook. . . .
. . . During the parade, he rudely walked with our unit while filming, ran into and pushed our volunteers, stuck his camera in the window of our truck, walked right in front of our truck while it was moving causing a safety concern, and would not leave after being asked to repeatedly. . . .
This behavior is unacceptable--and doesn't seem isolated, since we've heard from a DFL activist in the Second Congressional District that "Kip Charles" has been very aggressive to suburban candidates. He was "in her face" to Lindsey Port (56B) in a parade and shadowed Erin Maye Quade (57A) on a doorknock.
In all cases, the tracker--who is indeed the treasurer of the Minnesota Young Republicans--should respect local traditions like parades where people gather to have a good time. One of the best parades this year in MN17A was held in Prinsburg, Rep. Tim Miller's hometown; parade watchers cheered and waved to both candidates. At their best, small-town parades are about pride and appreciation--not partisan antics and Independent Political Fund fodder.
For more information about the 2014 funding for the MN Jobs Coalition's independent expenditures, check out our earlier posts. Bluestem looked at the Open Secrets database and the IRS filings to put together a November 14, 2014 post, MN Jobs Coalition received [$325,000] from the RSLC; where'd that money trickle down from? and a Feb 2015 update: MJC received $325,000 from the RSLC; where'd that money trickle down from?, as well as some additional analysis in our Merchants of Daudt series.
Other than conning disabled veterans into running for office and pushing campaign volunteers around in a Greater Minnesota parade, he seems nice.
But what's particularly peculiar here is the effort to encourage cannabis party candidates in a heavily-Trump district where the Republican challenger won hardily. Was there just too much money floating around for the Republicans to handle sensibly?
Photo: Kip in 2016. Via Bluestem Prairie.
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