Bluestem Prairie

Crime and punishment in Mille Lacs County: band students at county attorney's party so not marching in Foley Parade tonight

Sally Jo Sorensen — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:36:46 PDT

It's been a while since Bluestem looked at the ongoing investigation of allegations of underage drinking at a graduation party on the property of Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude.

Due to obvious conflicts of interest, Anoka County is investigating the situation and Russ Jude, an investigator for the Mille Lacs band's tribal police force has been reassigned, pending the conclusion of the investigation.

But a few unfortunate souls have been brought to justice: marching band members who attended the graduation bonfire for the county attorney's daughter.

The Mille Lacs Messenger reports in Milaca marching band members ineligible after attending party at county attorney's:

According to a parent of a member of the Milaca marching band, her child and "several" other students have been suspended from marching band today, June 19. They will be ineligible to march in the Foley parade tonight, June 19, but will be eligible to march in the Milaca parade tomorrow, June 20, and throughout the rest of the season.

She said her child came home from practice with a letter saying he had violated the school's alcohol policy and code of conduct policy on May 27, 2013, and would be ineligible for tonight's parade.

Milaca Superintendent Jerry Hansen would not confirm whether any suspensions were made in relation to a party May 26 and 27 at the residence of Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude and her husband, Mille Lacs Tribal Police Investigator Russ Jude.

He said the school received a complaint and followed policies and procedures for students who violate the rules. . . .

The Messenger knows the names of the suspended students and that they were all in attendance at the party at the Judes but is not sharing their names to protect their privacy.

Well then.

In another story, the paper reports in Investigation continuing into party at county attorney's:

"This goes well beyond the drinking and the Judes," [Commander Paul Sommer of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office] said. "There's a whole list of witnesses he's been interviewing, and he's not concluded with that."

"It's going to be a lot larger … There's going to be a lot more statements in there," he continued.

"I'm not sure how long it's going to take to reach these people and get their statements done. That takes some time. We want to be as thorough as we can given the nature of the allegations and the principals involved."

Sommer told the Messenger on Tuesday, June 11, that he expected the investigation to be complete within a couple of days. . . .

Stay tuned.

Photo: Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude.

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The one about the state house committee: DeKruif throws some aged beef to CD1 GOP base

Sally Jo Sorensen — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:22:59 PDT

A friend calls Bluestem's attention to former one short-term state senator Al DeKruif's letter to the editors in today's Mankato Free Press The young man prefaces the link in his email with this observation:

DeKruif is campaign SO hard with this letter. There's so much Republican red meat that the cow's still breathing.

To the contrary, Bluestem believes that while DeKruif's tossing his red meat, that beef is so aged that many of the complaints in Democrats used bait and switch on business have been hanging so long that they meet the traditional definition of having a couple of maggots nosing their way around the quarter.

Take this one:

We need legislators who understand the significant impact of government regulations on farms and businesses. We all agree that clean air and water are important, but what happened in the 2012 election when folks voted for so-called business friendly Democrats is a whole other story.

In the House of Representatives, Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL- Minneapolis, became chair of the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee (another “great” Democrat idea by the way : combining Agriculture with the “Environment” committee).

Rep. Wagenius is far from business and agriculture friendly being an extreme, environmentalist from the metro area; thus, the bait and switch. One votes for a legislator who seems business friendly based upon their campaign literature but one gets a chair of a major committee in St. Paul who knows nothing about agriculture, has never lived on a farm, and is not remotely business friendly.

One in five jobs in Minnesota is related to the agriculture industry [3]. The best interests of rural Minnesota and agriculture are not met by a chair who has no knowledge in those areas.

Poor Mr. Dekruif. Having heard the talking point, he missed the facts. Take this bit from Agri-News in February, in Poppe, Wagenius speak at Agri-Growth policy luncheon:

The two women in charge of House agriculture committees spoke before more than 70 people at the first Agri-Growth policy luncheon of the year last week.

Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, chairs the House Agriculture Policy Committee. Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, chairs the House Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee.

The duo introduced themselves at the Jan. 29 luncheon, with Poppe telling of her upbringing in rural Houston County and Wagenius talking about her Douglas County farm.

When it was time for questions, no one broached the subject that has everyone talking -- putting agricultural finance with environment and natural resources – but Poppe brought it up.

In an interview after the meeting, Poppe said it's better to bring up the issue and deal with it in a way that's constructive. The more people are open about it, the more opportunity there is for discussion, she said.

During the luncheon, Poppe said that she was first elected; agricultural finance was in the environment, natural resources and agriculture finance committee, the same committee structure as this year. . . .

And who controlled the Minnesota House at that time? Republicans, who must have found that "Democrat" idea attractive. As Bluestem has noted before, suburban/exurban Dakota County representative Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) chaired that commitee.

A few days later in House Republicans balk at ag committee structure, AgriNews reported:

Wagenius owns land in Douglas County and her husband, Dwight, grew up on a farm. Her grandfather was a truck farmer. They have trees and gardens on their Douglas County land where research is conducted in cooperation with the Chicago Botanic Garden and the University of Minnesota.

This isn't the first time ag finance has been combined with other areas. In the 2005-2006 session, the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee was chaired by Rep. Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount.

Poppe mentions that people had been judging Wagenius by what they had heard about her; one description passed around was "mother earth feminist." Oh noes! What was left out was the context (from a Wagenius campaign page):

During this time Jean and Dwight bought an old and very rundown farmstead in Douglas County near where Dwight had grow up. They could nourish family ties and the love of the outdoors at the same time. Jean went though Master Gardener training which prompted Koryne Horbal, a founding mother of the DFL Feminist Caucus, to call Jean a "mother earth feminist." The name stuck.

So an activist's reaction to Master Gardener training is more significant than the knowledge gained about soils, plants, and the like from the training itself--and owning a farm near rural in-laws? Grandfather a farmer? Fiddle-dee-fiddle! Al DeKruif thinks a Minneapolis address means person's interests--even that economic interest in the Douglas County farm, which is a matter of public record--couldn't possibly have anything to do with rural Minnesotans' interests.

Perhaps DeKruif has gone completely "paleo" conservative, ingesting truly "high meat" before writing his letter.

While the deep red Republicans in the First may scrape the slime from the hanging slab of this red meat talking points and eat up, Bluestem thinks that Southern Minnesotans will listen to Ag Policy chair and Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Finance Committee member Jeanne Poppe (DFL-Austin) instead.

Divisive Republican rhetoric pitting rural and urban Minnesotans against each other isn't just showing its age. It's getting pretty rank in the heat, now that summer's finally here.

Photo: DeKruif's aging beef, going bad even while fresh. As far as the public goes, "Democrat" Governor Dayton is now enjoying his highest job approval rating ever, at 57 percent, and the "Democrat" tax package received 52 percent support of those polled outside of the Twin Cities (which liked it) and metro suburbs (didn't like it). Indeed, we wonder if DeKruif be a happier man if he built a place in the burbs, where his choice cuts would welcome at the local backyard BBQ. That might make it difficult to run against Congressman Tim Walz. Details. Details.

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They eat their own: Republican strategist attacks MN Senate 2014 candidate Jim Abeler on taxes

Sally Jo Sorensen — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:35:05 PDT

Unless you're Rod Hamilton (R-Mountain Lake), willing to build up a granary of talking points for the Agri-Growth Council, it's rough being a member of the Override Six, those mostly now-former Republican Minnesota House members who helped pass a gas tax increase in 2008.

One's even been resurrected as a Democrat.

Thus, it's not surprising to see Republican operative Andy Brehm, who served as press secretary for Senator Norm Coleman from May 2003 to June 2005, rip aspiring Republican US Senate candidate and Override Six member Jim Abeler in the AP report published in the Albert Lea Tribune, Anoka Republican wades into Senate race:

. . . Andy Brehm, a Republican strategist not aligned with any campaign, said having competition for the GOP nomination will make the party’s candidate stronger. But Brehm has trouble seeing a viable route for Abeler.

“This is a longshot candidate for sure,” Brehm said. “People are hungry for independent but they’re not hungry for inconsistency. Voting for taxes before is going to be a nonstarter.” . . .

At the Pioneer Press, Doug Belden reports in Anoka Republican Jim Abeler wades into Senate race:

. . .He caught heat from within his party in 2008 when he broke ranks and helped DFLers override then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a gas tax increase.

Abeler handily won re-election that year, anyway. In 2010, he was one of a handful of GOP legislative candidates endorsed by the Education Minnesota teachers union. . . .

So if members of the Override Six in Anoka County don't end up remaining in the Minnesota House with dreams of serving in the United States Senate, where do they end up?

Photo: The Override Six, via MinnPost's 2008 article by G.R. Anderson, The 'override six': Chastised by GOP leaders, they're feeling confident about re-election.

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A boy loves his dog: ECM story never mentions how Minority Leader makes a living these days

Sally Jo Sorensen — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:53:52 PDT

Did Minnesota House Minority Leader trade up when he exchanged pitching Lexuses and Acuras for restoring vintage Deere tractors and a 1966 Ford Bronco for his personal collection?

One thing's missing in T. W. Budig's description of the pastoral splendors enjoyed by Minnesota state representative Kurt Daudt, House minority leader thinks he’ll be speaker some day:

Republican House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt sat on the farmhouse porch with a smiling lab at his feet and a cooing mourning dove in a nearby tree.

“When I am in St. Paul, I am so busy — and I really love what I do down there. But I can’t wait for the weekend to come,” Daudt said of returning to Crown.

Although Daudt spends many nights in St. Paul, his cabin on Spectacle Lake, the farm his grandfather bought in 1938, about a mile from the crossroads of Crown in southwest Isanti County, is old home ground. . . .

He grew up on a sheep farm near Princeton, a big operation with as many as 400 animals, But after graduating from the University of North Dakota, it was on his grandfather’s farm, 62 remaining acres, Daudt went to live.

Daudt and his brother Shane share the place, along with a coop of Cornish Cross chickens who will not live to see the autumn, six Black Angus, three of which are calves, and a black lab, Kurt Daudt’s pet, Lucy.

The lights of Crown do not blemish the evening sky.

A gentleman farmer, with an adoring dog. Who better to reclaim the Speaker's gavel from Paul Thissen, a lawyer who represents the fleshpots of Minneapolis in the legislature?

This honest yeoman farmer, this salt of the earth who restores John Deere tractors and uses the Green to haul manure and firewood. The manure is from six Angus cattle and a chicken coop. And on and on.

Budig does mention that Daudt and his brother don't farm any of the 62 acres they share:

The Daudts don’t work the farm fields. Instead, they rent 24 acres to a neighbor who works the land.

In the fall there’s deer hunting, pheasants, a pond for waterfowl[.]

What's missing--amid detailed explanation of Daudt's township, county and legislation service, is just what this neo-Cincinnatus does for a living. Ginseng hunting? Day trading? Surely it's not just the meager $31,000 and change that he makes as a citizen legislator or the rent money he splits with bro.

According to his economic interest statement (EIS) online at the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Representative Daudt is self-employed.

However, his EIS was updated on April 15, 2013, so he may have recently changed careers. When Daudt announced his bid for the legislature in 2010, his Facebook post noted:

Commissioner Daudt, 36, has been a resident of Isanti county and active in local and statewide politics for most of his adult life. For the last 15 years, Daudt has lived on the farm once owned by his grandparents in Crown, MN. . . .

Daudt currently works as a business manager for Buerkle Acura [link added], a position he has held since 2004. . . .

According to the luxury car dealership's web site, the Brookyn Park business serves Minneapolis. Not quite as rustic and pure as tinkering with vintage 1966 Ford Broncos and tractors, but we suppose that's all in the past now.

Also in his past? Selling Lexuses. In Kurt Daudt excited to begin next chapter in political career, ECM Publishers staff writer Rachel Kytonen reported:

When Daudt was elected county commissioner, he took a $40,000 decrease in salary. He had been in sales at Lexus in Maplewood, but his schedule as county commissioner required him to find a part-time job.

He now works 21 hours a week as a businesses manager at Buerkle Acura in Brooklyn Park. He said if it’s possible, he’s planning on still working while serving as state representative.

According to a January 9, 2013 article in the Isanti County News, the 2009 base salary for an Isanti County Commissioner was $27,013. Commissioners also receive a per diem, although we have not been able to determine what that amount was during Daudt's service. It's not as if the part-time position was as unpaid volunteer.

This leaves us curious: if Daudt required a part-time job while serving as county commissioner, and hoped to keep that job while serving in the legislature, what does he do in self-employment? It's obviously not the self-employment of a farmer. Does country gentleman on an old family estate--the only occupation delinated in the latest article--pay well enough to supplement that part-time legislative salary?

Photo: Kurt Daudt in December 2010, via Minnesota Public Radio.

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West Central Tribune editorial board totally spanks Willmar mayor over Secret 8 committee

Sally Jo Sorensen — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:20:14 PDT

Last week, in D ata practice: Mayor so not disclosing names of members on secret committee for town's future, Bluestem examined Willmar mayor Frank Yanish's questionable (and possibly illegal) stoicism on giving up the names of his "Secret 8" panel.

The post was based on superlative reporting by the West Central Tribune. On Saturday, the editorial board of the Forum Communications chain paper took him to task in Mayor Yanish is not being open with Willmar about his Secret 8 meetings:

Willmar Mayor Frank Yanish, the business man who campaigned in 2010 on the need for more city government transparency, apparently does not believe that transparency applies to his actions.

Shame on Mayor Yanish.

Yanish last week released a major position paper on city reorganization. In his proposal’s opening paragraph, he specifically credited an eight-person “ad hoc advisory group” for helping him craft his proposal.

The mayor proposed an old idea of a joint human resources department between the city and Willmar Municipal Utilities. He also proposed including Kandiyohi County in the joint HR department, but he had never spoken to anyone at the county before making the proposal.

We commend the mayor for seeking out “effective government,” including government reorganization and/or collaboration.

However, “effective government” also includes open and transparent governance by all public officials, including the mayor. The mayor’s refusal to tell the public who the eight volunteers are on his “ad hoc advisory group” is not being open or transparent. Is the mayor ashamed to have the volunteers’ names revealed to the public? Are the eight volunteers ashamed that they volunteered for the city? Or is this secret group controlling the mayor and his actions? It makes no sense and it simply is not good governance. Frankly, Yanish is just not being forthright with the citizens of Willmar. This is not surprising with this mayor, who appears to be more interested in driving his own political agenda rather than practicing open and transparent governance. . . .

The West Central Tribune has filed a Minnesota Freedom of Information request with Yanish requesting access to all public data concerning his “ad hoc advisory group.” He has not yet responded to this request.

Citizens certainly have cause to wonder just what the mayor and/or his committee members are afraid of or are trying to hide. . . .

Read the entire editorial at the Tribune. As we noted earlier, transparency is neither liberal nor conservative, just an essential part of good government--and civic engagement for citizens.

Photo: Willmar Mayor Frank Yanish.

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BSP giddy as schoolboy in new dress at news Emo Senator, Hagedorn contemplate MN1 bids

Sally Jo Sorensen — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 06:28:53 PDT

The Post Bulletin story about Mike Benson's bid that we wrote about in Ghost link at Rochester Post Bulletin: "Mike Benson to run for Congress against Walz" has finally been unembarged at the Rochester paper.

In the meantime, gumshoe journalist Josh Moniz got there first yesterday with Benson intends to run against Walz in 2014 and Former Sen. Al DeKruif may challenge Walz.

Nonetheless, Heather Carlson gets the gold star with Benson to run for Congress against Walz for naming the other potential candidates in the race:

In addition . . . [f]ormer state Sen. Mike Parry, who ran for the seat last year but lost in the Republican primary to former state Rep. Allen Quist, is also considering another run. Also seriously considering a bid is Byron resident Aaron Miller, a command sergeant in the Army reserves who was awarded the Bronze Star and works for a medical technology company.

Another name being mentioned is Jim Hagedorn of Blue Earth, who ran unsuccessfully for the 1st District Republican endorsement in 2010. At this point he said it is "premature" to talk about whether he will run for the seat, but said he is not ruling it out. His father is former 2nd District GOP Congressman Tom Hagedorn.

Bluestem can barely contain our glee. A sequel to Emo Senator: The Telenovela? The City Pages cited the serialized blog melodrama in awarding Bluestem the 2013 Minneapolis Best Blogger Award:

We particularly enjoy her ongoing series on Mike Parry, a.k.a. Minnesota's ex-"Emo Senator," who can't keep his racially charged tweets to himself.

Yes, we've missed Mike Parry.

But we've also preserved large chunks of the equally uproarious online testimony of Jim Hagedorn, who sought the endorsement in 2010. Like Parry, Hagedorn did a bit of scrubbing of his more controversial remarks, as we noted at the head of Rightwing values and performance art in MN-01: Mr. Quist and "Mr. Conservative". (Sadly the archived content of the Minnesota Independent is no longer online). Here are gems there, including this racially charged--but deleted post--from Hagedorn:

The race has been highlighted by a Democrat drive to register voters in several of South Dakota’s expansive redistribution of wealth centers…err…casino parlors…err…Indian Reservations. Remarkably, many of the voters registered for absentee ballots were found to be chiefs and squaws who had returned to the spirit world many moons ago. What is truly astonishing is not that the Democrats would cheat, but that the FBI and other law enforcement types actually took the initiative to catch them.

Voter backlash against the Democrat’s (typical) election-stealing maneuvers will be the margin of victory for Thune. Leave it to liberals to ruin John Wayne’s* wisdom of the only good Indian being a dead Indian.

Not only did that smear Dakota and Lakota people, but John Wayne as well. Actually, the saying is attributed to General Philip Sheridan, though Representative James M.Cavanaugh (D-MT) is more accurately the source of the saying. Apparently such sentiments were acceptable in the U.S. House in 1868.

See also Entering the Teabagger Zone: Will Jim Hagedorn dilute the brew in Southern Minnesota? and the whole cache of posts here to refresh your memory, gentle reader.

Will Josh Moniz once more catch Emo Senator saying cray-cray things about Governor Dayton's anti-acids? Tune in for our next exciting episode!

Image: Who wouldn't want to use the divine Tild's "Emo Senator at Flouncette O'Parry" again?

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Pope County Journal: Glenwood conservative repeats utter nonsense about Franken recount

Sally Jo Sorensen — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:51:48 PDT

One characteristic of Tales of Minnesota Election Fraud is--like zombies and urban legends--they're hard to kill. But unlike zombies, a good tap to the head won't stop a Tale of Minnesota Election Fraud. Conservatives continue to dig up and repeat this stuff.

Take Harold W. Rippe's most recent letter in the Pope County Journal, DFL, liberal media go after Bachmann again. Rippe pulls out the discredited "ballots in the trunk" campfire story not once but twice:

. . .The DFLers' icon, the donkey, planted its two front legs firmly on the ground, raised its two rear legs into kicking position, while hee-hawing trying to belittle the U.S. Congresswoman's work and record. First, and loudest from the icon, was that she only eked out the fourth term by a razor-sharp, hairsplitting razor thin 4,300 votes (one and one half percent). The DFLers and their icon were sent back into the stable , when it was called to their attention that DFLer Gov.Dayton only won by 8,000 votes (less than one/eighth of one percent) out of Minnesotans 5,232,521 voting public. Next the faithful were seen installing locks on the stable door, when they were reminded that Al Frankin [sic] became Senator by only a 300-vote margin percent win, at .0000000001%. I believe these wining ballots were found in the trunk of a car days after the election some where in the stronghold of the DFL party in the Twin Cities. . . .

And:

. . .I do want to acknowledge that the Minnessota [sic] DFL party can also be two faced or better yet, have two faces. The ugly one was displayed at U.S. Rep. from the Sixth, as in above opinion, The other face was happy, smiling, slick , smooth, polished, well buttered, etc.. This face was evident when Mn. Secretary of State, DFLer Mark Richie [sic], announced that he had enough politics after only two terms. That party face heaped praise glory on his work . And why not? After all as chief cook and bottle washer (vote counter) for Minnesota, he saw to it hat DFLer Al Franken won his senate seat. Wasn't it his people who found 200 votes in the truck of a car days after the election in the Twin Cities? That along with the double counting of 300 votes, put Franken in office. . . .

Let Rippe stand on his own two hind legs and bray this story as often as he likes. Bluestem believes that we take no risk in predicting that he won't be alone, just part of a herd of silly letter writers across the state as November 2014 approaches.

For an authoritative debunking of the conversative campfire tale, we need look no farther than the St. Paul Pioneer Press's account, Overtime: Chapter 2, Part 2: The Franken vs. Coleman ballots in the trunk — and other myths exposed:

ABOUT THOSE BALLOTS IN THE TRUNK ...

Cindy Reichert, then the elections director in Minneapolis, was about to find herself in the cross-hairs, too.

Election Day in Minneapolis had been chaotic, especially the absentee ballots. There were a record number, and Reichert's staff spent the day processing them. Some overseas absentee votes didn't arrive at Reichert's office until an hour before polls closed.

In Minnesota, absentee ballots are processed at the precinct level, meaning those that arrive on Election Day have to be delivered to any of 131 precinct locations in the city. Using the city's snow emergency hot line, Reichert had created an automated voice messaging system for all precincts and alerted them not to close the polls until all the absentee votes arrived.

Not everyone got the message, and the city didn't deliver every absentee ballot to the precincts before they closed. In all, there were 32 ballots left over.

They were returned to City Hall, but Reichert couldn't count them right away. She needed the voter registries from precincts so she could make sure the absentee voter didn't show up at the polls on Election Day and vote in person. And those registries, which are locked in the voting machines, were slow in arriving.

But by Friday, Minnesota's most liberal city was ready to open and count 32 additional, validly cast ballots. The campaigns and the public were keenly aware of how close the race was, and the Coleman campaign reacted swiftly.

"I let (the campaigns) know we were going to be working on Saturday. And they said, 'Really? What are you doing on Saturday?' And I said we're going to count the ballots that didn't get counted on Election Day. 'What do you meeeean ballots didn't get counted!' " Reichert recalled.

After learning of the development, Knaak called Ramsey County Chief District Judge Kathleen Gearin at home Friday night to tell her the Coleman campaign would be filing a case over Minneapolis' decision to count the ballots. Gearin had been hosting a dinner party and — maybe it was the wine — had a hard time taking Knaak seriously.

"I said: 'This is a joke. You've got to be kidding,' " Gearin said. "It took him a while to convince me that this really was serious."

Gearin quickly hung up, vowing not to speak to either campaign unless both were present.

On Saturday morning, the recount landed in court for the first time.

The proceedings were hectic, and Lillehaug was peeved at the emergency hearing — he'd been taking his dog to the vet when he got the call. A harried Reichert did not hear when Knaak told Gearin he thought the ballots had been in Reichert's car.

While state election law assigns many of the burdens of litigation to Ramsey County, on this particular issue Gearin ruled that she didn't have jurisdiction over Minneapolis. The importance of what was about to happen had already dawned on Gearin, and she admonished everyone — "as a citizen, as well as a judge," she said — to proceed carefully.

Meanwhile, the story that Reichert had been driving around with the ballots in her trunk spread like wildfire, from blogs to Fox News, feeding a suspicion that the fix was in for Franken. Reichert learned about it for the first time after walking out of Ramsey County court, when a lawyer for the city told her.

She was upset. Stoked when Gov. Tim Pawlenty mentioned it during a news conference, the story called her integrity and her competence into question, and it still lingers despite Knaak's almost immediate insistence that there was nothing to it.

"My mom called and said: 'Put it on Fox News! They're going to be talking about Minneapolis elections!' I thought, 'Oh, gee, wonder what this is?' " Reichert said.

What she saw alarmed her.

"They've got a picture of an open car trunk on one side with an arrow pointing in it, and a picture of Al Franken with his angry fist up on the other side, and they're reporting that I've been driving around with ballots in my car," Reichert said.

Reichert doesn't even own a car — she drives an SUV. It doesn't have a trunk. Yet more than any other, this story has persisted as an emblem that there was something very wrong with Minnesota's 2008 recount.

Not 200 ballots in a car trunk, but 32 absentee ballots at City Hall. That's what sent Rippe to his fainting couch up in Glenwood. Go read the rest of his defense of Michele Bachmann at the Pope Count Journal.

Photo: Election fraud troll Harold Rippe, doing a little fishing, via Facebook.

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Clown car: one short-term wonder Al DeKruif & four others so thinking about challenging Walz

Sally Jo Sorensen — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:36:34 PDT

Early morning Saturday, Bluestem posted Ghost link at Rochester Post Bulletin: "Mike Benson to run for Congress against Walz", naming one apparent Republican candidate against Walz. We are not sure why the Rochester Post Bulletin pulled the story, other than possibly wanting to break the news sometime other than on a late Friday.

We predict that the story will reappear when Benson is read to announce.

Meanwhile, Bluestem is especially pleased to read Former Rep. Al DeKruif may challenge Walz in the New Ulm Journal.

Despite the headline, the body of the Josh Moniz article makes it clear that DeKruif served in the Minnesota senate (not the House) for two years during the short term created by redistricting. (State senators ordinarily serve four years, with a two-year term at the top of each decade while district lines are withdrawn.)

In March 2012, the Mankato Free Press reported in Al DeKruif steps out of legislative race that DeKruif chose not to move to a nearby open district because of family concerns:

DeKruif briefly considered running against Rosen before announcing a week ago that he wouldn’t challenge the 10-year veteran but was considering moving to an open district just north of his rural Elysian home.

As recently as Saturday, DeKruif told delegates at the Blue Earth County Republican Convention that he was still conflicted about making the move, mentioning his 32-year-old son Jason, who has cerebral palsy.

“I can’t displace him very far,” he told the delegates. . . .

By Sunday afternoon, the owner of the Sakatah Trails Resort and a transportation consulting business reached the conclusion that moving his residence was the wrong decision.

“I need to do what is best for my family and businesses,” DeKruif said in a written statement. “After all, it is Minnesota families and job creators that led me to serve in the first place.

That seat--Senate District 20--was won by Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield). DeKruif had defeated Dahle in a different configuration of the political universe in 2010.

DeKruif: Blog fodder heaven

Why are we so happy? In his two short years in office, the Madison Lake area businessman produced some awesome fodder.

Take The Pogemiller prophecy; or, Senator Al DeKruif's secret history of the MN government shutdown, in which DeKruif showed real leadership by taking his legislative pay during the government shutdown in 2011 because of something Larry Pogemiller did.

DeKruif also supported Mike Parry's notion that members of the Republican senate caucus had no obligation to follow the leadership of former senate majority leader Amy Koch during the shutdown negotiations. (Parry had no trouble later following the suggestions of her lover, Michael Brodkorb, who ran Parry's own campaign to unseat Walz until the scandal became public.)

And then there's the Agenda 21 stuff. Yes, DeKruif joined Senator Dave Brown (R-Becker) in supporting the cockamamie Bircher blue helmet phobia about sustainable planning, wetlands and buffer strips.

We may have found our next telenovela star to replace the cancelled "Emo Senator."

DeKruif's background

Moniz has more on DeKruif's background:

He was elected to the former Senate District 25 by 44 percent of the vote in a close three-way race and served in the Minnesota Legislature for the 2011 - 2012 session. When the redistricting process put him into the same district as fellow Republican Sen. Julie Rosen, he declined to take up another run for office.

He is the owner and consultant of DeKruif Enterprise, Inc., which handles permitting and planning for "super load" truck hauls across the country. The business separately handles moving large electric transformers into both nuclear and coal-fired power plants. He is also owner of the Sakatah Trail Resort near Madison Lake.

DeKruif's legislative record is available online. He became an Assistant Majority Whip in 2012, in the leadership shake-up that followed Koch's stepping down as Majority Leader.

Most of the bills that DeKruif sponsored that became law were minor tweaks. Governor Dayton vetoed DeKruif's bill to require E-verify-ication of all new state employees. The bill had no co-sponsors in the Senate, and Ernie Leidiger, Steve Drazkowski and Peggy Scott sponsored the bill in the Minnesota House.

MinnPost's Joe Kimball reported in Gov. Dayton vetoes E-Verify bill for job hires as unnecessary duplication:

In his veto letter (PDF), Dayton said Minnesota already has a federally audited process that checks the identity of new employees and whether they can be hired under the federal mandates.

Dayton also said an audit found lots of problems with the federal E-Verify program, showing it is vulnerable to fraud and inaccuracy. And he noted that many, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, opposed the bill and want immigration issues to be handled by the federal government, not the state.

Indeed, expansion of E-verify on the federal level, which would expand the program from reviewing seven percent of new hires to all new employees in America, is part of the Senate bill now under consideration. The Christian Science Monitor reports in US immigration reform: Why 'E-Verify' screenings, while flawed, will pass:

At the heart of immigration reform proposals in Congress is an idea that’s simple in concept but very difficult in practice: keep illegal workers from getting US jobs by conducting checkups on all the new hires at employers across America.

This idea of new-hire verification is highly popular. With 85 percent support from the US public, it is the most strongly supported of five basic elements of immigration reform, according to a February Gallup poll.

But the system, known as “E-Verify,” has shown plenty of flaws as well as promise in its early years of being available (but not widely required).

The problems: Many illegal immigrants slip through the cracks and win employment, while many legal workers face significant bureaucratic challenges – sometimes even losing their jobs because government databases deliver an erroneous “nonconfirmation” of their status.

Is E-Verify ready for prime time?

The short answer may be that, ready or not, here it comes. ...

Check out the details at CSM. Not all of the opposition to E-Verify comes from the left. In May, the online paper reported in Rand Paul's beef with immigration reform bill: the E-Verify system that libertarians fear that including photo-ID in E-verify is the path to a national id card:

“Many see measures contained in this bill, such as a strong E-Verify and a ‘photo tool,’ as a means to control unlawful immigrants’ access to unlawful employment. I worry that they go too far,” Paul wrote in the Washington Times. “I will fight to remove the photo tool from this legislation because I think it will become a national ID.”

Here's what Paul is referring to: The Senate immigration bill contains language that would, over the next five years, expand the nation’s current photo database system to include all Americans, not just foreigners and US passport holders. Employers would use photos in the database to help validate an employee’s identity. Currently, the system does not use photographs for identification and is rife with identity theft, as illegal workers use stolen Social Security numbers or forged documents to gain employment.

Paul reiterated his opposition on the Michael Medved Show on June 12. The younger Paul's objections echo those of his father, former congressman Ron Paul, who wrote in February that Immigration 'Reform' Will Turn the US Into a Police State. Given the importance of the Ron Paul wing of the Republican Party in Southern Minnesota Republican politics, this might be a sticking point for endorsement for DeKruif. With his son seemingly working toward a 2016 presidential bid, the Paul Factor isn't going away.

Dekruif also endorsed losing 2012 contender "Emo Senator" Mike Parry over Allen Quist, who trounced Parry in the Republican primary. The First Congressional District Republicans are now chaired by Quist's home county's Carol Stevenson. Bluestem suspects Stevenson will be professional in managing the endorsement process; we note her leadership only to point out the supremacy of the Quist wing of the Republican Party in the First.

Who are the others? We anticipate a clown car, as we've heard Senator Julie Rosen is once more taking a pass on this one.

Photo: Al DeKruif, the man who maybe would be Congressman, with Minnesota Viking Jared Allen at a Sheriff's Youth Benefit, via DeKruif's old senate committee website. Bluestem believes that the message on Allen's gag T-shirt riffing on a logo associated with people living with disabilities just goes to show that the Vikings can't all be Chris Kluwe. (Allen does support Homes for Wounded Warriors, so while he's not p.c., he's not a clod).

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Fact-challenged Senator Gazelka pushes Teen Challenge to readers of Long Prairie Leader

Sally Jo Sorensen — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:14:55 PDT

For all the screaming caps, State Senator Paul Gazelka didn't quite stay on topic in his "Capitol Commentary" LEGISLATURE ADJOURNS –EVERYONE PAYS MORE FOR WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING UNDER DEMOCRATS’ TAX & SPENDING PLAN, but moved on to object to the state of Minnesota not spending more money on Teen Challenge.

Gazelka wants you to pay for a program that's based in the Assemblies of God and cites dubious statistics to support his claim:

In mid-April a significant debate took place in the senate regarding funding for Teen Challenge. An amendment was offered to SF 1607 to add $1.5 million in funding for housing for Minnesota Teen Challenge. Senator Dibble, (D-Minneapolis) strongly opposed this amendment on the grounds that Minnesota Teen Challenge is a faith based recovery program. Senator Gazelka commented that “with Teen Challenge’s recovery and success rates of up to 75%, this is clearly one of the few, if not the only recovery program that has gotten the job done and helped many thousands of young people and even some adults to break free from the chains of addiction, live a life free from these chains, and become productive members of society. This is clearly a program that has significant return on investment.” Teen Challenge relies heavily on private donations, the proposal to add $1.5 million would not go toward religious instruction, but to help them with their building foundation and maintenance of their facility. Gazelka went on to say, “I believe that the spirit in which opposition to this amendment was intended was misguided, it is imperative that we support programs that support Minnesotans.”

Not quite. It's possible that Gazelka is taking that statistic from a January 2011 study of Teen Challenge's 12-month Life Care program by Wilder Research. Teen Challenge is a client of Wilder Research.

The study is cited on the program's website. Digging into that survey, Bluestem learned that few teens graduated from the program between 2007 and 2009:

Between 2007 and 2009, 315 men, women, and youth graduated from the Minnesota Teen Challenge 12-month Life Care program. Nearly two-thirds of program participants (66%) were adult men, 23 percent were adult women, and 11 percent were teenagers at the time of treatment.

That's about about 29 teens for three years. Moreover, the number of teens who took part in the survey is even lower:

Wilder Research, an independent evaluator, sampled and conducted one-year follow-up telephone interviews with graduates who completed treatment between August 2007 and May 2009. In total, 154 graduates, 59 percent of the sample selected for follow-up, were interviewed by Wilder Research staff. . . .

Over half (55%) of respondents were adult men, 34 percent were adult women, and 10 percent were teenagers (6% boys and 4% girls).

That takes it down to 15 or 16 teens interviewed for the survey. Within that sample, sobriety rates were lower:

Among youth graduates, abstinence rates are lower with 64 percent of youth reporting no use in the prior six months and 47 percent reporting no relapses since graduating Teen Challenge.

No wonder the program changes its name to Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge. Note how Gazelka tells his constituents that the program primarily serves teens (thousands of them): ": many thousands of young people and even some adults (emphasis added).

A Wilder Research report released in 2007 notes:

between 2001 and 2005, 512 men, women, and youth graduated from the Minnesota Teen Challenge 12-month Life Care program. Nearly two-thirds of program participants (65%) were adult men, 20 percent were adult women, and 15 percent were teenagers at the time of treatment.

Among youth graduates, abstinence rates are lower with 37 percent of youth reporting no use in the prior six months and 29 percent reporting no relapses since graduating Teen Challenge.

If anything, the percentage of teens among those serves by Teen Challenge is declining since the beginning of the century, though the small cohort of young people who do finish the program seem to be doing better even if it's not the "thousands" Gazelka imagines finishing the program.

There's been additional substantive criticism of those "recovery and success rates." Wikipedia's entry notes several:

According to a 2001 New York Times item,^[8] it is the opinion of some social scientists that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading, as it does not count the people who dropped out during the program, and that, like many voluntary NGO's, Teen Challenge picks its clients. The item quotes the Rev. John D. Castellani, then president of Teen Challenge International U.S.A., as saying that most of the addicts have already been through detoxification programs, before they are admitted. In the program's first four-month phase, Mr. Castellani said, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave. In their testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, have similarly testified that the much quoted success rates "dramatically distort the truth", due to the lack of reference to the high drop out rate.[9]

Then there's Gazelka's characterization of his colleague's objection. It's not simply that the program is faith-based, it's that the program promotes one variety of Christianity. From the MinnPost Doug Grow column, Christian-based Teen Challenge treatment program prompts fight over state funding:

“Despite their claims,’’ Dibble said, “their approach is predicated on a very specific point of view. That’s their right. It stands to reason that to help someone in recovery, they need a strong set of internal values. But they’re asking for public dollars to further their religious beliefs. That’s not right.’’

During a floor debate over an amendment that would have put the funds back in the bill, Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, raised similar concerns, saying Jews ordered into treatment by the courts have been denigrated at Teen Challenge.

Public dollars do go into other Christian-based organizations, such as Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities.

But those organizations are different from Teen Challenge, Dibble says. In his view, those groups aren’t aimed at conversion; they’re reaching out to those in need but not wearing religion on their sleeves.

For all its successes, Teen Challenge’s cure can be totally destructive for gays and lesbians, Dibble said.

He noted, for example, that Janet Boynes, a former lesbian who has announced homosexuality as sinful and like an addiction, was invited to be a speaker at a Teen Challenge event.

“When a gay person is immersed in an environment like that, they can’t help but think there’s something deeply wrong with them,’’ said Dibble. “Some of those [homophobic] values are inseparable from their approach. It does not work for the GLBT person. . . .It’s fine for those at Teen Challenge to believe what they want, but should taxpayers pay for those beliefs?’’

Grow goes on to note that often teens are offered the choice to do time or do Teen Challenge. What are courts doing prescribing religion as treatment?

The Wikipedia entry for Teen Challenge notes that a national leader of Teen Challenge boasted during House committee testimony about converting Jews, so Latz's complaint isn't unfounded:

Conversely, such funding has come under attack through comments by John Castellani, the former President of Teen Challenge USA, during a House Government Reform subcommittee, examining the efficacy of religious social service providers. During the hearing, Castellani said Teen Challenge does not hire non-Christians as employees and, when asked if the group takes non-Christians as clients, he said yes, and boasted that some Jews who finish his Teen Challenge program become "completed Jews." ^[12]^[13] Critics of faith-based funding cite this as an example of how religious intolerance could be publicly funded.[3] (The "completed Jews" phrase is often used by Christians and Messianic Jews to refer to Jewish people who become believers in Yeshua (Jesus). The phrase is considered offensive to many Jewish groups because it suggests Jews are "incomplete" unless they believe in the divinity of Jesus.)

The Star Tribune reported:

Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said court-ordered participants were not free to leave if they disagreed with the evangelical content of the program. And he said the program's fervent Christian orientation has been known to denigrate Jews.

Moreover, past participants have also described such practices as casting out demons and belief in "generational curses." Exorcism, anyone? I hope they know Latin.

Image: Gazelka's not alone with his love for Teen Challenge. Lots of Minnesota leaders like former Governor Pawlenty, Senator Klobuchar and world-reknown businessmen Tom Petters and Frank Vennes deeply appreciated Teen Challenge's work. Indeed, Michele Bachmann gave her Petters campaign contribution to Teen Challenge when things didn't work out so well as City Pages noted in Bachmann donates Petters-tainted cash to Halloween haters; as the late Karl Bremer and And Birkey reported, Teen Challenge gave the tainted cash back. Bremer also noted:

Listed among Vennes’ secured creditors in his proposed work-out plan is Richard Scherber, executive director of Minnesota Teen Challenge. Documents filed with Vennes’ proposal show Scherber was owed $910,000 when the Petters scheme ended. Minus the returns he had received on his investments with Vennes, Scherber had an out-of-pocket loss of $423,759, according to court documents. Under Vennes’ proposed work-out plan, Scherber would receive only $173,741.

Last year, the legislature limited clawback lawsuits when trustees in the Petters mess tried to get some of the Petter pelf back. Seems like a lot of worship of money and power concentrated around this faith-based program. (Image via Vennes Info.)

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Ghost link at Rochester Post Bulletin: "Mike Benson to run for Congress against Walz"

Sally Jo Sorensen — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 07:33:51 PDT

Late on the day in which state senator Jeremy Miller announced that he would not run against four-term congressman Tim Walz, a ghost of a headline remains in google: "Mike Benson to run for Congress against Walz."

We've taken a screenshot, which also includes a link to bare-bones Mike Benson for Congress website.

The ghost leads to an error message on the Post Bulletin site, but the existence of the website suggests that the two term Rochester-area Republican is exploring a bid.

This strikes Bluestem as odd, since the Minnesota House is up for re-election in 2014, and the swing Rochester area is fairly volatile in terms of the electorate. Benson has also proposed cigarette tax increases in the past; now that the tax was raised in the last session, the Republican caucuses are citing it as an example of DFL tax mania.

Apparently, it's another pass at a "Rochester Run" strategy, since the med city is the largest population center in the district. Walz defeated Rochester six-term representative Gil Gutknecht in 2006, trounced Rochester doctor Brian Davis in 2008, beat Hayfield Republican Randy Demmer in a close race in the 2010 Republican banner year, and handily defeated perennial candidate Allen Quist in 2012.

Benson's record is singularly undistinguished in the Minnesota house, favoring such things as the voter id and marriage amendments. He works as a professor at Crossroads College, a tiny former bible college in Rochester; there's a bio on his website but little else, not even a disclaimer with the campaign's committee name.

The Republican lawmaker endorsed Emo Senator Mike Parry's bid in 2012; Parry lost the primary to Quist.

Image: The ghost in google.

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