Rep. Michele Bachmann (R MN6) has endorsed Brian Davis for the MN 1st District. 

“Brian Davis has the experience, leadership, and values that are right for Minnesota’s First District. With concerns about access to affordable healthcare front and center for Minnesota families, Brian Davis’ lifelong commitment to healthcare and experience as a doctor will be a great asset here in Congress. I look forward to the opportunity to serve the people of Minnesota with him.” [Bachmann]

 

The Minnesota Republican Party BPOU Convention season is upon on and it is going to be an exciting one. Not only do we have serious battles and accountability wars being waged in Legislative Districts across the state, we also have an exciting battle for the Republican nomination to run against Rep. Tim Walz (D).

With Sen. Dick Day’s refusal to run for and abide for the endorsement it is down to a two man race between Brian Davis and MN Rep. Randy Demmer. They will be signing a pledge to abide by the endorsement at 2:00 PM today.

I always look at a candidate’s Taxpayer’s League rating whenever possible in these things. Day’s rating in 2007 was a pitiful 66%. Demmer’s was 91%, but compared to his 73% lifetime in the MN House it isn’t saying that much. I’ve posted on Davis before, and I have to say I do like what I have heard him say.

Well tomorrow Davis and Demmer begin the courting of the CD1 Delegates who will be elected at the various BPOU conventions. It is an incredibly exciting thing to be a part of. We had a very spirited race in CD6 in 06 that (now) Congresswoman Bachmann ran beautifully and won.

But there is a huge amount of pressure and tension that builds up, especially if someone abuses trust and power. Olmstead County happens to  be meeting tomorrow and they elect Delegates in a much different way than I am accustomed to. They actually have a nominating committee which for all intensive purposes handpicks Delegates. It is set up in their Constitution. (Article VII)

Sure, they still need to be elected by the convention at large, but they do provide a slate of recommendations. In other words, the official Nominating Committee is going to be telling the convention who to vote for. I think that is an abuse of trust, personally. “Here are the people you should vote for”  Seems to me like the perfect way to king make, and that usually doesn’t go over that well.

Olmstead County has 60 Delegates I believe which is a huge chunk of the 250 some odd that will make up the 1st CD convention. Clearly Olmstead is a major player, and those 60 Delegates are going to be a key block in the endorsement vote.

But what if the Olmstead County Nominating Committee is in the bag for one of the candidates? What if they hand pick only the Delegates that support their candidate on their ’slate’? And what if they change the Rules or block any nominations from the floor for Delegates who support the other Candidate?

Endorsement battles are never easy, and only as fair as the people who run them. When it is done fairly and the Delegates have a chance to be included in the decision, not simply sign off on it, the winner will have a stronger and united base for the general.

It is going to be one heck of a battle tomorrow in Olmstead. I wish Brian Davis all the luck in the world, he’s going to need it, I’m hearing that Olstead’s Nominating Committee is supporting Randy Demmer.

I’d received an email awhile back that Sen. Dick Day who was running for the 1st CD Republican endorsement was probably going to stay in the battle even after he lost the endorsement. Obviously a sign he was not the likely nominee, by any stretch of my ’suppositioning’.  I didn’t have time to dig into it, so I dropped it. Well, I didn’t drop it, but it got buried about 400 emails down in my INBOX, so I forgot with all the Transit Tax stuff.

I have one thing I admire Dick Day for, and his party politics are not it.

OWATONNA – State Senator Dick Day (R-Owatonna), Republican candidate for Congress from the first district, announced today that he will bypass the formal Party endorsement process and go directly to the voters in a primary election.

“I have always believed that primary elections, in which all the voters of a district get a chance to pick their candidates for political office, are far more democratic than the current system in which Party insiders hand pick the candidates,” said Day. “The chaotic caucuses a couple weeks ago prove that the system is broken. Thousands of voters went out on a cold February night because they thought their votes meant something. They are frustrated and angry that their votes for president didn’t even count.”

Um, Senator, they were voting for President. I believe that someone could have called for or organized a Straw Poll for the congressional race too. I have to completely disagree with his notion that the Delegate and convention endorsement process is “Party insiders hand pick[ing] the candidates”. Frankly Day doesn’t have a leg to stand on their.

The current Republican endorsement process is the only check we have on party insiders and powerbrokers not handpicking or kingmaking our candidates. In the Primary, big money supporters and groups, not to mention the party officials, can come in and back ‘their’ choice or torpedo a great conservative candidate the base wants. Dick Day should know a thing or two about kingmaking and usurping not only the general voters, but also local leaders and endorsing Delegates from his time as the Senate Republican caucus leader.

Day added, “There are 375,850 voters in the First District, and the important decision about who their candidate is should not be left to 250 people meeting on a Saturday morning. Anybody who wants to pay their $100 to run for office ought to have an equal chance to make their case to voters. That’s what I plan to do, the old-fashioned way: work hard to earn your vote.”

I find it incredibly poor taste for a sitting Minnesota Republican Senator to even speak like that. He’s undermining the entire system we operate under. If Senator Day doesn’t even want to try and win those 250 RepublicanDelegates over on that one Saturday morning, then he shouldn’t be running as a Republican.

The email sourced an MPR story from a year ago.

Day says he’s getting into the race this early so he can raise the money needed to win.

“I think I have to spend a year having people get to know me around the district,” says Day. “A year from now, we’ll probably get into the heavy issues that are out there. They’ll either be some of the same issues, or some of the issues will be brand new. I think I need to get myself out and around.”

Day says he isn’t sure whether he’ll quit the race if he fails to win the party endorsement.

Since he did endeavor in the actual endorsement race to begin with, I feel this may in fact be far more a kin to he now knows the Republicans were not interested in his candidacy even after a year of getting to know him. Just how in the world is he going to win over 375,850?

Maybe he should just run as an independent and get it over with.

Oh, that one thing I agree with Day on is that ramp meters suck! Them jerks at MNDOT have decided the ones by me are the ones that need to run longer during the rush hour and have the intervals between lights last longer. They must read RF. :) 

Republican Deputy Whip Rep. Eric Cantor lead the charge today against Pelosi and the Democrats who refuse to keep America safe.

House Republicans have walked out to protest the Democrats’ refusal to consider senate-passed FISA legislation that would enable America’s intelligence agencies to effectively monitor terrorists who are plotting to attack. While Democrats can’t find time for that, they did find time to debate the merits of specific individuals on the Administration staff

Even the Senate passed the bill. They didn’t veto it. But Pelosi and her House Democrats have to carry the water for the friend’s of America’s enemies now I guess and have cleared the way for terrorists to plan for their next attacks within America’s borders….. and our intelligence community will be barred from listening to the phone calls before it is too late.
I wonder where Bluedog Rep. Tim Walz (D MN1) stands on the issue?

Huh? What is AAA talking about now? Has he officially gone nutter?

No, for a lot of you out there sending emails and sharing the pondering of just what the heck we are to do this election season, we need to remember all is not lost just because a Democrat in elephant’s clothing (that’s McCain) appears to be the presumptive nominee. (No the fat lady isn’t singing, but if Rudy does endorse McCain, she is warming up (regarding Romney there))

Reps. Bachmann and Kline are solid principled conservatives who do have tough reelections ahead of them. They will get little to zero national or state party help so we the grassroots will have to pick up that slack to carry them over the line.

With Rep. Ramstad hanging it up, we have a chance to get a real conservative there in the 3rd.

Democratic Rep. Walz,  is beatable in the 1st, he got lucky in 06. There are 2 guys taking a run at him, Sen. Dick Day (meh), and Brian Davis who reminds me A LOT of Bachmann.

The MN House is a target rich environment for Republicans. Well, there are so few Republicans, you couldn’t help but say that. Especially when the DFL admittedly overreached last session. There are 134 races across the state, and I know that each and every local Republican party BPOU and candidate would love your help.

So don’t take off your sneakers. Don’t pack up your bat and ball to go home. Get local. The House of Representatives both in Minnesota and in Washington are where you can really send a conservative message. They are called the People’s House because the are elected in smaller districts so they have to be better representative to the electorate.

That’s you my fellow conservatives. You are the electorate and have to bust your butt in order to get good conservatives elected so the agenda can be reflective of our common views. If you can’t live with the POTUS nominee, (and neither can I if it is McCain) then we will all have to find another great conservative to help get elected. Maybe our grassroots effort is focused on Congressional seats and MN House races.  You don’t have to help McCain, not matter how badly some people say you do. It is still America, and you can allow your principles to guide your decisions.

But you do have to help out the candidates who do represent the principles and values you hold dear. You can’t sit it out on them too. We did that in 2006, and look at the mess it created. What’s great is that there are a lot of good candidates out there. They don’t even have to be in your District for you to help them.

So let’s all take a deep breathe. McCain may get the nod, but that doesn’t mean principled conservatives can take the election off.  Oh, and if you aren’t one of the dozen or few people who listen to Sean hannity, don’t bother tuning in, he was on his knees today talking about he has been wrong and McCain has been right all along.  The voters spokeHannity said, we all have to shut up and support McCain. I couldn’t take anymore, so i flipped over to Medved….. I had to double check to see if my radio actually  responded because he too was  attacking Rush for not shutting up and selling his soul to support McCain.  That one lasted about 12.5 seconds before I just turned the radio off and listened to the whoosh of hot air blowing out of the vents in my truck.

In conclusion, you do not have to sell your soul and support McCain should he get the nod. Frankly, it isn’t over yet. 36% of the people who “SAY” they are Republicans for the Primary in the state that has one hell of a hard figuring out how to vote picked McCain by 5%. That ain’t a mandate, and it sure as hell ain’t enough for me to fawn all over McCain as some sort of gOD.

So what if I won’t be invited on those conference calls, or to the fancy parties. At least I still have my principles. And, I’ll make a far larger difference with my time, money, and effort in a more local race in the first place, and so can you. So no one can take their ball and go home. You don’t have to drink the McCain koolaid.

Get local. Go to Caucus. Get elected a Delegate. bust your arse for a good MN House candidate who is as conservative as can be. If that doesn’t work, no, you can’t go sit on the couch. Find a good conservative and help them.

(Yes, I purposely left Sen. Coleman off this list. More on that later, possibly)

A reader passed along a press release about how Reps. Tim Walz (D MN1) and Jim Oberstar (D MN8) are meeting with groups in Rochester about the possible go ahead with the DM&E railroad expansion.

ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. Reps. James Oberstar
and Tim Walz met with Rochester Coalition and Mayo Clinic leadership today
to discuss the sale of the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern (DM&E) railroad to
Canadian Pacific and its affect on the proposed Powder River Basin
expansion project. As proposed, the expansion of the DM&E line through
downtown Rochester remains a major concern for local residents, businesses
and Rochester’s Mayo Clinic, which is Minnesota’s largest private employer
and a leading worldwide destination for health care.
“We support responsible investment in transportation infrastructure,
including rail,” said Glenn Forbes, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic Rochester.
“Our goal is simply to ensure the safety of our patients, staff and
community. We appreciate the support of Representatives Oberstar and Walz
as they begin discussions with Canadian Pacific about the future of this
project.”
It remains to be seen if Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of DM&E is a
positive development for Rochester and other communities along the line.
Canadian Pacific’s willingness to have meaningful discussions about how to
mitigate the project’s negative impacts and protect communities along the
line is the Coalition’s primary concern.
“This sale represents an opportunity to meet directly with a new set of
owners to ensure that the safety needs of our community are addressed in a
meaningful way,” said Olmsted County Commissioner Ken Brown. “We see this
acquisition as potentially positive and believe the Canadian Pacific will
be interested in finding common ground.”
“We have actively reached out to Canadian Pacific and asked for early
meetings,” said Rochester City Council President Denny Hanson. “We are
optimistic they will work with our community to allow for a safer railroad
through southern Minnesota.”

This should be interesting for the Southern MN Congressman who faces a tough reelection in 2008.