Political Party

Pelowski's reaction to AFSCME's endorsement of opponent

Minnesota Public Radio has a reaction from Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, on AFSCME's decision to back his DFL challenger Debbie White.I wrote about it yesterday on the blog. I did put in a call to Pelowski yesterday but have not yet heard back. So here is what MPR reported. You can read it here.

In statements to MPR, Pelowski said he was never invited to screen for the AFSCME endorsement, contrary to what union officials said in a press release. Here are his comments:

"For the record I was not invited to the AFSCME endorsing event on November 30th at 3pm at WSU which I found out about for the first time today. I was told today that three people attended this event and that the AFSCME lobbyist from St. Paul told them that I stated I did not want to attend. This is not true! I knew nothing of the event! My home or office has no record of being contacted. Since this took place before White announced she was running it is even more curious."

AFSCME backs Pelowski's DFL challenger

The state's largest union today announced it was endorsing the Democrat running against veteran DFL Rep. Gene Pelowski.

In a news release, AFSCME representatives praised Pelowski's DFL opponent Debbie White, a member of Winona City Council.

“Debbie impressed us as a strong leader who campaigns hard and listens well.  She wants to work in partnership with state employees to deliver the best possible public services to the people of Minnesota," said Violet Belter of AFSCME Local 945.

The news release also quotes Paul Bissen, chair of AFSCME's screening committee, attacking Pelowski.

“Twelve terms is enough for Rep. Pelowski, who treats his constituents with contempt. He ignored hundreds of calls to raise revenue fairly and invest in our community.  Instead, he helped Gov. Pawlenty’s allies protect tax breaks for the wealthy, while cutting the vital public services that working families need most when they’re losing their jobs, their homes and their health care.”

Pelowski has bucked the DFL Party line at times. Last session, he voted against a $1 billion tax bill and also voted against overriding the governor's veto of that tax bill. Pelowski's had a 43 percent AFSCME voting record during the 2009 legislative session.

Pelowski has explained that he did not support the tax bill because he knew the governor would veto it and that there were not enough votes to override it. He said DFL lawmakers instead should have spent last session looking to balance the budget strictly with cuts so that residents would have a real understanding of the impact. Instead, he said Democrats poured energy into a tax bill that they knew would be vetoed and residents did not get a real sense of just how deep the budget cuts would have to be to balance the budget.

The news release states that Pelowski declined an invitation to screen for AFSCME's endorsement.

Bradford vows to stay in House race this time

Two years ago, Republican Chuck Bradford voluntarily dropped his bid for the Minnesota House 29A seat to support fellow Republican Rep. Randy Demmer.

Bradford has jumped into the race after Demmer announced he was running for the 1st Congressional District seat held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. But when he lost the GOP endorsement to Rochester Dr. Brian Davis, Demmer decided to run for re-election to his House seat. And Bradford, a Demmer supporter, stepped aside.

Once again, Demmer has announced he is running for Congress. The Hayfield Republican has said this time he has no intention of seeking re-election to his seat. But even if Demmer changes his mind, Bradford vowed he is staying in this time.

"I am focused on this race, and I am going to see it through," he said.

He said he plans to stick in the race until the Republican endorsement made and that he will honor that process.

Bradford, 44, currently serves on the Mantorville City Council. He has been an active member of the Republican Party for 20 years and is a member of the Rochester Tea Party Patriots.

If elected, Bradford said he would focus on slicing state spending to address projected budget shortfalls.

“We need to step back and say, ‘Why are we going to continue to expand the growth of government by 20 percent over the biennium over the last 20 years when our citizens income has not grown in that same fashion?’”

So far, no Democrats have announced plans to run for the seat.

More candidates jump into local House races

December has proven to be a busy month for candidate announcements.

Republican Chuck Bradford is expected to announce Tuesday in Rochester that he will run for the House seat currently held by fellow Republican Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield.

Demmer is seeking the Republican endorsement for the 1st Congressional District seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. Demmer has already said he does not plan to run for re-election.

Bradford, of Mantorville, ran for the seat during the last election but dropped out after Demmer failed to get the GOP endorsement for the congressional seat and decided to run for re-election to the House
District 29A seat. Bradford current serves on the Mantorville City Council and is chair of the Dodge County Republicans. He is also an active member of the Rochester Tea Party Patriots.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, veteran DFL state Rep. Gene Pelowski is getting some competition from within his own party. The Winona Daily News reports that Winona City Councilwoman Debbie White plans to challenge Pelowski for the District 31A
House seat.

The Winona Daily News quotes a statement from White as to why she is running.

“At this time of great economic challenges, we need a leader who will
listen to the needs of the people in the district. We can no longer afford
to ignore the needs of the people of our district — it is time for new
leadership.”

Rhett Zenke has announced he will seek the Republican endorsement for the
seat.

Hagedorn scrubs blog posts

Minnesota bloggers have discovered that 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Jim Hagedorn appears to have sanitized his blog "Mr. Conservative" in advance of his announcement yesterday that he is running. Bluestem Prairie notes that it appears all entries prior to 2004 have been scrubbed.

A Bluestem Prairie blog post from October includes some of these deleted posts. The Minnesota Independent also has a story about the removed posts that mocked Wellstone mourners and Rod Grams' infidelities.

Here is one example of a deleted post about the funeral for former Sen. Paul Wellstone who died in a plane crash:

"About the memorial service. Was it just me or did it not seem as if someone bailed out the union thugs; tree huggers; abortion rights feminists; peaceniks; citizens for gay animal rights; NAMBLA members and the other Marxist sympathizers who protested at last month’s IMF meetings, and transported them to Wellstone’s memorial in a slew of green busses? Talk about lefties all in one convenient location. Hopefully after the ceremony they fumigated the arena."

There is another interesting post regarding the 2002 race in South Dakota and efforts to register Native Americans to vote.

"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."

Hagedorn announces run for Congress

Republican Jim Hagedorn made it official this morning that he is running for the 1st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Tim Walz.

Hagedorn is the son of former Minnesota Congressman Tom Hagedorn. The junior Hagedorn recently moved back to his hometown of Blue Earth to run in the race.

In a news release, Hagedorn is quoted as saying "The greatness of America is under assault by the liberal politicians who run Washington D.C. The big government agenda of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Tim Walz is in direct conflict with our free enterprise system and the enduring principles of liberty, individual opportunity, personal responsibility and traditional cultural values."

He goes on to call Walz a "thoughtless liberal" and voices concern that the U.S. is headed toward "European socialism."

Hagedorn has spent the past 25 years working on Capitol Hill. He was a former legislative assistant to Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland. He also worked for two agencies of the U.S. Department of Treasury. He is currently working as director of government relations and corporate development for Eltromed,

The news release also outlines Hagedorn's priorities.

"Hagedorn cites his congressional priorities as implementing Reagan/JFK economic policies to help small business create jobs; slashing federal spending through top-to-bottom reviews of all federal agencies, beginning with the Pentagon; limiting government by returning power to the states; restructuring foreign entanglements and defunding “nation building;” and defending the American way of life and traditional culture."

Here is a link to the Web site.

He joins former state Rep. Allen Quist of St. Peter and state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield who have already announced they are running for the Republican nomination.

DFL attacks Demmer for opposing "jobs and growth"

Minnesota DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez released the following statement regarding Hayfield Republican Rep. Randy Demmer's announcement he would run for the 1st Congressional District seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz.

“As a state representative, Randy Demmer gladly accepted federal Recovery Act money for southern Minnesota. But now he is speaking out against all the jobs created by federal recovery money to gain favor with the Tea Baggers and ultra conservatives — even calling the 7,000 teaching positions created or saved a waste. He believes the construction jobs created by highway work in Rochester were a waste; he believes the jobs created by replacing Highway 169 in St. Peter were the result of a free-for-all, and he believes that the jobs created by rebuilding the water plant in Waseca simply weren’t worth it. Do voters in southern Minnesota really want a representative who opposes jobs and growth?"

The statement goes on to praise Walz.

“Representative Walz is working to create jobs, fire up the economy and curb out-of-control health-care costs. He is focused on getting the job done and delivering for southern Minnesotans. Representative Walz has a proven record in Congress as a leader for Minnesota values, and his constituents will remember that record when they reelect him in November.”

"Mr. Conservative" to run for Walz's seat?

Just got a media advisory about another Republican candidate scheduled to announce plans to run for the 1st District Congressional seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. The advisory does not include the name of the candidate. Instead it offers this description: "A fresh face with a familiar name."

Based on that description, my guess is that Jim Hagedorn will be the one announcing tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Rochester. I previously wrote that he was considering running for the seat previously held by his father, Tom Hagedorn.

Hagedorn spent 25 years working on Capitol Hill, including seven years as the senior legislative assistant to former Minnesota Republican Rep. Arlan Stangeland. He also had his own blog "Mr. Conservative." But he posted that after the 2008 election he was suspending all posts "in order to explore the opportunity to return to his southern Minnesota roots, accept a position in the private sector and run for Congress." Here is a link to his blog.

Hagedorn's announcement comes one day after Hayfield Republican state Rep. Randy Demmer announced he was running for a second time for the seat. Former state Rep. Allen Quist has also announced he is seeking the GOP endorsement.

Demmer said "worst fears" pushed him to run for Congress

In an interview this afternoon, Hayfield Republican Rep. Randy Demmer said concerns about the growth of government prompted him to jump in the 1st Congressional District race.

“The worst fears we could imagine about government intervention, about government growth not just in terms of spending and taxation but just even the intervention in our lives is too much for me to take,” he said.

Demmer is expected to make his bid official tomorrow morning at an 8:30 a.m. press conference at the Olmsted County Government Center in Rochester. He said he does not plan to run for re-election to the legislature and instead will focus all of his energy on the congressional race.

This marks the second time Demmer has sought the seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. He launched a campaign bid in 2007 but lost the GOP endorsement to Rochester Dr. Brian Davis. Davis ended up losing to Walz, with the Democrat garnering nearly 63 percent of the vote.

Demmer joins former state Rep. Allen Quist of St. Peter, who has already announced he is seeking the Republican endorsement in the race. The local Republican said he intends to abide by the GOP endorsement, although he would not shut the door completely to running without it.

“My plan right now would be to seek that endorsement, and I guess at this point in time I would plan to abide by it. I think it would be extremely difficult to not (abide by it), but one thing I’ve learned is never say never,” he said.

He cites the Democrats' health care reform plan as a prime example of government going too far. He said he believes it is a first step toward a single-payer health care system. He added it is also time to curb federal spending adding that "under the term 'stimulus,' anything and everything goes."

Demmer said he also opposes the cap-and-trade bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions saying it would harm the state's agricultural industry.

Demmer expected to announce run for Congress

Hayfield Republican Rep. Randy Demmer is expected to officially announce tomorrow he will run a second time for the 1st Congressional Seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz.

A colleague of mine passed along an e-mail sent to Demmer's supporters about the press conference planned for 8:30 a.m. tomorrow in the rotunda at the Olmsted County Government Center in Rochester. I have an interview scheduled with Demmer for later this afternoon.

In 2007, Demmer launched a bid for the seat. But he ended up losing the GOP endorsement to Rochester Dr. Brian Davis. Davis lost to Walz.

Demmer was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2002. He will join former state Rep. Allen Quist of St. Peter who has already announced he is running for the Republican endorsement.