News & Articles

I know the names of the President elect in Afghanistan and the lead caliphate from ISIS but until this week, I did not know Al Franken’s Republican’s opponents name.    Why?  Because I follow the headline news that interest me, like Middle Eastern wars and their transitional governments.  I am driven from the outside in.  The international scope of events is where I emotionally attach, not the price of cantaloupes in West Duluth.   After attending the 4 hour long volunteer summit for the DFL Saturday on London Road, I saw many subdued and enthusiastic volunteers.  So far the campaign has garnered 377 volunteers for the Senate, Congressional and the Governor campaigns.  Al Franken made a personal phone call to the group where everyone listened.  The 20 something kid next to me was chanting in a beatitude strain similar to a Pentecostal church.  I wanted a piece of that idol worship moxie.  Franken said “Make sure you know where I stand on the issues.”  Four years ago, I sold my car and flew to Bemidji, Minnesota to work for Al Franken.  Four years later, I am totally tuned out to Minnesota politics except for Mark Dayton’s new profound moral authority over the NFL.  It was more fun when Michelle Bachmann was around where her words would mince, shatter and embarrass fellow Minnesotans, but she had an edge that engaged us.  Jesse Ventura had the same effect.    This year it seems, it’s just politics as usual.  I was more excited for two suited Mormons to arrive on my street this week than doorknockers for the DFL.  The Mormons were organized, never let up even in the off season and had flyers that made sense.  This year, people are going to bitch about Obamacare even if they don’t know how it works.  Republicans are going to and have already said the Democrats are wasting money and they do.  Republican Senate candidate Mike McFadden, Franken’s opponent, could start his own HMO and medical charity being worth $57 million, but he won’t.  He will waste $2-4 million dollars trying to get elected.  I don’t think the word investment banker and politician has a nice ring to it.  Stewart Mills has more gun toting commercials than Ted Nugent and yet his good looks are enough to reel me in.  I come from the party position of loyalty in which I normally vote Democrat as I did in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1080, where you just pull a slot like machine with a metal handle and its straight party voting.  Among my friends and colleagues, many with advanced degrees, the general knowledge of local party is fuzzy and dim.  Hannah Grunzke, a vocational manager for disabled people in a large company, said she always votes and its usually straight party line.  “My late father told me, if you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain. I always vote for social issues such as supporting gay rights.  Economic and budgetary problems rarely affect how I vote.”   She is well informed on everything known to Minnesota including the history of sturgeons and bird migration, but she like the rest of the electorate, doesn’t follow politics precisely candidate by candidate.  My other co-worker who is a sign language interpreter was also quizzed by me on “Who is Al Franken’s running mate?”  She said she did not know.  Neither one of them knew about the Chip Cravaack’s 2010 triumph over Jim Obestar that broke a 31 year winning streak for the Democrats.   I was too scared to ask if they knew who Jim Obestar was.  This goes to show the nature of Americans.   In a state like Minnesota, that has produced radical leaders like Eugene McCarthy, Paul Wellstone and Jesse Ventura, Minnesota has the reputation of being one of the most involved grass roots movements.  In 2012, when Rick Nolan beat Chip Cravaack, 1,167 Minnesotans in the 8th district wrote in their own candidate.   The Democrats have had a stronghold in Northern Minnesota especially due to economic depression up here.   As a grandchild of an Iron Range family, I am supportive of future mining speculation.  Rick Nolan notes on his campaign page that “precious metals and minerals mined by Iron Rangers touch every part of our daily lives, while reducing our carbon footprint and making us more energy-efficient:     New cars contain 1 ton of iron, steel, copper, nickel, and nickel-based aluminum – hybrid vehicles are even more energy efficient.      Wind turbines contain steel and copper ,  reducing air pollution.     Cellphones contain copper and palladium – conserving resources.     Lithium-ion batteries contain nickel, cobalt, manganese.    Modern catalytic convertors contain platinum and palladium – reducing our carbon emissions. “  Most people don’t know that the late Democratic Congressman Jim Oberstar, Cliff’s Natural Resources and Laiwu Steel Group of China bought the U-Tac mine’s assets, reopened, and saved hundreds of jobs under the same name.  Two Americans and a Chinese company is what reignited the mining industry.  It enabled the Range in 2014 to bond $38 million for schools and 19.5 million of the Highway 53 location, for the utilities in Virginia, and bike trails,” according to the Northland News Center.  Rick Nolan and Governor Mark Dayton recently attended a 50th anniversary party for U-Tac in Eveleth, Minnesota.  Nolan stated “...dispel the myth that, somehow, mining and our environment are not compatible with one another, are you kidding? Does anybody care more about the great outdoors than those of us who live up here, in the Iron Range?”  I don’t want taconite pellets thrown at my head now by people who are anti-polymet and against other mineral cultivation.  I just remember the heyday of the Iron Range when my parents raved about the blended economic and ethnic melting pot, how that made them real Americans.   Other than my new acclaimed apathy, I did take notice of Mark Dayton taking a paternal stance on Adrian Peterson’s parenting skills.  Subsequently, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey followed stating that the NFL should lose it’s non-profit status and donate profits to domestic violence prevention.   Mark Dayton didn’t seem to have the moral authority to openly “diss” the team’s best player.  However, an insider staffer from the Duluth DFL volunteer office told me “he was asked to step forward and make a statement.”    Of all the Northern Minnesotan candidates I contacted, only Al Franken’s St. Paul office got back to me in a timely manner.  Stewart Mills was out in the field (hunting?), Rick Nolan’s press secretary said “We need more time.”  Mill’s people said they would get back to me by phone or email and did not.  In lieu of Syrian bombing on the eve of September 22, 2014 by the U.S.-Arab coalition Franken’s media contact Ryan Furlong issued an official statement saying  Franken believes that training and arming the Syrian rebels is the best available option. “This is a short-term authorization that lasts until December 11, and by then we should have a strong sense of whether countries in the region are stepping up to shoulder the burden of defeating ISIL in a meaningful way… Let me be clear, what I don’t want is for this to be a slippery slope that leads to another protracted ground war in the region.”  By next week, voters should have a clearer picture on where each candidate stands after I speak with their leaders.  In the meantime, Minnesotans want a winning Viking season.