The mask has slipped from the DFL in the last month as evidenced by various attempts to punish Republicans who dare to question irregularities in the recent elections. House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL - Brooklyn Park) is under fire from Republicans for pushing a narrative in which the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was investigating several Republicans who spoke at a political rally at the MN Capitol in St. Paul on January 6.

Speaker Hortman did pledge on Jan. 11 to open an investigation as to "whether there were members of the Minnesota House of Representatives who advocated for, incited or supported acts of domestic terrorism" and publicly acknowledged on Jan. 13 that the BCA was investigating the Jan. 6 MN rally.

The MN Department of Public Safety recently released a statement acknowledging that there was no criminal activity at the Jan. 6 MN rally and that any statements were protected political speech. Speaker Hortman's reaction? That "speech has consequences". Unsurprisingly, it seems that Speaker Hortman's support of the First Amendment ends where you disagree with her.

Sen. Melisa Franzen (DFL - Edina) recently proposed a Senate Resolution to pigeon-hole Republicans into blindly ignoring any constituent concerns around potential election irregularities. GOP Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R - East Gull Lake) offered an alternative resolution. While both resolutions condemned the unrest on Jan. 6 at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., Franzen's proposed resolution stated the legislators were "committed to upholding the results of the free and fair election that was just held".

The fact of the matter is that there is a large portion of the country that has concerns around the integrity of our elections, and valid questions from concerned citizens should not be simply brushed aside as Franzen and the DFL leadership would like to do. As Majority Leader Gazelka mentioned on Jan. 11 , elected officials "don't get to decide if people are wrong and shouldn't have the opinions they have".

And in the MN House, the DFL has recently committed to removing additional election integrity safeguards.  Bill HF 9 introduced by Rep. Emma Greenman (DFL - Minneapolis) proposes automatic voter registration, restoration of voting rights for convicted felons, and aims to "strengthen" absentee balloting - by removing the witness requirement, i.e., further removing accountability in the absentee voting process.

Contact Sen. Franzen, who is the MN Senator for SD49, and our House Representatives to let then know that you oppose removing additional voting procedure safeguards, or continuing the practices that had so many questioning the integrity of the 2020 election. CLICK HERE to see their contact information  on our website. 

Pints & Pent-up, a local online forum for the exchange of Conservative perspectives, resumed its monthly Monday evening meet-ups on January 25 with two influential speakers, Kim Crockett and Sen. Scott Jensen. 

Kim Crockett started the evening off with a report on what Republicans need to do to improve election integrity.  More detailed coverage is in a separate article HERE on our website.

Sen. Scott Jensen MD (R, Carver County) spoke about his experience with the pandemic responses of the Center for Disease Control and the Minnesota Department of Health.  He pointed out that basing the government’s response on science is only as good as the data on which the science is based.  Early on, test positivity rates proved inaccurate when it was found that the Swab test kits were contaminated.  Adjustments in the desired sensitivity of the test analysis also affected the reported positivity rates.  Then the World Health Organization came up with two codes for COVID diagnoses, probable and confirmed, that were used somewhat interchangeably. Some reporting systems combined the 2 codes and reported all as “confirmed”.     

Jensen noted that the number of reported COVID-19 deaths was also problematic.  On April 3, 2020, the MN Department of Health sent an email to physicians across the state.  It instructed that the doctors were to state on death certificates if the deceased had COVID-19 at the time of death.  In essence, as a doctor, he was being asked to change something that he had been doing for 17 years.  No longer was he to describe what the deceased had died of but rather what the deceased had died with. It didn’t matter whether COVID-19 was the cause of death or merely a contributing factor, COVID-19 should be put down as the cause on the death certificate.

Kim Crockett challenged Republicans to pay more attention to future elections in her remarks to participants in the January 25 Pints & Pent-up Zoom forum.  Borrowing from Dinesh D’Souza, she noted that “Republicans focus on campaigns; Democrats focus on elections.”

Crockett is the Legal Policy Advisor at the Minnesota Voters Alliance.  She has written articles on election issues for the Star Tribune, AlphaNews and co-hosted a show on election integrity on AM1280 The Patriot.  She previously worked at Center of the American Experiment and Charlemagne Institute, publisher of Intellectual Takeout.

She is now focused on election integrity issues both here in Minnesota but also across the country. In 2020, she spoke out on the need to get Republicans more involved as election judges and poll challengers (cities often do not have enough Republicans to fill these vital roles) but more importantly, for citizens of both parties to serve on absentee ballots boards. Party balance is required by the law for a reason: it keeps the count honest.

In her brief remarks, Crockett hit several points.  Republicans need to do a better job at voter registration.  She said that 30% of attendees at President Trump’s Duluth rally were not registered to vote.  When they walked out, they were still not registered. 

Republicans need a national platform focused on election law well before the next national election.  Democracy Docket, founded by Marc Elias, lists the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the League of Women Voters among its “Partners and Sponsors”.  Crockett said that Democracy Docket exploited the COVID-19 pandemic, working with friendly Secretaries of State and state supreme court justices to loosen election laws well before the November election.  

Within the last two weeks, both the GOP and DFL announced 2021 legislative priorities.  The main requirement for the 2021 session is the biennial state budget.  The GOP is dedicated to closing the projected deficit without raising taxes, including requiring state agencies to find savings within their own budgets.  A key priority for Republicans within the budget is reform targeting the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse by state agencies.  

Additionally, redistricting will occur in 2021 based on the new census (a once-in-a-decade occurrence).

In contrast,  the DFL is dedicated to increasing taxpayer funding to various constituencies with little to no regard for any mention of fiscal responsibility, transparency or accountability.

On Thursday, Jan. 21 the MN Senate GOP caucus released its 2021 legislative plan.  Key components include: 

• Safely re-opening Minnesota businesses and schools, ending Gov. Walz's authority to close schools and limit other emergency powers
• Imposing state agency budget cuts of 5 percent to balance the budget without raising taxes
• Helping disadvantaged students attain great educations through opportunity scholarships 
• Protecting Minnesotans from Gov. Walz unilaterally implementing onerous new clean air standards for cars based on California's emissions standards, and
• Election integrity initiatives, including a photo ID requirement for voters.

Minnesota has been under Gov. Walz’ emergency order for almost a year now. The impact of the economic clampdown has been staggering. The state has gone from a budget surplus in the last biennium to a significant budget shortfall.

It is against this backdrop that the DFL governor introduced on January 23 his budget for the 2022-2023 biennium. In it, he proposes a new fifth income tax rate of 10.85 % and a hike in the corporate income tax rate to 11.25 %. Minnesota has the fifth highest top rate of state personal income tax in the United States - 9.85 % on income over $164,400 a year. Only Oregon, New Jersey, Hawaii, and California have higher top rates.

As MN Rep Erik Mortensen (R, Shakopee) wrote recently, “Minnesota doesn’t just tax “the rich” heavily. Our state’s lowest personal income tax rate - 5.35 % on the first dollar of taxable income - is higher than the highest rate in 25 states. At 9.80 % on the first dollar of taxable revenue, our state has the fourth highest state corporate income tax rate in the United States. Only Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Iowa have higher rates.” Mortensen further noted that the proposed state budget is 50% higher than it was just 10 years ago.

The Walz budget cuts only $150 million, or about 0.3%, of spending over the next two years. Instead, among other spending increases is a call for $150 million in bonds to build back businesses destroyed by rioters in May.

At the end of last year, the Star Tribune ranked the articles that appeared in 2020 in its Opinion section , based on input from its online readership. The piece that ranked the highest was “Racial justice: The new religion?” by Katherine Kersten.

The article on “social justice” as the new religion garnered extensive national attention—it was featured on Tucker Carlson’s show and Fox and Friends, highlighted on Real Clear Politics, and discussed on numerous national radio talk shows.

Kersten is a writer, attorney, and Senior Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment. The Star Tribune ranked at #4 a counterpoint article, “I am a racist. So is Katherine Kersten. She can’t admit it,” by Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. A weak counterpoint to Kersten’s article, it confirmed, likely unintentionally, her thesis. Another of Katherine’s opinion pieces, “Minneapolis must recover from its pandemic of fear,” came in at sixth most-read.

In her top-ranking article, Katherine Kersten observes that this past year, “a movement that condemns America as ‘systemically racist’ has convulsed our public consciousness.” Very quickly, education, business, media, nonprofit and entertainment institutions have fallen in line, “issuing statements declaring their virtue and right thinking.”

“This movement elevates passion over reason and dogma over data. It contemptuously rejects, and attempts to silence, calls for objective analysis as self-evidently racist.”

What I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance.
 
Violence has no place in our politics. Period. I wholly condemned [the] senseless acts of violence [in Washington DC on January 6], and I strongly reiterate the calls to remain peaceful in the weeks ahead. 
 
Those who partook in the assault on our nation’s Capitol and those who continue to threaten violence should be found, held accountable, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Let me be clear: Anyone who has malicious intent is not welcome in Washington, D.C. or in any other State Capitol Building.
 
The peaceful transition of power is one of our nation’s founding principles and is necessary for our country to move forward. Now is the time to come together as one nation, united in the peaceful pursuit of our common democratic purpose.
 
Our Founding Fathers established a Nation of laws, not a Nation of anarchy. And, the Republican Party is the Party of individual freedom, liberty, entrepreneurship, innovation, and the American Dream, not the hateful violence we witnessed [Jan. 6].
 
God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
 

Thank you,
Ronna McDaniel
Chairwoman
Republican National Committee

Republicans interested in influencing the future direction of the Minnesota Republican Party are invited to identify themselves as candidates for State Central Committee delegates and alternates.  The SD49 Officer Nominating Committee is ready to interview volunteer leaders who wish to run for election to these positions at the upcoming SD49 GOP convention.  Interested volunteers must identify their interest by Feb 6th to allow the Committee time to complete the interview process prior to the February 20 convention.   

State Central Delegate candidates should plan on providing a short write-up of what they have done that they feel qualifies them to be elected.  The write-up will be available to the convention delegates ahead of the SD49 convention.  Candidates will also be able to make a short statement during the convention.  Based on the number of votes received, State Central Delegates and Alternates will be identified in descending order of votes received. 

The Republican Party in Senate District 49 is known as an active and impactful organization, primarily due to its volunteer leaders and involved members.  If you have a desire to be more involved – this is your chance to volunteer!  Please indicate your desire to be a State Central Committee delegate to Jim Bowen [email protected] (360-927-8301) or to SD49 Co-Chairs Joel Quinnell ([email protected]) or Russ Burnison ([email protected]).  If you wish more information on these positions, contact them with any questions on the duties, commitments, or election processes.

With all of the news about the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19, have you ever wondered about how the overall death rate in 2020 compares with that of prior years?

LifeSiteNews.com writer Michael Haynes wrote on November 27 that Dr. Genevieve Brand, the Assistant Director for MS in Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University gave a video lecture in which she examined the deaths due to COVID-19 and deaths overall in the US through September. Her analysis found that COVID-19 has resulted in no excess deaths.

Briand’s lecture, using data drawn from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website found:
• The deaths of older people stayed about the same before and after COVID-19
• The percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same
• COVID-19-related deaths have exceeded deaths from heart diseases – unusual since heart disease has always prevailed as the leading cause of deaths
• When compared with 2018, 2020 has not had the expected drastic increase across all causes of death – in fact, there was a significant decrease in heart disease and other causes of death
• The total decrease in deaths by other causes almost exactly equals the increase in deaths by COVID-19 – perhaps due to the recategorization of the cause of deaths
• By the CDC’s own account, in this pandemic, deaths of children have been less than in each of the last five flu seasons

The university removed an article written about her findings published in the online version of the Johns Hopkins University newsletter. Their reason? “It was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic.”  You can read their full reasons on their siite.

Writing for the American Institute for Economic Research, Ethan Yang notes that Briand’s study is still being vetted but feels that Briand’s argument should be examined and discussed.