Mainstream media, including our local Star Tribune newspaper’s Associated Press articles have labelled any assertion that voter fraud exists in America as unproven and worthy of being censured.

Take Gregory Krieg of CNN, who stated on November 22 that “Trump lawyers and loyalists are seeing their baseless allegations of system voter fraud treated with increasing contempt by disbelieving judges.”

The animosity of that piece is in sharp contrast with the reasoned commentary by Jonathan Turley, linked below..

But are the allegations “baseless”? If we referred to it by the broader term “election fraud” would it at least be acknowledged by the media?

Why Vote Republican?

In the months leading up to the election, that search-inquiry was a frequent reason people came to our SD49 Republicans website.

After our losses in 2020, the ever-widening gulf between our two major parties compels us to look again at the most basic ideas that have defined us and driven American history for the last 244 years. As we do, we begin to see that the historic American debate is as alive and well as it was when the Revolutionary Founders were debating it. At the core: Given historical experience, how do we organize government to protect the ordered liberty that so many have offered up their “lives, fortunes and sacred honors” to obtain and defend?

At the end of the day, our elections are about BASIC IDEAS. And this leads us to why every informed and thinking American should vote Republican:

• Republicans believe that government is a necessary evil, and should always be the solution of last resort to any problem. Democrats believe that government is a benign service bureau of “enlightened” public servants, perfectly suited to micro-managing every problem imaginable, and therefore the solution of first choice.
  
  
• Republicans believe that power, the ability to arbitrarily bend others to our will, is the single most corrupting influence in all of human experience. Democrats believe that power rightfully belongs in the hands of  properly “enlightened” elites who will consequently act with unfailing integrity in the interest of the “greater good”.
  
  
• And finally, Republicans believe that every human being, by virtue of their humanity, has the unalienable right to be considered as an individual and not as a member of a race or religion or gender or any other stereotyped class. An individual is fully entitled to the fruits of their productive efforts, fully responsible for their choices, and fully endowed with the complete array of dazzling possibilities inherent in every single human life. Democrats, on the other hand, will always consider us in stereotypical groups of races, genders, faiths, income levels and every other imaginable or statistically definable classification.

How these differences show up can be easily seen by looking at 3 factors: PERSONALITIES vs POLICIES, SAVING OUR CONSTITUTION, and INDEPENDENCE.

 

 

What Should (and Can) We Change to Win?

In other years at about this time, the Republicans in SD49 have held our Fall Conversation. It has been our opportunity to talk about matters of importance to us as an organization and as a community. Unfortunately, that is not possible this year. Instead, we are sharing some thoughts with you in the hopes that you will give us your feedback and will volunteer to help us move forward.

Could We in SD49 Have Done More?

By Jim Bowen

If we like the results of this election, we just need to keep doing more of the same...I think the answer is "No!  Let's change!" 

We sent out, by email, our volunteers-needed message to 2,300 people that we believed were GOP supporters. We have about 180 delegates, alternates, precinct officers and executive committee members (our “activists”), yet we struggled to get 10 people together for 3 hours of door knocking.

Some people cannot door knock, but they may be able to phone call. The MNGOP, Trump, Qualls and Johnson campaigns all operated phone banks. Although we had a number of people who volunteered to phone, we lacked a volunteer to organize a phone bank for ballot questions as well as local legislative candidates.

Campaign contributions are an essential way to help, particularly local candidates. The Republican organizations and candidates in Minnesota raised far more than in recent election cycles because of our “battleground” status, but we were still out-raised and outspent by a wide margin.

If we in SD49 want to win, we need to up our effort.  All activists and supporters should plan to spend 3-4 days door knocking or phone calling every fall in election years as well as make total contributions of at least $100 (if you are financially able) to local candidates.

The “Basket of Deplorables” was the memorable label given to President Donald Trump’s vocal supporters by Hillary Clinton in 2016.  Rather than being shamed, many Republicans have taken the term on as a badge of honor.  As of a week ago, there's an addition. 

On October 30, former Vice President Joe Biden came to Minnesota to hold one of his campaign’s trademark Drive-in Rallies on the State Fairgrounds.  He was greeted by nearly 150 Trump supporters on the way into the fairground parking lot where the rally was held.  The Trump supporters continued to make their presence known by waving flags and honking their own horns during Biden’s speech.

Upset by the horns, whistles, and other noisemakers that can be clearly heard during his remarks, Biden at one point referred to the partisans as “Trump Chumps”.

Bloomington residents will have two questions on their November ballots dealing with “organized” trash collection.   SD49 Republicans recommend voting YES on these two questions.

Question 1 ADD VOTER APPROVAL TO CITY-ORGANIZED COLLECTION PROCESS

While this question would appear to be straight-forward, asking if Bloomington residents want to continue with the current city-run trash collection system, it is not.  It really asks if Bloomington residents agree with the statement that the city should NOT replace open, competitive trash collection with a city-run, non-competitive trash collection system unless voters elect by ballot to do so.  In essence, should the Bloomington City Charter be amended to add: “Unless first approved by a majority of voters in a state general election, the City shall not replace the competitive market in solid waste collection with a system in which solid waste services are provided by government- chosen collectors or in government designed districts.”

Why are Bloomington voters being asked to confirm that changing the way trash is collected should be decided by them?  This ballot question is really a “citizens’ amendment” that came about when the city lost a series of court cases regarding their unilateral decision to implement city-organized trash collection.  Bloomington City Council had also refused to include residents on the committee set up to explore organized collection options and had dismissed feedback given at the time.  

Voting YES on Question 1 will serve as a reminder to the city council, city manager, and staff that residents absolutely have a right to participate in our local government.  Unfortunately, our local representatives have had a habit of not listening to residents until time for their reelection.  Too often, important questions have been scheduled for the end of open city council meetings, late at night. An affirmative vote on this question will serve as a reminder that residents should have a voice in city government, a voice that should be respected and taken seriously

Kendall Qualls, Republican candidate for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District, has wisely assessed the seriousness of the challenges facing us. He recently released a video that underscores the beliefs and values that were forged in him by life experiences: belief in self-determination, service to country, and the power of faith and family. He speaks convincingly that his values have lifted him through troubling times. He urges us to learn from our past, to lean on the wisdom of our forefathers, and stay true to our values.

Check out this video, in which Kendall Qualls appeals with eloquence and dignity.

Compare that to Dean Phillips’ latest video, in what can only be described as an appeal of the Teletubbies meet the Cookie Monster. The challenges that are facing us are more profound than Phillips appears ready to acknowledge. As those in his party pessimistically cling to the shutdown of the economy and our schools as the answer to the pandemic, the fear that is being instilled will be harder to overcome. Phillips has yet to realize that it takes real leadership to overcome fear, not soft and fuzzy platitudes.

Our best guess is that Dean is the one on the left and Walz is the fearful one on the right.

The once well-managed cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul switched to ranked choice voting (RCV) to elect their mayor and city council members. If the recent actions of city government in these two major Minnesota cities are any indication, RCV doesn’t appear to have served the public’s interest in electing qualified candidates for city offices.

Ranked choice voting is promoted by a political activist group known as FairVote Minnesota. Their website promotes RCV using glowing terms like inclusive and representative, showing photos of groups of smiling citizens. RCV advocates falsely claim that switching to RCV will increase voter turnout.

In reality, RCV is a convoluted system of voting in which voters are expected to understand the differing positions of potentially large numbers of candidates for each particular office and then rank them in the voter’s preferred order in the voting booth. This incorrect assumption about voter motivation by RCV advocates represents a practical impossibility for the vast majority of voters and further weakens the case for adopting ranked choice voting.

Under RCV, election officials will evaluate the election results, and, if no single candidate has a clear majority of the votes, then election officials will initiate a scheme of reallocating votes based on voter’s second, third, fourth, fifth and so on, choices until one candidate achieves a 51% majority. FairVote claims that this process will always yield a winner that has majority voter support – a highly misleading assertion.

The candidate with the most votes in the first round could lose and the winner could ultimately be a candidate who started out with a much smaller number of votes but survived several rounds of vote reallocation to be declared the winner.

Gov Walz is expected shortly to call another special session of the legislature to endorse his extension of his pandemic emergency powers. And for the seventh time, the DFL-lead Minnesota House will defeat any attempt by the Republicans and concerned Democrats to deny him that extension. Small businesses will remain shut down, most public schools will continue struggling with distance learning, and public discourse will remain hobbled by restrictions on open meetings.

A sizeable portion of our population remains gripped by the fear that has grown around the COVID-19 virus. Is it time to address that fear and assess if it is reasonable and appropriate to remain in lockdown until it disappears?

When the virus first broke out in the US, fear was a natural reaction. Little was known about it, less about how to treat it. Patients were experiencing severe breathing difficulties. Cases were spiking rapidly. Hospital intensive care units in other countries were being overwhelmed. Health experts were pointing to models predicting millions of deaths in the United States alone. In Minnesota alone, even with a stay-at-home order in place, the model being used in late March predicted that the state would experience 50,000 to 55,000 deaths. Draconian measures were needed to “flatten the curve” and buy time to prepare up to 3,000 ICU beds in our hospitals.

So, in the intervening seven months, what have we seen? Despite a few tragic missteps early on, Minnesota has done much better than we were told to fear. The following statistics are from the daily briefing given by the MN Department of Health.

- Rather than 50,000 deaths, Minnesota is approaching 2,100. Three-quarters of those deaths have occurred to patients in nursing homes and assisted living centers. This was largely due to the early and unfortunate decision to release infected patients from hospitals to nursing homes to free up hospital beds.
- As the graph shows, the curve has been flattened. The rolling seven-day average of the positive test rate is hovering just over 5%.
- Utilization of ICU beds has remained low enough that the MN Department of Health no longer reports on that statistic.
- 26% of Minnesotans have been tested for the virus. Over the course of seven months, about only 1.5% of Minnesotans tested positive. At this time, 0.2% of Minnesotans have an active case -- that means one out of 500 Minnesotans is known to be sick at this time.

Annette Meeks, the CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, recently wrote an opinion piece  that was published in the Star Tribune on August 10. Meeks, who lives and works in Minneapolis, warns that other cities, like Bloomington and Minnetonka which both have RCV amendments on the ballot this fall, should be wary of following Minneapolis in adopting Ranked Choice Voting.

“Recently I’ve heard from friends across the country who ask the same question,” she writes “How did Minneapolis, once known as an innovative, trendsetting city, so quickly become a city adrift without bold leaders? It’s an easy question to answer if you consider how Minneapolis elects its mayor and City Council. In 2009, Minneapolis adopted an untested method of electing city officials called ranked-choice voting. RCV is now partly responsible for the demise of our once-great city and threatens the vibrancy of others who are following in our footsteps.”

Meeks goes on to counter many of the arguments given by supporters of Ranked Choice Voting. It does not simplify the voting process. It has little positive effect on voter participation. Unlike those elected using the primary method, the winners of elections conducted using RCV can succeed with far less than a majority of the votes. In fact, progressive cities like Aspen, Colorado, and Burlington, Vermont, have repealed RCV because it delivered the opposite of what its promoters promised it would.

Annette Meek’s words are well-worth reading in full. Bloomington and Minnetonka citizens are urged to consider them carefully before voting this fall.

By Kathy Kranz, Co-Chair, Senate District 50 Republicans

Question 3 on the Bloomington Ballot will read: "Should the Bloomington City Charter be amended to elect the Mayor and City Council members by the Ranked Choice Voting Method?”

The Ranked Choice Voting method has been marketed to our City Council and our voting masses to appeal to all the heightened emotions of our turbulent times. It is a proposed solution in search of problems that it cannot address. Make sure you are an informed voter about what RCV really is, a redistribution of your votes.

In previous articles we have worked to keep you up to date with this issue.

Today, let’s look at the emotional advantages pro-RCV supporters will try on you:

RCV supporters say that it "Ensures winners with broad majority support" - Untrue. Minneapolis' Mayor Frey for example, won with far less than a single candidate majority. The inexperienced mayor won in the 5th round and was the top choice of fewer than 25% of the voters. Minneapolis made the outrageous claim that the mayor won with a "broad majority." An intentionally misleading claim, especially given the number of disqualified ballots. The number of votes needed to be "a majority" diminishes with each round of vote redistribution.

RCV supporters say that it "Eliminates the low-turnout, unrepresentative primary" - A better alternative is easily available. By simply changing the election cycle from odd to even years (when state-office primaries are already held), low turnout goes away. Prof. Schultz of Hamline Univ. spoke to the City Council and said that even-year primaries are the “silver bullet.” The fastest way to increase interest in something is keeping it simple; not anything RCV will do.

RCV supporters say that it "Saves taxpayers’ dollars" – Untrue. Bloomington can’t really quantify yet, but Santa Fe, similar in size to Bloomington, spent $350,000 on RCV education in a mayoral race that had 20,000 voters turn out. Is Bloomington underestimating the additional cost to its taxpayers? Minnetonka estimates that it will pay $106K annually to run RCV. They will pay for new machines, new counting processes, legal challenges, and various miscellaneous expenses.