Edina witnessed one of the largest contingents of Republicans ever to march in its July 4^th Parade.  Drizzly rain leading up to the start meant that Senate District 50 elected to keep the tops up on their convertibles and the inflatable elephant stored away in Carol Kerr’s trunk.  However, the banners were unfurled, and the marchers stepped out with great enthusiasm when the parade kicked off.

Edina’s July 4^th Parade is one of the largest in the southwest Twin Cities area.  In a year of state-wide political elections, the large Republican turn-out was a clear indicator of excitement and support of our candidates. 

A number of candidates marched with Senate District 50.  Lt Gov. candidate Matt Birk, Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett, 3^rd Congressional District candidate Tom Weiler, Hennepin County Attorney candidate Tad Jude, Hennepin County Sheriff candidate Jai Hansen, SD50 Senate candidate Doug Fulton, and House District 50B candidate Beth Beebe and their volunteers really filled out the ranks of the local Republican marchers. 

In addition, State Auditor candidate Ryan Wilson and 5^th Congressional District candidate Cicely Davis had separate parade units and a number of their own supporters.

US Bank Stadium hosted an estimated 50,000 Muslim worshipers on Saturday, July 9, a record turn-out. Quietly greeting them as they entered the stadium were a number of MNGOP leaders and Republican candidates with staffers. Significantly, the representatives of the Republican Party of Minnesota outnumbered those of the DFL.

The presence of the Republican Party inside and outside US Bank stadium clearly came as a surprise to the DFL. As Faisal Deri, a well-known member of the Somali community, was walking through the stadium on Saturday with a respected Imam, he was asked, “Why did you bring THEM here?” Deri, the chair of the MNGOP’s East African Affiliate, answered, “We ARE them.”

The party also was able to post candidate signs at the exit of the stadium. The signs can be seen at the upper right of the photo above.

Republicans in Minnesota have an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. Yes, there are some radical elements within the Somali diaspora, but we must not brand the entire community as unworthy of our affiliation. We have been labeled by the DFL as prejudiced; we must demonstrate clearly that we are not. If we reach our hand out now, we will find that there are strong allies willing to take it. And in numbers significant enough to make a difference in the upcoming elections.

Candidates who attended the July 11 Pints & Politics provided insights into their backgrounds and approaches to address the issues of crime/safety and other concerns of local voters.  SD50 Newsletter writer Larry Frost listened as they circulated and answered individual questions, and also as they spoke more formally to the entire group of attendees.

Tad Jude (running for Hennepin County Attorney)

Jai Hanson (Running for Hennepin County Sheriff)

Frank Pafko (candidate for state Senate, District 51 / Richfield, East Bloomington) 

Chad Anderson (candidate for state House of Representatives District 51B/ East Bloomington)

Ryan Wiskerchen (candidate for state House of Representatives District 51A/ Richfield)

Alpha News reports that the state teacher licensing agency is preparing standards which will require teachers to adopt and teach students Marxist ideological principles. 

SD50 Newsletter has compared the fourteen specific claims Alpha News has made to the actual proposed rules and concluded that the Alpha News claims are generally sound, with a few technical exceptions. Unfortunately SD50 Newsletter doesn’t have the space to properly convey how bad these proposed rules are.

It is very difficult to sort out what the bill says because it uses language that means nothing in ordinary English. For example: 

“ ‘Understand “systemic trauma,” including racism and “micro and macro aggressions ‘ [Trauma is presumed to have been inflicted upon victims from the oppressor classes.]portions in [ ] are comment by Alpha news, not quotes from the proposed regulations.

The actual language in the proposed rules is: “ 37.12 The teacher understands the diverse impacts of individual and systemic trauma, such as experiencing homelessness, foster care, incarceration, migration, medical fragility, racism, and micro and macro aggressions, on learning and development and knows how to support students using culturally responsive strategies and resources to address these impacts.” . (The number at the front is the location of the language in the proposed rule.)

In order to make any sense out of this you have to know what a ‘microaggression’ is. It took half an hour to find a definition that seemed to include most of what microaggressions are used for in news stories and on the internet. According to Auburn University  an example of a microaggression is “When Blacks are told that “I don’t see color” or “We are all human beings,” the effect is to negate their experiences as racial/cultural beings.”

Yes, it is a microaggression to deny that you treat people based on race.

The proposed rules also routinely assume as proven facts assertions which are, at the very least, all debatable, and many of which are flatly untrue.

 

The City of St Paul lost a District court case in May involving how they fund pavement management. The “fees” are actually “taxes”, and so can not be imposed on nonprofits or churches. And the city must use taxation processes to implement and collect them. As local taxes, those could be deductible for residents who itemize on their federal form.

In a similar previous case around ROW (Right of Way) maintenance fees, in 2016 the Minnesota Supreme Court issued a ruling that forced St. Paul to overhaul the way it funds street upkeep.

Since then, St. Paul has been assessing different SMSP (Street Maintenance Service Program) fees for a narrower set of pavement management services to all properties in St. Paul, including those of churches and other nonprofits. They also had to increase property taxes 20% to cover the costs of the remaining services that had been funded by the ROW fees. The church involved in the ROW case and a homeowner both disputed, asking for a court ruling that such “SMSP fees” are actually taxes.

The Center of the American Experiment explains more why this is an important distinction in their article HERE.

The Ramsey County court decision at this link found that such fees are actually taxes.

It may require a specific court case initiated by Bloomington nonprofits and homeowners to gain a similar decision regarding the “Franchise Fees” that are added to utility bills. Those fees pour about $6 million into the city’s funding each year. Although those fees were initially publicized as intended to cover “trail maintenance” (paved pathways in parks and beside roads) in Bloomington, they have actually been used almost entirely for street repairs. Only 3-4 miles of trails have been handled yearly. A description of those fees and planned increases is at the Bloomington “let’s talk” site here. Note that the survey associated with that “let’s talk” article asks only about two “trail maintenance” options, once again implying that’s how the fees are used.

Our previous Newsletter article noted the 23% increase for Bloomington Franchise Fees that took effect in January 2022.

Congressional District 3 wants to be the go-to resource for events in the western half of the Minneapolis metropolitan area.  Bookmark 3rd Congressional District Republicans - Events (cd3mngop.com) just as you hopefully have saved the Senate District 50 Events page (SD 50 EVENTS - SD 50 GOP).

If you have an event in or near CD3, please send the information to 3rd Congressional District Republicans by emailing [email protected] as well by emailing [email protected].

It is hard to believe, but you can already vote for some of our Republican candidates. These candidates face challengers, and they must come in first or second in the Primary election to be on the November ballot. While the Primary election in Minnesota is set for August 9, you can go now to your city hall during business hours and vote “early”.

Your participation in the Primary election is critical to ensure that the following Republican-endorsed state-wide candidates are on the November ballot:

MN Governor and Lt Gov. candidates Scott Jensen and Matt Birk
MN Attorney General candidate Jim Schultz
MN Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett

If you live in one of the following Congressional Districts, please vote in the Primary election for the following Republican-endorsed Congressional candidates:

4th Congression District candidate May Lor Xiong
5th Congressional District candidate Cicely Davis
7th Congressional District candidate Michelle Fischbach
8th Congressional District candidate Pete Stauber

If you live in Hennepin County, we recommend that you vote in the Primary election for the following conservative candidates:

Hennepin County Attorney Tad Jude
Hennepin County Sheriff Jai Hanson

If you want good candidates on the ballot in November, tell your friends to vote for these people in the Primary election that is open now.

Tad Jude pivoted from seeking the Republican endorsement for Attorney General to running for Hennepin County Attorney as a Republican. His campaign theme is ‘make crime illegal again’. Jude’s campaign website is judeforhennepin.com

Current Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election.

When Jude addressed a crowd of supporters at a fundraiser, he emphasized the wealth of experience he has over his opponents, and the failure of the County Attorney’s office to actually prosecute crime – hence his campaign theme. Jude pointed to Hennepin County’s failure to prosecute crimes and apparent desire to release violent criminals back to the streets almost immediately after they were charged as a symptom of the "rot" in the County Attorney’s office.

Alpha News recently did a ride-along with Minneapolis Police. During the ride-along Sergeant Schroeder was called to arrest a man who has been on the run for months after failing to show up for prison following his nine-year sentence for a previous shooting. After the successful arrest, the Sergeant was asked how many similar fugitives he thought were loose in Minneapolis. He answered, “Hundreds.” (Video , at 4:25). The next stop involved a car with three young men in it. One had been arrested the day before for a shooting and was already out on bail; another was out on bail pending his trial for murder. The Sergeant said that “People [criminals] know that if you get caught [committing a crime] with a gun in Anoka County, you are in way more trouble than if you get caught in Hennepin county.” The Sergeant told the Alpha News reporter that one young man shot two innocent bystanders at a corner the police car was passing; he had nine felonies, and was out on bond (same URL, 6:00).

That’s what Tad Jude means by ‘making crime illegal again’ – he wants to keep accused violent criminals in jail until they are tried and found guilty or innocent.

The Hennepin County Attorney race is crowded – besides Jude, DFL-endorsed Ryan Winkler (the current Minnesota House Majority Leader), Mary Moriarty (former Hennepin County chief public defender) and four others are on the August 9 Primary ballot. Jude says he is the only Republican running.

It's OK now to put up ALL the candidate yard signs – no limits. And leave them until shortly after the November election, although you'll probably rotate them as you mow now and rake leaves this fall. Some state-wide candidates have signs available now, most other candidates, including our MN House / MN Senate candidates, will have signs available in August.

Per the MN Secretary of State website, state law regarding political campaign signs overrides local sign ordinances.  Local laws that otherwise limit the number of signs or how long they may be up cannot be enforced for a designated time during even-numbered years.

The City of Edina regulates campaign sign placement and quantity, however those regulations are suspended now, for a portion of 2022. This illustration of valid sign placement locations is still a good reminder of state-level and safety requirements.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered Minneapolis to have total of 731 sworn officers on the police force. An article at Bring Me the News touches on some of the case background and the arguments, while noting that Minneapolis is more than 100 officers short.

The Supreme Court decided the Mayor of Minneapolis has a clear legal duty under the Minneapolis city charter to hire; that the mayor has failed to do so; and ordered the District Court to direct the Mayor to hire the officers or, in the alternative, explain why and provide a date by which time they will be hired.

The Court also noted that the Minneapolis City Council had met its charter duty of funding these positions.

Lawsuit background and decision details

The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) brought suit in August 2020 on behalf of eight north Minneapolis residents who petitioned the court to mandate that the city of Minneapolis fulfill its legal obligation under its charter to hire .0017 police officers per resident of Minneapolis.

You can read the UMLC article about this case on their website, under the heading "Spann, et al. v. Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey".