Podcast 533-Matt Stevens

Podcast 533-Matt Stevens. Heads up for the North Metro Tea Party alliance as an Elk River man alleges serious campaign finance violations by officers of the North Metro Tea Party and Political PACs associated with it. In Podcast 533-Matt Stevens, the man who filed the complaint tells why he did it, and details his charges. As of post time I contacted the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, and North Metro Tea Party Officials who were not available, although Jake Duesenberg posted a note on his FaceBook page which I include in this podcast. It was pretty late, and Matt’s tweets had been gathering steam all day. At issue is the ongoing fight in Minnesota House district 35 between incumbent Republican and Speaker of the Minnesota House Kurt Daudt and his primary challenger Alan Duff. The primary is August 9th. Is this a dirty trick by the Daudt Campaign to blunt Duff’s challenge? Or is this is a question of competency as it pertains to political neophytes who have come into the process through Tea Party meetings. It’s all in the hands of the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board now. See for yourself, here’s Matt’s twitter feed, where you’ll find the tweets and links to the documents detailing his allegations, in a letter to the campaign finance board. If you’re interested here is one source detailing the campaign regulations/guidelines related to 501C3 corporations similar to the Tea Party which is an organization devoted to education, not a political action committee. It’s important to note that I know many of the principles in this story personally and they have always been gracious to me, and good to me. I do not know Matt Stevens, but most of the people I talked to the night of this podcast have a favorable impression of him. The fact is, we don’t know whether the allegations are true or false, we don’t know the motivation, and we don’t know whether the Tea Party officials made a mistake or there is no ‘there, there’, to turn a phrase. It’s all up to the Minnesota Board of Campaign Finance and it’s going to be a big story, so here is the first interview of record on the subject. We’ll see now what happens. Sponsored by X Government Cars.

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Podcast 475

Fight For Your Caucus. Web Designer, Senate District Chair and CD5 Secretary Mitch Rossow joins the podcast to talk about the latest misguided initiative by mainstream republicans in Minnesota. State Representative Steve Garofalo and others want to get rid of the caucuses in Minnesota. Oddly enough, before Super Tuesday, the reason for getting rid of the caucus system was low participation. On Super Tuesday Minnesota experienced a record turnout for its caucuses. So now, apparently, there are too many people caucusing. Isn’t that what we want? Seems like the truth is those in power don’t like the caucus system because it allows for the grass roots to develop new leaders. Critics say the caucuses are too ‘inside’, but aren’t the critics the real insiders? It would be so much easier if the goons in Saint Paul picked party leaders and candidates rather than the citizens. The caucus is one of the few opportunities average citizens have to participate in and influence the political process. Democrats in the state are concerned about this initiative, since the late Senator Paul Wellstone developed the movement that ultimately put him in office through this channel. Mitch Rossow has developed a precinct organization training program, and a training program for caucus conveners. Precinct organizing is the next step after caucuses and its the quickest way for citizens to take back their local representation and eventually state legislature and statewide offices. The enemy of the Republican is the Republican. While Democrats in the state post training videos well before caucuses, and have programs to bring volunteers in to help their caucus attendees understand the process, republicans never got around to doing much of anything to help local precincts with their caucuses. Now they want to do away with it entirely. Moral of the story; the MNGOP talks a lot about democracy and inclusiveness, but doesn’t walk the talk. One wonders what it is that they actually do; Not much of anything. Most of the time the state party is whining and asking the local political units for help. On the DFL side, it’s the reverse. Maybe there a lesson there for the entrenched perfumed princes, hidden behind a security wall at their office in Cedar Riverside. What a joke. With so many new participants this year, maybe a new crop of leaders is being harvested. It can’t happen soon enough. Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating and X Government Cars.

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Podcast 443

Do Something! Sick of Obama? Do something about it. Lots of emails from Bob Davis Podcast Subscribers asking for podcasts answering the President’s address to the nation last night. How about doubling the voter turn out in your neighborhood by organizing your precinct? You can bitch and moan about Obama this, and Obama that, or you can do something about it. In this podcast Political Activist Mitch Rossow introduces his new precinct organizing training program. This is a longer than normal podcast that tells you how to organize your neighborhood to win. We’re not talking about events. We’re not talking about lit drops. We’re not talking about messaging or attending your local Basic Political Unit Meeting. From the caucuses up, every citizen (in Minnesota at least) has an almost open road to become a precinct activist and having a direct impact on the 2016 election cycle. So, people have two choices. They can sit on Facebook and shake their heads, tweet a snarky analysis of the President’s speech, listen to another lecture about Jesus and The American Republic at a Tea Party meeting, or you can actually stand up and do something real. Mitch is ready to do Precinct Organizing Training Workshops. He can show you how to double the republican turn out in your precinct in one hour, and give you the tools to do it. Yelling and screaming, posting on social media, tweeting, being frustrated and angry isn’t going to win the election. Only organizing will. Let’s get to work. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul.

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