Togerson Makes Short Run for Congress: #2 Story of the Year

A statement on Republican Fifth Congressional District candidate Lynne Torgerson website in April led to more than 200 comment, 2,300 poll votes and her withdrawal from the race.

Torgerson and 'Ron Paul Libertarians': #2 Top Story Of The Year

A statement on Republican Fifth Congressional District candidate Lynne Torgerson website in April led to more than 200 comment, 2,300 poll votes and her withdrawal from the race.

In September 2011, Lynne Torgerson officially announced she would be running for the Fifth Congressional District seat held by Rep. Keith Ellison. By mid-April, she was no longer in the race. At the GOP Convention, delegates endorsed Chris Fields. That decision didn't sit too well with Torgerson, who wrote a long post on her website the Monday after the convention. She said in part:  There was a stage at the front of the room. Approximately 6 people were seated on the stage. Every person seated was a Ron Paul Libertarian. The Convention was overrun by Ron Paul Libertarians. More than 2/3 of the delegates were Ron Paul Libertarians. When I mentioned that we were at a Republican Convention, they laughed out loud. ... The response from the …

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Minnesota Republicans Split over Delegation's Support of Ron Paul at RNC

Patch's panel of Twin Cities area Republicans are divided over the GOP delegation's decision to hand the majority of its votes to Ron Paul at the party's national convention.

A snap Red Twin Cities poll conducted by Patch in the wake of the Minnesota delegation's announcement to give the majority of its delegates to Ron Paul shows the state's leaders are divided by the Paul candidacy.  UPDATE: Read the complete story on the Minnesota delegation's decision  While more than 80 percent–33 out of 40–of Minnesota's delegates are behind the Paul candidacy, only 55 percent of the 29 responses Patch received showed support for that decision.  "He's not our endorsed candidate," said one of the pollsters. Nearly 21 percent disagreed strongly with the idea to give delegates to Ron Paul. About 14 percent were somewhat disagreeable to the notion.  Lake Minnetonka Patch contributor and Excelsior Republican  Marianne Stebbins…

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UPDATED: Minnesota Delegates Back Ron Paul at Republican National Convention

Delegation chair Marianne Stebbins says state's delegates are "overwhelmingly Ron Paul supporters" and that she "doesn't think Mitt Romney is a strong candidate."

UPDATE (Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012): In today's roll call of delegates at the Republican National Convention, Minnesota gave 33 votes to Ron Paul, 6 votes to presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and 1 vote to Rick Santorum, who bowed out of the race last spring.  Despite the move, Mitt Romney earned the nomination later down the "alphabet" of states, as New Jersey put the presumptive candidate over the top.  ******* Minnesota’s delegation to the Republican National Convention will not back Mitt Romney when the party gathers in Tampa next week. Instead, 32 of the state’s 40 nominating votes will be cast for Ron Paul during the roll call of states, according to Marianne Stebbins—chair of the delegation. Stebbins lives in Excelsior and was elected by …

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Election 2012

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Kurt Bills on Jobs, Agriculture and Being Called a 'Disciple of Ron Paul'

Republican-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills sits down with Patch for a one-on-one interview.

Kurt Bills, the Republican-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota, hopes to have a good showing Tuesday as he faces off against David Carlson and Bob Carney Jr. in the Primary Election. The Republican from Rosemount, who has served one year in the Minnesota House of Representatives, has already set his sights on incumbent DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is wrapping up her first term on The Hill. Bills visited Northfield on Friday for the sixth annual Second Congressional District Reagan Dinner and took time before the dinner to chat with Patch. In this 10-minute video interview with Patch, Bills answers questions about jobs, agriculture, why he should be elected Minnesota's next Senator and responds to Carlson calling him a "disciple of …

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Election 2012

Two-Thirds of Twin Cities GOP Leaders Believe Minnesota in Play for Romney

In our inaugural “Red Twin Cities” survey, influential Republicans paint an early picture for November's general election.

More than two-thirds of influential Republicans from around the Twin Cities Patch areas believe Mitt Romney can pull off an upset win in Minnesota in 2012. First, the survey shows, the presumed nominee has to reach out to Ron Paul Republicans. Ninety-six conservatives from Twin Cities Patch areas—from St. Michael to Woodbury, Fridley to Northfield—were surveyed last week in Patch’s inaugural Twin Cities Red poll, which focused on November’s biggest race. Forty responses were collected. When asked if they felt Mitt Romney could pick up a win over President Barack Obama in the fall, two-thirds expressed optimism. “Every race is winnable,” said one Republican respondent (all survey answers were anonymous). “It’s possible if enough people are …

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Jim W

10:06 am on Saturday, October 13, 2012

Were you even born? Aside from watergate he avoided war with China but I would suspect you went to public school by union teachers that don't need to work to get paid, there was a whole lot more to the Nixon Whitehouse, your lack of knowledge shines......   more ›

Parents Talk

Parents Talk: Is Minnesota's Raw Milk Craze Crazy?

A Richfield mom is fighting for it; Ron Paul endorsed it at MN GOP convention.

Would you drink raw milk or give it to your kids or others? People who say yes have been running into government regulation and law enforcement in Minnesota lately. They include a Richfield mother who got a stern letter from the state Department of Agriculture (see first YouTube video), and two farmers who are facing charges, as reported in the Star Tribune.  I'm a past customer of one of the farmers, though it wasn't raw milk I bought. Michael Hartmann's farm in Gibbon, MN, in the 1990s distributed pasteurized organic milk called under the Minnesota Organic Milk (or M.O.M.'s) brand name. Bovine growth hormones were just coming into use and M.O.M.'s was the least expensive (and best tasting) milk around that didn't have hormones. Then one …

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(UPDATED) Ron Paul's MN Convention Speech Drawing 5th District Interest

Local Republicans readying for Paul's appearance Friday.

See updates below. Ron Paul is set to speak at the Minnesota Republican convention Friday, and party activists in the Fifth District are preparing for a possible Paul win—with one local activist saying "I get the feeling I'm witnessing history." Paul is poised to make a strong showing in Minnesota after congressional-district conventions gave him 20 of 24 available national delegates. The Texas congressman was denied a speaking slot at the 2008 state convention, but has proven a popular candidate and speaker here since—turning fans away, for example, from an over-capacity speech in Arden Hills shortly before Minnesota's 2012 caucus night. On Monday, Paul announced his campaign would stop spending money in states that haven't yet held …

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The Fifth District Report

Ellison: GOP’s Student Loan Bill Pits Health Care Against Education

The Minnesota congressman opposes using preventive health money to keep student loan rates low.

Rep. Keith Ellison slammed House Republicans’ decision to use the preventive health fund to keep student loan costs from doubling. Stafford loan interest rates were scheduled to grow from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Both parties want to keep loans at the current rate. But Republicans want to pay for the $6 billion proposal through cuts, while Democrats want to pay for it with new revenue. In a Friday news release Ellison argued that one essential service shouldn’t be cut to fund another. The American people should never have to choose between their health and their education. Today House Republicans told women they can’t have preventive breast and cervical exams, and told children they can’t have regular check-ups or immunizations, if we …

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After Decrying 'Ron Paul Libertarians' in GOP, Lynne Torgerson Ends Campaign for Congress

Her new Christians United group 'may make some peoples' heads explode'

A day after slamming Republican delegates in Minnesota's Fifth District as "Ron Paul Libertarians," GOP candidate Lynne Torgerson said she is leaving the race for the seat in Congress occupied by three-term DFL incumbent Keith Ellison. "No, I am not going to continue running in this election cycle," Torgerson wrote in an email to Fridley Patch Tuesday. "The Party is free to fully support Chris Fields." Fields is the rival Republican candidate who won the backing of Fifth District party delegates on the first ballot at their convention Saturday. Not Done Yet "By the way, I am not done yet . . . just going to have some fun for awhile," Torgerson said Tuesday. She is forming a new organization: I recently founded Christian[s] United in …

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