As usual for the first Tuesday in November, there is a last minute statement from a familiar source – the Hon. Loomis Beechly, representing Minnesota’s 9th district – all the water surface area in the state.
Hello 9th Districters,
It is Election Day once again and I encourage you to vote! Voting is a right. You should exercise all your rights and as many of your lefts as possible. Principled debate between opposing viewpoints is key to the proper operation of a democracy, so take the time today to have a say in how you are governed. Simple as that!
Although I just made what I think is a brief and compelling argument in favor of voting, I know that some people will stay away from the polls today. In many cases, 9th districters will skip it because I am running unopposed this year and there is no controversy. That fact alone makes our district very special, so I hope you’ll reconsider just for the sake of taking part in something remarkable. But I’m also concerned. A low turnout opens up an opportunity for successful write in candidates, and my opponents are just stealthy enough to mount a day-of campaign to unseat me.
I can’t let that happen, so I encourage you, if you’re uninspired by the thought of just checking a box on the pre-printed ballot and returning me to office once again, please send me a message by writing me in at the last minute – as an alternative to me.
Yes, I can be my own Tea Party opposition.
I can do it because the Tea Party has no actual mechanism for selecting and endorsing candidates. I can do it because no one owns the market on fed up-ness. I can do it because today is Election Day, and even if my write-in campaign against myself sparks an argument, the voting will be over in a few hours. And lastly, I can do it because there’s no one who knows my flaws and failings better than me!
So write me in! Help me defeat me! I pledge that if my write in totals are larger than my printed ballot totals, I will take that as a clear sign as to how you would like me to govern us, and I will behave accordingly. Yes! I can be a maverick and a thorn in my own side if you will only give me the chance.
But don’t simply react out of anger, fear and spite. Think about the sort of world you would like to live in. Think about the tone of the public policy discussion you would like to have going forward. And think about three-cornered hats. How do you feel about the look? Are you OK with seeing them in movie theaters, in elevators, and on restaurant hat racks all up and down Main Street? Today’s results will determine, to a large extent, the future of the global three-cornered hat industry. But don’t do it simply to keep a handful of hat factories open. I believe they are manufactured in China.
However you vote for me, I hope you WILL find a way to vote for me today, Election Day. Minnesota’s 9th district (all the water surface area in the state) is primarily a fishing district made up of small, independent operators who know how to cast. The time has come to cast your vote in a way that won’t hurt more than it helps, so make sure you don’t catch a hook on your clothes or your nose. Toss out a message that’s straight and true – one I’m sure to get! I’m counting on you and you and you. And the angry revolutionary part of me is counting on you, too.
Your congressman,
Loomis Beechly
Leave it to Congressman Beechly to try to generate a day-of controversy and undermine his own re-election even as he secures his eventual victory.
If a surprise write-in campaign unexpectedly catapulted you into public office, would you serve?
Trail Baboon 
After volunteering on the campaign since May, I have no doubt that the electorate could be dumb enough to choose me. Even yesterday we spoke with folks who were surprised to hear that there was an election approaching and wanted to know who was running…..I live in the 6th District where there has been a lot of noise so it is baffling.
I trust everyone the Trail will be voting today. IF you don’t live in the 6th District and can’t vote to help me get a new congresswoman, I urge you to remember that many of the folks you choose will be involved in redistricting. WE in the 6th will need your help and that of those you elect to reconfigure our gerrymandered district.
As they say in Chicago-“Vote early and often!”
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I sent Clark a big check when I had money a few months ago – hope it helped!
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I know some one who is voting in Minnesota this year and voted in Chicago last year. She received an absentee ballot in the mail recently from Chicago which I supose might be part of the vote early and often Chicago method.
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I poll watched in South Chicago in 1968 and it was all true then. People did not work very hard at disguising it from us, officals and voters. For Democrats, of course, or I should say the Daly Machine.
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thats the only way they’d get me in . i love politics its politicians i can’t stand.
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Rise and Exercise Your Franchise Babooners:
Beth-Ann, Thank you for a well-reasoned and attention-catching call to do our civic duty! And my sympathies to the beleaguered 6th District. I cannot imagine any scenario in which the public would write my name in. But should this happen I would glad serve and probably bring a reign of terror to those whose beliefs do not match mine. Say…that I was elected a benevolent dictator… say as the dog-catcher/animal control officer, and assume a practice of catch and release only to no-kill shelters. Or say….I was elected mayor of Eden Prairie where I live. I might choose to actually attend the meetings that I say I attended and NOT charge the city for this unlike the present mayor.
The most fun fantasy, because that is what this really is, would be that I was somehow elected to something that had some control over Michele Bachman. Now that could be really fun!
Smiley face (I forgot how to do the emoticon).
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colon and a right (end) parenthesis
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🙂
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Greetings! If that many people thought that highly of me, I would feel obligated to serve — wouldn’t want to disappoint my adoring public! And then I would probably show them how wrong they are …
I echo Beth-Ann’s sentiments — Ms. Bachmann has to go — let’s go vote!
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I can’t imagine there being a worse job in the world than one of an elected official- especially on a state or federal level. Spend a year or two begging for money to be able to tell the world how wonderful you are, how you’ll solve all their problems with a wave of your magic wand, using unlimited funds of course, all in the name of convincing 50% +1 of your constituents to vote for you.
Then you get into office and legislate with the other professional fundraisers ,with the idea of making sure your cronies get what YOU promised them, while at the same time all the others are trying to ensure THEIR cronies get what they were promised.
You hem and haw, harrumph and cajole, make backroom deals, sell your soul to a hundred devils, then agree to vote for legislation that benefits no one except the individuals or groups who wrote the legislation. At the end of two, four or six years, you return to your adoring public with hand outstretched, and boast of all the great legislation that YOU made sure was enacted for their benefit- which is almost always a baldfaced lie- and ask them for yet more money so you can do it all over again for another two, four, or six years.
Begging, swallowing my pride, holding my nose and abandoning all pretense of having morals or principals, then lying about to voters? NOT my kind of career path.
On the other hand, if someone wanted to do all the politicking for me, I’d be more than happy to serve my country in the manner of the founding fathers- as a principled, civil, morally committed STATESMAN; someone who is willing to listen, debate, and cast intelligent votes on issues that are important to guarantee the survival and prosperity of the country, through guaranteeing to preserve the liberty, opportunity,and personal responsibility of each and every citizen
Chris.
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Your post presents major problems for me, Chris. Much of what you say is true. The points you make are all points I’ve offered in letters and conversations for years. The cynicism you display certainly seems merited, based on what has happened in American politics in recent years.
But part of me will not let go of the idea that public service is a holy calling that still has the power to accomplish more good than just about any profession. I refuse to agree that it always has to be as ugly as you suggest.
And what do I offer to defend my position? I could get windy here and try everyone’s patience. Instead, I’ll offer the shortest possible answer (there is a hidden joke here): Paul Wellstone.
Dear God, Paul, how we’ve missed you!
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amen
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second amen
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Sing it brother! Man I miss Wellstone.
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I’d love to try and help you vote Ms Bachmann out of office, but I think that would constitute voter fraud. ND will be sending our current governor to DC as our next Senator to try and fill Byron Dorgan’s shoes. He has a big job ahead of him.
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dorgan done?
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He chose not to run.
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wish him well. i would guess he can do as much good out of the senate as in.
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Good Election Day Morning to All,
Okay, should a person, like me, become an elected official when not even seeking office? Some would say you need political experience to be effective as an elected offical and others say we can’t trust any one who has ever been elected to a public office. I have never served as an elected official so I guess I wouldn’t be qualified according to some people and would be completely qualified according to others. Of course you can’t get the experince some say is needed to serve without starting some place. If the position I would be filling is a minor position, that might not offend those who require political experience.
If I take the position I will then be in government and will never be able to run in another election according to those people who mistrust all elected officials. Maybe I could satisfy the people who mistrust all elected officials by refusing to cooperate with all of the other elected officals if I take the position. of course. if the people who mistrust elected officials have their way, government might be completely turned over to free enterprise and we will be done with having elections.
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i think youve got it. ill vote for you anytime jim. the doubletalk with a punchline (dry as it may be) is refreshing. i sense integrity and sincerity. it really doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong just so it is for the correct reason is all i ask.
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It is hard to find any humor, dry or not, in electorial politics these days, in my opinion. It seems to me that all we are getting is doubletalk and that isn’t very humorous.
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Dale — I think you were in my head this morning at the polls. After I filled out the front side of the ballot and turned it over, I saw those 24-30 judges, all running uncontested. I started to get up without selecting any of them, thinking “they’re running uncontested, why should I take the time to vote for them” when it occurred to me that if everyone thought like I did, then just a few write-in votes could turn the tide. And wouldn’t I rather have a judge who at least knew the ropes than someone who couldn’t bother to register for the election in time to get their name on the ballot? So, I sat back down and dutifully filled in all the little boxes.
So, if Dale Connelly and Loomis Beachly are in your head when you’re at the polls, is it voter fraud???
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I am just now logging in, and have already voted, but like you, Sherrillee, I almost handed in the ballot without turning it over-then I did and saw all those judges and almost flipped it back over, but like you, decided that would be wrong.
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That’s so FUNNY!!! I sat there and thought the very same thing! Did you write in any names, Sherrilee? Lizard people kept coming to mind, but I thought better of it…. 😉
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To answer your question Sherrilee, it is not fraud.
But it is very troubling.
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didn’t you all write dale in for the new judge? i think we missed an opportunity here. 2 more years dale. start boning up.
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I do think about the three-cornered hat or tri-corner hat (as it’s sometimes known) occasionally. And while I cast no aspersions on those that choose to wear one, personally, I just can’t get behind the look. It just seems to be too closely tied to powdered wigs. And while a significant case could be made for me to wear both wig and hat, I just can’t get past wearing a hairpiece that undergoes the same treatment as a kind of doughnut. I mean, you wouldn’t wear a glazed toupee, or a jelly-filled peruke, or a custard postiche. That, and I just don’t have the sleeves to pull off the look either. In my mind, a tri-corner hat demands a waistcoat with sleeve cuffs bordering on the bell-bottomesque, covered in fringe, lace, and, possibly, buttercream frosting.
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The other problem with getting behind a tricorn is that it makes it hard to see much of anything else.
hmmmmmm.
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tgith, you make the most obvious point of all today. maybe if we included this in the politics for the beginner kit by trail baboon network and ran ads just before the election and halloween with a rush limbaugh mask, bill o’ reilly mask, w mask,
then threw in george washington, thoma jefferson ben franklin, abe lincoln
teddy roosevelt, fdr. ike, nixon, mogilla gorilla and huckleberry hound, we could finance dales campaign. cmon gang lets have a judge dale pac starting today.
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Nope.
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Sometimes, Barbara, you take so many words to say something simple. teehee
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heeheehee
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It’s hard to hold onto optimism this time around. It’s hard to believe than my one vote will count. It’s hard to go from unrealistic, euphoric hope only to witness the reality of today’s national mood. Obama’s election was the greatest political high ever; Wellstone’s death the greatest low since Kennedy was taken. I happen to live in the highest-per-capita city in Minnesota and swear that I’m the only liberal! Two years ago, I went to great trouble installing 4×8 foot Obama signs out by the county road, only to have them stolen each time. I’ll repeat this futility again in 1012. As to the local picks, all I have to do to know who NOT to vote for is memorize my neighbors’ yard signs.
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crystalbay get to the dfl meeting in your district. you are not the only one , just one of the 6 and the other 5 are all waiting to meet you. do you need details?time and place of next meeting?
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Crystalbay, were your signs in a county or city road right-of-way (ditch)? State, county or municipal employees take them out sometimes if they were. It’s not legal to put signs on public property and state and county employees hear lots of complaints about it so they just remove them without asking any questions.
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I’ll echo Barbara in Robbinsdale: “Nope!” I think you’d have to be an extrovert. I wouldn’t fare well.
This year I keep being reminded of all the voters that cancel each other out. It’s troubling – married couples who vote opposing sides, my totally conservative family… I’m really afraid this year. If the Governor’s race goes badly, my 33 1/2-year career with the State of Minnesota could be slowly, agonizingly terminated. I’m hanging onto my lovely wabi sabi oak desk with both hands today. It’s very comforting.
I have seen only one Dayton sign in Waterville. I suppose it could be that I’m just in the wrong neighborhood but there are only 1800 people here. There are Emmer signs everywhere, especially along Hwy 60 between Madison Lake and Waterville. They’ve been up all summer and they are just huge. One thing people around here really understand well is size. Huge wins. There are other things, but I won’t get into them here…
This Congress seems to be full of enlightened, witty, engaging Baboons who appreciate the higher values of kindness, compassion, ethics, creativity, humor and a positive spirit. Thanks to all of you and have a great day!
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Hi Krista,
My daughters take violin lessons from the other Crista in Waterville. When I first saw your name I thought for a second it was her, then realized you begin with K. We happened to drive Hwy 60 from Mankato a couple weeks ago on our way to Waterville after a side trip. I kind of remember all the signs, I truly hope Emmer does not win, he’s worse than Pawlenty.
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Hi Mike,
No, I’m not the Crista that offers violin lessons. That mix-up has actually happened once before because we’re both musicians and both from Waterville. She plays in the Blue Ringers (well-known around here) and I play in the Flathead Cats – not really well-known anywhere! Her husband is on the ballot for school board.
Yes, I truly fear Tom Emmer. He gives me a cold sweat.
You’re the mayor of Albert Lea? I’m the Krista in the DNR Waterville Area Fisheries office. My supervisor spends lots of time in Freeborn County and our staff spend lots of time on Albert Lea area lakes. Thanks for checking in with all of us on the Trail. I’m so sorry to hear about your wife. Please stay in touch with us. We enjoy hearing from you.
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mike, is emmer any scarier than anyone who runs on a make up the 6 billion deficit by raising the sales tax? i think they are all the same aren’t they? at least he finally came up with a plan. i was afraid they were gonna vote him in with no economic plan laid out. when did he submit it… august?
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From what I’m hearing & reading, it appears that the outcome of a few national offices will not be known for weeks or even months. Especially Alaska’s. I can’t help but wonder how a bunch of junior congressmen who are extremists will affect Obama’s ability to govern in the next two years. The only silver lining may be that the radical newbies will gum up the works so badly that by 1012 our fellow countrymen will give him another two years to clean up the mess.
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I voted at 9:00a.m. and was #288 in the precinct this morning. Things were very busy there for 9:00 a.m.
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My first year of teaching, when the state of MN still had justice of the peace, the head football coach had long been the JP, without ever filing for the office after the first time. But this year he did not want to continue, which he told everyone. He still got he most votes, 22 I think. Since no one had filed there were many many write-ins, one for lizard people I am sure, in 1968. I got three votes I am sure because I was assistant football coach. None of the three people, beside the coach, who had more votes than I wanted it. So I could have been elected, but I turned it down, too. Ah, me, the political career I could have had!! Makes one shutter.
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lets write in dale.
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I am thinking about labels today; more in a minute. But on my noon bike ride I rode down an alley I ride many days and I always chuckle at its label. This alley is sort of a street for a bit in front of a hotel and the entrance to the government center. Then it is an alley behind a movie theater and several bars. In the beautification of downtown Mankato (which is now mostly a big parking lot and they are building a new one), they but up a beautiful sign at the end of this alley, two brick columns with a wrought iron sign arching over the alley. In the wrought iron it says “Entertainment Alley.” Am I the only one who sees another meaning in “entertainment in an alley behind bars?
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This is in regard to Steve’s post about elected people and not thinking evil of them, which I tend to do. But I got a lesson in labels today. Election day, a day I hate for all the label throwing. This election more than most seems so much about labels—liberal and conservative and tea party–as if there are only three sorts of people. I used to try through teaching literature to teach students not to think in labels and stereotypes and categories. “Liberal’ and “conservative” are this year once again terms of endearment or condemnation, which makes me shudder, but I as so easily condemn all the elected.
So my lesson: I put a sign up that we are giving away the furniture in our office when it is closed in December. A man came in to ask about it and then asked what our business is. When he heard me talk about education and found out I had been a teacher, he went into a spiel condemning all teachers as lazy and “liberal,” which to him clearly was the ultimate evil and he now knew everything there was to know about me and had the right as a true believer to condemn me out of hand. When I tried to talk about it, he went back to his prejudices, which is what so much of this election is about, and would brook no other way to think about me, and other people.
It is that sort of labeling and the fact that it succeeds in elections that depresses me as a voter and as a former evil teacher of language. But I find myself doing it.
There! I am now, since I am so evil, going to go see what’s happening in “Entertainment Alley.”
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So does that mean he didn’t take the free furniture?
I suppose he might have been kinder if you had charged something for it.
At any rate, it does surprise me that a Minnesotan would condemn you to your face. That sort of thing is usually done behind one’s back.
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The furniture was gone by then. And you should not see him as a raving idiot. He spoke all this in reasoanble tones, which is sort of more frightening. I should have said he did not say this of me; he just said this was true of all teachers, of which I was one.
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Dale, I noticed your comment “I suppose he might have been kinder if you had charged something for it.” I used to have a small part in an art business on the North Shore with a man who had a lot of experience in the business of art. He used to say 1) if you charge too little for art, people will see it as not as good as it is and 2) that people will despise what is free. It only took two days with a note on my door for people to come and look and take nearly all of it. Lots of those who looked were examples of my friends second point. After it was almost all gone, that is spoken for when we close, exactly the right person came, a man with a nonprofit immigrant support program. Darn it. It would have been fun to see him have it.
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if you have his name have him call me. i have lots of office furnitre looking for good homes
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I will check into tim.
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Yesterday my mom told me in no uncertain terms that teachers are over-paid. I replied that I don’t think they are but she stuck to it. I’ve learned not to argue with her when she has made up her mind about something. For all our differences, she’s still my mom and neither of us is getting any younger.
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Clyde, guess what I found in MRCI thrift store? A hardcover, boxed version of Watership Down!
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Whopee!
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You’ve been confronted by the dark side, Clyde. I fully believe that there are far more children of the light surrounding us. The problem may be that we simply do not speak our truths often enough and tend to remain somewhat invisible while children of the dark make an awful lot of noise. I’m sorry that happened to you. Be grateful that you don’t have to live inside that man’s skin.
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I am not offended by his words nor sorry it happened; my point was that I was/am willing to think that same way about the elected and am hoping I will keep applying the lesson as well as Steve does.
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i felt bad about that post as soon as i typed it and left for my morning meeting. i like , respect and support many of the people i meet who are the politicins. i go crazy in the commitee enviornment and the political bobbing and weaving that exists drives me crazy. i am interested in trying to make a difference but the process of working with the existing base of support is not my cup of tea. i may need to develop a rouge group of political desperados who who ride off into the sunset saying hi ho silver awayyyyyyyy.
in the words of will rogers. “i am not a memeber of any organized political group, i am a democrat.
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I think you mean a rogue group of political desperados, but am enjoying the idea of a radical group with bright rosy cheeks.
sorry, have been getting giggles from the typos all day- (crystalbay, I know things might get to be a bit of a mess with the new Congress, but I do hope to goodness they won’t hurtle us back to the Dark Ages of 1012) perhaps I should start drinking coffee again and sober up.
ok, I am now going to settle in and start nibbling my nails with the rest of you.
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Wine through the nose and onto the keyboard!
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Hi. Home from school and from voting. I just about knocked down a student of mine who was with her teacher/mom at the polls. No injuries were sustained.
We are not overpaid. Just in case there was any question….
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anyone who thinks teachers are overpaid has not spent a day in a classroom recently.
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I don’t think you can pay people enough for guarding children, trying to teach them effective social behaviors, trying to encourage children of all kinds of ability and sometimes even temporarily taking the place of absent parents. Teachers should be paid WAY more than real estate developers and Wall Street types who seem to run our world today. I hope none of you are real estate developers or Wall Street types…
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Hear hear!
I’m lurking today. Impending hard drive failure on the laptop. One eye on the 6th District race.
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Being the granddaughter of teachers (and friend of a few still in that field), it truly is an underpaid profession. Why is it that we pay business wheeler-dealers so much and so little to those we trust to educate our children and prepare them for the future? Seems awfully backwards to me.
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Tim Jones: YES, please provide the information!
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will do
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is your part of crystal bay senate district 33b?
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I’ve felt somewhat resentful of teachers over my lifetime. Partly because I’ve never had the benefits, job-protection, or summers free. But mostly it’s been because they are better paid than I’ve been as a social worker. I’ve never thought they were overpaid. It’s that I’ve been underpaid, I guess. Just goes to show you that all of our biases come from our own personal circumstances.
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if thats the case you must be resentful of just about everyone. watch out what you wish for when choosing a career. if pay is the criteria social work or teaching has a lot to be desired. if reward is something soulful then you are on the money.
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I’m pretty sure I’m in district 33…….
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Know what? You’re right. I’ve never even approached a median income. After 30 years in the field, I’d have to say that the greater part of my “reward” is in the passion I feel giving what I do. At the same time, I don’t know if I’ll ever get over having no benefits, vacations, or retirement funds.
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This is a silly dream I know, but would it not be wonderful if politics and government generate ad much analysis and interest as Bret Favre, Randy Moss, Tiger Woods, Lebron James, ans Lindsey Lohan?
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I’m clearly screwing up the order of things: I can’t find Krista’s response to having my Obama signs stolen five times. Hopefully she’ll find my answer to her question here? All the signs were on my property and the police were called each time one disappeared again to make a report. In 2012 my son plans to install surveillance cameras. I was ready to take a sleeping bag out there & pop up with my camera but he thought that might be too dangerous. At first, I thought these vandals were robbing me of my right to free speech, but later learned these acts didn’t qualify. It was pure vandalism.
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Gotcha, Crystalbay! I hope you don’t think I was accusing you of doing something illegal – I wasn’t. I just have a lot of experience with angry people from both sides of the political fence who call our office and give me a really bad time over political signs that someone posted on public property. I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad experience with people in your neighborhood. It’s very bad manners for Minnesotans!
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I have toyed off and on with running for a seat on my local school board – often prompted by some decision that seems painfully short-sighted made by that elected body. I watched as my high school was closed and the program I was in was moved to a different building. The program survived and has continued to thrive, the neighborhood around my old high school did not fare so well. In a city school district anyone who makes decisions about neighborhoods, communities and schools separate from each other is only begging for trouble. That said, no matter how passionate I may feel that every kid deserves a good, free, public education, I’m not convinced I’m cut out for public office of any sort. Though some days it is tempting.
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