Tag Archive for 'Mark Olson'

SD 16 GOP: Alison Krueger Is Your Norm Coleman. Get Over It.

by Aaron Landry | 9 Comments

Minnesota’s typewriter-thrower and man who “places” his wife on the ground Mark Olson is not giving up:

The Secretary of State’s office says Olson has filed paperwork to have any write-in votes cast for him counted in the November general election. State law requires such a filing for the votes to count.

Okay SD 16 GOP: I know you guys are a little bit upset that your endorsed candidate was overruled by the elitists in the party but please: get over it. Alison Krueger, if she defeats the DFL challenger, will be a fantastically obedient servant to the state party leadership and your senate district should be proud.

Sure, her stances on the issues are “coming soon” and most of the lit pieces that were carpet-bombed on your district were dropped by the humorously named “Senate Victory Fund” located in Saint Paul and chaired by a guy in Rochester. What that means is that your state party really, truly cares that another rubber stamp for the GOP elite exists to make places like Mille Lacs and Sherburne counties proud to have a bought-out, corrupt minion that will vote their way for the betterment of the party and not the people they represent. The SD 16 GOP should stand behind this ”principled, dedicated and accessible” Alison Krueger, even if she doesn’t actually stand for anything other than having a general belief in transportation and beats the drums for drilling everywhere.

Maybe you have more questions, you should look back to Norm Coleman in 2002. Remember that the Bush White House came in and said (paraphrasing) “Hey, Coleman’s our guy. We’ll make sure he gets elected. We’ve made sure he’ll work for us. Everyone else get out of the race.”

That’s why we don’t have a Senator Pawlenty and that’s why the the Republicans didn’t have a serious endorsement contest. Remember how ticked off some people were about the leadership in Washington DC picking a former DFLer to be Minnesota’s Senate candidate? Remember how ticketed off some people were about the idea there may have been many better choices to represent the GOP from Minnesota in Washington? It doesn’t matter. He was hand-picked from the top and he got a ton of support from high places. Look at what we got in return!

Someone who voted almost 90% of the time with George W. Bush. Someone that could be trusted, even as a freshman Senator, to chair the powerful Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and not do a single investigation on anything that might adversely affect war profiteering, the excessive privatization of the war (primarily to a certain company Cheney used to be the CEO of) and all the billions lost in Iraq in other ways. Someone who instantly can be wrapped up in the culture of corruption with big oil and shake out policy in the interest of those who helped him gain his seat. Coleman instantly gained a ton of friends with big pockets and they help each other over and over again. That’s success right?

Senate District 16, this is the kind of strong, obedient leadership you can expect out of Alison Krueger at the state level. She pledged that she wouldn’t even run against Olson but it doesn’t matter: when you have friends at the top, you can be pretty powerful. I see Krueger as someone that, if elected, would rise pretty quickly. Don’t you think it is a little selfish to think the Senator from SD 16 should be representing SD 16? You guys should be thankful that the elitists care enough to hand pick a soldier they can own to even be from one of your counties.

September 17, 2008, 11:22 am | Category: MN 2008: Senate and MN State Senate | Tags: , , .

Hilarity Ensues in Senate District 16 GOP

by Aaron Landry | 6 Comments

Minnesota House floor time waster, typewriter thrower and wife beater Mark Olson lost 1518 to 1771 in the GOP SD16 primary. How could he have possibly lost against the unendorsed blessing of the pinnacle of elitism Alison Krueger? Well duh, it was corruption! (emphasis mine):

Olson says he is planning a write-in campaign in November and indicated he felt some votes were missing, uncounted from Orrock and Zimmerman. 

“I’m filing the paperwork as we speak,” he said Thursday. “People are very upset about how awful, how malicious their campaigning practices were. The only way to get it all out there is a continued campaign.”

Olson blamed legislative leaders in St. Paul for contributing to his defeat, saying they cut him off at the knees with illegal campaign brochures.

“There is something wrong with this picture. Candidates who are brought and sold never represent the people. They represent the people who brought them,” he said. “There is a cause here. There is corruption involved. Money and power are driving this. I have stood up against the influence of money more than anybody down there, Now I am paying the price.”

People are still upset that the likes of the Senate Republican Caucus, Michael Brodkorb and Norm Coleman decided to tell the voters of SD 16 not to vote for their grassroots-endorsed spouse-pusher and perpetual butt of time-wasting jokes at the Capitol. A man who clearly better represents the GOP in Benton, Mille Lacs, Morrison and Sherburne counties better than unknown “principled“ Alison Krueger who signed a pledge not to run against the endorsement but did anyway:

Krueger introduced herself to the Big Lake City Council at their meeting Wednesday. She thanked her supporters and said she was a believer in transportation as well as drill here, drill now.

Because “drill here, drill now” is a great belief system, especially for a candidate for the Minnesota Senate. I have to give her credit though: I am also a firm believer in transportation. In fact, my belief in transportation is stedfast and unwavering.

Anyway, what’s with this corruption? Olson’s wife Heidi Olson explains:

The sleazy mailings against Mark were impossible to counteract without the big money from outside the district like Alison had. The letter to the editor two days before the primary from the Kiffmeyer campaign committee member slandering me was another poor example. I question their integrity when it boils down to discrediting a candidate’s wife.

I miss the good old days when Republicans treated each other with respect and discussed issues. We have reached an all time low. My suggestion is to replace the current candidates in two years with ones who will campaign on issues and leave the slimy stuff to those with no significant thoughts. A goal for future higher office is no excuse for completely trashing people who have worked alongside you for 25 years.

Awe, I miss those good old days too! Welcome to the current Republican party of all recent memory, Heidi Olson! Are you that insulated from the “slimy stuff” and the “no significant thoughts”? How can you possibly be surprised about the way operatives in the Republican party operate? Your “grassroots” organization up there means nothing if it hurts the party elite in the MN GOP.

She adds, “I won’t vote Republican this year for House or Senate. I hope I can in 2010.” Well, Ms. Olson, I have to say, I welcome your choice to support DFL-endorsed candidate Lisa Fobbe. Can we also count on you for a vote for Al Franken? I mean hey, Norm Coleman personally denounced your hubby.

Meanwhile, Mark Olson is working on a write-in ballot to, um, fight corruption. On top of that, MNpublius sources lead that Olson may be considering using a new law that could end up forcing a full recount to see if he can close a 253 vote gap within the total 3,289 votes by simply counting the ballots again and wasting time and taxpayer dollars. Hasn’t Olson’s modus operandi always been wasting time and taxpayer dollars though?

September 14, 2008, 10:28 pm | Category: MN State Senate | Tags: , , , , .

Primary Victories

by Aaron Landry | 11 Comments

Al Franken, Dean Barkley and Norm Coleman swept the primaries (results). Jeff Hayden won 61B by a landslide and in SD 16, Alison Krueger beat Mark Olson, which is great news for the GOP elitists that wanted to tell the people of SD 16 to go against the wife beater they endorsed. This is also a victory for those who don’t want abusive nutcases in public office (here’s a funny recap on that race that I figured I take a screenshot of before it goes away).

Analyzing primaries can many times be a fruitless adventure, but hey, why not? Here’s a couple numbers I found interesting:

While Priscilla Lord Faris got 29% of the vote, for some strange reason the amount of people that chose to vote in the DFL column was just shy of double that of the GOP. I think there are some people on the right that wouldn’t believe that DFLers in Minnesota outnumber GOP’ers 2 to 1. Who are all these people voting in the DFL slot?

As MNpublius postulated, Coleman barely got his 90%. While the other two columns had a number of choices, the only other GOP choice was Jack Shephard. What this means is that over 12,000 Minnesotans voted that a felon living in Italy who’s issues are “100% similar” to Al Franken would be a better choice for the GOP than Norm Coleman. Note that 6 years ago Coleman got 94% against him. This year it’s 91%. 

Can I safely say that almost 10% of Republicans would prefer a felon that’d vote like Franken that lives in Italy over a corrupt incumbent that votes with Bush that lives in Washington?

Probably not. The numbers are fun to look at though. Long story short, Franken, Barkley and Coleman swept.

UPDATE: Another way to look at the numbers: Al Franken received more votes than all the Independents and GOP candidates combined. Heh.

September 10, 2008, 2:11 am | Category: MN 2008: Senate, MN State House and MN State Senate | Tags: , , , , , , .

Dave Mindeman on the Mark Olson Backstory

by Aaron Landry | 14 Comments

Yesterday, Zack posted “Brodkorb Slams Olson,” illustrating a situation where Republican operative and consultant Michael Brodkorb decided to take the day off from lying about Democrats to shed light on the nasty situation with the MN GOP where they strongly endorsed a known wife beater. Naturally, I was very suspicious of Brodkorb pointing the gun at his own party. I was the first comment on Brodkorb’s post, speaking about Olson and his primary opponent Allison Krueger:

I was a little bit surprised by Olson’s endorsement myself but to be honest, it was only a little bit of a surprise.

Of course, my gut feeling is that you have some ties that I don’t know about regarding Allison Krueger. I’m going to put that aside and try my hardest to trust that you’re posting about this because it is the right thing to do despite the fact you’ve given me zero reason to trust you with anything else.

If the facts are as balanced as how you present them, I also hope that Allison Krueger runs and that Mark Olson never runs for public office again.

A lot of the blogs and even some media assumed Brodkorb’s post was all in good faith. Hell, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Then some strange things happened. Opposing the endorsement the Senate Republican Caucus then decided to support Olson’s rival and said that Olson would “not be welcomed as a member” of the Senate Republican Caucus. It takes Michael Brodkorb to be publicly “outraged” for the Senate Republican Caucus to decide a wife beater wasn’t the best choice and to go against an endorsement?

Then the most bizarro thing happened: Norm Coleman decided to chime in:

I stand firmly with the members of the Senate Republican Caucus who today announced that they will not support Mark Olson for the open Senate seat of Betsy Wergin.  His endorsement by the party is a matter that is of great concern to me. In particular, given the circumstances behind Mr. Olson’s decision to not seek re-election to the Minnesota House of Representatives – a decision that I believe was the right decision – I believe the fact that he is our party’s endorsed candidate for Senate District 16 is simply unacceptable and unsupportable.

Norm Coleman felt the need to express his ethical concerns on what happened in Minnesota Senate District 16? Huh?

mnpACT’s Dave Mindeman gives a very compelling explanation:

First, Michael Brodkorb, from MDE posts his “personal” outrage at the endorsement of a candidate with a “record”.

…

So, the Senate GOP leadership concurs. They also “respect” the endorsing process… except when they don’t. Mark Olson will not be welcome…even if elected. Pretty bold statement for a caucus outnumbered about 2 to 1.

…

Senator Coleman must have a strong moral conviction. The “loss of a Senate seat is unfortunate”….. Guess it is a small price to pay for party integrity… or is it?

I find it very hard to believe that in the course of 36 hours, most of the GOP elected leadership all respond in the same manner to the post of a blogger. 

He postulates:

This was a staged event. It was all coordinated using MDE as the focus point.

The reason? Damage control for November. The GOP has been using “moral outrage” at Franken as their only — and I mean only — campaign tactic to wage against the DFLer. Thus, Norm Coleman becomes part of the mix to re-enforce his moralistic rhetoric.

When I said in my comment that “my gut feeling is that [Brodkorb has] some ties that I don’t know about regarding Allison Krueger,” I was wrong. I failed look at the big picture (and it was 1:42 in the morning).

Brodkorb was basically the “outsider” catalyst to correct a problem that couldn’t be fixed easily with the endorsement-respecting internals of the MN GOP.

While there isn’t hard evidence to support Mindeman’s claims, I completely stand behind them. Most people forget that Michael Brodkorb isn’t just a “blogger.” He was the former Communications Director and the former Research Director for the MN GOP. He’s now a paid Republican operative and consultant that works with state-wide campaigns. Point being, Michael Brodkorb blogs “independently” about the messaging from campaigns that he had a hand in helping craft.

(Yet people compare his site with blogs such as this as if we’re two sides to the same coin.)

Mindeman ends by saying:

So, is this moral outrage or a cold political calculation? I guess that is for you to decide.

Like I said before, while there is no hard evidence, I certainly believe the latter.

Read Mindeman’s entire piece here.

August 14, 2008, 4:30 pm | Category: MN State Senate and Misc. Local Politics | Tags: , , .

He’s Baaack

by Zack Stephenson | 2 Comments

Just when I thought we were finally free of the loquacious tyranny of Mark Olson…

State Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake, joined two other hopefuls who filed today as candidates for a Senate District 16 special election.

Primaries for the seat will be required on Sept. 9 on both the Republican and DFL sides as a result of the last day of filing.

Olson joins Baldwin Township Supervisor Jeff Holm and Big Lake resident Alison Krueger on the Republican side. Both filed last week.

Guess we’ll just have to beat him the old fashioned way.

July 22, 2008, 8:27 am | Category: MN State Senate | Tags: .

Party at the S.O.B.!

by Zack Stephenson | 17 Comments

Mark Olson is not running for reelection.  Just subtracting the total time wasted on his pointless amendments and floor speeches, the 2009 legislative session should be roughly six weeks shorter.  Even better, House staffers will no longer have to wear helmets while passing Olson’s office.  His 16 year reign of terror is over.

July 15, 2008, 4:51 pm | Category: MN State House | Tags: .

Shortest. Campaign. Ever.

by Zack Stephenson | 14 Comments

Priscilla, Lord Faris (stole that one from Mitch) announced yesterday that she would challenge Al Franken for the DFL nomination in the primary this fall. I was listening to MPR and heard Lord Faris say that she that she wouldn’t run if Franken was ahead of Coleman in the polls (I’ll post the audio clip if MPR puts it online).

Well, that day has come.

So, when will the Lord Faris announce her departure from the race?  She hasn’t filed as of this writing.

On another filing note, St. Rep. Mark Olson (R-Crazytown) has yet to file and its unclear if he plans to do so before the deadline this afternoon. Olson was expelled from the Republican Caucus late last year and was defeated at his endorsing convention this spring by former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer. Capitol staffers all across the S.O.B. are crossing their fingers and hoping that he calls it quits because the loquacious Olson adds at least two hours to every floor debate (and he once threw a piece of office equipment at a staffer in a fit of rage).

July 15, 2008, 11:41 am | Category: MN 2008: Senate and MN State House | Tags: .

Olson is Going To Say He’s A “Battered Husband”

by Sean Broom | 15 Comments

markolson-tm.jpgAs his oft-delayed trial starts this week Mark Olson (R-Wife Beater) is going to argue that he was a battered husband.

And those statements to the police where he admitted guilt? That was totally a misunderstanding you guys! What he really meant to say was, that according to his religion, “he was responsible for his family’s behavior as head of the household.”

My opinion of Representative Olson is not fit for print, so I’ll keep it to myself; lets just hope that if he’s found guilty he mans up to his own literature and he seeks a tougher penalty for the crimes he’s committed.

July 10, 2007, 8:25 am | Category: MN State House | Tags: .

GOP CD6 Chair Makes Mark Olson’s Wikipedia Entry More Palatable

by Matt Martin | 44 Comments
May 29, 2007, 11:27 am | Category: MN State House and MN State Senate | Tags: .