September 2021 Newsletter
Dear Mom
by Al Brown
Your great-grandson the Marine is not going to Afghanistan. Praise God.
This is kind of war where they don’t throw parades. It’s not Vietnam, either. We killed Osama bin Laden. We accomplished the mission. We also left 10 years late.
Now it is over. The end was unpredictable and messy. That is not surprising in a war where the ruling government grabbed the first plane out of town and the enemy took over with almost no resistance. The buck stops with President Joe, and I am so thankful it does. We are out of the forever war.
My grandson is out of it. His colleagues are out of it. Our country is out of it.
I am waiting for my copy of The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock. I want to know more about what happened. History’s microscope is looking now.
I wish your eyes were better, but you wouldn’t read it anyway. Too boring. I’ll give you the highlights.
As for the vaccine booster, ask your social worker there at the assisted living center. Your local health department reported last week that it is making plans to give booster shots. You should qualify based on CDC recommendations.
I’ll wait my turn and get it quick as I can.
I am a little slower to go to the dentist. I went yesterday. First time since the Pandemic started.
I hate going anytime even though the dentists here are really good. You know. You’re not any better.
My point is that I was thinking about anything other than them rooting around in there. I thought about politics, naturally, and landed on infrastructure.
Passing legislation is a lot like going to the dentist.
The longer Congress deliberates, the more you worry about a root canal. No one wants one of those. I just hope they don’t drag this out until it becomes a choice between a root canal and pulling the tooth.
Love you,
Your Democratic son
CHAIR’S LETTER
Mark Liebow
I’m excited we will be having the 5th Annual FDR Day Dinner Sunday, October 3 as an outdoor, in-person event on the grounds of the History Center of Olmsted County (1195 West Circle Drive, SW) from 4-7 PM. The Vikings have the early game that day. Former Governor Mark Dayton will be our keynote speaker. Auditor Julie Blaha will be there, too. We will provide a boxed dinner with hot food to take home or eat on site. There will be a cash bar. Tickets are available at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fdrcelebration2021. Some of your ticket price is eligible for the Political Contribution Refund Program.
Our program will be between 5 and 6:15. We expect to have a silent and live auction. If you have a donation for the auction, please contact us at SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com. Donations are also eligible for the Political Contribution Refund Program.
Senate District 26 DFL participated in the Chatfield Western Days parade August 14 and in a back-to-school fair on August 22.
Aleta Borrud announced she is running for the Minnesota Senate again. Her campaign website is https://www.aleta4mnsenate.com/
Precinct caucuses will be February 1, 2022, less than five months away. These will be held in current precincts for DFLers in Rochester and all Rochester caucuses along with caucuses for Farmington, Haverhill, Marion, Rochester, and Viola Townships will be held at John Marshall High School, where parking is better and which is on a bus line. Caucuses traditionally held at Dover-Eyota High School, Stewartville High School, and Chatfield Junior and Senior High School will be held there. If you want to help organize the caucuses, one of the biggest things we have to do, let us know at sd26mn.dfl@gmail.com.
The 2022 DFL State Convention will be in Rochester from Friday, May 20-Sunday, May 22, 2022. Our unit convention (with likely a new number after redistricting) will need to be held between March 19 and April 24. That will likely be held at Mayo High School. The 1st CD DFL Central Committee decided its convention will be in Albert Lea next May. Dan Feehan said he was thinking about running again.
If you want to tell Jim Hagedorn via his staff you’re not happy with him, Indivisible Rochester has a protest every Monday 11-11:30 AM at his Rochester office (corner of Salem Road & Greenview Dr, SW, Rochester-just west of T.J. Maxx Plaza).
POLITICAL UPDATE: FEDERAL AND STATE
Tim Walz all but announced he will be running for re-election next year. Minnesota Senator Michelle Benson announced on September 1 she is running for the Republican nomination and now her colleague ex-Majority Leader Paul Gazelka is likely to follow suit soon. Gazelka said he would step down as Majority Leader if he decided to run for Governor, but most people expected he would announce his candidacy before announcing he was giving up the Majority Leadership. They will join Scott Jensen, M.D., a former Minnesota Senator, as major candidates on the Republican side. There are five other candidates, one of whom is Neil Shah, M.D., who did his dermatology residency at Mayo from 2008-2011. Political rating services rate the race as Likely or Solid DFL.
Census data showed Olmsted County grew by 11.6% over a decade, gaining about 18,600 people. 78% of that growth came from growth in Rochester, which added 14,626 people. Byron grew by 1398 people, which was 7.5% of the county’s growth. Most of the more rural townships (and the part of Chatfield in Olmsted County) lost population. Both of the Senate districts in Olmsted County are bigger than they need to be and will give up about 7300 people between them to surrounding districts, all of which need to add people, in redistricting. Given the growth in Rochester, at least one of the Senate districts will have a lot more people in Rochester than they do now. We didn’t have quite enough people for two Senate districts completely inside Olmsted County.
The challenges arising from the withdrawal from Afghanistan has led to a drop in approval ratings for President Biden, but most Americans still think leaving was the right thing to do. There will be a lot of action in Congress this month as the House will vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, both House and Senate will work on the next reconciliation bill to put $3.5 trillion into infrastructure and other support for Americans, and the Senate will try to pass voting rights legislation, which will only happen with a limitation or abolition of the filibuster.
SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS SEPTEMBER 13
Our next Central Committee virtual meeting will be Monday, September 13 from 7-9 PM on Zoom. DFL meetings are public, so if you want to “attend”, contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com. Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan will be our guest speaker. We will hear officer reports, finalize plans for the FDR Day event, and continue planning for precinct caucuses.
We are looking for a Vice Chair and for four Directors, three of which must be filled by people who live in House District 26B. The Vice-Chair and two Director positions must be filled by people not identifying as male. Please contact the Chair at mark.liebow@gmail.com if you’re interested in running for one of these positions.
DONATE TO SENATE DISTRICT 26 DFL AND YOU COULD GET IT BACK
Not everyone will be able to donate right now, but if you can, we need your help to make the DFL a bigger presence in Rochester. We have a year-round office, which is expensive, but is crucial in a battleground area like Rochester. While one-time donations are welcome, we especially need monthly donations. We don’t get money from the national Democratic Party. The state DFL only contributes $500 a month, less than 1/3 of our rent. We rely on our local supporters to keep us going and to get the DFL message out. We need the money and you want an active DFL. If you give, there will still be an office for DFL events and meetings when those are possible soon, DFL participation in events and parades that require entry fees, technology that makes the DFL work better, and outreach into underrepresented communities.
Donate to Senate District 26 DFL and you can get up to $50/person or $100 per married couple back from the state of Minnesota if you are eligible to vote in Minnesota. Do it now. Make your donation via ActBlue (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/senate-district-26-dfl-party-1?refcode=sd2). If you prefer to write a check, make it payable to Senate District 26 DFL and send it to:
P.O. Box 9044
Rochester, MN 55903-9044
After you send us a donation, we’ll send you a receipt. Send the receipt and the form needed to claim the reimbursement (https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/media/59866) to
Minnesota Revenue Political Contribution Refund
St. Paul, MN 55146-1800.
File a claim and you’ll get a check back in a few weeks.
If you send a check, please include whether you are retired, self-employed or employed. If employed, include the name of your employer and your job title. The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board requires us to collect that information. If you use Act Blue, the appropriate information is collected.
KEEP UP ON WHAT’S HAPPENING POLITICALLY WITH FREE EMAILS
The Minnesota DFL has several free email publications:
Weekdays-In The Know-A news digest divided by topic.
Mondays-DFL Party Monday Memo- Talking points about current issues and key “stories to share”
Wednesdays-DFL Toolkit- Key stories with suggested social media posts and graphics
Fridays-DFL Dispatch- Newsletter with a deeper dive into some topics, some within the DFL
To subscribe, email Brian Evans (bevans@dfl.org) and let him know which publications to which you want to subscribe.
ROCHESTER DFL OFFICE
The office, at 1500 1st Ave, Suite A, in Rochester does not currently have scheduled office hours. We monitor telephone messages regularly. If you have a question or concern, call us at 507-536-9785 and we will get back to you.
SD26mn.dfl@gmail.com AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a monthly newsletter. However, events often happen on short notice, so we may not be able to include them in the newsletter. Check our website and Facebook pages for the latest news.
Official communications come from SD DFL (though the full address is above). Watch for them.
We tweet from @sd26dfl and have a website at www.senatedistrict26dfl.com
We have a closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/144866495637545/
We share an open Facebook page with Olmsted-25 DFL and Senate District 25 at
https://www.facebook.com/sd26sd25olm25/?fref=ts
Our Instagram account is at dflsenatedistrict26.
Our office is unstaffed for now because of the pandemic but you can leave a message at 507-536-9785. We are monitoring the messages.
The Minnesota DFL’s website is at www.dfl.org. If you go there, click on the I am a … and choose Voter, you can enter your address and find out how your DFL elected officials are. If you click on Click here to join in the Senate District 26 box, it will take you to a secondary website that is currently out-of-date, but should be synchronized with our primary website soon.
The 1st Congressional District DFL also has a website at https://www.dflcd1.org/
