True North

This past week, I've spent a ton of time at the Benton County Republican Party's booth at the Benton County Fair. As a result of that decision, I wasn't able to attend Wednesday night's meeting on Green Acres tax policy in Cold Spring. Though the time spent at the fair was productive, it sounds like the meeting was explosive.

Based on the reports I got from the legislators and candidates who participated in the meeting, the overwhelming consensus is that the farmers still aren't satisfied with the changes made after Rep. Lenczewski's original changes implemented during the 2008 session.

Let's recall that last Wednesday night was a gorgeous summer evening, with temps in the low-to-mid 80's and a nice breeze. With that type of weather, you'd expect attendance for this meeting to be sparse. It was anything but sparsely attended, with 150 people reportedly attending.

After the legislators' and candidates' opening statements on Green Acres, the audience posed questions or stated their opinion on how their farm is being affected by Green Acres tax policy.

Yesterday, I said that conservatives, just like all other groups, have to police their ranks from time to time. This morning, after reading Rep. Ryan Winkler's disgusting tweet, it's obvious that the DFL isn't putting a high priority on policing their ranks. I just finished writing about the DFL-orchestrated boycott of Target here. Here's what Rep. Winkler tweeted that's got me upset:

RepRyanWinkler @esmemurphy Target has been good corp. citizen, but MN political spending is new. Your show just showed risk of giving to candidates.

What's upsetting is that there's no indication from Rep. Winkler, a DFL elected legislator, that he thinks there's anything wrong with boycotting companies that contribute to right-of-center organizations. Apparently, Rep. Winkler isn't worried that threatening a company for their participation in the political system might have a chilling effect on political participation.