Coleman stiffs Farmers Union to attend fundraiser…across the hall?
November 20th, 2007 4:13 pm by DJ DanielsonWe’re back here catching up following a long weekend/start to the week.
Friday Jason and I had the privilege of attending the reception for the Minnesota Farmers Union annual convention in Minneapolis. While there were certainly some people who asked “What’s that mean?” when we told them we were bloggers, there was also a tremendous amount of interest from the people with whom we spoke in using this medium to connect rural Minnesota.
As far as the political discussion went, the theme throughout our stay was the sheer frustration people have with the Republican’s obstructionism relating to moving the Farm Bill forward in the U.S. Senate.
Other, prior obligations kept Jason and I from sticking around for Saturday’s festivities which appeared to include most of the weekend’s fun.
Setting aside who actually spoke to the convention, elected officials such as Rep. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (each a member of his/her respective chamber’s Agriculture Committee), and candidates such as Al Franken and Mike Ciresi, the day seems to be more notable for who didn’t speak: Sen. Norm Coleman, who serves with Klobuchar on the Senate’s ag. committee.
(A) Bluestem Prairie reports that while Coleman’s people snubbed the MFU, despite repeated calls, emails and faxes, his people picked the same freakin’ hotel, the Four Points Sheraton, for a fundraiser at the same time with some dentists.
Others may see this as more of an issue of Coleman snubbing a major constituency. I see it as more of an issue of blatant “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!” on the part of the individual(s) responsible for scheduling this event and not making sure Coleman was scheduled to speak in front of those farmers.
Sure, the dental people may have scheduled the event at the Sheraton over the heads of the Coleman campaign. That would simply be a gaffe.
For Coleman’s campaign scheduler to not partition 10-15 minutes to talk to the MFU considering he would be within a few measly feet of the convention? That is pure incompetence.