Strib's July 2 headline, "Abeler, who bucked Pawlenty, seeks reelection." The short article by Paul Levy, states:
Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, was asked last month if he planned to run for reelection.
"I think I don't have much choice," he told the Star Tribune. "A few of us have become poster children for doing what you believe is right and surviving."
But can Abeler, one of six rogue Republican House members who voted to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a $6.6 million tax-raising transportation bill, survive this fall's elections to serve a sixth term at the Capitol?
Abeler, an Anoka chiropractor, was among the first in Anoka County to file for election Tuesday, said Rachel Smith, Anoka County elections manager. He couldn't be reached Tuesday, but said last month that he is reminded almost daily of the vote that seems to have defined his career.
Rep. Kathy Tingelstad of Andover, another of the rogue Republicans, said she is retiring from the House, but will campaign for Abeler.
"It's all about freedom and conscience," Abeler said last month. "Are we free to have a conscience and vote the way we believe?"
This "Hand it to Ron Carey" response is praiseworthy. The transportation tax vote he cast was responsible. The Governor's posturing was not. The mean spirited GOP dump on Abeler was not.
Here's my impression. Abeler will win decisively, as he always has. He is GOP and on the wrong side of the abortion issue, as I view it. He is consciencious. He puts up more campaign signs than I ever thought any one human being would ever own.
He will have a few people who donated sign space refuse him this time. He does not need them to win, any more than he needs Pawlenty or Carey.
The few GOP votes he loses he will make up by picking up progressive votes, such as mine.
Abeler answers email from constituents who have not donated, and who may be on the other side of issues. He answers personally.
Bottom line: Were he instead of that idiot, Bachmann, running as GOP candidate in the Sixth District now, for Congress, in a heartbeat I would vote for him over Elwyn Tinklenberg.
Abeler is good on environmental issues and I could not envision him promoting taconite tailings in paving while a three year study is pending over miner deaths from mesithelioma. I doubt he would ever take five figure fees to promote such a thing. Abeler is someone whose character I trust. Whose motives I trust. Whose background I like better than Tinklenberg's. All of that is quite subjective personal impressions, not something I would say others should feel, but how I feel. The only blemish on his record, he was charged by DFL legislators with conflict of interest on supporting the NorthStar stop in Anoka, while owning real estate near where the stop was planned. It was owned for years. His conduct was reviewed and generally exonorated by the legislature over that issue. Anoka County Union reported it all, in detail. Anoka is a big part of his constituency. The County Board has supported the stop there, and County Hall is there. Tinklenberg has comparably supported a NorthStar stop in Ramsey, but he has taken Tinklenberg Group money from City of Ramsey to advocate that. As best as I understand things, Tinklenberg has consistently favored having the NorthStar stop in Anoka, independent of his substantial Tinklenberg Group fees for lobbying for the entire NorthStar venture. He declared himself a lobbyist for the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority, so that's fact. Abeler has never lobbied. He's not repeatedly used the revolving door, politics to private sector, to politics, etc. Tinklenberg has used his MnDOT tenure to advantage, in getting his Tinklenberg Group transportation consultancy recognized.
I post all that because I believe it puts Abeler's position in perspective. By comparison and contrast. My understanding is the DFL has no endorsed opponent running. They had none endorsed at the time of precinct caucuses. My understanding is the local GOP refused to endorse Abeler mainly because they are a bunch of sore-headed losers having their puppet strings pulled and then suitably responding.
Kathy Tingelstad, mentioned in the article was, in balance, about as good a GOP representative as you might find. Not an idealogue, and not one to prostrate herself to the Taxpayer League, or any other divisive idiocy of the kind Michele Bachmann promotes and favors and used in her caucus packing to ambush Gary Laidig, another sensible and fair Republican.
Abeler will be reelected.
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photo from Strib - Jeff Wheeler See here and here, re the past conflict of interest situation about the NorthStar stop. See here and here about a situation when PACT school was renting space from him years ago. My opinion about those PACT school people has been posted, and I sincerely hope that Matt Look and Jim Dehen appeal the awful wooden-headed decision Judge Tammi Fredrickson, a Pawlenty appointee out of the Coon Rapids City Attorney's office, handed down on the PACT school "what's a town besides Ramsey" litigation. You decide if any of that bothers you. My opinion of Jim Abeler is that in comparison to an Elwyn Tinklenberg, the man's a saint. Independent of Elwyn Tinklenberg, it was an act of conscience to buck Pawlenty and party, to vote as he thought it was his duty to vote.
I think too many others in politics will not make waves, not rock the boat, go with the flow - revolve with the door. Abeler is above that.
_______UPDATE_______
It is ironic, a quoted quite vocal critic of Abeler was Matt Entenza, afterwards shown to have much expertise concerning conflict of interest; as a stone thrower in a decidedly vulnerable glass house. It was the sort of thing where Abeler could have chuckled about detectives shadowing Mike Hatch, all that. Abeler probably was above such a sauce for the goose kind of reaction. And, don't get me into throwing stones. There is Stone's Throw - and promoting taconite tailings use in the Brocton - Hwy 94 interchange effort - that entire dual Tinklenberg lobbying effort - registered as a lobbyist for Hassan Mainstreet LLC, failing to equally register as a lobbyist for NRRI at the same time, and promoting both a new interchanges and use of taconite tailings to pave it -- all that is for another post and/or another complaint to the Campaign Finance Board.
For now, one simple message. Vote Abeler.
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Jim Abeler has been a Christian member of the legislature, and for that group I have a litmus test. 83d session, S.1714; H.2003. You sponsor the intelligent design hoax to corrupt school science teaching, you are dirt. Jungbauer, unfortunately my Senator, and Bachmann were the spark plugs for that mischief in the Senate [the full pentagon of sponsorship: Jungbauer; Nienow; Bachmann; Reiter; Hann; Jungbauer listed as chief author]. House sponsorship, Erickson. Abeler signed on to cosponsor over 230 bills that session, not H.2003. Abeler passes my litmus test for not being a panderer Christian, but a devout person. I have much respect for Sen. Maria Cantwell, D. Wash., for her capability, and for her running serving to retire Slade Gorton to the private sector, where he along with Bruce Chapman and others at the Discovery Institute were the primary cooks of the hoax, embraced by such a luminary as former Sen. Rick Santorum, R. Penn., chief mischief maker nationwide. Anyone willing to falsify and bastardize science for a partisan agenda is beyond the pale. Apparently, Abeler did not touch H.2003. I encourage anyone caring to take the time, over the last three sessions or more, look back at what Abeler primarily authored and what he cosponsored. Not individual bills as much as the drift of what kind of a legislator he has been, given that he is in the GOP and had loyalties at play. In general, the record speaks for itself. In general, not a divisive person. However, if it matters to you as a litmus test, (and while whether party lines or conscience and belief motivated the vote is not known to me, the vote followed party lines), Abeler was reported as voting in support of putting a marriage amendment referendum before voters in 2005. Whether he would walk that walk today, ask him. All of that intentional divisiveness back then was unneeded, and even Bachmann has left the issue alone recently, in Congress, not signing on as a cosponsor for the presently proposed lame and largely unsupported federal Constitutional marriage amendment effort. That one is not my litmus test, and as noted, Abeler passed mine, by not biting onto intelligent design mischief against science and modern thought. I intend to vote for Jim Abeler, unless the unlilely happens and the DFL route makes me an offer i can't refuse. From the folks who offer me Elwyn Tinklenberg, that's unlikely. I will vote cheerfully for Obama and Franken - but wow - Bachmann or Tinklenberg. What flavor of castor oil would YOU rather take? That is a really, really hard choice. An ineffectual turkey Bachmann, in the minority where much mischief is unlikely, or Tinklenberg in concert with Oberstar, and as a self-identified registered lobbyist building his contacts rolodex for a couple of years with redistricting in 2010 likely to eliminate the district. Where's the greater evil likely to arise? Weigh that when you vote.