I had hoped this campaign would be an honest discussion of how to rebuild our nation’s economy, create jobs, and strengthen the middle class. But Congresswoman Bachmann is embarrassing the people of the Sixth District once again, dragging what should be a civil debate into the gutter with two new attack ads accusing me of being a criminal.
Her allegations are baseless and just flat-out false – evidence of a desperate campaign that will do anything to win.
Sure. And that "take the high ground" thing about an honest discussion of issues, that must be why he's run ads about Michele Bachmann kissing President Bush after the one State of the Union address.
To him, it must be a key issue.
I wish he had given a link to what he is so strenuously objecting to. The only Bachmann ad I saw in that direction was calling out Tinklenberg for the widely reported MnDOT no-bid contract situation - where great kinds and levels of abuse can occur and that's why they have rules - rules that Tinklenberg, as was reported, breached.
Calling that a crime?
Perhaps that's what he's referring to.
The evils of no-bid contracts: However, crime or not, what was reported back then surely looked to be or to offer the opportunity for unacceptably shabby cronyism.
There is cronyism in having headed the North Metro Mayors Association, which lobbies, as Tinklenberg did before getting the Ventura nod to head MnDOT; and being on that organization's insider group along with Ramsey's present mayor, Tom Gamec, with Tinklenberg Group getting big-time big-money contracts from Ramsey as soon as he left MnDOT, incorporated his Tinklenberg Group enterprise, and began soliciting contracts.
Tinklenberg left MnDOT Oct. 2002, incorporated the cash-cow Nov. 2002, and was in contact with James Norman, Ramsey's then City Administrator, Dec. 2002. Those are facts.
Go figure.
I don't think a single Tinklenberg Group contract with Ramsey ever was put out for bids via an RFP, etc.
Each, I believe, was a no-bid contract.
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So, Tinklenberg sought out Ramsey to give him money via no-bid contracts where his past crony Tom Gamec sat in the center of the council table and voted in favor of such arrangements.
If short of crime, does it or does it not somehow unpeg the bullshit meter, off zero, to midscale or further? Each of you has your own built in meter, your unique circuitry, where your meter might be less sensitive, or more so, than mine.
Remember Obama - remember change: Shabby cronyism and revolving-door practices are one of the things Obama has criticized and wants to change, yet here is Elwyn Tinklenberg as the ticket-mate Obama must run with because the Sixth District DFL power structure favored and helped steer this blue dog with fleas to an endorsement.
Again, go figure.
Request for evidence: Does any reader have a YouTube or other link to the Bachmann ad [or is it an NRCC or other group's ad] to which the man is referring? If so, please in a comment post the information.
Put it this way - If you are sure of yourself, give the link Tink.
I wish he had.
It would have made it easier to cogently weigh facts and accusations, with voters best informed that way.
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Because Tinklenberg did that mini-outrage act without giving the meaningful context, I went to the Bachmann campaign website to see if I could discover anything. Rep. Bachmann has YouTube and "In the News" links, here for YouTube, and here for in the News, so which of the items [or is it yet another non-Bachmann item he rails over] in those two overlapping groups, is the one where Tinklenberg says Bachmann is calling him a criminal?
I really would like to see the evidence. Is he misstating what Bachmann said and then bashing it - the old straw man propaganda tecnique of building a straw man and then knocking it apart? Or is his claim real?
All I can remember of the one Bachmann ad I saw around the time the Obama half-hour infomercial ran, was that it said, if anything that way, what papers and primary sources had said in published reporting, and did not express any particular opinion by Rep. Bachmann of her DFL challenger.
So, what's the story? Reader help on this would be appreciated -- especially, if anyone knows for a fact whether or not there is evidence of criminal conduct of any kind by Tinklenberg.
Readers, please post a comment about any detail you might know of.
It seems to me, if a career politician, one who knows proper and improper ways and means, says an opponent's allegations are "baseless and just flat-out false" without saying what the allegation are even, then that is a shameless resort to a tactic used to take advantage of people and to take advantage of a situation. People hear only one side of things - "she called me names that are false and scurilous," something like that - which in the ordinary course of things demands that you say what, if anything real and not invented, it is that you are aggressively defending against. More than the school yard, "She called me names so I hit her," thing is expected of adults wanting my vote and your vote for Congress.
Is there any reader agreement or disagreement about that view, that it's incumbent on Tinklenberg to provide a context for the "so very offended" defense he's manufactured? Am I wrong? Is my standard of fairness too harsh one way or the other?
Comments are welcome.
______UPDATE_______
Without double-checking, my recollection is that the NRRI taconite-aggregate-in-paving contract, where Tinklenberg gained about $94,000 to promote the use of the material, was advertised for bid and awarded Tinklenberg Group after review of submissions received before a cutoff date. I think NRRI dotted "i's" and crossed "t's".
However, almost $840,000 in money to Tinklenberg Group [some admittedly for subcontractors] has been paid from Ramsey to Tinklenberg Group [some admittedly being grants, etc., from other taxing entities but taxpayer funds one way or the other] and all that was without any competitive bidding situation, for Tinklenberg Group or its subcontractors. I believe it was Tinklenberg group, alone, that solicited Scott Renne for appraisal purposes involving buying land along Highway 10 where self-admitted felon Bruce Nedegaard, the Ramsey Town Center promoter/developer, was involved in title to one parcel and his "Ramsey Town Center, LLC" entity involved in title to another - one with an unrecorded security interest to heighten its charm, where Nedegaard was in title, all the money went to another, and $1.7 million was paid for the one property, $1.8 million for the other, where Nedegaard and his LLC were in chain of title to one for him and spouse, and the LLC in chain of title for the other. That and flogging for a Northstar stop in Ramsey, and other things, multiple contracts, and I recall seeing nothing about any competitive bidding.
Finally, I have seen East Bethel, Elk River, and other contracts discussed in public government minutes online, and I believe none of the minutes ever mention putting out RFPs and soliciting bids. I think all must have been no-bid contracts.
I ask any reader with a fuller knowledge of facts to correct this, and to identify any Tinklenberg Group contract with a governmental entity, besides the NRRI contract, which was put out for bidding.
I shall send an email to info@tinklenberg08.com; asking the campaign to identify whichever Tinklenberg Group contracts were put out for bid.
_____FURTHER UPDATE_______
I recall Tinklenberg Group had a contract with East Bethel for sewer-water planning, working on a town center type of development proposal, and doing the city's comp plan proposal to Met Council for 2008. I think there was some Highway 65 funding being sought also, via Tinklenbreg Group. I recall the comp plan was put out for a bid, Tinklenberg Group being given the contract. I am unsure about the other East Bethel items. I recall Ramsey minutes about Tinklenberg Group and an administrator from the Highway 10 Coalition, soliciting Ramsey to join. How that group came about and how it connected to Tinlenberg and his group is a mystery to me. I recall Ramsey council member David Jeffrey asking if the Highway 10 Coalition had a website with minutes posted for citizens to access and read, the reply being it was something they could do. Whose money want into that effort, whether it lobbied, etc., is for others to fact-check. That exhausts my recollection and there's yard work to do before the first fall snow.
I did email Tinklenberg's campaign site, the info@tinklenberg08.com official communication organ, requesting that they read the post and respond about what bid and no-bid contracts Tinklenberg Group has arranged for itself since he left MnDOT in Oct. 2002.