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| As always, click the image to enlarge and read. |
It looks as if you are qualified to be an airport poohbah if your party affiliation passes some form of litmus test. The guy from Champlin, President of Minnesota Pipe Trades, fits the bill as an airport management person; as well as James Deal, I suppose.
I find the Deal-Westerberg square-dance change your partner thing interesting. A voted out GOP legislator, insurance salesman I think, presently voted into another goverhment job on the Anoka County Board - bringing all his insurance knowledge from the one task to the other - replaced by the crop insurance expert from Ramsey who also owns farm acreage in Collin Peterson's district and a long-time DFL supporter - perhaps since his days leaving the US Ag. Dept. during the Reagan years about when federal crop insurance programs got privatized; and a prominent Ramsey land speculator; replacing Republican Westerberg on the commission.
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What does the job pay?
What are the actual duties?
What "qualifications" criteria would a politically disaffiliated Crabgrass reader feel helpful as background, for an airport commissioner?
Certainly the model airplane buff from East Bethel, his plate's full attacking stem cell research and his DFL bona fides is short for the task currently, but one would think, in an apolitical world, that some knowledge or background in air traffic management demands, airline operational requirements, and/or aircraft manufacturing or maintenance might be a factor.
No Duluth area Cirrus appointments; but it is the metro area commission, and Duluth might have its own commission.
Does any reader have info about the political affiliation and histories of the replaced individuals, and/or the newbies?
A pipe fitting union executive and a crop insurer with a history of DFL support, that's all I can see on the surface of things that has me scratching my head and saying, "Huh? Is Mark who I voted for picking the best and brightest 'right people for the job' independent of pecking orders within either branch of the two-party morass and miasma infected status quo, or might there be some political dimension at play?"
Sidebar polls can proliferate, so I pass on the opportunity to offer readers a duo of choices; "Airport Commission," or "Airpork Commission." It is tempting. However, let's leave it at one active sidebar poll for now.
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The only newbie one I checked up on a bit by web searching, Michael D. Madigan. FEC indicates he's given to the Coleman campaign in 2001, the Kline campaign in 2003, and multiple times to the Walz campaign, and the Madia campaign in House District 3. He's given to the Minnesota House DFL. He's registered as a lobbyist for wholesale beer distributors; so he clearly has a bona fide background regarding amenities for flight customers waiting around airports, seeking something to do with their time.
So, who does Madigan replace? "Robert Nelson." Checking that out by web search might be hard - lots of false hits with a name like that, and not even a middle initial hint.
Well, searching the web is as much art as science. Here and here are two bio pages on the newbies and those replaced. Strangely, the political campaign contribution histories of the individuals in each list are not made part of the official biographies. I supposed space limitations prevented that, not making the webpage too lengthy, etc.
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For something some may perceive as wholly unrealted, this Google, this link, this link, this link.