Sunday, August 24, 2014

Our Republican friends. In Minnesota. Dots exist. I am insufficiently informed to judge whether they connect in any particular GOP inner party manner.

Puzzling evidence. Brodkorb's blog lists tweets:


For a context when reading those tweets, Strib here, reporting:

On Saturday, MNGOP Chairman Keith Downey sent a memo to party delegates saying that MacDonald remained the party’s endorsed candidate. However, Downey said her campaign controversies were taking a toll on the party.

“Unfortunately, this whole episode and her candidacy is undermining the conservative argument for electing judges and judicial restraint, and is also calling into question the merit of endorsing judicial candidates,” he wrote.

Downey said that information about MacDonald’s legal issues and “her legal and judicial philosophy” are now known to delegates, which they did not know when they voted for her endorsement.

In addition to her legal woes, Downey said MacDonald’s campaign had raised just $120. Plus, members of the executive committee were concerned that MacDonald and her campaign team could be using the endorsement for “their personal pursuits,” Downey said. He also referenced the State Fair incident.

MacDonald said that she was contacted by an attorney Saturday with a formal offer on behalf of the party to repudiate her endorsement.

A spokeswoman for the MNGOP said that no formal offer was given to MacDonald by the party. The spokeswoman also said that the attorney doesn’t speak on behalf of the MNGOP.

Downey’s memo was one of a few recent public jabs at MacDonald.

The executive committee received a memo from a group of conservative attorneys last week saying that she was unfit to be a Minnesota Supreme Court justice.

[italics added]

Next, a screenshot of consecutive comments to a Brodkorb post about MacDonald meanderings:



An unnamed GOP inner party official, a divorce, MacDonald a divorce lawyer.

Next, commenter John K. had a prior MNGOP4 leadership dust-up with Pat Anderson involved; this link and here.

When Pat Anderson was the Minnesota State Auditor, she went by the name Pat Awada until her marriage dissolution was finalized, Case No. 19-F5-04-006012, per online Minnesota district court dockets.

Michelle MacDonald was not the "lead attorney" of record per that case header, for either spouse; however, in Case No. 19-C4-04-014330, she represented Michael Awada.

It being Sunday when the court webmaster does system maintenance, I could not check further on the names involved in the above series of items. If readers know of any ties suggesting grounds for a hostile animus on the part of any GOP inner party top-level honcho against MacDonald beyond the unclear situation of GOP official knowledge of the MacDonald DUI history, who knew what and when did they know it, comments clarifying the situation are welcome.

In effect, was there someone with a grudge against MacDonald apart from a belief that MacDonald's DUI had been insufficiently vetted prior to her unanimous stand-up GOP convention endorsement after she'd waved a Bible about and touted it as a lead in to a speech ending, "God Bless America Again," noted by her to the convention crowd to become her avowed campaign slogan; per the video? A grudge to intervene against such an otherwise avid-and-stellar-theoGOP performance to "the base," who duly stood to endorse her, as theirs.

_________UPDATE_________
This link. From before the Brodkorb firing and the resulting litigation/settlement.

It makes one wonder, is there some disconnect between the GOP convention going rank-and-file, and disputing factions within inner party GOP leadership? Was not the turn to relative outsiders Mills III, McFadden, and Honour an effort premised by some (the donor elite?) to bypass inner party factional pis preening matches, putting the GOP way of the past behind them this election, and presenting a new pack of faces to entice the public's trust?

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Was it inner party factional positioning that resulted in the anonymous Tumblr blog photo posting about Laura Brod? Who did in the Brod public persona that way, and why? Those who/why aspects remain unanswered GOP inner-party conflict concerns.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Has anyone gotten around to asking GOP CD6 candidate Tom Emmer his view on the Michelle MacDonald DUI and her excommunication subsequent to rank-and-file endorsement? My guess is he'd not like seeing such "distractions" but, as GOP-endorsee Johnson did, he would tout the legitimacy of the outcome of endorsement conventions.

Brodkorb should ask. Pose the question to beer-bong Mills III. The McFadden was an easy shot, nothing noted as rattling in that closet, but the others, what say they?