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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Trying to gin up more pulp-paper sales, Strib gets it wrong, and insultingly so.

In an article trying to incite a host of CD8 entrants for no apparent reason than to boost circulation, Strib posted, buried five paragraphs down:

“This is going to be an incredibly competitive election ... and this is a district that isn’t solidly blue [Democratic] anymore,” said Anderson, who is thinking about running again.

That hasn’t stopped DFLers from eyeing the race. One, former FBI intelligence analyst Leah Phifer, was already planning to challenge Nolan for the party endorsement. Another, North Branch Mayor Kirsten Hagen Kennedy, announced over the weekend her plans to run.

“Typically women go, ‘Is it the right time? Can I win? Am I smart enough?’ — where men typically just put their hat in the ring and they go for it,” Kennedy said. “I decided this weekend to go ahead and announce.”

Strib simply misstated the truth. Phifer was not "already planning." Phifer has been in it for months. From well before Nolan quit.

Putting a non-candidate a paragraph ahead of that fact, not stating the fact correctly, and putting two women into a single paragraph while giving the second, the presently non-candidate a second paragraph while only mentioning Phifer only in the one sentence is a disservice to readers statewide and in CD8. Phifer is for real, and Dan Burns at MPP nailed it posting:

Of course Minnesota’s corporate media is putting their own tiresome spin on this; let them make fools of themselves yet again. With the way this cycle is shaping up, the DFL could run a wood tick and win. Thankfully, in reality we have a great candidate, Leah Phifer. As long as she doesn’t let corporate tools from the DCCC or wherever swoop in and screw everything up, it should handily be Rep. Phifer as of January 2019.

[link in original]

Anyone who back in the summer toured the district in an eighty day effort to touch base with DFL insiders and regular CD8 citizens deserves more respect over the lazier johnnie-come-lately opportunists. Phifer had NONE of the equivocaton the other woman bemoans. She toured, she decided, and if that was a factor in Nolan stepping aside, the strength of her campaigning, then Nolan decided based on lack of fire in the belly and was right to quit.

Strib owner and corporatist Republican Glen Taylor might not like a candidate as progressive as Phifer, but editorial types at Strib should not let that poison the well. Sad.

This link. Here. Headline, ". . . kicked off her campaign," per an Oct. 15, 2017 post. Again, last October, in-district reporting, headlined, "One of those 'millennials' is running for a seat in Congress - She's a native of Minnesota's Iron Range. By: Declan Desmond, Oct 9, 2017."

Sometimes for getting the outstate truth you have to go to the outstate outlets. This is a paradigm example. From June 19, 2017, Phifer's "Around the Eighth in Eighty Days" post, titled "Kick-off Party Pictures!" At least Strib gets Vikings kick-offs correct, you can say that.

But, clearly, Strib dropped the ball, on the Phifer kick-off.

UPDATE: The Strib link.

FURTHER: In Strib's item, after the above quoted paragraph it really looks as if there's somebody's favored:

Kennedy attended Trump’s recent State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., as Nolan’s guest. She had thought about running in a couple of years, but she said he mentioned during the trip that she might not have to wait that long. Kennedy said she would try to follow Nolan’s example by crossing the aisle to get things done and not drawing lines in the sand.

The good lady should now think of running in a couple of years. As in, stay out of the progressives' way. It sure appears as if Nolan on the way out put a fat and heavy thumb on the scale. Strib deserves recognition for reporting it at all, but if Nolan is wanting out he should just ride off into the sunset, silently, as in the classic western films. That's what heroes do.

FURTHER: Two outstate sources report it right; focusing on the new entrant as "news" but not misstating truth; Aaron Brown, here; Duluth News Trib, here.The DNT item from yesterday, early paragraphs:

As other politicos remained mum through Monday, North Branch Mayor Kirsten Hagen Kennedy entered the race on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor side late in the day Sunday, declaring her candidacy with a short news release.

"I knew this would be a heavy-hitter race," she later told the News Tribune. "I consider myself the Forrest Gump of this race."

Hagen Kennedy joins Leah Phifer of Isanti, Republican Pete Stauber of Hermantown and Independence Party candidate Ray "Skip" Sandman of Duluth as confirmed candidates in the race for the now open seat in the 8th Congressional District.

There figures to be more announcements on the way. Nolan's rival in each of the past two elections, Republican Stewart Mills, said Friday that he was considering entering the race.

Gump with lipstick. Mills III, perhaps again. On whether Mills III has any ongoing ties to Fleet Farm, any duties there, readers would have to do their own websearch. Hits from that search focus on the time of sale news, KKR reportedly having paid a billion so that Mills III has more money than most iron rangers, to run. It is interesting that existing Republican candidate Stauber got his three paragraphs in Strib, in contrast to Phifer's sentence. Glen Taylor was a Republican legislator.

FINAL UPDATE: The Phifer candidacy has been no mystery. Duluth News Trib, Phifer website about and what sets Leah apart. Nolan's withdrawal from his campaign emphasizes a hand-off from one generation to another as a needed DFL transition. (That being said by one in Nolan's generation.)