Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen threatens retaliation against medical board
/ AP
MINNEAPOLIS — Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen has
threatened to retaliate against the Minnesota board that oversees
doctors, which is investigating him for the fifth time, vowing that
"this juggernaut will be dealt with" if he's elected.
Jensen is a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic who has called for civil disobedience over masks and promoted alternative treatments such as ivermectin. He has also said Minnesota's Democratic secretary of state, Steve Simon, should be jailed over
his running of the state's election system. Jensen won the GOP
endorsement last month to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov, Tim Walz,
whom he has sharply criticized for his response to the pandemic
Jensen,
a family practice physician from Chaska and former state senator,
criticized the board at a campaign event Monday and renewed his attack
with a video he posted to Twitter Thursday night. Jensen said all five
investigations were based on allegations from anonymous critics. Jensen
said he has provided information to the board, but has heard nothing
back in months.
"I should not have to practice medicine, or run
for governor, with this cloud of, if you will, uncertainty hanging over
my head," Jensen said in his video. "And yet that's what I'm doing. I'm
living with that."
Jensen noted in response to a question about
the board at Monday's event that if he's elected, he'll get to appoint
members to the medical board. "And I said this juggernaut will be dealt
with," he added in his video, describing the board as a "massive,
inexorable force" that's been turned against him for political reasons.
"I will not stand for the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice being weaponized," he said.
The
governor-appointed board comprises 16 people — including physicians,
members of the public and an osteopath — who can serve up to two
consecutive four-year terms. All were first appointed by Democratic
governors and nine seats are due for appointment or reappointment in the
next gubernatorial term. Members generally can be removed only for
cause or missing meetings.
"The Minnesota Board of Medical
Practice investigates complaints as required by and in accordance with
state laws and rules," its executive director, Ruth Martinez, said in an
email. "The Board does not have a response to Dr. Jensen's comments."
The
board does not comment on any complaint unless it decides corrective
action is necessary. According to Jensen, it dismissed the first four
complaints against him without action.
But the Minnesota Medical Association, which represents more than
12,000 physicians, residents and medical students, defended the Board of
Medical Practice.
"Its duty is to protect the public and is
required by law to investigate any complaint it receive, while ensuring
due process for physicians," the group's president, Dr Randy Rice, said
in a statement. "The MMA opposes any efforts to politicize the work or
the membership of the Board."
Democrats also blasted Jensen's comments.
"These
despicable remarks are disqualifying," Ken Martin, the state Democratic
Party chairman, said in a statement. "Anyone who repeatedly promises to
use the governor's office to jail or fire their personal enemies is
unfit for public service. The doctors who serve on the board
investigating Scott Jensen are not anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists,
which is what makes them different from him. Scott Jensen's extremism
and disturbing enthusiasm for political retaliation don't belong
anywhere near the governor's office."
Knowing better than prevailing medical practice, or an obstinate idiot, you decide. Tim Walz has done a good job. All things considered, Jensen likely is more valuable to our State's society by continuing his Chaska medical practice. Leaving Walz a second term to do as well as he's done in his first term.
Matt Birk, Jensen's running mate, is a Harvard finance graduate, who'd be better concentrating on managing his multimillion football-earned portfolio and having more children.
________UPDATE________
SF Gate carries a June 9, 2022 AP feed reporting Jensen's law and order agenda. Basically he proposes enhanced use of the State Patrol and National Guard in local areas; appointing judges who will give maximum sentences to violent offenders; bail measures making pretrial release less available; while opposing more money being budgeted for local policing and opposing gun regulation. If that seems to you to not hang together, it is what the AP reported.
If Jensen has sound details of more jailing pretrial and longer sentences and expanded use of troopers and the Guard not requiring more money, the report did not detail such thinking. Instead, the SF Gate - AP item ends:
"From opposing universal background checks to the budget deal on public
safety, Scott Jensen has shown that he’s unserious about stopping crime
and gun violence,” Ken Martin, the state democratic Party chairman, said
in a statement.
Dream the impossible dream? Whether "unserious" or "conflicted" or "unrealistic" is the best adjective, it is quaint to see Jensen, a Republican, wanting bigger government without paying for it. The more frequent Republican litany is shrink government and cut taxes, which at least hangs together until looking in detail at what they'd shrink out and whose taxes they'd cut.
