Primary Objective

Tomorrow, August 9th, is Primary Day in Minnesota, the day where we prevent our November ballots from looking like a State Fair water balloon fight.  On Tuesday we narrow the selection for each individual party from the three or four hopeful candidates (two to three of which are usually delusional), down to our final Election Day ballot.  In some cases, it's a one party district, so the primary is the de facto November election.  In most cases, it gives us our final two candidates, the Democrat and the Republican who'll be vying for the win.  A modern rarity is where we end up having a third candidate arise, usually the rare political district where a third party has managed to maintain relevance, or the loser of a close Primary who decides "the heck with it, I'll run as an independent!"  It usually doesn't end well for them.

There are other Primary situations, most of which are usually overlooked, but on Primary Day 2016, one of them demands our attention.

Let me start with this:  For freaking sake you fools, VOTE!  You've been blessed to have been born in one of the few countries in the world where you actually have a say in who leads you; not just in the Presidential elections, but in positions which affect you daily, due to their local control.  When you decide to waste that, you're throwing away the greatness which is America.  The Founding Fathers created a system where the people can choose who leads them, but instead we have slack asses who think Pokemon Go, an unimportant sporting event or an episode of The Bachelor is far more urgent than deciding who writes the laws and taxes for their community.

I'll be the first to say the current system is lacking in fairness.  Money pours into these races and it creates a mind numbing wall of fear, hatred and threats.  It makes people throw their hands in the air and vow to never vote, but that's what the money people's end game really is.  Political money isn't spent to get people out to vote.  It's spent to try to discourage and stop people from voting.  If everyone voted, the people who control the political machine would be powerless.  This is how you get 90% of the American people wanting legal to write, common sense gun regulations, but 90% of the politicians are against it.  The actual Republican platform has become 'how do we get fewer and fewer people to vote,' as it's the only way they can stay relevant.  They've had FAR too much success with that strategy.  You not voting is allowing the money people to win.

Plus, if everyone voted, the country, outside of a few districts in the south and mountain west, would be a deep Democrat blue.  As we've seen in Minnesota, when you put the Democrats in charge, good things happen for EVERYONE!

Now, back to tomorrow:

The Minnesota Supreme Court has a seat up for election in November, as Justice Natalie Hudson, a person who knows how the Supreme Court operates, and is an experienced elected judge, is facing two challengers.  The first is Craig Foss, an attorney who has said he's running because he can't find a job. That's a horrible reason for anyone outside of his immediate family to vote for him, but the other candidate, in my opinion, is actually a far worse choice.

Michelle MacDonald was the GOP candidate in 2014 for the MN Supreme Court.  Promptly after the GOP awarded her their endorsement, she admitted she was supposed to go on trial for a DWI.  This created a strong rift between the GOP and MacDonald, highlighted by an epic stand off with her at the GOP booth on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair.  I personally think she herself was one of the main reasons Minnesota completely bucked the trend of the rest of the US, and gave Democrats overwhelming victories in Nov. 2014, but it's her relationship to one of her legal clients, Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, which really makes me question her legitimacy.  Sandra was just convicted in a jury trial of helping her daughters run away, depriving her ex husband of his custodial rights for two and a half years.  Sandra received help from Dede Evavold, the political campaign manager for MacDonald.  From what I've understood, it's conversations with MacDonald which got Michael Brodkorb, the journalist, to become convinced MacDonald's client knew where the girls were.  After re-opening the investigation, the girls were found.  What MacDonald said to Brodkorb, I have no idea, but there are enough connections in the Grazzini-Rucki case to MacDonald to raise some serious red flags.

On Tuesday, three of these candidates will be whittled down to the final two for November's ballot.  Considering the incredibly small turnout Primary Elections receive, especially in a race most people overlook, and that most people might not even have any other primary decisions to make, there's a very realistic chance the MN Supreme Court race could become a Foss/MacDonald affair (yuck!).

Is it important?  Damn right it is.  It's the MN Supreme Court.  I don't want the swing vote on cases to come down to 'Mr. Are You Hiring' or 'Ms. Don't Peek Behind The Curtain.'

Here's a link to the story from Greta Kaul at MinnPost.  https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2016/08/minnesota-supreme-court-primary-may-be-most-important-election-nobodys-heard

Make sure you vote, and call all you family and friends and make sure they do too.  Thank you.