Barry Hickethier

The bad news: Barry "Nordeaster" Hickethier is putting his excellent Water Cooler Wisdom blog on hiatus.

The good news: He's doing it in order to run for the Minnesota House of Representatives in Northeast Minneapolis' District 59A.

Barry's a very sharp guy who cares a lot about Northeast Minneapolis. Diane Loeffler - a nondescript DFL apparatchik who has to all appearances never had a job outside of government (let me check on that), currenty holds the seat. That needs to change.

If you live in 59A, you need to contact Barry and help out; if everyone converts a neighbor or two, this could be a great race. And if you don't? Well, visit his donations page; running a local race against a cog in the DFL machine is not just a battle against the candidate, but against the whole money machine that keeps the DFL in charge of the inner city.

Go, Barry!