It’s 8PM, and I’m out on the patio at Keegans again, at “Meet Tom Emmer” night.  Not that there’s going to be a lot to liveblog – I’ve met Tom Emmer! – but I’m here with a computer, so why not?  About 21 people out here so far, and I expect more.  Emmer isn’t here yet – he’s out raising funds.

8:03 – 25 people now.  Not a fundraiser per se – just a meet ‘n greet.

I’m at a table with Barry Hickethier (running against Larry Pogemiller in District 59), Sue Jeffers, Craig Westover, John LaPlante, Guy Collins, and a whole slew of others.

8:12:  Greg Wersal – judge candidate – is speaking now.  Jacquie Emmer just showed up.

8:25 – Barry Hickethier – who’s running against Pogey in SD59 – speaks.

Jacquie worked the crowd as Tom was detained at another fundraiser.  Too bad none of us are heirs to a huge fortune, huh?

8:45 – Emmer has arrived; he’s working the room:

9:00 straight up – Emmer talking.

The message hasn’t changed, says Emmer.  Dayton’s “message of hope” is about making more tax classifications.

“What’ll keep a business in Minnesota, if they’re going to be taxed like Dayton proposes?  They’ll move!  It’s a broken record”

“Let’s stop destroying business!  The only future for this state is the future we offer; people, not government! Tha’ts the art of constitutional government!”

“We have to start re-educating hte public as to the message we offer.  And if we do that, w’ell not only win in November, but our kids will have the future we want ’em to have!”

Re: the Trackers:  “We’ve been running a clean campaign!  They’re the ones doing the attacking!”

“We need to leave the kids something other than our debt“.  That got a big round of applause.

Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities debate – “They knew about our conflict already”.

When are you going to turn Annette loose? “She’s out there!”

It’s time to kill off the Met Council; Tom and Annette are in complete agreement.

How about the negativity:  “The campaign has just begun.  In coming weeks, more on the air, more on the ground.  TV and Also tell them – how depressed should the Dems be?  They’ve spend eight million trashing us, and we’re still, here.  The stuff that they ran?  People love to see it – but it’s numbed the public. ”

“You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Barry Hickethier asks “plan for fixing out-of-control costs of post-secondary Ed at the U of M?”  “When I started talking with Bruinincks at the U, I see they have a lot of the same problems the state has.  MNSCU is a big part of the problem; they require dupblicative services…”

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 8:04 pm and is filed under Campaign '10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.