Bill Cooper, former chair of the Minnesota GOP and longtime CEO at TCF Bank, passed away earlier this week at 73.
In addition to leading the MNGOP during the Carlson years, Cooper did two things that made him a hero to me.
Nick-Slapped: Back in 2005, then-Strib columnist Nick Coleman wrote a deeply dumb column wondering how Scott Johnson of Power Line managed to blog during his work day (Johnson was at the time TCF’s corporate counsel), and urging TCF customers to pull their money out of the bank in protest over employing an “out” conservative.
Cooper pulled TCF’s ad money from the Strib – $250K a year – and followed up by cutting off the City Pages as well.
And the whining and carping lulled me to a sound, happy nap. I’d like to think that costing the Strib a cool quarter mill had a lot to do with Coleman’s retirement. For that alone, we should thank Cooper.
Friends: In a more serious and productive vein, Cooper was one of the movers and shakers behind “Friends of Education”, a chain of charter schools that were focused on specific communities and educational models.
Friends of Education schools were, and perpetually remain, among the top-performing charters in the state. And that was in part due to Cooper’s business sense; “Friends” charters that didn’t succeed got shut down; the successful ones carried on.
Say…..aren’t YOU at work right now?
He could be arguing on his own time.
🙂
I remember that, Mitch.
If I remember correctly, the Red Star was part of Cowles Media. Cowles and his wife were big liberals and again, if memory serves, were big donors to Demorats.
If that was the case, Cooper did a double slap down.
I don’t know that the loss in revenue clued the Strib in for a while–Coleman was finally let go in 2009. It may have played a little role, but the big role was the recession and the paper basically going bankrupt. Just read an interesting bit about how he was shown the door at St. John’s as well for his abrasive nature and fact-free delivery.
Hey, ya got bias, I’m OK with that….but you start writing using a manure spreader, your boss is gonna hear about it.
Wasn’t there a move by Democrats to prevent the naming of the “TCF Bank” stadium at the U because of Bill Cooper / Republican connection?
RIP Mr Cooper