The August 14 primary in MN demonstrated once again what an enormous burden the Tea-Party is to the GOP. By a whopping 40 point spread, Cindy Pugh, founder of the SW Metro Tea Party, convincingly defeated 11-term incumbent Steve Smith for the Republican nomination for Minnesota District 33B house seat.
Even though Smith suffered from a sex scandal he would have been a formidable opponent for Denise Bader, the DFL nominee, as this district leans heavily Republican. But no more! With over 70% of the cast votes for Cindy, Tea Party supporters showed that they are a formidable force within the Republican Caucus.
However, that being said, this is now a very winnable contest for us as we have an outstanding candidate (CONTRIBUTE).
Denise Bader is part Native American who was adopted by Lutheran Missionaries and raised in Madagascar and the United States. She is a rare combination of extreme determination, genuine kindness, enormous magnanimity, and total humility. Her biggest problem is probably her reluctance to extol her own virtues and personal humanitarianism. While she has been raising her own two children as a single mother, she has taken in no fewer than 7 other children that would not have had a safe place to stay had she not let them in. She has never been well off and her willingness to feed and shelter them completely out of her own pocket with no compensation of any kind from the parents of these children or the state is truly remarkable. Over that same period she has had numerous foreign exchange students come and stay with her.
Cindy Pugh (website), on the other hand, is a real piece of work. As might be expected, she is a combination of extreme right-wing idealistic zeal and outright stupidity from the same mold as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, only not as intelligent (previous DailyKos article).
Many, many Republicans, most notably Republican women are highly repulsed by Cindy's extreme positions and attitudes. Denise, on the other hand, has a high degree of personal charm and a few minutes with anyone is enough to get their support. She has a full-time job that she obviously has to keep up with as well as running her household.
Had Denise been up against Steve Smith again (she lost to him in 2010), she would have been at a severe disadvantage. But now she isn't, which makes this race essentially dead-even except that Cindy is a Republican in a Republican district.
Given her warmth and charm, I fully expect that Denise can pull this off, but she needs our help. The MN GOP is currently broken (and broke), so I do not expect much help from them for Cindy, but their turnout on August 14 is likely to produce a significant money advantage for her.
The GOP has a problem with Tea-Baggers. Time and time again GOP national and state leaders refuse to stand up to them despite all the crazy stuff that emotes from their various orifices. Every time the GOP nominates these loons it is our duty and opportunity to defeat them. If we consistently do this, eventually the GOP leadership will discover that they can no longer afford to coddle them and we will finally be rid of their petulance and ignorance, at least in politics.
Denise is fighting to do that, let's help her. In a small local race like this, a little money from a lot of people can go a long way, please CONTRIBUTE now. Even a small contribution will help.
3:09 PM PT: A comment from RandomNonViolence informs me that Denise has a website with a link to it: DeniseBader.com