“Minnesota showed civic resilience in a year when much of the nation saw a sharp drop in civic effort,” the report found.

Its findings show that the state continues to lead in civic participation:

1st in voter turnout, with 77.8 % of those eligible voting, 14.2% higher than the national average.
1st in citizen consciousness of having a “strong civic tradition,” with 26.5 % saying it is strong compared to other states, compared to 13.2% for the national average.
3rd in donations to charitable organizations, with 60.2% donating $25 or more.
4th in statewide volunteering, with 60.5% volunteering in the last year.
6th in working with others to fix something in the neighborhood, with 12.4%.

Despite economic problems, the state fared better than most:

72.2% nationally said they had cut back in volunteering; in Minnesota the figure was 58.6%
41.4% of Minnesotans said they had increased volunteering – compared to 27.8% for the nation as a whole.
40.3% reported being involved in community discussions about the effects of the economic recession.
50.9% of Minnesotans say they would be willing to “work less” if doing so would create more jobs for those who are unemployed.
Almost 53% say they are willing to volunteer more.

And support for efforts to increase civic participation is still high:

86.4% believe that young people should be able to earn money for college through community service projects.
80.8% believe that young people should be required to do community service in higher school.
71% believe that students in high school need to pass a new civics test.
43.7% support training opportunities to learn skills as part of volunteer activities.
15.3% value the opportunity to learn and to be challenged as the first priority for their career, while 9.3% of Minnesotans seek to make a “public benefit” as the first priority. The quarter of the population who prize civic and educational aspects of jobs contrasts to 18.7% for the nation as a whole.

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

The American Legion Post 550 in Bloomington says it will withhold up to $30,000 in scholarships because the public school district won’t allow the group to lead the student body in prayer, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

“We are not trying to push anything on kids or convert them, but we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles,” said Terry Selle, commander of American Legion Post 550. “My opinion is that this is another example of America going downhill.”

Selle said the group would stop granting scholarships to the students of the district if they aren’t allowed to pray with the student body.

School officials said the group led the students in prayer during the 2008 Veteran’s Day ceremony and asked the Legion not to pray this year for fear the school could get into trouble for violations of church-state separation requirements.

“Frankly, it caught me off guard because they had never done that before. We do not do that in public school,” Poplar Bridge Elementary School Principal Gail Swor told the Star Tribune.

In move of solidarity, the VFW Post 1296 also pulled out of Veteran’s Day ceremonies in the Bloomington school district.

Maplewood council contenders Dave Hafner and Jim Llanas

With just under a week until the Maplewood city elections, the quirky politics of the suburb just north of St. Paul have taken some interesting turns. Dueling fliers that some residents describe as “racist and homophobic” and a recording of a 911 call of candidate allegedly threatening a neighbor are among the more noteworthy occurrences.

A flier distributed to some Maplewood residents last week highlighted candidate Jim Llanas’ sexual orientation and ethnic heritage while also targeting Llanas’ support for a human rights commission. In some cases, the flier was attached to campaign literature for mayoral candidate Ken Smart and council candidates Dave Hafner and DelRay Rokke, sparking at least one council member, John Nephew, to connect the flier to their campaigns.

The three candidates deny any involvement, and Rokke has told supporters not to distribute unauthorized fliers on his behalf.

In a message to supporters on his campaign blog, Smart said he didn’t know about the fliers. “I have not seen any hate piece attacking candidate Llanas so I cannot say whether it is a hate piece or if I condone it. I strongly endorse everyone’s First Amendment right to free speech. If it has untruths in it, then I do not condone it.”

Rokke told the Minnesota Independent he hadn’t heard of the fliers; when provided with one, he weighed in. “It is possible that others who support us could have been involved, but there are so many games played in Maplewood politics that most people do not even pay attention to stuff like this,” he said. “I think it is quite a stretch to say that it is racist and homophobic.”

Rokke speculated that Llanas would use the uproar to get more votes. “I guess [Llanas] figures if he can get the vast majority of members of those groups [gays and Hispanics] in a municipal election which will have only about 30 percent of the voters turn-out, he has a good chance to win,” he said. “Now with the allegations of this flier being something making him into a victim, too, he is probably going to get a few more votes.”

Rokke asked his supporters not to participate in any unauthorized fliering. On his campaign blog, he wrote, “If this was done by supporters, [I] would prefer that this not be distributed with, or added to, our brochures as they just create fodder for those who would use it as a reason to hurt the … team.”

Candidate Dave Hafner took a more active approach to denying the fliers this week. His supporters are distributing a new campaign flier (pdf) written by Hafner, which reads, in part:

Neither Dave Hafner (nor Ken Smart or DelRay Rocky) are racist, sexist, or homophobic. I personally don’t care if James Llanis is gay or where he grew up. I lived in Portland, Oregon for two years. I was born and raised in the Twin cities. And I played baseball in Florida long enough. These are three of the top four hotbeds for the gay lifestyle in the United States. I know many gay people and some of them are my friends…

I don’t care if people are white, black, brown, yellow, red, or polka dot green. If there were people that were polka dot green you can bet some of them would be my friends. I don’t know anyone that is actually white, black, red or yellow. I do know many that are “brown” and some that I guess you could call some shade of “yellow.” I also consider some of them to be my friends…

The Hispanic community impresses me as being a group of dedicated, hardworking, and respectful people. And they are predominantly Christian and I like that too.

Hafner told the Minnesota Independent that he had nothing to do with the anti-Llanas flier. “This campaign material was not distributed by my campaign committee. Heck, we don’t even have a campaign committee,” he said by email. “After watching the way I am getting crucified (for doing nothing more than running for the Maplewood city council) I wouldn’t identify myself either if I didn’t have to.”

Llanas told the Minnesota Independent he wants to keep the campaign positive, adding that he believes whoever distributed the fliers doesn’t represent the views of the majority of Maplewood voters.

“These slimy tactics make incorrect assumptions about Maplewood residents,” Llanas wrote on his campaign website. “They assume Maplewood residents are uninformed, comfortable with people who divide our community and tolerant of bigots. The fact is residents are deeply engaged with the affairs of our city and are fed up with this type of political nonsense!”

Hafner’s altercation with a resident

Hafner’s campaign made news locally when a neighbor called 911 during an argument.

Pat Downs, a neighbor of Hafner, used the open comment period at a city council meeting in September to express his concerns about Hafner. “When I told him I objected to him putting signage in my yard earlier, without permission, he demanded his signs back, and called me a thief. My reply was he obviously knew he had put the signage there, and it was mine now. At that point, he went crazy; yelling, screaming and swearing,” said Downs. “He called me a liar and a thief – calling me out of the car to fight, that I was a chicken not to get out. He chased me down the street, swinging his fist and finger at us, and at this point I stopped and I called 911.”

The incident has become a point of contention in Maplewood politics and Hafner went before the council on Oct. 12 to defend himself.

“There’s no proof, no evidence, no qualified witnesses, no police action, nothing. The guy just came down here for four minutes and four seconds and leveled a series of unfounded allegations against me,” Hafner told the council.

“I never got into an argument with Patrick J. Downs. Never. He went out of his way to say I accosted him. The guy also made a false 911 call to the police.”

Downs spoke immediately following Hafner refuting the claims that the altercation never happened. “If people have doubts about what happened, I have the 911 tape and I will put it online.”

In the 911 audio file (mp3) he posted, listeners can hear a voice in the background, identified by Downs as Hafner, shouting that he’s a “liar,” a “thief” and a “son of a bitch.” The shouting was so loud that the 911 operator said, “I cannot hear what you are saying.”

Both acknowledge that they had had previous arguments, and Hafner has called authorities in the past to complain about Downs.

The election for Maplewood will occur on Nov. 3 when voters will vote for mayor and two city council members. Incumbent Kathleen Juenemann won the primary and will be on the ballot as well Llanas, Hafner and Rebecca Cave.

Incumbent Mayor Diana Longrie will face off against council member Will Rossbach in the race for mayor.

When Maplewood city council candidate Jim Llanas told the Minnesota Independent this summer, “Brace yourself. It’s just going to get ugly,” he wasn’t far off the mark. An anonymous flier being distributed about Llanas, who would be both the first openly gay and the first Hispanic city council member in the city’s history, is being described as racist and homophobic by a progressive group and a city council member.

“Llanas, a non-native of Maplewood, apparently spends much of his time in Minneapolis supporting gay politicians,” the flier reads. “How does this qualify him to run for Maplewood city council?”

It then says that Llanas has gone by several names, including his middle name “Moreno,” and that he has been involved in the LGBT community.

The fliers have been distributed in Maplewood neighborhoods, and in numerous instances they’ve been taped on doors along with an attached campaign brochure — in many cases affixed with the same blue tape — promoting conservative council candidate Dave Hafner and write-in candidates DelRay Rokke (council) and Ken Smart (mayor).

Current city council member John Nephew first spotted the fliers and posted them on his blog. “For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think those three were born in Maplewood either, but you know that’s not really what the flyer is getting at with the term ‘non-native.’”

There’s no proof that any of those candidates were responsible for the flier, and Llanas points to comments on a blog where Smart said he doesn’t have any knowledge of the flier.

The flier also attacks Llanas’ work in human rights. “Llanas wants to establish a Human Rights commission on the city council. The question is which humans? When was the last time a human rights commission did anything for you???”

Llanas condemned the flier on his campaign website:

Using a strategy right from the Karl Rove playbook, supporters of my opponents are using fear and hate to get votes. They blanket neighborhoods in the dark of night, afraid to show their faces. These slimey tactics make incorrect assumptions about Maplewood residents. They assume Maplewood residents are uninformed, comfortable with people who divide our community and tolerant of bigots. The fact is residents are deeply engaged with the affairs of our city and are fed up with this type of political nonsense!

Progressive Majority, a “political action committee committed to progressive candidates and issues,” also condemned the fliers and rushed to support Llanas in an email on Wednesday.

Jim has been called “a non-native of Maplewood” and been attacked for “supporting gay politicians.” The residents of Maplewood are facing a new low in the politics of bigotry and hatred …

The attacks, meant only to stoke racism and homophobia among voters, remind us of the Jim Crow days in the American South. While we are confident that the residents of Maplewood will reject the politics of bigotry, we also know that Jim needs help to get his message out.

Click here for a PDF version of the flier.

Bradlee Dean. Image: YouTube

“He’s un-American!” Bradlee Dean’s opinion of President Barack Obama — broadcast on his radio show “The Schools of Hard Knocks Roxx” on Apr. 4 — may echo that of fellow Minnesotan, Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in October 2008 told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews she’d like to see an investigation into whether Obama and members of Congress hold “anti-American” views.

But he takes his views where she wouldn’t. Bachmann backed off her statement, saying she was misunderstood and railroaded by Matthews, but Dean recently went on to say Obama is “not American. He’s unpatriotic to the max. Folks, he doesn’t have the spirit of a president.”

Yet, Bachmann still stands behind Dean, who runs an Annandale-based Christian ministry that brings an evangelical message into churches, prisons, and public schools. Next month, she’s headlining a fundraiser for that ministry, called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH), in Bloomington on Nov. 12. YCRBYCH says they will use the funds raised to reach others with their ministry — often public school students.

Following a Minnesota Independent report earlier this month that featured sources who question the constitutionality of the group’s taxpayer-funded assemblies at public schools, YCRBYCH scrubbed its podcasts and audio archives from iTunes and the several websites it maintains. But the Minnesota Independent has obtained several of the group’s audio offerings, which give an overview of the opinions Bachmann is endorsing by headlining the fundraiser.

Detail of the invitation for Bachmann's Nov. 12 YCRBYCH fundraiser

On the April 4 show, a caller, Lynn, said that Obama was not a U.S. citizen. Dean replied, channeling a bit of Bachmann, “He’s un-American, he’s not American, he’s unpatriotic to the max.”

On Aug. 1, Dean recited an open letter from the White House: “Truth be told with each passing day more and more Americans are unable to get the health care they need,” he read. To that, Dean added, “In other words, Obama is saying, ‘I can give it to you, who’s yo daddy?’”

On the same topic, Dean attempted to speak for African Americans.

“Just this week me and Steph [Dean's wife] just began to ask people on the street, ‘What do you think about Obama?’ We asked two black folks, which the color didn’t matter to me, but I do care more their perspective right now because it seems like the black communities are not for this guy at all. I believe there’s, like, a 70 percent ratio that they are very angry at this administration for what he is doing to them because this isn’t what they voted for. This isn’t what they signed up for.”

McMillian chimed in, “They realize they’ve been used.”

In August when the show aired, polling of African American voters showed approval in the 80 to 90 percent range.

In the same broadcast he called Obama a criminal. “You’ve already seen this president deny Christianity. You’ve already seen this president address the Muslim nation four times. You’ve already seen this administration, him and his wife, going into foreign countries, telling them that they are ashamed of this country,” said Dean. “This man is an internationalist. This administration is set against against your constitution, folks. That is a crime. That is a crime and do not let it go.”

Dean continued, “Crime cannot be tolerated especially from them that rule in government. It cannot be tolerated … Criminals mock society’s laws. That’s what you see in this administration.”

He frequently refers to the president as an “Obamanation” and Sen. Al Franken as “Frankenstein.”

On the Aug. 1 broadcast, the duo recalled an alleged clash between Bachmann and some constituents.

McMillian: “I remember Michele Bachmann did something up in Scandia County a while back. The homosexuals tried to corner her and confront her.”

Dean: “They even locked her in the bathroom. If that had been a homosexual senator or congressperson they would have brought charges immediately. No questions asked.”

In fact, Bachmann filed a police report, but as witnesses said, there wasn’t much to the incident.

The ministry has harsh words for gays and lesbians, as well. During its April 4 broadcast, the duo lashed out at the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.

“In Minneapolis, they had to spread their smudge and their shame and their ignorance and their idiocies and their immorality and their debauchery in the face of the American people, all the way to Minneapolis, by having on the front page of the paper today, Jake, two little girls — I don’t know if that was their lesbian parents behind them.”

He continued, “Isn’t it interesting that these people are so stinkin’ sick in the mind that they use little kids for their agenda, showing their state of mind?”

After reading Bible verses, the duo incorrectly stated that homosexuality is a crime in the U.S. and said gays only live to be 42 years old.

“Do you not understand, enemies of God, [that] you are cursing yourselves?” said Dean. “This secular government is giving them rights? They are talking away their life is what they are doing. What’s the average age of a homosexual?”

McMillian chimed in, “A homosexual male? 42 is what they live to be.”

Dean added, “And by the way, they are aiming at your kids like crazy folks.”

Later in that same program, Dean erroneously stated that homosexuality is a crime. “Why are they asking for the decriminalization of homosex? Because it is a crime! It’s a crime! Folks, they are lawless people!”

In addition to McMillian, Dean has also teamed up with the Minnesota Family Council’s Barb Anderson on the radio program.

“Did you know that it’s illegal in 28 states in this country to commit adultery or fornication or sodomy even in the state of Minnesota?” Dean told Anderson and his listeners on Apr. 4. “But the laws have not been enforced in the courts since 1944. It’s illegal. Seventy-six percent of those who write your papers see nothing wrong with homosexuality. It’s rightly called crimes against nature.”

[The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned laws against sodomy in 2001, and the United States Supreme Court did the same in 2003.]

On the murder of a gay student in Wyoming, Dean said, “The Matthew Shepard lie had nothing to do with homosexuality. It was a drug deal that went bad.”

During an Apr. 11 show, Dean compared the trial of alleged Ponzi scheme runner, Tom Petters to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

“And there’s another man that is hopefully going to be coming out of this spotless … Just because you have a couple of bad apples doesn’t make everybody a bad apple or a bad apple tree.

What they did is, they did it through the color of law. What kind of message is that to you, America? And I’m sick and tired of it. If he is innocent, he is going to ruin some serious lives, folks, and if he is a just man that’s just what he’ll do.

The bottom line is that when you have federal prosecutors blocking the defense of Tom Petters, you better start asking questions why. Why, why, why?!

This is what they did to Christ! They took him by night, they judged him, they didn’t give him a trial, and they handed him over and they crucified him.”

Dean is no stranger to conspiracy theories. In 2006, the Weekly Standard traveled with him and his band, Junkyard Prophet, on their public school tour. Writer Matt Labash generally praised the evangelical rock band, but did find some areas of disagreement — on whether or not man has landed on the moon.

He is also a gold-plated conspiracy theorist who will readily hold forth on the mysterious plane crashes of Paul Wellstone and John Kennedy Jr., how Oswald didn’t act alone, how O.J. Simpson might’ve been framed (”He’s driving down the freeway, all of the sudden there’s this helicopter on his truck–how convenient!”), and how the moon-landing was faked in a television studio. We disagree so vehemently on this last point that he starts polling his assemblies on the subject just to settle the dispute. To what should be the chagrin of us all, apparently about 35 percent of public school students and teachers believe Neil Armstrong deserves an Oscar for his star turn in that NASA movie.

But Dean isn’t all conspiracies and vitriol. Like last week’s Bachmann fundraising email — which referenced “raising money from patriots like you” — the invitation to Dean’s Nov. 12 fundraiser uses the same honorific for financial donors.  Bachmann and Dean, the invite states, will give speeches to “empower patriots to be on the offense.”

Bachmann’s office hasn’t responded to the Minnesota Independent’s inquiries about Dean’s past statements or her involvement in this fundraiser.

Sandy Colvin Roy, Brent Perry, Charley Underwood and Rick Nyhlen

In Minneapolis’ southeast corner, all candidates for the city council share concerns about saving small businesses and keeping big developers in check. But beyond this agreement, the three candidates vying for the seat now held by Sandy Colvin Roy offer distinct choices for Ward 12 voters.

Brent Perry is running with the backing of Socialist Action, “a nation-wide group of revolutionary socialists.”

“Capitalism has failed,” reads Perry’s campaign website. “You may be asking how much one city council member in one city can accomplish toward ending the global system of capitalism… [R]efusing to vote for the ruling class’s candidates, and instead voting for socialist candidates is a blow to the capitalist system.”

Perry says this election presents a good opportunity for a socialist. “Because of the economic recession, people are taking more of an interest in economic forms other than capitalism,” he tells the Minnesota Independent. “This election looked like a good opportunity to advance our politics.”

The advent of Instant Runoff Voting also prompted him to run. “The DFL often goes unchallenged in Minneapolis so I hope to use the opportunity of instant runoff voting to introduce people to a third party.”

But he also says that economic issues facing the people of the city are important, citing the high foreclosure and unemployment rates.

“Police brutality continues to be a problem,” adds Perry. “And I will seek justice for Fong Lee.” Fong Lee was shot to death by police on the city’s north side. Family members say he was unarmed at the time.

“To see that police corruption, one only has to look to the Metro Gang Strike Force,” he says.

Staunch capitalist Rick Nyhlen, running as an independent with the backings of the Republican Party and the Independence Party, offers a stark contrast.

He’s “concerned that Minneapolis is all for big business contractors, leaving the small businesses and citizens who care for our city with higher taxes and poorer services. Small business owners must be able to afford operating in our neighborhoods.”

He calls for transparency and an audit of city finances. “The questions, concerns and needs of Ward 12 residents are going unanswered. I will truly serve the people who get me elected,” he says.

As a general concern, Nyhlen says that the city cannot push road and bridge projects back in order to balance the budget. “These are basic public needs which need to be kept up,” he says. “Saving money now by not repairing them will cost us more later.”

He also says property taxes need to be kept low. “6.6 percent per year is too much without clear answers as to where it is going,” he says. “State cuts to Minneapolis, while not good for the city, are nowhere near 6.6 percent per year.”

Charley Underwood, a local peace activist who’s running as an unendorsed DFL candidate, also believes that the city budget needs some work.

“The city is broke,” he says, and the burden is shifting in the wrong direction, through tools like inspection fees and assessments.

“It’s driving local businesses out of business, and people are getting taxed out of their homes,” he says.

He also says the city is moving too far away from neighborhood control, and he opposes abolishing the Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Park Board. He characterizes both issues as ways of hiding city problems from the public view.

“The shifting of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program out of neighborhoods is an example,” he says. “It’s designed to hide just how bad things are getting in our neighborhoods because it provides for less of a voice at the local level.”

He continues, “People at the city can make cuts and those consequences wouldn’t be immediately known.”

He decries the defunding of other neighborhood programs such as the McGruff houses and the Citizens Emergency Response Teams. “All of the things that would empower neighborhoods are going by the wayside and I am very concerned about that.”

He says city funds for stadiums and huge tax breaks for big developers are wrong for the city and that’s why he wants a seat on the council. “Somebody needs to be there to say, ‘Where are your priorities?’ Why are we giving money to big developers when our neighbors need help?”

Underwood praised Instant Runoff Voting. “I think it’s going to be very good not only for the city but also the state of Minnesota. I really hope it spreads.”

Plus, he hopes for more civil elections as a result: “It doesn’t pay to be nasty during campaigns with IRV.”

Incumbent DFLer Sandy Colvin Roy says property taxes are her number-one concern. She says she repeatedly hears from residents about their fear that continuing tax increases “will force them out of this city.”

A large portion of the city’s only light rail line runs through the heart of the ward, and upgrades are needed to handle vehicle traffic around the line, she says. “We do have a major problem with traffic crossing Hiawatha Avenue, due to signal changes for LRT that were not accompanied by the necessary investment in upgraded equipment when the LRT project was built.”

And, as other candidates have mentioned, development in the ward is a key issue. “Development, when the economy returns, must be managed to fit the community’s vision of itself as well as the property owners’ goals,” says Colvin Roy.

Colvin Roy says that voters should return her to the council because of her experience with the budget and her plans to create more jobs.

“My experience with the budget, both how to put it together to match our community’s values and then how to stick with the plan during the many decisions that are made week after week, will be crucial to bringing down taxes,” she says.

Employment is another issue for Colvin Roy “I am also committed to creating more jobs in the city,” she says. “Two methods are tying jobs for local residents to city assistance for development, something already done successfully several times, and matching local job training to emerging green-energy technologies.”

She says she has been working to educate constituents on Instant Runoff Voting so voters will know what to expect and that electoral success under the new system is the same as the old. “[It] still rests primarily on communication with voters through months of door-knocking and conversations, on door steps and at community events.”

Colvin Roy leads the money race, having raised $11,170 by the pre-primary deadline. Perry raised $288.21 and Nyhlen, $273.05. Underwood hadn’t raise anything, but had $4,657.32 on hand.

This is the twelfth in a 13-part series on Minneapolis City Council races.

The full series:

Ward One: Five seek open seat in northeast Minneapolis
Ward Two: Gordon, Aigbogun and … no DFLer
Ward Three: Hofstede tries to hold off four challengers
Ward Four: Trio of challengers take on political dynasty
Ward Five: Crime and economic development dominate North Side race
Ward Six: South Minneapolis contest draws crowded field of contenders
Ward Seven: Despite full campaign coffers, lawsuit clouds Goodman’s prospects
Ward Eight: Glidden faces four rivals in south Minneapolis
Ward Nine: Schiff, Bicking vie again
Ward Ten: Four candidates vie for Uptown council seat
Ward Eleven: Three vie for Benson’s South Minneapolis seat
Ward Twelve: Colvin Roy faces three challengers
Ward Thirteen: The independent ward could see fireworks in November

The U.S. Marshals Service is charged with protecting the 94 United States District Courts. Lubinski will be in charge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota if approved by the U.S. Senate later this year.

Lubinski is openly lesbian and has served in law enforcement for more than 30 years and is one of the highest ranking LGBT members of law enforcement in the country.

If confirmed, Lubinski would also be the second female U.S. Marshal currently serving in that capacity and would be the 13th female Marshal in U.S. history.

President Obama praised Lubinski in a press release Tuesday afternoon. “Assistant Chief Lubinski has dedicated her career to the noble cause of protecting her fellow Americans. She has displayed exceptional courage in the pursuit of justice, and I am honored to nominate her today to continue her selfless work as a U.S. Marshal for the District of Minnesota.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar recommended Lubinksi earlier this summer. She wrote:

Sharon Lubinski’s mix of experience managing a large, urban police department and working in a more rural sheriff’s office sets her apart and makes her uniquely qualified to serve in this new role. During my eight years as Hennepin County Attorney, I had the opportunity to work with Sharon on an almost daily basis. I observed firsthand the strength of her leadership abilities and the respect she commands from people at every level of law enforcement and in the larger community.

According to her bio, Lubinski has served in the Minneapolis Police Department for 20 years and has held a command post for 10 years. She started her law enforcement career as a member of the force at the Dane County Sheriff’s Department in Madison, Wis., and she is a member of the faculty at Metropolitan State University School of Criminal Justice.

The neo-Nazi group, which up until late 2007 was headquartered in Minneapolis, announced it will protest the “More Than Skin Deep: Uprooting White Privilege and White Supremacy one cell at a time” workshop being held Saturday at the Midtown YWCA. The event “is for white people who already have an understanding of white privilege and white supremacy (WP/WS) and want to learn more about how to dismantle WP/WS through embodiment work, education, visioning and practical action.” Attendees will learn to “use critical race content and embodiment exploration to uproot ideologies of white supremacy and systems of white privilege in our lives.”

And workshop attendees will likely get a first-hand look at white supremacy if members of the NSM show up.

A number of counter-protests are planned for Saturday. “The NSM has been holding racist anti-immigrant rallies in southern Minnesota, and now they are seeking to establish a presence inside the City of Minneapolis,” reads a flier posted at the May Day Cafe in south Minneapolis. “They plan to bring their racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant, antisemitic message of division and hate right into the heart of the city. They must not go unopposed!”

On Wednesday, more than 100 Minneapolis residents attended an emergency meeting to develop strategies for the counter protest.

“We need to defend the vibrant, multi-ethnic diversity we have here in Minneapolis,” Dan Gannon, an anti-racist community organizer, said in a press release Friday. “Our city must remain a ‘no-go’ zone where white supremacists cannot organize or build a movement with their hate speech and violence.”

A Minneapolis resident who attended the meeting, Angelina Vazquez, said, “We’re not going to let this happen in our city. This is an attack on our multiracial, multicultural community. We refuse to be put under siege by violent right-wingers.”

Workshop organizers say they haven’t organized a counter-protest, but they’re happy the community is coming together to oppose the NSM.

Heather Hackman and Susan Raffo are organizing the YWCA workshop. “Susan and I are grateful that people are stepping up against these protesters,” said Hackman. “We are also very grateful for the support of the Y.”

“There are a number of people responding in a number of ways to this protest, and challenging racism and challenging white privilege,” she said. “It’s clear that this community is not going to stand for this.”

Hackman says the organizers will address the crowd at 10 am.

The Saturday protest will be followed by an NSM-organized rally “against illegal aliens and communism” at the Veteran’s Memorial in Austin, Minn., on Oct. 17, according to the group’s Web site.

Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).

Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

Bachmann will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the group on Nov. 12 at a Bloomington hotel. Bachmann’s office did not return a request seeking comment about the event.

It won’t be Bachmann’s first time at a YCRBYCH fundraiser. At a Minneapolis hotel in October 2006, she offered a powerful prayer for the ministry and praised the group’s work of sharing the gospel in public schools.

“Lord, I thank you for what you have done at this ministry… how you are going to advance them from 260 schools a year, Lord, to 2,600 schools a year,” she said. “Lord, we ask thy faith that you would expand this ministry beyond anything the originators of this ministry could begin to think or imagine. Lord, the day is at hand! We are in the last days! The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will become nigh. Pour a double blessing, Lord, a triple blessing on this ministry.”

In an April 2009 broadcast on Christian radio station KKMS, the group acknowledged that it is going into public schools to evangelize.

“We are doing assemblies here, folks, just so you understand, we do public high school assemblies,” said one of the group’s members. “We are speaking to kids in our schools about the constitution, suicide prevention and our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”

Complaints around the Midwest

In school districts around the Midwest, school administrators have taken heat for inviting the ministry into schools.

In 2003, the group came to a Benton, Wis., high school. “They had a captive audience for their message, and that wasn’t right,” Benton Principal Gary Neis told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. He was reportedly so upset that the ministry strayed from its anti-drug message that he held another assembly to apologize to the students.

“They talked about influencing and brainwashing people. Be wise to the fact that is what they were doing. They were using the same tactics,” Neis told the students at the assembly. Neis said he contacted other schools in the area and found that they had no idea that YCRBYCH was a Christian ministry.

In 2005, at a Eureka Springs, Ark., high school, students walked out of the assembly; afterward, the principal took heat from parents. According to the local paper, The Lovely Citizen, Eureka Springs superintendent Reck Wallis, said, “I take responsibility. We had no idea about their religious, right-wing message. They misrepresented their program. We want [Eureka Springs schools] to be open and all inclusive. … They won’t be back.”

At Pequot Lakes High School in central Minnesota in 2007, the group stirred controversy when students reportedly ran out of the assembly crying after the group showed graphic images of abortion and told the students that God wanted women to be subservient to men. John McDonald, Pequot Lakes High School Principal, told WCCO, “We were expecting something a bit different,” he said. “The thing we apologized to students for is the program wasn’t to the expectation that we thought it would be.”

Bradlee Dean

Also in 2007, the group performed in Phelps, Wis., causing an uproar among parents and administrators. “The school district administrator said she didn’t know You Can Run But You Cannot Hide was a Christian group until I told her,” said Paul Guequierre, a reporter for WJFW TV-12. “She showed me the lit from the group and there was no mention that the group was Christian.”

Indeed, the group does not mention God, Jesus, Christianity or any religion in the “Principal Packet” that it distributes to school administrators. According to the four-page document (pdf), founder Bradlee Dean’s “message hits on issues such as drugs, alcohol, suicide, our country, our veterans, our freedom, the Constitution, friends we choose, the influence of media, and day to day choices we make.” (The program’s website only references God once, in a promotion for founder Bradlee Dean’s book.)

When questioned by the Minnesota Independent about claims that the group doesn’t disclose the religious nature of the assemblies, Dean said, “78 percent of the American people are professing Christians. Are they, in their line of work, to wear ‘I am a Christian’ shirts?”

“It sounds like there is a lean toward discrimination in what you are asking,” he added.

Separation of church and state

While many have challenged that the group causes schools to run afoul of the separation of church and state, both Bachmann and YCRBYCH deny that the constitutional prohibition exists.

In fact, Bachmann urges people to give money to the organization for the stated purpose of bringing Christ into public schools.

“[Public schools] are teaching children that there is separation of church and state, and I am here to tell you that is a myth. That’s not true,” Bachmann said at the group’s 2006 fundraiser in Minneapolis. “And they explain to children in the public school system what a myth that is. And that’s what I love about this ministry … We want kids to come to the truth and that’s why this ministry is so absolutely vital. We need them in every public school classroom across the state to tell young people, ‘You Can Run But You Cannot Hide.’”

Schools pay the group thousands of dollars to put on the assemblies. “On average we ask $1,500 to $2,000 an assembly,” Dean told the Advocate, a paper in Annandale, Minn. (The group’s Web site says a three-hour assembly ranges from $3,000 to $5,000.)

Dean has similarly claimed that the Constitution does not call for church-state separation.

“Did you know that the phrase ’separation between church and state’ is nowhere in the Constitution, nor in the Declaration of Independence, and nowhere in the Bill of Rights?” he asked listeners of his radio program, called “School of Hard Knocks,” which is broadcast on KKMS.

Dean says that the ministry is being targeted by the government because it tells the truth. On his April 11 radio program, he recalled an incident a week earlier which he claimed an employee of the ministry was chased by a helicopter.

“There was a blue and white helicopter that flew down on top of her van as she was going to this [Wright County] Republican party convention. And then he swooped back down on her again.”

Bradlee said that helicopters frequently dive-bomb their tour bus with “helicopters flying up to the bus and pulling off.” He said, “What they are trying to do is criminalize the righteous.”

At the ministry’s 2007 fundraiser at the Minneapolis Hyatt, Dean elaborated on his fears of the government, as reported at the time by the Minnesota Independent.

“We passed out over 100,000 [religious] tracts in public high schools because God said,” Dean said. “Not because some tyrannical government wants to try telling us what we can say and what we can’t say, because we know what the Constitution says. We know who the problem is, nothing’s changed in two thousand years.”

Betsy Hodges, Kris Broberg, Joseph Henry

Minneapolis’ Ward 13 has an independent streak: In a DFL-dominated town, it hadn’t elected a Democrat to the city council in a dozen years. Then, in 2005, DFLer Betsy Hodges won the seat. Now candidates Kris Broberg, who is endorsed by two parties and supported by a third, and unendorsed DFLer Joseph Henry are hoping to capitalize on that independent spirit to unseat Hodges.

Ward 13 encompasses the southwest corner of Minneapolis, from the west edge of Lake Calhoun south to Lake Harriet to the Minneapolis-Edina border. With low poverty rates, it’s comprised largely of single-family homes and residents with above-average incomes.

Reform Party candidate Steve Minn, who won the seat in 1993 and 1997, is lauded by the Independence Party (formerly the Reform Party) as its first victorious candidate — well before former Gov. Jesse Ventura. Minn left the seat early in 1999, forcing a special election where independent “DFL expatriate” Barret Lane took office in an upset against DFL-endorsed candidate Karen Wilson.

Lane retired in 2005, opening up an opportunity for Hodges to take the seat for the DFL after being the only non-DFL spot on the council for more than ten years.

Candidate Broberg hopes this history of independent voting will make the district competitive during this fall’s election. Broberg has the backing of the Independence Party and the Republican Party. He’ll be listed as an Independent on the ballot in November, and this is not his first foray into politics.

Broberg was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul as a member of the Ron Paul coalition. Despite that, members of the Ward 13 Green Party overwhelmingly backed him in a straw poll last week, Broberg says.

“I won the straw poll because I have made the effort to reach out to people of all parties, including Greens, and find common ground, we agree on many issues especially those surrounding local politics,” he said. “I like the ten values of the Green Party. Obviously I don’t agree on everything, and they don’t agree with me on everything, but this year people are fed up with the status quo in the city of Minneapolis and are looking for alternatives.”

He continued, “I am skeptical of both major parties when it comes to issues of war and peace. They both like to use the military to fight their own wars and they both like to spend a great deal of money.”

And finances are a big part of his campaign. Quoting a section of Hodges website, he said, “‘Minneapolis has its fiscal house in order.’ I couldn’t disagree more. According to the city’s own budget, they will at a minimum double our property taxes by 2018. According to my opponent, it could double that rate of increase if you factor in the city’s pension liabilities.”

Broberg is a smaller-government candidate. “Government at all levels is out of control and becoming an adversary to the people rather then a tool of the people to organize society. I want to represent the people and devolve the power from government back to the individual.”

DFLer Henry, an Iraq War veteran, is running to bring a veteran’s voice to the city council.

“We have a large veterans community in Minneapolis, and we have our own issues,” he said. “You have to have been through what veterans go through to truly understands those needs.”

He says military experience will be an asset to the council. “[In Iraq], we really had to learn to complete a mission even if we didn’t have all the tools we needed.” He says that lesson is important when dealing with a strained city budget.

Other issues that Henry promises to work on if elected include traffic, crime and preserving the culture of the city by making it easier for mom-and-pop businesses and harder for big chains.

He says he is concerned about traffic in the ward, and expressed concern over snarls caused by construction on Lyndale Avenue and the Crosstown Commons. “We need to make sure these projects get done safely and as quickly as possible,” he said. “I know it’s a state issue, but we can use the city to put pressure on the state.”

On crime he said, “We need more community policing as it builds those relationships with the neighborhood, and we need to get police out of their cars and onto the street corners.

If he’s elected, he’d like to see a pay cut for all council members. “City council members make $74,000, which I think is a little excessive, as is the $400 a week car allowance. I think we should put compensation more in line with the median income of the city,” he said.

He added, “I’m not a career politician. For me it’s a one-time thing.”

Incumbent Betsy Hodges is running with big-name endorsements from the DFL, Mayor RT Rybak, Rep. Keith Ellison, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken.

Hodges says that pressure on the city’s finances is an issue she has been focused on. “The two biggest drivers of that pressure are cuts to Local Government Aid and the city’s obligations to our closed pension funds,” she said. “Those two issues have been top priorities in my first term, and will continue to be priorities if I am re-elected.”

She says that the city and the state have to rethink Local Government Aid. “[LGA] is actually a revenue sharing program, and the City continues to send our sales tax, income tax, and some of our property taxes to the state and has gotten diminishing returns over time as the State has done their share less and less by cutting funding,” she said. “I am proud to have been appointed to the State commission on LGA, and through that process, starting this month, hope to generate a new vision of municipal funding in Minnesota and build the alliances and relationships necessary to make it happen. ”

Hodges also acknowledges that the city’s pension obligations are a big part of the increase in property taxes. She says that the city must honor it’s obligations but also find a way to reduce the pressure that pensions have on the city budget. “The conditions under which we make those payments are extraordinarily onerous to the Minneapolis taxpayer,” she said.

“The current situation requires painful choices,” she said. “Short cuts, cost shifts, and budget gimmicks aren’t the answer. I have always supported budgets based on policy and principle, including wise long-term, results-based business planning.”

Hodges also promises to work with the Minnesota Airports Commission to work on reducing air traffic noise over the ward and to work with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to make sure local traffic improvements are done quickly and safely.

Hodges leads in the money race, having taken in $24,703 before the primary. Broberg netted $6,255 and Henry did not file a report before the primary deadline.

This is the seventh in a 13-part series on Minneapolis City Council races.

The full series:

Ward One: Five seek open seat in northeast Minneapolis
Ward Two: Gordon, Aigbogun and … no DFLer
Ward Three: Hofstede tries to hold off four challengers
Ward Four: Trio of challengers take on political dynasty
Ward Five: Crime and economic development dominate North Side race
Ward Six: South Minneapolis contest draws crowded field of contenders
Ward Seven: Despite full campaign coffers, lawsuit clouds Goodman’s prospects
Ward Eight: Glidden faces four rivals in south Minneapolis
Ward Nine: Schiff, Bicking vie again
Ward Ten: Four candidates vie for Uptown council seat
Ward Eleven: Three vie for Benson’s South Minneapolis seat
Ward Twelve: Colvin Roy faces three challengers
Ward Thirteen: The independent ward could see fireworks in November