The flap erupted following Peterson’s comments to Politico regarding conspiracy theorists in his district.

“Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and [then-Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the twin towers down,” he told the online news organization. “That’s why I don’t do town meetings.”

The GOP is also vowing to run a credible candidate against Peterson in 2010. Last year Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, won re-election over GOP challenger Glen Menze by a 72-28-percent margin. By contrast, Seventh District voters narrowly preferred John McCain over Barack Obama.

“Peterson was out of touch long before he insulted the voters of the Seventh District by saying 25 percent of them were conspiracy theorists,” said Michael Brodkorb, deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP, in a statement announcing the ad campaign.

Peterson has apologized for his remarks. The DFL released a statement of support today for the 10-term congressman and criticized the GOP for its attacks.

“Their salvo against Representative Peterson is just the latest in a string of spurious attacks against out elected officials that show the Republican Party grasping at straws to score political points instead of working together to tackle our biggest problems,” said DFL chair Brian Melendez, in the statement. “Maybe someday, instead of attacking the elected leaders who are actually working to solve those problems, the Republicans will start working for Minnesotans too.”

Here’s the GOP ad:

Through its new site, RitchieFacts.com, the GOP claims Ritchie is a partisan, that he thought Norm Coleman would try to win the U.S. Senate election at any cost, and that Ritchie “partnered with liberal attack blog” The Uptake, the nonprofit news site that offered free, live web video of the U.S. Senate recount proceedings.

GOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb — who, prior to starting his current job, leveled some of the same charges at his own attack blog, Minnesota Democrats Exposed  — said in a statement Thursday, “Over the next 16 months, we are going to hold Mark Ritchie accountable for his actions, and we are going to make sure Minnesotans know the truth about his record.”

GOP party chair Tony Sutton, also in a statement, said, “With secretaries of state from all over the United States convening in Minneapolis this week, I hope they aren’t looking to Mark Ritchie for leadership. I want the visiting secretaries of state to know the truth about Ritchie’s record. Mark Ritchie is not a subject matter expert on fair and open elections.”

One top Republican, Politics in Minnesota’s Sarah Janecek might take issue with that. In naming Ritchie 2008 “Politician of the Year,” she wrote, “We dare anyone to find one public statement made by Ritchie during the recount that was partisan in favor of Franken. It cannot be done, because Ritchie didn’t do it, and we — and many others — were carefully looking for one. Our historically partisan Democrat Secretary of State proved to be a nonpartisan statesman.”

Despite the word “facts” in the GOP website’s name, nearly half of the sources at RitchieFacts.com are from opinion pieces; the most-cited source is the much-criticized Wall Street Journal editorial, “Mischief in Minnesota?”

The DFL offered a response to the attacks today.

“The eight-month Senate election that just wrapped up showed that Minnesota’s elections are transparent, accurate, and fair. Minnesotans are indeed proud of our elections system and with the election officials entrusted with conducting it,” said DFL party chair Brian Melendez. “Our state and its citizens are facing real problems, but our election system isn’t one of them.”

Melendez continued, “As the Republicans were spinning out their smear campaign, Secretary Ritchie organized a day of democratic participation and brought citizens together with elected officials to take on some of the difficult issues facing our state and nation,” he said. “And while the Republicans focus on petty attacks, our DFL leaders are focused on jobs, on health-care reform, and on helping Minnesota’s communities and citizens cope with the consequences of Governor Pawlenty’s unallotments.”

Johnny Northside. Photo: evilpinkpony

The former head of a Minneapolis neighborhood group is suing a local blogger over online words he says cost him a job. Jerry Moore, who used to run the Jordan Area Community Council (JACC), contends that he lost employment with the University of Minnesota because John Hoff and six others defamed him via slanted posts at Hoff’s blog, The Adventures of Johnny Northside.

With the future of JACC itself the subject of current court action, Moore’s suit says Hoff’s participation in matters he chronicled makes him “disentitled” to free-speech protections.

(An example of Hoff’s crusading work is yesterday’s “exclusive video” post titled “Fire At 3020 6th St. N., Former Crack House.”)

Hoff also let the comments section of his blog become a “defamation zone” for anonymous commenters, Moore claims. The lawsuit, filed Friday, also names five of them, as best it can, as “John Doe” defendants.   

Journalist Anna Pratt, at her Prattles blog, sees parallels to DFL activist and political consultant Blois Olson’s 2007 suit against blogger-turned-Minnesota-GOP second-banana Michael Brodkorb. (That case was dismissed.)

Meanwhile, Hoff — who made news last February by publicizing state Rep. Jim Abeler’s comments about North Minneapolis kids using wooden nickles to plug bullet holes — has a movie in the works, also called “The Adventures of Johnny Northside.” Here’s a trailer for it:

The Adventures of Johnny Northside Movie Trailer from Gabriel Cheifetz on Vimeo.

Photo: The UpTake

“It takes bulldog courage to overcome obstacles,” Norm Coleman told Minnesota Republicans Saturday. “Bite hard and don’t let go.” That could be the motto for his ongoing legal challenge to results showing Democrat Al Franken defeated him in last year’s race for the U.S. Senate. “It’s not going to take a miracle for me to win this race,” Coleman said. “It’s going to take justice on the part of the Minnesota Supreme Court.” Video after the jump.

The state’s high court is expected to rule as early as Monday on Coleman’s appeal of a lower-court decision that he indeed lost. Coleman contended that counting uncounted ballots and un-counting double-counted ballots will make him the winner.

The former senator was speaking at a GOP State Central Committee meeting that saw business owner Tony Sutton elected chair and rightwing blogger Michael Brodkorb vice chair.

Retiring chair Ron Carey introduced Coleman by saying the party had spent almost $1.5 million since Election Day to help him regain his Senate seat.

That was money well-spent, according to Coleman: “I’m confident that when all the votes are counted, I’m going to be returning to the United States Senate.”

The stakes are high, Coleman said, in a Senate where Franken’s arrival would bring Democrats the 60th vote they need for a filibuster-proof majority. One vote, he said, will make the difference “between people possibly losing the right to a secret ballot [in union elections]” and “a potential slippery slope” to government control of health care.

As if an example of one vote’s worth were needed after the microscopic margin in the Minnesota Senate contest, Franken offered the words of Chief Justice John Roberts. Coleman said Roberts thanked him after becoming the nation’s top justice because, “if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.” Roberts was recalling Coleman’s victory in 2002 making a majority of 51 Republican senators who confirmed Roberts for his previous post on the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals, Coleman said.

A lot of Coleman’s speech was a rehash of remarks he made last week during the Conservative Leadership Heartland Conference in St. Louis, where he endorsed use of “the ethernet” and “grass e-roots.” He contrasted features he sees as characteristic of the Obama era — tax-and-spend governance, coddling of dictators, wanting to be liked rather than respected — with what Republicans and Americans want.

“This election was about change [but] people didn’t want to change America. They wanted America to change Washington,” Coleman said — with the foreign-policy corollary that Republicans “want the world to be more like America, not the other way around.”

Coleman counseled Obama: “Don’t toss Israel … under the bus.”

And sometimes, perhaps due to a rapid-fire speaking style in which he sometimes seems to be interrupting himself, he made a nonsensical hash of his own rhetoric: “Debt as a percentage of GDP has increased ten-fold over Obama.”

Coleman ended by urging Republicans to follow Obama’s example in inspiring people to action, as he said the Democrat had done with voters’ hatred of the war in Iraq. Employing another adage that he perhaps wishes were true in his own race, Coleman pronounced that “whoever wants this the most is going to prevail.”

Here’s the video of Coleman’s speech, via The UpTake:

• WCCO’s Pat Kessler raised the “who’s a journalist question” Monday night, noting that the access battle is a bipartisan issue. He interviews The UpTake’s Jason Barnett and Minnesota Democrats Exposed’s Michael Brodkorb about their disappointment that the DFL majority seems opposed to “more transparency, more bloggers in, more access to the process,” as Brodkorb put it.

• WCCO’s Esme Murphy strikes the same chord, then posts the Society of Professional Journalists’ statement on yesterday’s proceedings:

“It’s our understanding the first three of the proposed rules are already tossed out, which is a good thing since they triggered the strongest response. However, SPJ is concerned about the rules that continue to try to narrow the definition of what a journalist is and who should be allowed to document the workings of state government.

The Minnesota Legislature does the people’s work during committee meetings and formal House and Senate floor sessions. Minnesota SPJ understands the difficulty in maintaining decorum and a productive environment in such open, public forums. However, this is precisely the job legislators were elected to do. Public scrutiny comes with the office. SPJ takes the position that transparency is the only way elected representatives can maintain credibility with their constituents. As such, the best approach is one that adheres to the most noble aspects of the First Amendment that recognizes the need for openness and accountability from government.

It’s difficult to understand why the proposed rules place conditions on what should be a simple process of access. SPJ prefers to define ‘journalist’ in the broadest of terms and we believe it’s time for the legislature to do the same. The public loses whenever elected officials choose to exclude people who wish to document what happens in a public meeting, working on public policy in a public space. If there is an issue of decorum, safety or logistical space, elected leaders have appropriate methods in place. Rather than create additional rules that imply a person’s credentials will be issued based on where a person works or how long a person will be reporting at the Capitol, SPJ would encourage legislative leaders to lessen the rules to allow more people to report in new and innovative ways to reach more of the public. The Legislature should establish equitable rules for all media, with no bias awarded anyone based on medium, method or viewpoint. If this proposal reflects the Legislature’s attempt to do that, they have missed the mark.”

• TPT’s Mary Lahammer expresssed “great outrage” over the House rules that limit “where, when and what [the media] could record in a public building involving publically elected people.” She writes, “True the media landscape is changing and that makes a lot of us fearful too, but fear never leads to good decision making.”

• MPR’s Bob Collins writes of the “big chill at the Capitol,” noting that there’s “virtually no reasonable case to be made that inviting a few bloggers in to inspect the workings of elected officials would cause an undue burden on the lawmakers who, for the record, asked for the job.”

After state GOP chair Ron Carey aped party blogger Michael Brodkorb’s terminology for The UpTake as a “partisan, liberal” blog, the citizen journalism outfit issued a press release correcting an error Carey made — and thanked him for tuning into the same video feeds of Minnesota recount proceedings that media outlets like Fox News and the Pioneer Press have used. A release issued by The UpTake late last night notes that it has been providing an “unedited switched video feed” of the State Canvassing Board’s meetings, but that Carey was incorrect in stating that the organization is the “Official Communicator” for the Minnesota Secretary of State.

“The UpTake is providing this service because the Capitol staff who normally provide both the video feed and webcast were not available,” the release states. “The UpTake volunteered to contribute equipment and technical personnel to continue to provide both. The office of the Secretary of State accepted the offer.  This conversation was transparent and also streamed live online.”

It includes a note of gratitude to Carey for tuning in: “We are extremely pleased that the Chair of the Minnesota GOP watches The UpTake and was able to enjoy today’s State Canvassing Board hearing through our live coverage,” Jason Barnett, Executive Director of The UpTake, said.

Earlier: GOP attacks on The UpTake: Another attempt to smear the process that may deal Coleman defeat?

But Michael Brodkorb of Minnesota Democrats Exposed declares a partisan failing in one canvassing board’s attempt at providing transparency.

He writes: “‘Non-partisan’ Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s office has joined forces with the partisan liberal video-blog The UpTake to provide a live video feed of today’s State Canvassing Board meeting.”

Ritchie’s “SHAME,” as Brodkorb — characteristically in ALL-CAPS — puts it?

Writing via official SoS communique that “a live feed will be provided through ‘The Uptake.’” As City Pages notes, “The live feeds usually provided at the state Capitol are not in use this week and The Uptake has been providing an amazing service to people interested in the race by offering free and live video feeds of the state Canvassing Board meetings on their site.”

The UpTake offers the streams without added editorial comment. While their edited videos tend to be perspective-based, the Canvassing Board video feeds have been raw and live — more like C-Span than MDE. “This would be like Governor Pawlenty telling Minnesotans to go to [MDE] to find out information about his budget proposals,” Brodkorb insists. “While my blog is more credible, you get my point.”

A tempest in the teapot? Just an insider media squabble about who’s “legitimate media“? Maybe not.

Within a few hours of his first post, Brodkorb added another, by GOP chair Ron Carey, whose candidacy Brodkorb championed as Carey’s 2007 campaign manager (Brodkorb has also reportedly been hired as media director for the Senate Republican Caucus.)

Like Brodkorb, Carey apparently would also prefer a Canvassing Board blackout instead of commentary-free UpTake streams: “It’s amazing that a partisan, liberal blog” — a description nearly identical to Brodkorb’s — “has been made the official provider of the video for the Canvassing Board,” Carey said.

Then he gets to what might be the real strategy behind such a benign-seeming service as unmanipulated video feeds of public proceedings: Casting doubt on a recount process that shows Carey’s candidate headed for an increasingly likely defeat.

“To make a group with an agenda and a record of attacking one of the candidates before the Canvassing Board the purveyor of information is beyond improper, it calls into question the judgment of those who made the decision for this partisan website to be the sanctioned broadcaster of these important proceedings.”

That brought a charge of bias from blogger Michael Brodkorb (who has worked for GOP candidates and is reportedly weighing a run for a top party office). And so an online battle was waged today, a sideshow to the recount drama or perhaps a warm-up for tonight’s big rematch between Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman on Political Championship Wrestling.

UPDATE: Braublog has this statement from the Franken folks: “Media is welcome to broadcast or stream live outside Franken for Senate headquarters, but in an effort to preserve the operational integrity of our workplace, footage inside Franken for Senate headquarters is generally not available for live streaming or live broadcast. Exceptions will be considered and granted at the discretion of the campaign.”

Here’s a play-by-play of events over the last two days in the words of the players themselves, mostly from the recount liveblog at The Uptake unless otherwise noted.

MONDAY

12:34 Mike McIntee: We will have a video from the Franken presser up soon

12:50 Jason Barnett: We are playing back a news conference that happened about 40 minutes ago at Franken Campaign Headquarters-

TUESDAY

10:12 Mike McIntee: Chuck Olsen will be covering the presser at 11:30am today. The reason given for not live streaming is they believe the Coleman campaign watches it and then tailors it’s news conference to respond to what the Franken campaign says. I think it’s a silly restriction, but since it is being applied to all media, we’re abiding. Checking on the Monday press conference. We had technical problems so it may not be up in You Tube or Blip yet.

10:21 Mike McIntee: While we find the restriction silly, the Coleman Campaign’s refusal to even let us in the building to cover its news conference is terribly disturbing.

11:07 Noah Kunin: The Coleman Campaign has never formally explained why we are banned from campaign press conferences, nor formally explained why their campaign does not answer our questions during press conferences at the Capitol (despite repeated requests for an explanation)

11:09 Noah Kunin: Coleman’s campaign has allowed us access into official events in Coleman’s capacity as Senator on a regular basis and answers our questions during those events, even if it is the Senator himself answering those questions. In fact, during the last event, the Senator took the time to single us out for our relevant and probing questions.

11:12 Noah Kunin: Since the Senate office recogonizes us as press, why the Campaign office blackout? There are multiple reasons I think. The most important aspect of this “relationship” though is their attempt to create their own reality. By blocking reasoanble access to their campaign, they make us seem more like a DFL-only media mouthpiece, which in turn then becomes the unspoken basis of the original blackout, transposed into the past.

11:44 Mike McIntee: Next “big thing” today is the Franken press conference which is happening right now. We are not able to live stream today, but will have it for playback shortly after it ends.

11:44 Mike McIntee: To clarify… that’s the Franken campaign… not the candidate himself.

11:50 chuckumentary: Franken campaign says 84 votes separate them from Coleman (using FrankenMath) #mnrecount

11:51 Mike McIntee: Chuck Olsen (Chuckumentary) is at the Franken news conference. He will feed us the raw video once it is over and he can get to a place with internet connections.

11:52 chuckumentary: Franken has received rejected absentee lists (all or in part) from 66 counties, 6400 rejected ballots so far #mnrecount

11:54 chuckumentary: MPLS had a number of rejected ballots due to admin error inc. registration – SOS own database shows voter was registered #mnrecount

11:55 chuckumentary: Itasca county rejected an absentee because “we screwed up” and put in reject pile #mnrecount

11:58 theuptake: Franken campaign says 84 votes separate them from Coleman (using FrankenMath) #mnrecount

11:58 chuckumentary: Lost ballots total “in the hundreds” – visual evidence of uncounted ballot http://twitpic.com/nzfb ballot stuck in machine #mnrecount

1:42 Chuckumentary: At last, here is part 1 of Franken press conf. from today

2:19 THE UPTAKE COMPLIES WITH GAG ORDER REQUEST FROM TEAM FRANKEN
By Michael B. Brodkorb | November 25, 2008
According to public comments made today by The UpTake’s Mike McIntee, Team Franken requested that the UpTake (and actual media outlets) no longer provide live video of their press conferences. While WCCO-TV did a live shot from Team Franken’s headquarters, The UpTake complied with gag order request and didn’t provide live video of Team Franken’s 11:30 a.m. press conference. Team Franken was apparently concerned about outside groups seeing their press conference live, so The Uptake buried the live feed. No credible media outlet would accept the terms issued by Team Franken, but since The UpTake isn’t a credible media outlet, or even a media outlet, they complied. Where’s the angry video from The UpTake expressing outrage at Team Franken’s instructions? I wouldn’t expect to see any credible outrage from this so-called band of “citizen journalists.”

2:28 dbrauer: Blog fight! @mbrodkorb is all up in @theuptake’s junk: http://is.gd/901B

2:32 Chuckumentary: we’ve been Brodkorb’d!

Responses to “THE UPTAKE COMPLIES WITH GAG ORDER REQUEST FROM TEAM FRANKEN”

2:35 haha Says: Cool! So, will you take them with you to the next Norm conference? I notice they’re not putting up any Coleman tape at all.

2:36 Ralph Kramden Says: Hey Michael – can you get the Coleman campaign to allow TheUptake to have access to their pressers, if TheUptake agrees to the same restrictions?

2:37 Jeff Rosenberg Says: Hypocrisy, thy party is GOP. Let me get this straight: The UpTake isn’t allowed to broadcast video from Coleman press conferences. But you’re upset that they didn’t broadcast video from the Franken press conference. Until the Coleman campaign will allow video from their press conferences, I don’t see what your problem is.

2:46 Danno Says: Gag order? So, you’re saying that the Uptake, putting up video of the Franken press conference after the conference is over, is a gag order? So, what do you call the complete denial of entry to the Coleman headquarters? Banishment? Terrorism? 

2:59 Jason DeRusha Says: I understand that the purpose of this site is to expose the practices of Democrats, not Republicans. But in fairness, how do you not acknowledge that the Coleman campaign has refused to allow The UpTake access to its news conferences? I’d be curious why the Franken campaign wanted no live streaming… especially considering The UpTake still aired the entire thing, just on a delay.

3:01 Chuck Olsen Says: Michael, Some fact-correction for you. The UpTake, much like C-SPAN, provides live unfiltered coverage of political events in Minnesota as our resources allow, including press conferences and debates. You’ve highly praised us for providing this service in the past, face-to-face with me and on-camera. We made it clear to the Franken campaign that we would not abide by a ban on live streaming of their press conferences unless it was an across-to-board restriction applicable to all press. They issued a statement to that effect. The WCCO live shot you refer to taken *outside* Franken HQ as you see here:
http://wcco.com/election/missing.ballots.found.2.873776.html
The UpTake is free to do the same thing, but it has little value. Instead, we live-twitter from the press conference and are the first to get that information to the public. In the case of Coleman’s campaign, we and MN Independent are being singled out while other press and citizen journalists like yourself are allowed to cover the event. This is a disservice to Minnesota, and unethical. We’d love to provide live unfiltered coverage of Coleman press conferences, or even taped unfiltered coverage. I’m disappointed at the way you’ve characterized this and it seems to go against what you’ve said in the past.

2:42 Mike McIntee: And Mr. Brodkorb, as usual, reports facts selectively, without making any phone calls to confirm anything and apparently doesn’t know the difference between a “live shot” in a newscast vs. a continuous live feed. We’ll chairitably chalk this up to his non-journalism/media background. The UpTake is treating the Franken restrction on live streaming like an embargo and will choose to deal with the restrictions on a case by case basis. We’ve been told the restriction has been applied equally to all media. Knowing that the restriction would likely be in place today we diverted our live streaming card to another location.

2:48 Chuckumentary: Yes, I consider MDE a citizen journalist and should be allowed into a Franken press event. The UpTake is a non-profit journalism organization, no question we are press regardless of political views.

Text corrected: see note below

The Associated Press profiles Republican blogger Michael Brodkorb today, praising his two “direct hits” on Al Franken over the Democratic senate candidate’s tax problems. The piece by Patrick Condon says that Brodkorb “shrugs off Democrats’ claims that he’s a Republican operative by saying he’s never been paid to blog.” The Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger repeatedly makes that claim, and goes to great pains to express his independence, but as Minnesota Monitor’s Robin Marty reported in September 2006, Brodkorb’s ties to the Republican party are deeper than those of a mere enthusiast engaged in pro-GOP blogging as “a labor of love” (as the AP story puts it).

The AP only mentions in passing Brodkorb’s past work as research director for the Republican Party of Minnesota and leaves out specific reference to a part-time gig as “press consultant” to former Republican senatorial candidate Mark Kennedy; according to Federal Elections Commission reports, he earned $4,500 per month at that job. The AP also doesn’t mention the check for $5,500 Brodkorb received on September 3, 2006, for research services provided to the Michele Bachmann campaign.

Brodkorb, reached by phone Friday morning, did not dispute that he has had paying jobs for the GOP, but declined to comment further, saying he felt unfairly treated by Minnesota Monitor in Marty’s September 2006 article.

Editor’s Note: This item contains a correction. It originally stated, wrongly, that the AP article failed to mention Brodkorb’s past work as the state Republican party’s research director.

The bill, House File 1015, guarantees restroom access to people suffering from diseases such as Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis, which make it more difficult to control one’s bowels.  The bill would allow those so afflicted to use  businesses’ private restrooms, waive liability for businesses that do and create a fine for employees who refuse to allow customers to use the restrooms.

In the article, Pioneer Press reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger sought out comments from Michael Brodkorb, GOP chair of the 38th District, a former consultant for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and author of the blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed.  Stassen-Berger quoted Brodkorb as objecting to the bill, saying, “In my heart of hearts, I just don’t believe that we need legislation that dictates that level of involvement in businesses.”

Brodkorb had also expressed his objection to the bill on his own blog using far less diplomatic language.  Indeed, both Brodkorb and others who  commented on his site mocked the bill, dubbing it the “Freedom to Poop” bill, and ridiculed the idea that anyone would need access to private restrooms.

more insideIn his initial post on the bill, Brodkorb summarized the bill as follows: “Any retailer that does not allow people with ‘eligible medical conditions’ such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or any other inflammatory bowel disease like irritable bowel syndrome or presumably ‘mud butt’ would face a $100 fine for not allowing these non-customers to use the bathroom at their establishment.”

A number of commenters on the site quickly joined in mocking the idea.

A poster calling himself “Biggster Kahuna” said, “I certainly hope our nanny-state friends in the DFL will have the courage to appropriately amend this bill to include protections for our Minnesota men and women, our neighbors, suffering from Chronic Masturbation Syndrome.”  Another commenter, “Dumbing it Down for the Left,” said, “Now they are talking about parking issues, and how malls and gas stations will have to have frequent pooper parking places. This is way too funny.”

Jamie Delton asked, “Where does the Poop lobby hang out? The Poo-dle Club? What happens when the republicans repeal the Freedom to Poop Act? Will the Septic Solidarity Movement congest congregate at the capital to protest alongside the DFL? How will the DFL power brokers deal with the emerging group led by the Young Turds, the name given to the cutting-edge vanguard of the new movement?”

Tom Swift, a former St. Paul school board candidate, asked, “Will this card entitle me to call the police or fire department to rush me to the nearest toilet in the event I’m caught outside the range of a comfortable stroll to one?”  And commenter “RabidRepublican” said, “I hope this never passes. It would be way funnier for someone to just take a crap on the floor of the businesses that won’t let them use the can. I suppose next the badas* govt (sic) will make a law making that illegal.”

Brodkorb never indicated that any of these comments were out of line, and instead accused liberal bloggers of “changing the subject” when some complained about the vitriol.  He also commissioned a graphic for his site purporting to display the “Freedom to Poop” card, and Brodkorb said the bill would get his vote for most ridiculous DFL legislation.

Crohn’s Disease affects up to 600,000 people in North America.  Its symptoms include abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and weight loss.  Ulcerative colitis is rarer, affecting approximately one in 10,000 people.  Both fall under the umbrella of inflammatory bowel disease.  These and similar iterations of IBD can negatively affect quality of life due to the pain, diarrhea and vomiting associated with them.

Editor’s note: We mistakenly mis-identified Michael Brodkorb as the chair of SD 37, he is in fact a paid political consultant and chair of SD 38.  Minnesota Monitor regrets the error.