Minnesota Independent

Minnesota Capitol. Photo: Paul Weimer, Flickr

Rep. Hackbarth accuses union member of communism, invokes Hitler

By Andy Birkey | 06.13.11 | 4:32 pm

Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, courted controversy last week after he emailed a member of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) asserting that union members are communists and likening calls to raise revenues by taxing the top 2 percent of Minnesotans to the rise of Hitler in Germany and Fidel Castro in Cuba. The email prompted a sharp rebuke from MAPE, which asked Hackbarth to explain his comments.

Several legislators who want to ‘protect marriage’ are divorced, records indicate

By Andy Birkey | 05.18.11 | 8:30 am

In testimony before Minnesota Senate and House committees last week, religious leaders and representatives from religious right organizations cited single-parent families and a skyrocketing divorce rate as reasons to protect marriage from being redefined to include same-sex couples by “activist judges” and “handfuls of legislators.” And GOP members rebuffed efforts by DFLers to include a ban on divorces in a proposed ban on gay marriage. However, a number of the legislators who say they want to protect marriage appear to have been divorced.

After November gun trouble, Hackbarth proposes gun rights bill

By Andy Birkey | 01.20.11 | 12:58 pm

A Republican legislator who was found in a Planned Parenthood parking lot with a loaded gun in late November has offered a constitutional amendment for gun rights. Rep. Tom Hackbarth lost his leadership roles in the House after a police stopped him in a Planned Parenthood parking lot in St. Paul with a loaded gun in his car. Hackbarth said he was in the parking lot checking up on a woman he met on the internet.

‘Family values’ Hackbarth found with gun in Planned Parenthood parking lot

By Andy Birkey | 11.24.10 | 3:45 pm

Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Bethel, was stopped by police last week in the Highland Park parking lot of Planned Parenthood after witnesses observed a gun on his hip, according to a report by the Star Tribune. Hackbarth said he was searching for a woman he met on an online dating website who he thought was with another man.