Minnesota Report
It was 30 years ago December 8, 1995, a journey began on the Internet, for an e-zine entitled Checks & Balances. Minnesota’s first digital political publication. There have been many ups & downs along the way. One marker being the site of the 1st paid political advertisement, thanks to Jim DeMay, manager of the Ted Mondale campaign for Governor. This Mondale Comes in First
Another being, scooping three days before the MSM, the decision by Speaker Steve Sviggum (R) not willing to call a joint convention to select U of MN regents because the numerical advantage was in the DFL’s hands. This resulted in Governor Jesse Ventura making the selections.
It was comical, when calling Congressman Tim Penny (D-01MN) regarding the future of his US Senate campaign, and me, Shawn Towle the publisher, saying “This is Shawn, are you going to pull the plug.” and him responding, “Yes we need to write a press release later today. Towle clarified, “This is Shawn Towle.” The importance being Penny’s campaign manager was also named Sean. We published the information, and the Penny Campaign put out a press release 30 minutes after our story hit the ‘Net.
We secured a commitment from Rep Tim Pawlenty (R-38B, Eagan),US Senate or Governor in 2000. He called us enroute to his press conference making the announcement of his bid for Governor, and we scooped the event.
We published the “Gun Letter,” a fax sent to the Melvin Carter III campaign for mayor in 2017. This resulted in a series of news stories from other media sources highlighting the racist undertones this created, and Carter became the first black Mayor of the Capitol City. This election, he didn’t have our support, and the results are in.
Many people have assisted in the production, mainly a necessary assist, due to poor personal editing skills and grammatical challenges. For this, thanks go out to Dawn Erlandson, M. Kathleen Murphy, Leah Bailey, John Berg, Liz Biel, Andrew Asche and Grammarly, just to name a few.
The experiences have been memorable, covering a number of Democratic and Republican Conventions, State Party Conventions, Elections, State of the State Addresses, Revenue Forecasts, Press Conferences and gathering tidbits while at the State Capitol and writing material which in some cases influenced the final legislative language. This ride is enthralling, and still not over, but everything must change with the times. There is far much more to come and hopefully, much more to say.
Thanks for your support.
Shawn Towle
Publisher & EIC