EDITORIAL: 1st District GOP Race Takes Nasty Turn
By Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Feb. 29–It’s an ugly story of harassment, complete with threatening phone calls, hints of blackmail and shattered trust. People who read the description of what happened can’t help but recoil at the overall sliminess of the whole incident.
No, we’re not talking about the allegations of sexual harassment that were filed against Rep. Randy Demmer more than 11 years ago. Rather, we’re disgusted by the way someone or a group of people — fellow Republicans, according to Demmer — tried to use that long-settled lawsuit to force him from the race for the GOP’s 1st District nomination.
We can only assume that the reason he was “tipped off” about the “scandal” about to be unleashed upon him is because the culprits knew they had nothing on him. They hoped he would panic and bolt out of the race.
Demmer didn’t. Instead, he went public about the allegations of harassment by two female former employees. There was no finding of guilt, and after two years Demmer says he paid a $9,000 settlement simply because his legal fees for continuing the fight would have been far more than that.
Unfortunately, this attack is simply the latest episode in the never-ending search for skeletons in candidates’ closets. It’s dirty politics at its worst, and if any honest, well-meaning elected officials out there are wondering why so many people have such a dim view of our partisan political system, they need look no further than what happened to the representative from Hayfield.
Will this incident cost Demmer in the long run? It’s hard to say, and it’s even possible that his current display of feistiness will gain him some new supporters. He’ll need them, because he faces an uphill fight against state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna and Brian Davis, a Mayo Clinic physician. And, if he emerges as the GOP nominee, he’ll face a battle-tested, well-financed Rep. Tim Walz, who will doubtless make full use of all the advantages of incumbency.
Regardless of who is the last man standing, the fact that things have gotten this ugly, this early, doesn’t bode well for what will happen when the election campaign really heats up.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
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