All posts by mnhd66brepublicans

Proudly serving the city of Saint Paul, the Republicans of Minnesota House District 66B want to help you live a better life.
Veterans

Celebrate Armed Forces Day by Giving to Every Third Saturday

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In December 2023 I had the chance to visit a Charitable Veterans Resource near the VA Minneapolis Hospital, called Every Third Saturday. I had enrolled in Yoga at the VA’s Center for Integrative Health & Healing (an article for another day). I had a need for some sweatpants so I took the bus to the Blue Line and got off at the VA Hospital Station at 1 Veterans Drive in Minneapolis. I walked through the acres of the parking lot there and walked down 54th Avenue to 43rd St, 5402 43rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55417, Map

Upon arrival there was a main desk with a man seated behind it. I had been told to bring some form of Veteran ID and I showed him my VA Identification Card (VIC) and he proceeded to make an Every Third Saturday Membership Card. It was completely free. I was photographed in my Packers Winter Jacket. On the card there is the US Army Seal on it indicating my branch of service.

I was given a ticket by the man behind the desk. Then a tall gentleman who came by (as seen in the video above), ripped the ticket in half and gave me the other half. I followed him to a room full of clothes and donated stuff. I mentioned to him I need some sweatpants for the Yoga class I signed up for.

He gave me a black garbage bag and we proceeded around the room stopping at different stages. He would ask me if I needed something. I said yes or no depending on what it was. I got a pair of sweatpants, but upon closer inspection they are warm-up pants for the MN Gophers Basketball team. At the knees they have a zipper that runs down to the ankle.  After about 20 minutes of saying yes to this and occasionally saying no I had a full garbage bag of stuff I needed and some stuff I didn’t know I needed.

I thanked them profusely.

Donate to Every Third Saturday

Understanding Those Who Serve in our Military

The US Military Active Duty and Veterans make up 1% of the US Population.  Serving in the military can be hard on a single Soldier, Airman, Marine, or Sailor as they are far from home facing challenges that are difficult physically, mentally, and often emotionally.  A different set of circumstances are faced for those who serve who are married and have children on base.  Many combat arms jobs can lead to high divorce rates.

Most civilians can’t relate to military service members as the culture and living conditions are quite divergent. Imagine living with your co-workers and bosses in the same building on base and even closer in the field. One doesn’t enjoy the same freedoms as civilians do. Your job doesn’t have finite hours like the civilian world either.  You don’t have freedom of speech, nor the option of wearing something different than the uniform of the day.

After separation from the military, also known as End Tour of Service (ETS), Vets can find it difficult to readjust to civilian life and find a job, housing, and operate as an individual. In Basic Training your individuality is stripped from you and replaced with a concern for the team and to complete missions.

Just thanking a Veteran for their service is not enough. you should ask them how they are doing and also if you can help them out. I say this because according to the Shawn Ryan Show Podcast, 44 Vets commit suicide every day. Your brief encounter with a Vet is important because you might be the last person they run into before they go and plan to kill themselves.

My name is Tom Polachek, and I’m a US Army Veteran from the Reagan Era.

Politics

President Donald Trump to be Keynote Speaker at MNGOP Lincoln Reagan Dinner May 17th

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Within the last week an announcement was made by MNGOP Chair David Hann that President Donald J Trump would be the keynote speaker at the Lincoln-Reagan Fundraising Dinner.

However the cost of the tickets even at a 50% discount are $250 and to the average Joe & Jane of the Republican Party of Minnesota that’s a bit outside of their budget. Though it’s a once in a lifetime kind of event and it’s a fundraiser.

The venue is a mystery and one has to believe it’s somewhat close to the State Convention site in Downtown St Paul. The Dinner starts at 5 pm and the Friday segment of the State Convention will adjourn prior to that time.  If you signed up to attend you’ll find out where it’s at.

 

Faith

RestoreMN Movie Night: Letter to the American Church April 30th 6:30 pm

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What:  RestoreMN Community Movie Night. Showing Eric Metaxes’ “Letter to the American Church”

Host:  RestoreMN Ramsey County-Shoreview Community Action Team (CAT)

When:  Tuesday, April 30, 2024, 6:30 pm

Where:  Vino Veritas Upper Room, 1080 West County Rd E, Shoreview, MN  Map

Misc:  Free Popcorn & Pizza.  The movie runs about an hour and then there will be a discussion after it.

RestoreMN is a nonpartisan non-profit group seeking to like the name says restore Minnesota.  Their About Page says the following:

“Restore Minnesotais a Christ-centered educational hub creating a united network of God-fearing, America-loving patriots who know it is time to take God-directed action and become the informed, authoritative leadership in every sphere of their local communities.”

They are presenting Eric Metaxes’ documentary “Letter to the American Church.”

Republican Party Plank:  Judeo-Christian Values

The Republican Party at it’s founding in 1854 had a lot of people who were of the Christian Worldview.  In the last century attacks on the Christian Church have been relentless.  The Establishment Clause starting in 1947 has been changed to make the Federal Government to be hostile to religions especially the majority of People of Faith:  Christians.  Under the Tim Walz Governorship Religious Freedom has taken a severe hit to the human rights policy, putting Religious Organizations across the spectrum at risk of being endlessly sued by fringe groups bent on silencing them or dictating to accepting beliefs not taught in their faith.

This is why our website is posting this event.  One can look to the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, or more local to the MN Constitution’s Preamble:

We, the people of the state of Minnesota, grateful to God for our civil and religious liberty, and desiring to perpetuate its blessings and secure the same to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution

This Preamble is MN Law and it is the spirit of what the Constitution was written to guard and support.

See also Article 1 Section 16 in the MN Constitution about Freedom of Conscience and no ban on clergy serving in the State Government

HD 66B Republicans are not affiliated with RestoreMN. We did not get compensated for this posting. It’s a community event in which it is open to all who are interested.  — admin.

Politics

MN Secretary of State Website Tool, Caucus Finder, was Neglected for 2 Years!

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The CaucusFinder Tool had not been updated since before Redistricting in February 2022. This went down in January 2024 in order to update it by February 7, 2024.

To be proactive this year, I decided to schedule a post weeks out from February 27th to show where all the Precinct Caucuses are for Republicans in the Local Party Units aka BPOUs in Saint Paul. However to use the CaucusFinder Tool which is very helpful in the past to find ones Precinct Caucus location for whatever Major Party you choose you need to input addresses into it.

So using a list of addresses from past delegates in St Paul from CD4 GOP those addresses were inputted into the CaucusFinder in the first week of January 2024 and there was an issue that arose.

CaucusFinder Problem

The HD 66B Republican Precinct Caucus Location was set up in December, after helping out a City Council Candidate in 2023, to be Johnson Aerospace & Engineering High School (aka Johnson High School) in St Paul on Arcade St. Then inputting the address of someone in HD 67A it came back as the same location at Johnson High School. Oh the horror! I thought that I had double-booked the High School for the Precinct Caucuses. Then putting in another HD 67A address I found it to be in the location list below.

It was curious why that one address went to Johnson High School and not the actual one. So I went to the Ramsey County GIS Precinct Map, and found out the location to be in St Paul Ward 6 Precinct 7. I inputted other addresses in the precinct and they came up as Johnson High School. This was Clue #1 about what was going on with CaucusFinder.

I put in another address in SD 67 that was further east into the District and the caucus location was found to be the one below.

Then I looked up the caucus locations in SD 65, and HD 66A which are listed below.

I then put in an address of an old friend who lives in the St Thomas University area which is in SD 64. The caucus location for that address was Johnson High School! What was going on?

From the Ramsey County GIS Precinct Map I found out the address was in St Paul Ward 4 Precinct 12. This was Clue #2.

I put in an address near St Paul Avenue and Davern St and found the correct location below but it was named Ramsey Middle School. This was Clue #3.

Mystery Solved

Clue #3 was a curious one that tickled a memory of a conversation with Ramsey County Elections Manager David Triplett in late summer of 2022, when I was making updates to the polling locations for the August Primary and the General Election. I like to add maps next to the addresses of locations that are important so readers can make plans to go to places they might not have been to before.  The Google Map location showed Ramsey Middle School to have been changed to a new name, Hidden River Middle School. I told him about it and he replied a week later saying I was correct.

So whatever was going on with Caucusfinder it had to be something that happened in 2022.

Clues #1 & #2 answered the “what happened” in 2022.

Well Redistricting had happened and St Paul Ward 6 Precinct 7 and Ward 4 Precinct 12 had been in old HD 66B prior to Redistricting.

So this meant that the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office hadn’t updated the precincts inside of the Legislative Districts since Redistricting started in February 2022. The final Ward & Precinct map wasn’t approved in Ramsey County until April 2022. This may have led to Candidate Greg Copeland thinking he still lived in Ramsey County District 6 instead of being actually in District 3. One would have to check to make sure this was the case.

So what has the MN SOS and the Minnesota Legislative Body that does oversight of that office been doing for the last 2 years?  That’s a Good Question.

Action to Fix It

I contacted the MNGOP Deputy Chair Donna Bergstrom and told her about how the CaucusFinder was messed up. I also sent a note to Ramsey County Elections Manager David Triplett as well. I knew Mr Triplett couldn’t do anything about it but he said later that he contacted the MN SOS Office about the issue. Sent a note to Senator Mark Koran because I didn’t know how deep the problem was.

I also sent a note to the MN Secretary of State’s Office explaining what I had found out about Caucusfinder. Finally I sent a note to Alpha News MN’s Reporter Liz Collin, just to make sure some sort of action would take place on this. I could see people being sent to Precinct Caucus locations outside of their Legislative District and being super angry about it.

I heard back from Deputy Chair Bergstrom as well as Liz Collin. I didn’t hear back from the MN SOS office but the fact they took CaucusFinder offline and posted the above notice about it’s availability after February 7th says they got my message.

This article I posted it largely to explain that the MN Secretary of State’s Tool of helping people find their Precinct Caucus Location was neglected for 2 years. I helped to make sure that Precinct Caucuses were not messed up in any way this year. I looked for Republican Party Caucus locations and not other Major Party locations, but I may have helped them to avoid major chaos in their party in choosing precinct delegates & alternates.

Tom Polachek HD 66B Republicans Vice Chair of the Website & Social Media, 2023 to the Present