by Steve Timmer

Sep 18, 2014, 9:00 AM

Thank you Norm and Gina!

The first piece of hit lit on Ron Erhardt (that I am aware of, anyway) landed in my mailbox on September 17th. It is a remarkably amateurish bit of work, that if sent to the entire HD49A district, probably cost $5,000. It was sent by a group called the Minnesota Action Network. Here is a link to the lit piece that I posted to Scribd.

Before we get into the piece itself, I want to talk about the principals behind the MAN. The chair of MAN is Norm Coleman, the guy on the left in the photo above. The guy on the right is Dario Anselmo, the Republican candidate who the MAN is (trying to) support.

The treasurer of MAN is Gina Countryman, who filed a report with the Campaign Finance Board, in its pre-primary filing, disclosing that it had raised the total sum of $500 since its inception in the spring of this year: all of it from Jeff Larson from Bayport, who was last seen, of course, buying Jimmy Choo’s for Sarah Palin in 2008.

He has apparently sufficiently recovered from that debacle to throw his money into a new rathole.

But the Minnesota Action Network clearly has a pedigree; it has “papers,” so to speak.

The thrust of the piece — and I use the term advisedly — is that Ron Erhardt has gone Hollywood, that he is neglecting Minnesota roads and bridges in favor of Hollywood producers. Something that a person with the sober judgment of Dario Anselmo [chortle] would never do.

We must pause at this point, my friends, and ask, How effing stupid do Norm and Gina think we are? Really, the pool of slack jaws who are going to fall for this is pretty small.

Ron Erhardt has been Mr. Transportation in Minnesota for years. He was the author of a bill to raise the gas tax for additional transportation funding in many sessions, an effort that Governor Gutshot and his pals ridiculed. A bill to raise the gas tax finally passed in 2008; it was vetoed by Gutshot. Rep. Erhardt was one of the six Republican House members (Erhardt used to be a Republican, of course) who voted, along with all the DFLers, to override the veto.

This was way too much for the same bunch that recently endorsed Dario Anselmo; Rep. Erhardt was denied the GOP endorsement in 2008; he spent two terms out of office until he was reelected in 2012 as a DFLer. Whereupon, Speaker Paul Thissen made Rep. Erhardt the chair of the Transportation Policy Committee.

It is utterly delusional to think that the cipher Dario Anselmo has a better handle on transportation issues than Ron Erhardt does.

I know this from personal experience.

I have been trying to get Dario Anselmo out of his hidey hole on a variety of issues since May. The guy has lockjaw; he probably got it from campaign consultant Brian McClung or maybe campaign co-chair and non-Edinan Cam Winton.

I asked Dario the Silent this question, among others:

In 2008, then and current local representative, Ron Erhardt, voted to override the governor’s veto of a gasoline tax increase. Would you have done that?

He hasn’t answered it, or even acknowledged receipt of it.

So you will appreciate that it annoys me when a bunch of out-of-the-district yobs come in and start telling lies about Ron Erhardt to support a lightweight like Dario Anselmo.

Update: Reader Alan comments, “It looks like it’s possible that Norm and Dario met in the waiting room of the dentist who gave them both new fake teeth.”

I admit that I whitened their teeth a little. They reminded me so of a couple of politicians that L.K. Hanson might draw, or a couple of Cheshire cats. I was inspired to make the adjustment based on the job that the Minnesota Action Network did on the photo of Ron Erhardt. Two can plan the game.

I think what they really got was new, fake authenticity.