Amy Olson-Treptow’s recent letter regarding her support of Dan Feehan was deceptive and very much in need of correction.

“True Minnesotan” is not an accurate description of Dan Feehan, who moved from Minnesota at the age of 4, who never lived a day in this congressional district until parachuting in two years ago to run for Congress, and whose family continued to live in Washington, D.C. until just this past year.

By contrast, Rep. Jim Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth, was raised on his family’s grain and livestock farm near Truman, and has lived more than half his life in this district, including the last eight years in Blue Earth. And I am certain that Hagedorn would be very interested in learning the locations of these mythical “multiple houses [he lives in] across the country.”

Hand-picked audiences? Hagedorn has held 12 town halls in 12 months in 12 counties answering hundreds of questions from constituents, including questions from rude, disrespectful and disruptive Feehan campaign workers. I personally witnessed this during Jim’s town hall event here in Austin. On the other hand, Feehan’s idea of district feedback is to gather a half dozen hand-picked supporters, take a few pictures, and call it a roundtable.

Special interest money? It is notable that in 2018, Dan Feehan raised $2 million from donors who live in cities such as San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Washington, D.C., while only five percent of his campaign money came from southern Minnesota. If money talks, who is Dan listening to? It makes one wonder why all those far-left donors support Dan.

Also absent from the letter was any mention of Feehan’s positions on any issue. Maybe that’s because Dan and his “handlers” are betting on an issueless, fact-free, class warfare campaign. That didn’t work in 2018 when Hagedorn defeated Feehan and it won’t work in 2020.

This November, I suggest we send a strong message to all those east and west coast “outside donors” by sending Dan and his handlers back to the liberal enclaves from whence they came, and re-electing Jim Hagedorn to represent MN-CD1 in the United States Congress.

Dennis Schminke
Austin, MN