It's testimony to Sen. Dean Johnson's effectiveness and strength as a leader for the Willmar area and state that partisan operatives are working so hard to sow hatred here.
Various people have driven to Willmar, and there's a steady drumbeat of letters saying that the only issue you should care about is getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot on gay marriage. The politics of prejudice would then sow hatred for several more months.
What's really going on? Certain Republican leaders would like nothing better than to silence the voice of reason at the Capitol, the one thing standing in the way of their right-wing agenda to maintain power and protect the wealthy, no matter how much it increases property taxes outstate, how it affects working Minnesotans, elderly, and schoolchildren.
There's been a radical shift in the Republican party, the party I used to support but can no longer. Now the Republican Party is all about keeping power -- not about good government. So they try any tactic to get rid of strong and worthy opponents.
At the federal level, focus on power over policy has led to lobbying scandals, indictments, and ineptitude. At the state level, it's led to forcing special sessions and holding the state hostage through a government shutdown, vetoing legislation for roads, calling cigarette taxes "fees," and increasing property taxes and fees without admitting it.
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Without Johnson, are Republicans in St. Paul going to fix your roads or wastewater treatment system? Hardly. Theirs is a suburban agenda: Minimize income taxes on the wealthiest, and shift to local property taxes so they don't have to worry about the rest of Minnesota.
My guess is that people in the Willmar area have already figured this out.
You can't be bamboozled. Like me, you may even start to resent people from outside the Senate district coming in and attacking a neighbor, a man who's served the church as a pastor, this area and state as legislator for 28 years, and our nation as a National Guard chaplain.
Sen. Dean Johnson is a leader to be proud of and support.
Karna Peters
Glenwood
