BY GARY W. MEYER, EDITOR

 

 

That is, because Michele has been in the car as he’s cut paths across the state, meeting constituents and raising money as an announced candidate for the US Senate.

Consider that past-tense.

 

Newberger, with Michele by his side, received a first ballot nomination as the endorsed GOP candidate for that senate seat at the state endorsing convention in Duluth Saturday.

 

He received 79% of the votes to defeat Navarre native Robert Bornhizer.

 

Newberger will concentrate on the actual race against opponent, DFLer Amy Klobuchar, two-time senator, in the November general election.

 

Klobuchar received endorsement for a third run at the senate seat from their DFL endorsing convention in Rochester, also on Saturday.

 

(Karin Housely, Minnesota senator, received the GOP endorsement to run for the second US Senate seat in Duluth. She will compete with appointed DFL Sen. Tina Smith for that two-year seat.)

 

“We’ve been working on this (endorsement) for the past 10 months,” Newberger said from his Becker home Wednesday. “It went well. We’ve been really well received by the (news) papers. I am really excited. My message has been embraced.”

 

 

Newberger’s message is the same as shat he shared with a house-full of supporters at a fundraiser at The Friendly Buffalo four months ago.

 

Refuge settlement reform is a top priority. “We have to fix it,” he said.

 

“The tax bill. I fully support it. She (Klobuchar) is opposed to it.”

 

And, he wants to see ObamaCare go away. “I want to see it go away for good,” he said. He says Klobuchar has been in lockstep with the Obama policies of his eight-year run as President.

 

“Her voting record is 90% with Obama,” he said.

 

He also suspects Klobuchar may not be the in-office leader she purports to be, citing a Politico poll of staff turnover in Washington, DC. 

 

“She is one of the worst bosses, ranked by staff turnover. The worst boss to work for in Washington, DC.”

 

He also argues she’s been a stalwart obstructionist in Washington political business during the Trump term, voting against the selection of a woman to be a recent department head. “And she is a self-proclaimed champion of womens rights? She voted against her because she was a Trump appointee.”

 

 

“Forums?” he said. “I’d love to. People deserve it. But she shies away from debates.”

 

Newberger, 56, argues Klobuchar also raises most of her large cache of campaign funding from East Coast and West Coast interests - not the Minnesota people she is representing.

 

He says that won’t be his way. 

 

“Big groups, never.” I will raise my money in state. Our biggest challenge is fund raising. But the majority of it will come from our state.”

 

There are details for Newberger at their Becker home that compete with politics, he acknowledges.   

 

“I’ve got household chores,” he says. “And there is a lawn to mow.”

 

 

While campaigning this spring, he has attended to duties as Dist. 15B House  Representative in the Minnesota Legislature, the last of three two-year terms.

 

He considers much of the end result a disappointment, given Gov. Dayton’s veto of the tax conformity bill, education funding and a larger bonding bill.

 

But there were some successes, he asserted. His bill to grant pension payments to township officials before they leave office was approved by legislators on both sides of the aisle. Before, officials had to resign to receive those pensions.

 

“That will affect (positively) a lot of people across the state,” he said.

 

His efforts to secure over $3 million in bonding to upgrade the Becker Industrial Park with roads and other infrastructure will help that entity.

 

And the Clearwater-Clear Lake sewer upgrade is going on, helped by a $1 million allocation from the state, furthered by Newberger.