As we reported in Mention St. Cloud & visions of prison & North Minneapolis pop into Jim Newberger’s head, the Becker Republican gained unwelcome attention from linking North Minneapolis and the state prison in St. Cloud via the North Star Rail.
A review of sources reveals that that Newberger’s concerns about trains carrying visitors to the prison from the metro go back to at least 2008. It appears what popped into his head in his floor remarks was the specific urban neighborhood, rather than the more general “metro.”
While Minnesota state representative describes himself as an evangelical Christian, he doesn’t seem very keen on some of Jesus’s schtick in Matthew about how visiting people in prison is like visiting Christ Himself.
Covering his bid for Sherburne County Commissioner in 2008, the Sherburne County Citizen reported in Property taxes and Northstar concern:
Another concern about the light rail [sic] is the kind of population the Northstar will bring to Sherburne County.
“The prison (in St. Cloud) is the last stop on the way out of Sherburne County. There’s a steady stream of visitors that go back and forth from the metro to the prison….where are they going to come up with fund to pay people to protect us on the train? That hasn’t been addressed.”
Via a reader in Central Minnesota, Bluestem received a pdf of pages downloaded from the site on April 17, 2012 and we’ve clipped this gem from page 11:
With that grim a view of prison visitors, we’re surprised the writer didn’t call for the shutdown of Highway 10, since commuters share the road with people visiting the prison, and closing down the nearby Sherco power plant, since keeping the lights on probably just encourages more visitors.
All signs point to this text being more Jim Newberger goodness. Several times on the PDF of the pages, he’s the contact person for the Sherburne County Tea Party. A post at conservative activist Bruce Miller’s blog from late 2011 notes:
I spent the afternoon Saturday the 26th, at the first meeting of theSherburne County Tea Party. The venue of Kj’s Refuge is a wonderful place to meet. Good food, with good prices, always make a political meeting easier to digest. . . . Jim Newberger is the SCTP’s point man and is skilled as and MC.
Newberger’s campaign site also lists the Sherburne County Tea Party among his leadership experience.
[An image disparaging the Northstar rail line from the Sherburne County Tea Party website, connected to Rep. Newburger.]
[See the whole .pdf document at the original post: http://www.bluestemprairie.com/bluestemprairie/2015/05/shutdown-the-train-newbergers-concerns-about-prison-visitors-and-metro-date-back-to-2008.html]
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