Independence Party-endorsed Senate candidate Kevin Terrell’s frustration with the media and reporters is warranted, as Terrell expressed in Brian Bakst’s AP story. During Terrell’s dozens of public appearances and issue discussions, reporters failed to bring another valid political view into the Al Franken-Mike McFadden Senate race coverage. It seems reporters have lost a bit of their edge in identifying newsworthy candidates and potential political and social solutions.

It is both mindless and exciting to just cover horserace news stories — and you really can’t get it wrong when all you report is who is ahead. The culture within the media supports this as well. It takes more effort to do it different and better. But the premise to bring another party and their candidate’s viewpoint exists. During the county fair campaigns, the IP has a voting box set up and asks if the two-party system is working for them. It is not just that the votes are 10-1 in stating that it does not work for them, but the disdain on their faces when they read the question. I tell the fair voters when the yes box is fuller than the no box, and then I get to go home. And I think the IP would do the same as well. Most all of us involved in the IP have busy lives and could fill our time doing many other things. But we are a party that is compelled to get out and climb this mountain, build a platform that changes the business model of government, bring a bit more freedom to individuals and tap into the entrepreneurism and innovation of the practitioners of the economy.

People want us, or something other than the entrenched parties, to succeed; they are looking for and the media is looking away. The IP has not found the right path yet, but is not far off.

 

Tim Gieseke

candidate for

lieutenant governor

Independence Party of Minn.

New Ulm