Local
Steering Committee
Greg Bennett, Campaign Chairman:
Greg is the legal chairman of Reformers for Rudy Takala. Greg is
a lifelong resident of Pine County. In 2002, he was elected to
the Pine County Board of Commissioners. He was immediately
elected chairman of the board,
serving in that capacity for two years. He ran uncontested and
was re-elected to the board in 2006. He became involved with
Republican politics in 2008 and is currently a director on the
board of the Pine County Republicans.
Dave Ostenson, Campaign Treasurer:
Dave was a missionary in the Czech Republic from 1994-2004. He
holds two master’s degrees in theology and has lived in Pine
County since 2005. He has four children with his wife LouAnn and
resides in Hinckley.
Art
Usher, Deputy
Campaign Treasurer: Art was recruited at the
treasurer's request for help with the finances. Art was born in
northwestern Indiana and relocated to Pokegama Lake twelve years
ago after retiring from Northern
Indiana Public Service Co. He also worked as an
Electronics Technician 3rd Class while serving in the
U.S.Coast Guard. He is a past director and secretary of the
Pokegama Lake Association and is presently a vice-chair on the
Snake River Watershed Citizens Committee.
Stan & Glenda
Spar, Isanti County co-chairs:
Stan & Glenda have agreed represent my campaign
in Isanti County. Stan is a graduate of Mora High School; Glenda
is a graduate of Centennial High School in Circle Pines. They
attended their first caucus in 2008 because they didn't like the
liberal direction that the
Republican Party had
taken.
Tom Graikowski, Pine County Campaign
Chairman: Tom is the honorary chairman of the campaign in
Pine County. Tom served in the Marine Corps for four years
before moving to Pine County. He was involved in the Pine County
BPOU from 1998 through 2004. He was involved at the district
level for four of those years, most prominently as first
vice-chairman. He took a break from the party when it started to
move left of center.
Matt Anderson,
Kanabec County Campaign
Chairman: Matt is the honorary chairman of the campaign in
Kanabec County. Matt is a lifelong resident of Kanabec
County; his father Bruce Anderson is a supervisor in Comfort
Township. Matt has been generally independent politically but
chose to attend his first caucus as a Republican in 2008. He
wanted to add that he believes in the
Republican Party as it existed under
Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison.
Clark
Peterson: Clark Peterson
is a resident of Hinckley and has worked most of his life in the
reporting business. He started out as a
radio announcer in Rochester; in 1978 his reporting team
won an award from the Associated Press
for best coverage of a local story. In 1992, he won another
award for “Superbrawl Wrestling Announcing” from Turner
Broadcasting. He holds a Ph.D in Theology & Biblical Doctrine
from Grace Bible College in
North Carolina. He is the author
of five books on the history of Hinckley and on wrestling. They
are available in a number of stores, including Tobies.
Richard
Lindig: Richard has lived
in Pine County since 1947. Shortly after moving here, he was
drafted into the army and was stationed in
Europe for two years during the
Korean conflict. Richard worked
as an artificial inseminator and dairy
farmer for twenty years. Currently he is the
vice-president of Pine County’s Historical Society. He is the
father of six children and is a member at St. John’s
Missouri-Synod Lutheran Church in Rush
City.
Donald Eaton:
Don has agreed to act as
an advisor to the campaign on agricultural issues. Over the
course of his life, he has worked in nearly every type of
farming. He worked for eight years on a chicken farm in
Litchfield and eleven years at Faribault Foods in
Cokato.
He considers himself a sheep farmer and, on a personal note, is
the father of six children. He was also in the Air Force for
eight years and was a member of the
air national guard
for 23 years. He retired from the service in 1992.
Phyllis Pankonin, (Pine County) Brook Park Township Precinct
Chair:
Phyllis and her husband Roger have been residents of
Brook Park
Township since 1979. Phyllis has been the
Business Administrator at Steve Meshbesher's law firm in
Minnneapolis for the last twenty years where she handles legal
contracts, financial issues and heads human resources. Their
son, Scott, spent 25 years in the Air Force until his untimely
death in 2004. Scott believed in our freedom, liberty and was
passionate about the First and
Second Amendments. Phyllis has vowed to
continue promoting his views. She feels the
Republican Party is
entirely too moderate, makes too many concessions and is leaning
left of center. Phyllis was elected the delegate for Brook Park
Township at the precinct caucus on February 2nd and plans on
endorsing candidates who are conservative first, Republican
second.
Sharon King,
(Kanabec
County) Brunswick Township Precinct Chair:
Sharon has agreed to act as a business advisor and comes to us
with years of small business experience. For 16 years, Sharon
worked for a Twin Cities hardware chain called Warner Hardware.
Sharon and her husband, Tom, were able to purchase the Warner
Hardware
store that was located in Roseville, MN. In 1998,
Tom died suddenly of a brain aneurism. Sharon continued to
operate the store on her own until 2002 when she met her current
business partner, Del Zentgraf. Sharon sold the hardware store
and she & Del started their own new business venture, American
Infrastructure Technologies, Inc. Sharon & Del market products
that deal with underground storm water collection systems, a
filtration
system for storm water, a wind powered windmill
and an adhesive used in storm sewer &
sanitary sewer construction.
Sharon & Del can see how this administration is attempting to
take away our basic freedoms and re-write our
Constitution
and are getting involved because of it.
Tony Domagall, (Pine County) Rock Creek Township Precinct Chair:
Tony grew up in St. Paul. He attended the
University
of Minnesota’s
Institute of
Technology and earned a
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical
Engineering in 1983. He has been a
small business owner and
entrepreneur for over
thirty years in the
entertainment / production industry. Tony and his wife,
Christie, moved to Rock Creek in 1999. They attended their
first caucus in 2008 and are committed to the conservative
cause.
Tom Swaim, (Pine County) Munch Township Precinct Chair:
Tom has been a delegate and precinct chair from Munch Township
since 2008. He moved to Pine County in 2005 with his wife Joann,
to whom he has been married since 1963. He is currently
semi-retired, having worked for IBM as a
customer
engineer and service representative for thirty
years. He got involved because he didn’t like the direction of
our nation, and he wanted Republicans who were conservative
first and would do something about it. Tom is also the father of
two sons.
Mark Cannon: Mark has been the owner
of Freddie's Restaurant in Mora since 2001 and is an alternate
to the state and congressional conventions out of Kanabec
County.
Peter Lendway: Peter is the precinct chair in Braham
(Isanti) and election judge for the City of Braham. He has been
a Cambridge Lions Club member since 1994, and he owned and
operated Lendway's Electronics Repair in Cambridge from 1993 to
1998. He currently works as an engineering technician for RTD
Company in Ham Lake. He also lives in and is renovating the
oldest house in Braham.
Jeremy Lundeen: Jeremy grew up in Isanti County, but from
2002-2006 lived in Eden Prairie. Jeremy & his wife Mai moved
back to Isanti County in 2006. Since then, they become very
concerned with the direction that the current administration has
led the country. They view it as one that attacks individual
liberty and advances an ideology that says government elites
know what is best for common citizens. According to Jeremy: “The
ultimate destination of an agenda like this is taxation without
representation. Given that this is the destination that
progressives/liberals would lead us to, we can clearly see that
progressivism/liberalism actually takes us back in time…. My
support will go to conservative candidates who fight to shrink
government, and also fight to allow people to keep a liberal
amount of their hard earned paychecks. Rudy Takala is a
candidate like this, and that is why I support him.”
Bob Bullford: Bob & his wife, Fern, are delegates out of
Isanti County. Bob grew up in Brunswick Township of Kanabec
County before moving to Dalbo, where he has lived since 1967. He
worked on the railroad for twenty years as a mechanic before
becoming a self-employed mechanic in 1993. He has two children
and four grandchildren.
Doug Odegard: Doug has been a Soil & Water Supervisor
from District 1 in Pine County since 2006. He was chairman of
the board in 2009. He is a 20 year veteran of the Navy and was a
hospital Corpsman with the Marines. He graduated from Pine
Technical College in 1980 in Ag Production & Technology, and he
currently enjoys gardening, the outdoors, and his family. He is
the father of four children & two stepchildren.
Dick Johnson:
Dick was a city council member in
Mora for eight years before moving to Comfort Township. He is
the owner of Johnson's Hardware in Mora and is a board member
with the Kanabec County Republicans.
Chris Johnson:
Chris has been married to his wife,
Deanna, for 28 years. His great grandparents settled in Kanabec
County more than 100 years ago. He is the father of two
daughters and five grandchildren and works in construction. He
plays in a rock band, "The Swamp Rockets," in his free time and
is a delegate out of Kanabec County.
Brad Rooney:
Brad has been married for 15 years
and has two children aged 10 and 7. He and his wife were born
and raised in Mora. Brad has been an electrician for the last
ten years and attends church in Mora regularly. He is a delegate
in Kanabec County.
John Peikert:
John is a 67-year-old delegate out of
Pine City. He was born in Wright County and graduated from
Rockford High School in 1961. He went on to attend college in
Billings, Montana before becoming a pilot for Northwest Airlines
from 1965-1995. He mostly flew the orient and military charters
worldwide. He served as grievance chairman for Seattle Council
#54 of the Airline Pilot Association from 1977-1980, and
actively farmed with his wife and two children from 1981-1997 in
Billings & Great Falls, Montana. He presently still owns a farm
in Great Falls.
Deb & Steve Dryden:
Deb & Steve are delegates out of
Kanabec County. They are the parents of two children and
grandparents of two grandchildren. Deb is a homemaker; Steve
works for the City of Cambridge. Politically, they are
independent but very conservative. They believe in the values
given to us by the Founding Fathers and want candidates who will
uphold the Constitution.
Todd Satter:
Todd is one of the
“independent” voters who voted for Rep. Faust in the last
election. He is very active in the community, having served as a
president of the Pine City Lions, a member of the Pine County
Meth Task Force, a member of the Pine City National Guard, and
currently on the Pine County Board of Adjustment and on the Pine
City American Legion Post 51. Todd has been married to his
wife Karen for 18 years. They have resided in
Pine City for 20 years. The couple has four children and two
grandchildren. Todd ran for the Pine City council in 2002 and
lost to three-term incumbent Scott Cummings. Finally, Todd is
the owner/operator of Satter Properties. He has been
self-employed since 1983.
Gerald Lovgren:
Gerry is an
alternate out of Hinckley Township and has been married to his
wife, Terry, since 1979. He attended the University of Minnesota
and Bethel College before working as a dairy farmer for 23
years. He went on to start A-Z Millwork, a woodworking company,
which he has run for the past seven years. Gerry is the father
of two children.
Walt Barlow:
Walt is an
eighty-year-old delegate out of Kanabec County, as is his wife
Suzi, to whom he has been married 21 years. He served in the
Coast Guard before going to work as a master plasterer around
1950. This profession took him to countries around the world –
including Russia. He considers himself very conservative and
thinks there are too many elected officials in the country,
“except for Rudy Takala.”
Justin Jahnz:
Justin is a 31-year-old
lifelong resident of Pine County, and is a volunteer firefighter
who is also active in his church. He has been married for 7
years and has 3 children. He is a Constitutional Conservative
who believes that the government needs to stay out of the way of
the progress of America's greatest minds. He works in the
electrical industry and is a delegate from Pine Township.
Doug Silvan:
Doug is a delegate out
of Sandstone Township and has been married for twelve years. He
and his wife have three children. He currently works driving a
Medi-Van. He just recently moved to Pine County after living in
Stillwater, where he served on the Property Management Board for
the Good Shepherd (Missouri Synod) Lutheran Church.
Carl Nordquist:
Carl and his wife, Mary, are delegates out of Kanabec County.
Additionally, Carl is an alternate to the state and district
conventions. Carl & Mary have three children between them and
have lived in the Mora area for fifteen years. Carl is a
graduate of Mankato State, holding a B.S. in accounting as well
as a CPA License. He is a managing partner in Althoff &
Nordquist LLC, Certified Public Accountants. He is first and
foremost a fiscal conservative and a staunch believes in lower
taxes, less regulation and smaller government. He also believes
in the Constitution.
Mike
Ryan:
Mike is
a delegate out of Pine City and is the father of a nine-year-old
son. He served in the Marines from 1981-1985 and is the owner of
Wild Construction Company. Mike's father, Tom Ryan, represented
Pine City as a Democrat in the Minnesota House for ten years
around the 1960 period before being defeated by Doug Carlson.
Jim Oberstar & Governor Wendell Anderson were friends of the
family and visited Mike's childhood home on occasion.
Don & Kristina
Holznagel:
Don & Kristina
are delegates from Kanabec County, have five children between
them and a grandchild due in July. Don has been the owner of Mr.
D’s Gas Station in Mora since 1996 & the owner of Sanitary
Systems since 2006. He believes in a Constitutional government,
which he believes ended under FDR, and wants to see reform in
our government.
Roger Rutgers:
Roger was elected a Pine
City School Board member in 2008. He is 36 and has been married
for 16 years; he is the father of four children. He graduated
from South Dakota State in 1995 with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering and is a Special Project Manager for Rosenbauer
America, which builds fire trucks. He emphasized that he is a
Constitutional Constructionist who wants to see the Republican
Party get back to the Constitution and to the values of the
Founding Fathers.
Terry Nord &
Jen Johnson:
Terry & Jen
are delegates out of Mora. They have been together for ten
years. Terry is a professional
musician with a large library of music. Terry and Jen are both
very interested in conservative politics. “They believe that
young upstarts like Rudy with their conservative values have a
place in today’s politics and should be given a chance.”
Ken Beal:
Ken is a delegate out of Hinckley Township in Pine County. He's
been married for 33 years, is the father of three children and
grandfather of six grandchildren. He and his wife run three of
their own businesses doing motorcycle repair, ministorage and,
finally, quilting. Ken believes in the traditional values of the
Republican Party: Pro-marriage, pro-life, and adherence to
the Constitution.
John Bassett: John has been a lifelong resident
of Hinckley,
with the exception of serving in the army from 1966-1969. He was
in Vietnam
from 67-68. He owned his own insurance practice, the Bassett
Agency, from 1978-2002. He has been a general manager at Town &
Country Insurance in Hinckley since 2002. He calls himself "more
conservative than conservatives."
Richard & Pat Moncrief: Richard & Pat have
been married for 54 years, and have lived in Pine County
since 1968. They have three children, twelve grandchildren,
and nine great grandchildren. Richard served in the army
from 51-54, and is currently 90% disabled. He also worked as
a Superintended of Production for Unitech and as a civilian
contractor in the
Department of Defense.
Pat Ravine: Pat has lived in
Stanchfield
since 1988, and runs a non-profit called Health Directed
Riding. It serves
disabled
children, largely those with cerebral palsey. She
emphasizes belief in God and pro-life/pro-traditional
marriage as being her number one issues.
Aaulan Cameron & Nick Gardner: Auulan &
Nick are delegates out of Kanabec County. They have been
married for sixteen years and have one child. Aaulan works
as a Securities Service Rep. for Wells Fargo in
Minneapolis;
Nick works "making styrofoam."
Ben Garms: Ben, his parents David & Kris,
and one of his sisters, Taylor, are all delegates out of
Kanabec County. Ben believes in life from conception to
natural death, the sanctity of marriage, the sovereignty of
the United States, and the right to homeschool (he was
homeschooled for eleven years!). He is the president of the
Families of
Gospel Music Association and a member of his family’s
group, the Great Adventure Gospel Music Band. You can find
Ben’s Website at
www.Fogma.org,
and you may find his family’s Website at
www.GreatAdventureFamily.com.
Justin & Jessica Paulson: Justin & Jessica
are "middle-class, family oriented, taxpaying citizens who
believe in the conservative values of our
founding
fathers." Justin is 27 and works for the
United States
Postal Service. Jessica is 28 and is a homemaker with
the two young Paulson boys.
Jim & Debbie Maker: Jim & Debbie have been
married for twenty years. Jim worked for 45 years as a cook
at different places, most recently at Mustang's in Mora. He
is also an alternate delegate to the local
Republican
conventions. He believes in God and the need for our
country to follow his will. They have three children and
four grandchildren.
Len Slama: Len is an alternate out of Pine
County. He is the director of
Angel Food Ministries, a non-profit that helps
low-income people. He worked for ten years as an autoparts
manager for Gunderson Motors, and finally has three children
and two grandchildren.
Vern Weaver: Vern is a delegate out of
Kanabec County. He has been married for five months short of
fifty years, and worked as a service manager for Kone Inc --
an elevator production company. He was located in the
Washington D.C. office for seven years, in addition to
locations that included Minneapolis and Iowa.
Betty Moncrief: Betty, one of Richard's
(above) daughters, is a lifelong resident of the Pine City
area and has been married for 29 years. She has six children
and six grandchildren. She currently lives in Rock Creek;
she believes strongly in the Constitution and in
conservatism.
Bill Brix: Bill is a delegate out of
Kanabec County.
Sherman & Janice Sandberg: Sherman & Janice
are residents of Kanabec County. Sherman has worked for
thirty years at Honeywell and is currently a refrigeration
mechanic. Together, Sherman & Janice have three children.
Gerald Evenson: Gerald is a resident of
Kanabec County and has been farming for about 45 years. He
has owned his own dairy farm for nearly thirty years. Prior
to that he served in the army, one year of which was spent
in Vietnam. He has three adopted children.
David Posh: David is a resident of Isanti
County and has two children; he has been married for 28
years. He is a purchasing agent for Polaris Industries in
Wyoming, MN.
Jeanette Gilbert: Jeanette is a resident of Kanabec
County. She has three children with her husband, George, to whom
she has been married for 26 years.
Sam
Gregoire: Sam is the youngest member of the steering
committee to date. He is fifteen-years-old and attends Mora High
School.
Tim
Stratton: Tim is an alternate out of Pine County the
pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Pine City. He has been married
for 19 years to his wife, Lesli, and has seven children who are
homeschooled. His wife runs a soap-production business on the
side, which you can find at
www.everlastingsoap.com.
Victor Lindgren: Victor served in the Navy from
'62-'68, with four years on active duty and two inactive. He was
married for 33 years prior to his wife's passing; between the
two of them, Victor currently has four children.
Honorary Steering Committee
Dave Racer: Dave served as the
campaign manager to
Dr. Alan Keyes in his 1996
campaign for the Republican
presidential nomination. He has authored seven books and
holds a Master of Letters degree
from Oxford.
Dorothy Fleming: Dorothy was deputy chairman of the
Republican Party of Minnesota
from 2007-2009. Prior to that, she served as an advisor to
Michele Bachmann’s first
campaign for the U.S. House.
Jeremy
Lindman: Jeremy has agreed
to act as an advisor to the campaign on business and economic
issues. He has owned Topline Automotive in North Branch for
seven years and employs between 23-28 people. He briefly
attended Century College for
business administration before going into sales at the age of
21; he began his company at the age of 28. He is currently a
commissioner with the North Branch
Economic Development Authority (EDA) and a member of the
Healthy Community Partnership Jobs Task
Force. He has been married for 14 years and has six
children.
Sheldon
Anderson:
Sheldon has been the mayor of Wyoming, Minnesota from
2004-present. He has agreed to be an advisor to the campaign on
local politics and issues. In addition, he has been a business
owner for 18 years and currently employs 45 people. He has four
children with his wife, Olga, and is currently running for
State Representative in House
district 17B (Chisago County).
Mike Line: Mike has agreed to act as
campaign chairman in Carlton County. He is currently deputy
chairman of the Carlton County Republicans. Prior to that, he
served as the campaign manager to Tim Hafvenstein’s 2008
campaign for the 8A State House seat.
Mark Ames: Mark is a Pine County delegate & the
Republican House candidate for district 8A (Pine & Carlton
counties). You can find his campaign website at
www.MarkAmes.org. He has been married for 25 years and
is the father of four sons. He spent 16 years working as a
sign language interpreter and currently works as an
orchardist on his own apple farm.
