of the Patrol Bureau with the City of Minneapolis Police Department with 21
years of experience. He is also a Colonel in the National Guard with tours in
Iraq and Kuwait. Frizell is challenging the current Sheriff Rick Stanek.
Just yesterday, Eddie Frizell was endorsed by the Hennepin County DFL after
months of consideration. During the endorsement process, Frizell faced tough
questions. One person asked Frizell, how would he ensure more probable cause
and less profiling. The answer was that when officers better reflect the
community, they make better decisions on probable cause. The vote of support
was unanimous and enthusiastic.
Impressively, Hennepin County Sheriffâs Deputies Association have also endorsed
Frizell saying:
âIt is clear to us that you understand creating a livable, safer community and
that this requires a multi-faceted approach involving partnerships at all
levels of the community and government. As a result, the Hennepin County
Sheriffâs Deputies Association supports your candidacy for Sheriff of Hennepin
County!â
As a writer, I wanted to contrast the endorsements of both candidates for
Sheriff. However I ran into difficulties on the Stanek endorsements.
Normally, endorsements are published with glowing letters. A quick email
request would generally provide substance for an article. I went through
Sheriff Stanekâs list of endorsements looking for such an endorsement. I sent
emails to all major endorsers. I was able to find email contacts for about half
of the individuals on the list. Most of the individuals are on the Sheriffâs
Community Board listed on the Hennepin County site, complete with bios. Note
that there are misspellings like âPasterâ instead of âPastorâ when actually the
people list themselves as âRev.â I also sent an email to the Republican party
asking for confirmation and a statement. I used the July 20 list of endorsers
and I gave them over a month to respond. One new individual name was added
since July 20th with no contact info found.
The best endorsement statement was from a union, âWe endorsed Rich Stanek
because of his experience and the good working relationship we have had with
him.â Many other statements were perfunctory like âThe HC Attorneyâs office
legally represents all HC Departments including the Sheriffâs office. In
essence I represent Sheriff Stanek professionally. It has been my practice to
endorse Sheriffs and Commissioners that I represent.â Some endorsements were
done casually at a party. A comparison of the endorsement website pages through
the wayback machine indicates that these endorsements were collected before
Frizell entered the race. How much weight should we give endorsements that are
perfunctory without looking at both candidates?
Is Stanek endorsed by the GOP? A google search reveals no announcements,
articles or lists on websites. My emails to the GOP are unanswered. I was sent
a picture of Stanekâs lawn sign at the GOP fair booth so I presume that means
endorsement. Why wouldnât the GOP put out an announcement if they endorsed
Stanek? Why wouldnât Stanek put the GOP on his endorsement page? Where is the
enthusiasm?
The nature of an endorsement is to publicly and enthusiastically support a
candidate. So where are the public statements and enthusiasm of Stanek
endorsements? It should not take a major media person to get a response about
endorsements. A normal citizen should be able to review endorsements. In
contrast, Frizellâs endorsements are enthusiastic in a public way.
A picture confirming Stanek's sign at the GOP sign booth can be found here:
http://mnprogressiveproject.com/frizell-enthusiastically-endorsed-stanek-not-so-much/
Grace Kelly nicknamed Kelly
>From neighboring St Paul