Submitted by Derek Brigham: 

I had the honor of getting to MC a great event March 6th. We are right in the heart of BPOU convention/election of officers season, DFL bill proposal madness season, the tax-man is at the door season, and let's get this long winter over with season. It was a perfect time to break the cabin fever and hold what we called our 1st Annual Chili & Chat.

The SD45 BPOU got together in an event open to people all over the state with a talk focused on taxes, the new session of wacky proposals from the DFL and the spending that could lead to.

Among those bloggers I mentioned, we have seen a few posts already from Andy at Rez Forces ; Kevin at Eckernet, and Matt Abe from North Star Liberty.

From Kevin's post, he writes "Like I said a truly impressive turnout, that surely will have raised quite a bit of valuable cash for the Senate District. But more importantly was the reaction from the people attending. It was a very informal event, where each speaker spoke his/her peace for a few minutes and that it dissolved into a Q&A session. As the crowd got a chance to talk politics with the speakers (and each other) I could see people becoming visible upset with some of the moves Democrats have made both at the state and national level. People were pissed off at the direction they felt the country was being led by the children of politics (Democrats).

Common themes were annoyance spending habits of both sides of the aisle, liberals attempts to grow the government into every corner of your lives and general apprehension that the Republicans can hold the line. On that last topic, several attendants expressed doubt that Pawlenty would have the backbone to stand up to the Democrats. I had to turn to Andy Aplikowski, whom was seated next to me, and ask if he had scripted this event, as I felt like I was watching people act out a post from his blog.

One can only hope that this annoyance with the Democrats and frustration with weak Republicans, translates into motivation to actually do something about it and hopefully they get more involved. Already I got the sense that the folk of SD 45 were a very involved district and that everyone in the room would easily volunteer their time for the right cause."

Kevin and Andy caught it and so did everyone else. Republicans are really starting to get hot and bothered. Thank you DFL for sparking our base with your irresponsible and over-reaching proposals.

At the end of the night I read the presidential straw poll results we took at the sign in. This was of course just for the GOP candidates, and I was pretty surprised at the outcome.

1.        Newt Gingrich            28.6% 

2. (Tie)     Condoleeza Rice    14.3%
                Mitt Romney

3. (Tie)     Rudy Giuliani        9.5%
                Tom Tancredo

4.            Duncan Hunter        7.1%

5.            John McCain            4.8%

6.            Tommy Thompson    2.6% 

Surprising in deed. Granted, this is a very small straw poll, but the folks at this event are the heart and soul of the party and these votes worth looking at. Seems it would be an ideal time to put Dr. Rice in the VP position even if she did not want to run. It would steal the Democrats ability to claim either the 1st African American or woman in the white house angle.

Newt at the top is not a surprise either, even though Rudy is topping the charts lately, Newt is still held highly for his practical solutions and track record of getting them done. I do hope he gets serious soon as I think even 3 months from now will be too late. As to McCain, no surprise there, that boat has taken on far too much water, and to see that he is now in the B team.

I also thank Rob Hewitt and his folks from down in SD63 who have been putting on their annual February Chili Dinner for 15 years now. Believe it or not, these things take a lot of planning. In fact I was asked to speak at this February’s SD63 dinner way back on the campaign trail last September.

My take away message from this event is that we already know people in the BPOU are willing to work hard because they care about the direction of our district, our state and our nation. But event's like this are not stuffy business meetings, they're about getting together, talking about important issues and having some fun. Yes, conservatives like to have fun too. Also, I hope other BPOUs can pick up this model and do 3 or more events like this a year. Have town-hall meet-ups, invite in local mayors, candidates, representatives, Strom and Krinkie from the League, the folks from EdWatch, the list goes on and on. Hopefully this was the start of many SD45 get-togethers centered around both building our BPOU network and bringing in speakers on important issues. It takes work to plan, but it generates positive energy, and BUILDS the BPOU. 

I met several energetic people last night that have not come to BPOU events in the past, and several from outside our district. This is exactly the idea. Thanks for coming. We'll see you and even more of your friends at the next meet-up.

Update: Be sure and check Matt Abe's write-up at North Star Liberty.