Let’s hear it for the bus driver…
November 2nd, 2006
the bus driver, the bus driver…
… the Mike Hatch whirlwind tour of Minnesota bus driver… the future Commissioner of Commerce... yeah, that’s it… Doran could whip this state into shape and get the DoC back on track. Hmmmmm… this would be a good thing. We’ll see…
… but wait… isn’t he the guy who ran his navy blue ’66 Ford Galaxie through our garage door?
Tough-talking, blue-collar advocate for the “little guy” embraces his pugnacious reputation
…
He’s most at home with farm and blue-collar crowds, as was evident as his bus â?? owned and driven by his former DFL rival, Kelly Doran â?? pulled up outside Goodfellas bar in the Iron Range city of Eveleth.
Instead of his signature conservative blue suit and crisp white shirt, he arrived at the bar wearing a blaze orange and tan deer hunting shirt, though he acknowledged he prefers pheasant hunting.
He was accompanied by a dozen Twin Cities construction union members, decked out in orange “Sportsmen for Hatch” T-shirts and caps, who had followed his bus in a caravan of pickups and a big black carpenters union truck. The subtle message was Hatch is no liberal gun-control proponent.
When he walked into the bar, about 30 steelworkers, members of other unions and local DFL activists gave him a boisterous cheer.
He is as beloved on the staunchly Democratic Iron Range as he is scorned in many Twin Cities corporate boardrooms.
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