Fred Ferrell: Hands-On Leader of Talent's Rural Campaign

Washington D.C.'s Jim Talent went to Chillicothe a few weeks ago to kick off his Farm and Ranch Campaign Effort, and the tenor was no surprise. The farm and ranch team event was a canned and predictable attempt by Talent --whose adult life has been split among the big cities of St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington-- to gain credibility among the rural and farm set. Standard campaign operation.

About the visit, the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune wrote:

U.S. Sen Jim Talent on Saturday launched his Farm and Ranch Team in Chillicothe, a coalition of supporters who want to send him back the the Senate. The event was held at the Beetsma Family Farm west of town where Ron Beetsma grows corn and soybeans.

Less foreseeable was that Talent would choose a Packwoodesque figure like Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell (in photograph above, with Talent) to chair the farm outreach efforts and share with him the Chillicothe stump. But he did, selecting Ferrell to stand side-by-side with him as he pressed the flesh with Missouri farmers. Perhaps Talent figured that Ferrell was particularly suited to flesh-pressing. Whatever the reason, the embattled department director became a part of Talent's rural campaign at the Beetsma farm kickoff.

Talent's selection of Ferrell matters, of course, by virtue of its coming on the heels of Fred's very public suspension from and reinstatement to his Ag Department post following multiple claims against him of sexual harassment. Further, Ferrell's misfeasance was the catalyst for Gov. Matt Blunt's breaking the law by using the highway patrol to investigate claims against him. The Blunt administration would later go on to cover up that investigation's findings.

This would seem to make Ferrell a curious choice as campaign buddy by an incumbent US Senator from a party which already suffers from its fair share of ethical lapses and lawlessness. Talent's grip-and-grin partnership with Ferrell requires some explanation to those of us in the anti-harassment caucus.

So, Fired Up Missouri has a couple questions for the Senator...

1. What are your opinions on Fred Ferrell's "unique" management style with female employees of the Department of Agriculture, and isn't your sharing the stump with him an explicit expression of your support for that management style?

2. Surely Mr. Ferrell could be a more effective advocate for your candidacy if the black cloud of speculation over his name were lifted. Will you ask Governor Blunt to release the Highway Patrol's report on its investigation into charges against Ferrell so he can clear his name once and for all?

While the Senator chews on those questions, here's one for the rest of you Fired Up Missouri readers...

Any guesses why the Beetsma family was such a willing supporter of the Talent campaign, hosting the Farm and Ranch Team Kickoff?

You don't suppose it has anything to do with the fact that, since Talent has taken office and a seat on the Agriculture Committee that the Beetsma's farm operation, Hrb Farming Partnership, has been the recipient of almost a half-million dollars in USDA farm subsidies, do you?