The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

September 17, 2012

New Ulm council candidate got a visit from Secret Service

By Brian Ojanpa Free Press Staff Writer

NEW ULM — A 75-year-old New Ulm man’s candidacy for City Council there has brought this little nugget to the fore:

Earlier this year the Secret Service paid him a visit to determine whether  he meant to do harm to President Barack Obama.

“They woke me up. I’m all groggy and I go to the door,” Ron Larsen recalls.

“The first words out of the Secret Service guy’s mouth were that they weren’t there to arrest me. They were there because of ‘key words.’”

Those words had been contained in a copy of a letter Larsen had sent to various government entities, including the White House.

The letter was a protest against the way the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance Program goes about its process of determining whether people are eligible to collect unemployment payments.

In the letter Larsen, who lost his job as a New Ulm Journal reporter in 2010, railed against the requirement of having to actively seek work in order to collect payments, calling it “fraudulent” and without legal basis.

The letter also took a potshot at the Obama administration, which netted the visit from the Secret Service agent and a sheriff’s deputy.

The red-flag paragraph:

“Ever since I was 50-55 years old I’ve had this nagging feeling that I was put on this Earth for a specific reason. Now I know it was to take down a sitting U.S. president; life doesn’t get any better than that.”

Larsen said his “take down” comment merely alluded to his desire to help cause Obama’s defeat in the November election.

He said the Secret Service agent told him that certain words and phrases in correspondence with government entities are automatically red-lined and investigated, especially since 9/11.

Larsen said the visit lasted less than an hour.

And here’s the irony:

Ten days after being investigated for possible written threats against the president, Larsen said he received a form letter from the Oval Office,  signed by Obama.

“Thank you for writing,” it stated.  

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