In an early morning post, City Pages dug out a biographical detail about new Republican congressional candidate Stewart Mills III: He's a Packer fan.
Complete with photos of Mills, who hopes to oust Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan from the state's northern Eighth Congressional District, in a Packers jersey the piece says: "whatever your political views are, Minnesota will never elect a green-and-gold-bleeding Green Bay fan."
Contacted about the deep dig, Mills sent Hot Dish a lighthearted statement that we thought we should share in full. Here's his reaction:
"Oh! They caught me! Although I never tried to hide it, it would be tough to.
My father became a Packer fan as a kid, a long, long time before the Vikings existed. In 1941 his/our cousin Gene Bierhaus, University of Minnesota All American, was drafted by the Packers to be their Quarterback; that kind of cemented it. Gene never got to play professional football for the Packers though. Instead Gene served in the US Marines during World War II. The extensive wounds our cousin sustained on the battlefield of Iwo Jima prohibited a career in professional sports after the Marines. My father is also good friends with Bud Grant and went to school with him at the University of Minnesota, since and after the time of Bud being the coach of the Vikings we, as a family, have had to take turns as to who we root for. (Seriously) Half the family for the Vikes, and the other for the Packers. I have continued that tradition in my own household, my wife and two step-sons are rabid Vikings fans. I suspect my daughter is going to be a Vikings fan, but my son loves the Green and Gold. My stepdaughter could care less."
