Helping out on the farm

The confirmation proceedings this week for Supreme Court judicial nominee Sonia Sotomayor in Washington D.C., has kept Minnesota’s two senators back in Washington.

But their top agricultural policy aides have been holding down the fort at their booths at the Farm Fest agricultural gathering in southwestern Minnesota. Dave Frederickson (pictured, top), who serves as outreach director in charge of agricultural issues for Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Charlie Poster (pictured, bottom), who is Sen. Al Franken’s field representative for agriculture, have been representing their respective senators during the three-day event that ends Thursday.

Visitors to the senators’ booths have dropped by to weigh in on the legislation in Congress. The two aides have also been the eyes and ears for concerns that farmers have that range from health care in rural areas to the current state of various agricultural markets.

Frederickson, a former legislator and farmer, is an agriculture policy veteran. He served in the state Senate during the late 1980s and early 1990s as a DFLer representing Murdock. He was later the president of the National Farmers Union before retiring in 2006. He decided that retirement wasn’t for him and after Klobuchar was elected to the Senate later that year, he joined her team.

Poster, 29, grew up as the youngest of eight children on a farm near Pierz. He was a staffer for Klobuchar when she was Hennepin County attorney. He also worked on her campaign and for her office in Minnesota during her first year-and-a-half in office. During the 2009 legislative session, he was a legislative assistant to state DFL Reps. Gail Kulick Jackson of Milaca and John Lesch of St. Paul. He joined Franken’s staff after the contested election between Franken and former Sen. Norm Coleman was resolved.