Free Republic

Republican Sen. Paul Koering's primary campaign for re-election in Senate District 12 on Wednesday was beset with reports he had dinner at Iven's on the Bay with a gay porn star. The Minnesota Independent, a website, cited a twitter from Brandon Wilde and an interview in a separate gay porn news website, The Sword. In the Minnesota Independent story Koering was quoted as saying "I don't see anything wrong with going out with him. Do I think that being a porn star is the best thing? No. But that's his choice. I think he's a nice guy." (...) The report...

BRAINERD, Minn. - State Sen. Paul Koering once fit neatly into the profile of socially conservative central Minnesota: abortion opponent, supporter of gun and property rights, outspoken supporter of veterans. But last year, Koering was the only Republican in the Senate to join Democrats in opposing an effort to force a floor vote on a constitutional gay marriage ban. That stirred up long-standing rumors at the Capitol about Koering's own sexuality, and within a few days he revealed that he was gay — a move the area's GOP chairman called "political suicide." In Tuesday's primary, he will find out if...

State Sen. Paul Koering, a first-term Republican from the Brainerd area who until recently had voted with conservatives seeking a constitutional ballot question banning same-sex marriage, revealed to the Star Tribune Wednesday that he is gay and has known it since he was a teenager. He is believed to the first openly gay Republican elected official in Minnesota, and his announcement could affect the tone of the stormy legislative debate over gay marriage. However, Koering, 40, a businessman and former dairy farmer from Fort Ripley, said his "coming out" does not change his position that the state's voters should be...