Tawnja Zahradka begs a lot of questions as she runs for Congress

It seems almost silly to offer any sort of commentary on the political fortunes of a made-for-TV spokesmodel when it's such an ugly time to live in Minnesota.

I won't offer commentary on the future of police/community relations, who is at fault for where we are today or why things that have happened in the last 24+ hours are confusing. It's not as black and white as many people want to see it. I'll leave it at that.

That aside, I did a little further examining of Tawnja Zahradka's campaign after posting my initial thoughts of the cable access sexpot. All that did was muddy the waters of Forest Lake.

As I noted in my previous post, Tawnja touts that she is a victim of sexual harassment. I have no reason to doubt the claim. And I don't.

As I scoured her campaign website, and eventually her campaign's Facebook page, I was a bit surprised. She has made plenty of videos, it's what she does best, after all, and she makes it clear more than once in videos that she's a victim of sexual harassment and discrimination. At least once she claims that she lost everything she spent two decades building as a result, and lost her career as a spokesperson because of it. She also claims that this loss inspired her to pick herself up and dust herself off, to start anew.

And that new start is winning elected office. At the federal level. After two decades of pimping German restaurants and any other business that paid her to do so.

As I noted previously, I've found nothing about this failed lawsuit, a lawsuit that failed because of, she claims, "sexual harassment laws that are designed to protect the harassers-which they did."

I can only assume that this harassment occurred when she was an "executive producer" of MCN6. Tawnja has a ton of her videos posted on YouTube, and in 2015 she posted an MCN6 interview where she is touted as the cable access station's executive producer. The most recent videos are form three years ago, and the last several videos don't seem to feature Tawnja, but they're segments much like Tawnja peddled for two decades, and they appear to be segments produced for the benefit of the vast MCN6 viewership.

It appears that, if she started a legal battle in late 2017, as she claims, that she must be referring to her work at MCN6 as the source of harassment, as all indications are that's where she was working three to five years ago.

So what's the point?

I'd say, first, that if she was a victim of sexual harassment, it's none of our business. Maybe it becomes our business if she sues a cable access TV station. Maybe it's our business only if she wins the lawsuit and the quasi-public entity is held accountable.

But it's definitely our business if she's going to tout her being a victim, time and again, and claim that the system is protecting the guilty, and that she was a victim, of both harassers and the law. If fighting for women like her is an important issue of her campaign, and a major reason for her campaign -- as she claims -- then you've got to give us more, Tawnja.

You can't just say you were a victim, the system is rigged against victims and then ask us to support the change you seek without giving us some explanation as to how the system failed you. I haven't found that, at least not yet, and I doubt that explanation exists.

If you claim that you're going to improve public safety, you had better offer a plan, or at least ideas of how to begin to improve it. If you're going to promise lower taxes, it rings hollow if you never explain how. If you're going to claim you are fighting for victims of sexual harassment, and hold up yourself as an example, why are we supposed to simply accept that the laws are stacked against victim's like you? I'm not a lawyer, I have no idea how harassment laws work. Prove it to us, Tawnja, and give us details that show you know what you're talking about.

There's something else that bothers me. Tawnja claims she lost her two-decade career due to this harassment. First off, shilling for local businesses on cable access TV for two decades is hardly a career. If you made money doing 30 minutes of commercials on cable access TV, that's damn impressive. But it's not much of a career.

Second, if your skill set is so great, why haven't you parlayed that two decades of pitching local restaurants on cable access TV into a commercial voice over career? Or video production for local businesses that want to run commercials on their websites and social media channels?

It's unfortunate that Tawnja's long association with MCN6 seemingly ended due to harassment, but without details as to why that chapter of her life is such an important part of her campaign, her candidacy seems rather manufactured, much like that smile she has flashed for more than two decades.

Tawnja Zahradka was sexually harassed, and wants your vote

I retired from blogging a long time ago.

I'm still retired.

I can't afford the time. Life is short, and criticizing what passes for broadcasting in this day and age is too easy, and akin to shooting fish in the barrel.

I never intended to set the world on fire with this blog. I never tried, either. Yes, I set up a Twitter account, mostly to observe what others are saying and doing. Sure, I tweet now and then, to the few people who follow, knowing most of them won't see the tweets.

But this blog generated plenty of interest through simple Google searches of the media darlings that we all love.

I'd do things different if I was to do them again, but I'm not starting down that road.

Except that once a year, I get an itch.

And I have that itch. And Tawnja Zahradka gave it to me.

Who is Tawnja? I wrote about her once upon a time.

I'm sure she's a decent human being, and I'm sure she works hard at being pretty.

I find her fascinating.

Why? First off, I am amazed/amused by the people who turn up on local cable access TV, working so hard to create something notable. I couldn't do better, I guarantee that. But that doesn't stop me from cringing at the sight of their local programs. I was very disappointed to see that Carla Beaurline has returned to Twin Cities public access TV, after trying to sell her crap as a Facebook program. Nothing has changed, Carla is still as minor league as ever, and seems to be shilling for the same lame businesses that she has always shilled for. It's awful. Pure and simple.

I have long been mildly fascinated with Tawnja Zahradka. From what I could tell, she wanted to work in front of a camera, and seems to have the looks and the skill set to do it.

Her online bios suggest she has been in movies and other important stuff, although I don't recall her actually doing anything meaningful other than being an extra. Perhaps I'm wrong. Too tired to care.

Model, actress, spokesperson...She'd do any of it it made her a local celebrity, or better.

I noticed that her local TV show, which she seemed to produce for decades, disappeared at some point after she marked 20 years of shilling. She showed up on the Twin Cities public access channel, MCN6, as a co-host of some local girl chat program for a while, which seemed to exist as a way to shill for local businesses....what she does best. I swear she was credited as some sort of honcho at MCN6. But at some point she disappeared, and I was left wondering what happened to her.

Then I saw a list of the DFL's endorsed candidates for U.S. Congress. I fell out of my chair.

Tawnja Zahradka, who seemed to be going by her husband's name, Tawnja Peterson, a few years ago, is the DFL's answer to Tom Emmer, a Republican who has made a living off of the voters, and replaced none other than plastic, fantastic Michele Bachmann in Congress.

Stunned doesn't come close to describing this revelation earlier today.

I see no evidence that Tawnja, Zahradka or Peterson, has ever held a public office. But that doesn't matter in this country. Not any more. If you want to hold a federal office, go for it!

I still can't get over it.

So I examined Tawnja's website and Twitter account. And damn, can of worms be opened.

Her online bio starts with the usual shit that means nothing. Her father was in the military. Thank him for that, but that doesn't say one thing about you or your qualifications. Even if Tawnja had went to boot camp once upon a time, it wouldn't mean much when it comes to her ability to navigate the complexity of Washington, D.C.

Her personal bio notes that she supports a few causes, is a stepparent and is married to a drummer that once toured with Badfinger. What difference does that make? (He wasn't important enough to note in Badfinger's Wikipedia article, although I learned that Badfinger is a really old band that has been bastardized with varying incarnations.)

She also notes that she was a Mrs. Minnesota once upon a time. She doesn't mention it was 1995, and she doesn't mention that the Mrs. Minnesota title is a big joke. Married women who want to either capture the glory of their youth, or chase glory they never attained, compete in a meaningless pageant for a state title and the right to chase a meaningless national title. It's manufactured and it's embarrassing. Nobody outside of the participants, and their families, cares. I don't have 20 minutes to detail why.

This is the most interesting excerpt from her bio: "Tawnja spent over two decades on television in the Minneapolis market only to have her career ended due to sexual harassment in the workplace. After a two year legal battle beginning in late 2017 to restore her television career, justice was denied to her due to sexual harassment laws that are designed to protect the harassers-which they did."

So her disappearance from TV was a result of sexual harassment? And she is no longer on TV because she couldn't win a legal battle to prove it? That's one hell of a bombshell, and I'd pay a lot of money to read that story. I tried finding anything that speaks to this case, but a simple Google search turned up nothing.

So she disappeared from local TV through some fantastic sequence of events, and now she reemerges in my life as a candidate for a federal office, having done nothing noteworthy that I can see. Yet she's loved by the DFL. How the hell did a woman who spent two decades or more trying to be a pretty face on camera end up deciding she wants to get down and dirty in Washington, D.C.?

I have a theory, and it's absurd, but I'll save it for after the election, win or lose.

One final thought: She has a Twitter account for her campaign, an account she doesn't seem to use much. She hasn't touched it in three months, that I can tell. But this nugget from early February is outstanding, even if I have no idea what she is referring to, specifically. "This is why Tom Emmer is a disgrace. I can’t wait to debate this sad excuse for a congressman."

Look out D.C., this kitten has claws!

Learn all about Tawnja's campaign at https://www.tawnjaforcongress.com/

I want to be a TV personality!

There is a group of people in the Twin Cities that I find fascinating, and that's because the fact I know who they are defies all logic.

In the Twin Cities we have this odd channel called Metro Cable Network Channel 6, or something like that. They like MCN6, so I'll go with that.

I'm far from an expert on the channel, and its history, but why let that stop me from telling a good story. The station is part of cable networks across the Twin Cities, allegedly in seven counties, and conveniently it shows up on channel 6 in each cable system. Unlike the public access channels on your local cable system, this is not public access, exactly. Perhaps they do provide free access to groups and organizations, but as I understood it many years ago, the producers of the show pay to have it broadcast on Ch. 6.

Some of the stuff they air doesn't seem to be the type of programming that anybody would pay to have televised, (I'm thinking of certain religious programs I have run across), but some of it is clearly commercial.

And that's where three Twin Cities media darlings have found their niche, and managed to capture my attention.

Capture is a bit strong, but let's meet them.

Mike Woodley is a longtime lurker on the Ch. 6 airwaves. He has hosted a variety of shows. The one I remember most distinctly dates back more than 10 years. Along with a guy whose claim to fame was being a scab member of Toto (his career with Toto lasted about a year, and it was after Toto had its big hits in the 1980s) and a guy whose goofiness deserves an entire novel, Woodley and company tried to produce a monthly show about the local music scene. The scab from Toto, who died a few years ago, lived in the west metro, evidently, along with the goofball who has long wanted to make a living as a singer-songwriter. The three of them produced segments about the area's music scene, and did it for at least a few months. I remember the goofball stopped appearing in the show not long after the premiere episode. Whether this ran three months or 33, I can't tell you.

Woodley has been a regular on Ch. 6 seemingly ever since, although there was about a five-year period where I wasn't connected to a cable system, so I can't vouch for his entire career.

I haven't seen much of him in recent months, but in the past few years he's been as busy as ever, hosting some lame show about local businesses and organizations, and calling his show something like the "Here and There Show." It seems like every time I run across him on Ch. 6 he's interviewing the folks at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, talking about how incredible their productions are. I'm pretty sure the folks at CDT actually invented the concepts of both the restaurant and live theater. How they had the foresight to put them together into one business is mind boggling.

Woodley use to work in legitimate broadcasting, allegedly, and may still, primarily in the sports arena. I've never heard or seen him on a commercial network, but perhaps it's true.

Another staple of Ch. 6 is the lovely Carla Beaurline.

Every month Beaurline produces a 30-minute program about businesses in the Twin Cities. No car dealership or vacuum cleaner retailer is too petty for Beaurline to glorify during "Around Town." Her intro segments are often at the site of some local event or fabulous vacation destination. And sometimes she has a co-host to banter with during these segments. She seems particularly fond of pandering to the Minnesota State Fair.

While she doesn't have a regular co-host, she use to. A dude named Mark DeJoy use to host the show with her. When I first noticed this sexy Ch. 6 minx many years ago she had DeJoy as her sidekick. The banter between these two was horrendous. The transitions were forced and the topics were often idiotic. It was brutal. Years later I rediscovered Beaurline and she was flying solo. I have no idea why.

I did learn, thanks to Google, that DeJoy died at the ripe young age of 49 last year. He was working in some other form of local broadcasting, it appears, and according to the obituary he managed to work in community broadcasting (I presume) for three decades.

Beaurline has never impressed me with her broadcasting skills, but month after month she seems to have a handful of businesses who want her to talk about them. Her charm must be irresistible. I'm sure she could charm the pants off of me.

I'm pretty sure I passed her on the freeway once. I passed something that looked like a mini van, with a license plate that said something like "ARNDTWN." And a blonde angel was driving it.

If you've ever seen her show more than once, you'll remember the painful theme song "Everybody Goes There" by local act Dazy Head Mazy. It's bad.

As smitten as I am with Carla Jean, (which DeJoy liked to call her on the show), you can't help but be seduced by the queen of Twin Cities shilling: Tawnja.

Formerly known as Tawnja Zahradka, Tawnja Peterson has been hawking local businesses for two decades. She's been busy celebrating her anniversary as of late on Ch. 6.

Tawnja, (pronouced Tanya, because she's just that precocious,) is one hell of a success story. She has been telling us about great places to shop, eat, fix our teeth and receive financial advice since 1995. Sometimes using recycled bits from many years ago, Tawnja slaps together 30 minutes of commercials and presents it as some sort of TV show. I think she use to have a name for her show, but now she simply wants her air time to be known as Tawnja TV, more or less.

Not only has she been a fixture on Ch. 6 for two decades, she has managed to weasel her show onto the broadcast airwaves in the past. I know she's had her show broadcast on at least one independent station, and I think she's managed to accomplish that feat on more than one frequency.

Unlike Beaurline, whose voice can be a bit grating, Tawnja has a sultry delivery, and she's not afraid to sex it up. The still image of her, knees slightly bent and hemline pulled up above those knees, never fails to amuse me.

I saw her live, in the flesh, a few years ago. Somehow she was recruited to help emcee a community event. I guess Jason DeRusha wasn't available that night. Lord knows he wouldn't turn down an invitation. I just hope they bought Tawnja a glass of wine, and pronounced her name correctly.

So what does this fascinating trio have in common? They all produce TV shows that exist purely for promoting local businesses. They produce 30-minutes programs that are nothing more than a bunch of commercials.

Each huckster has a different way of presenting it, but at the end of the day it's nothing more than programs comprised of long commercials. These shows aren't news magazines. The programs aren't in search of unique businesses that are quirky or interesting. There's nothing fascinating about a 40-year-old vacuum retailer, and if you held a fire up to her skinny little ass I'm sure Beaurline would admit that.

There's no doubt these shows exist because the advertisers pay for Woodley, Beaurline and Zahradka/Peterson to gab about them, and the shills must make a buck or two, otherwise they wouldn't be tirelessly hawking them year after year.

It's really quite impressive. Tawnja seems to think her show is a "television magazine," but a magazine has content that isn't paid for. But nice spin.

I'm dumbfounded by the fact these shows exist. Ch. 6 loves to promote how many homes it reaches across the metro, but the viewership can't be that high, although I'm guessing I'm not the only person who gawks at these shows periodically and scratches her/his head. Somehow Woodley, Beaurline and Zahradka/Peterson have convinced numerous businesses to buy what they're selling, and it has kept their smiling faces on the local airwaves for years. Color me impressed.