Greg Boll (born June 27, 1961) is a former American politician and member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL Party). Boll was, somewhat unintentionally, one of the key players in the DFL Party's "firestorm" that swept through southwestern Minnesota in the mid-1980s at the height of the Midwestern Farm Crisis. The party's onslaught led to an unprecedented take-over of nearly all the legislative seats in southwestern Minnesota in the 1986 elections.
Dubbed the DFL's "hatchet man" by Minnesota Republicans, Boll actively engaged the media to hammer away at the Republicans over what he maintained were their failed policies in rural America, using the farm crisis as the basis for his attacks. He also supported the somewhat militant Groundswell movement in its quest to bring political and social change on behalf of the region's farmers. Utilizing a steady stream of scathing editorials and letters-to-the-editor in over thirty area newspapers, he made the case for change over the course of five election cycles, helping the DFL experience unprecedented success in the traditionally Republican small towns and rural communities of the region.
Youth and early activism in Southern Minnesota
According to some who knew him, Boll had a bit of a "bad boy" reputation early on—a reputation he later channeled successfully into brash, no-nonsense political change. Growing up in Minnesota and Wisconsin, his conservative religious background and schooling at a Lutheran college in New Ulm served as the contrasting catalyst for the more liberal views he displayed once he became active in the Democratic Party.
While in college, Boll worked with Rudy Perpich's 1982 gubernatorial campaign and with Mark Dayton's bid for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Senator Dave Durenberger. Briefly managing a state senate campaign in the New Ulm area for former New Ulm mayor and state representative Tony Eckstein, he later moved to Worthington, where he worked as administrator and later chief of a security agency and became active in the community as a church youth leader and a member of several local boards. He quickly gained the attention of area Democrats through his editorials in the region's newspapers.
Implementing the DFL "Firestorm" of 1986
Touted as bringing a younger voice to the DFL, Boll quickly rose through the ranks to become a party leader and "whiz kid" of sorts. In 1985 he was named to fill a vacancy as party secretary for the old 2nd Congressional District, a sprawling 31-county area. He was subsequently elected to the position four times. In that role, he helped promote candidates for the congressional seat held by Republican Vin Weber—among them Dave Johnson, Todd Lundquist and, later, David Minge. The following year he was asked by the Minnesota House and Senate DFL caucuses to be their point man for finding and recruiting candidates to run for the various legislative seats in the area.
For his own legislative district, Boll quickly allied with Jim Vickerman, a Murray County commissioner and farmer, whom he pushed to run for the state senate in District 28 (which became District 22 after the 1992 legislative redistricting) against incumbent Senator Doran Isackson. At the time, the large district included all or portions of Brown, Cottonwood, Jackson, Martin, Murray, Nobles, Redwood and Watonwan counties. Taking on the role of manager of the campaign, he proceeded to carve out a detailed strategy and format that quickly became a model for other legislative campaign structures in Greater Minnesota.