I liked Tiny Brandt, and it was sad to hear of his passing.

He died April 27 at the age of 76.

I knew him mainly from his role as the chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party in 2008. He was honest. He was straight with me. He did a good job of contacting us about upcoming events so we could put them in the paper.

And he was genuinely nice.

Some people, particularly some fervent Republicans, like to put me on the defensive from the get-go. They call and complain about unfair coverage and then expect me to give them something to make up for it. Never mind simply asking in a normal way like most everyone else.

Well, not Tiny. He came from the approach that his party had failed to be active enough to get the attention it sought, and he was working to correct the situation. And he was a local Republican who actually noticed, appreciated and — this is the hard part — remembered the Albert Lea Tribune’s inside-the-arena coverage of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Most newspapers in southern Minnesota, such as Mankato and Rochester, didn’t even have a media pass. They covered only the outside.

We were in there, getting the local stories and photos for you. It wasn’t easy for our staff, sleeping on couches, working odd hours. And later when we ran some Sarah Palin cartoons suddenly the Tribune was an outcast to GOP members.

Brandt was a little miffed, too, but he didn’t call with a head of steam and rip me apart. Instead, he simply asked. I simply explained, and he came away understanding about the Palin cartoons. We discovered that many of the callers had failed to see cartoons making fun of the other side. They weren’t looking at each paper.

Remarkably, he again thanked me for the convention coverage. Not that a thank you was necessary, but he was saying he remembered.

What Brandt did was leave room in his mind for other scenarios or views. That is a very valuable thing, and it served him well as a leader. Whether it was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army or being active in his church, he never had to be the smartest guy in the room in order to get things done.

A do-er, he was. I remember at the Minnesota caucuses he gave a speech to the Republicans that he was going to get the local party moving again. He told them to “get ready to do some work.”

Oh, and he was cracking his whip that night while on crutches. What a sight it was. I think I actually have a video of that stored somewhere in some archive.

Brandt wrote letters, too. They were insightful because, to me, he seemed to approach politics from the view of sort of an amateur political scientist. Check out this letter from Nov. 25, 2008. It was a forecast:

“I am writing this just prior to the Senate recount, and I am speaking as an individual and without a title. I am a lifelong resident of this state, and I have never seen the DFL Party ever lose a recount. I am saying I will be surprised if Al Franken and his friends do not win. And they will have the all the reasons for why it happened.

“But my comments go much further than the recount. As you know, I am a Republican and this is because I firmly believe in our principles and our feeling of less government is the best way to do this, not with extra programs and taxes. But I also firmly believe that we should always vote for the best candidate regardless of party affiliation. For example, this year we had a woman seeking her party’s endorsement for U.S. Senate. She was from Minnesota and of unquestionable integrity as well as good background. Instead, the DFL chose Al Franken, who does not really represent Minnesota and in my opinion is of questionable integrity and not the type of background I would want as my senator. Why?

“I asked several of my good DFL friends why they voted for him, and their answer, ‘Because he is a Democrat!’”

Brant will be missed on the local political scene and on the opinion pages.

A Jack Kemp story

Jack Kemp died Saturday. He was 74.

I met this Republican when I worked for the Ames Tribune. Politicians visit Iowa to test the waters of presidential candidacies. They are called presidential hopefuls.

I was a cub reporter, right out of Iowa State, and I had a beat that ranged from county government and agriculture to veterans and state and federal politics. I had the honor — honor? — of covering all the presidential hopefuls. To add further pressure, my editor co-owned the paper and was a Pulitzer Prize winner who once had led large metros and even had been the president of NBC News.

Kemp in 1997 visited the home of a wealthy insurance man who had one of the nicest homes I’ve ever been in. By this time, it was about a year after his unsuccessful vice-presidential candidacy.

Wanting to do a good job, I peppered Kemp with questions. He answered every one as I scribbled away. I came back to work that night and wrote and long, in-depth story about Kemp’s visit.

The editor, Michael Gartner, deleted three-quarters of my story. Reporters are used to having stories edited and altered, but that much! I was in shock. Gartner told me that visiting politicians in Iowa really aren’t that big of a deal. I immediately knew he was right. It was a good lesson to learn.

I look back and laugh. What a patient man Kemp was! There were plenty of hands to shake, but he knew he could reach more people via a printing press.

He never launched a presidential campaign for 2000.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.