Now, this is actually quite a nice idea. Recognition of men and women serving in the military is important and I DO like Dairy Queen. But isn’t it actually illegal to give away gift-certificates as prizes for participation on an elected official’s website? The fine print below the picture states that,
if you submit a hero and your hero is chosen you 
will win a gift certificate to Dairy Queen.
In this heat, Dairy Queen would be nice, but not if it’s a blatant violation of the law…
Link: Julianne Ortmann Website
I know he’s getting desperate with all these bad polls coming out, but this is a bit much…
A loyal MN Publius reader sent us the picture on the right along with this story:
This picture was taken at Chaska River City Days. As you can see Kennedy is hosting a drawing for $200.00 in free gas. How legal is this? How ethical? Is he buying votes? Mines not for sale!
It was very clear that it was a Kennedy promotion and not a Republican party promotion. He was the only candidate in this booth and the other Republican booth at the event did not host the gas promotion. (Joe Hoppe/Kline booth) I filled out the form and among the right wing questions it asked specifically if I will support Kennedy.
Moreover, it was noted that the volunteers were actively trying to block photographs of the signs and they were audibly nervous when this photo was taken–what were they so afraid of? Is Mark Kennedy trying to buy votes? And, if so, how can this be legal? More to come as this story develops.
UPDATE: We have confirmed the form was a GOP form, not an official Mark Kennedy form. Updates as we get them…
Technorati Tags: Mark Kennedy
It’s a pretty slow news day/weekend (even MDE is desperately trying to create news) so I’m going to do what I always do on slow news days: link to Minntelect.
Seriously, this guy is awesome. He has an amazing statistical break-down of the Senate races and the House races. And now he’s provided a convenient summary post. He may not post regularly, but whenever he does it sure is good stuff.
Published by Matt 1 year, 9 months ago
in Blog.
UPDATE: Apparently my testing wasn’t thorough because a lot of people are still getting errors on this thing. So we’re going to leave it in Beta for the time being. If you still want to check it out, do so with warning and I’ll let everyone know when the real-deal is ready.
The Mn Publius Event Calendar may still be in the incubator, but the discussion board’s ready to launch (I think). Come check it out. Our comments have been pretty heavy lately so I thought it might be fun to create an area where hot discussions can have a more permanent presence. And it allows everyone to create their own subjects, not just respond to whatever JD or I happen to be posting on.
Come on over and give your two cents. (and vote in the 5th CD poll)
UPDATE: Pete McCloskey may just be crazy anyway… too bad, this was a good article.
From Seeing the Forest:
The following is a letter from former Republican Congressman and Presidential candidate Pete McCloskey:
THE NEED FOR A DEMOCRAT MAJORITY IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN 2007
I have found it difficult in the past several weeks to reach a conclusion as to what a citizen should do with respect to this fall’s forthcoming congressional elections. I am a Republican, intend to remain a Republican, and am descended from three generations of California Republicans, active in Merced and San Bernardino Counties as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have just engaged in an unsuccessful effort to defeat the Republican Chairman of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombo, in the 11th Congressional District Republican primary, obtaining just over 32% of the Republican vote against Pombo’s 62%.
The observation of Mr. Pombo’s political consultant, Wayne Johnson, that I have been mired in the obsolete values of the 1970s, honesty, good ethics and balanced budgets, all rejected by today’s modern Republicans, is only too accurate.
It has been difficult, nevertheless, to conclude as I have, that the Republican House leadership has been so unalterably corrupted by power and money that reasonable Republicans should support Democrats against DeLay-type Republican incumbents in 2006. Let me try to explain why.
Read the rest of the letter below the fold
Technorati Tags: culture of corruption
Continue reading ‘Take it from a Republican, We Need a Dem Congress’
I’ve been pretty busy today and haven’t been able to post. So here’s an editorial just to tide you over. I’ll have some good stuff for you tomorrow, so stay tuned.
The DFL is helping Mark Kennedy out with his TV spots:
We here at the DFL Party understand how expensive air time is these days. Since Kennedy just released two ads, and is behind in fundraising anyway, we thought we’d lend a hand. We combined both commercials into a single, succinct 15-second spot that truly encompasses the highs and lows of his career as a Republican member of Congress.
I think this might be his best (and most honest) ad yet!
Technorati Tags: Mark Kennedy
Mark Kenendy released his second TV spot yesterday and, I have to say, it’s pretty good although still misleading. Mark Kennedy actually begins the ad by stating that he’s a Republican, which addresses one of the criticisms of the first ad, but he still tries to paint himself as an independent. Obviously he’s going to try to highlight his high points in his own ad, but I think implying an independent voting record while having voted with the Bush administration 92% of the time in reality is just disingenuous.
Like I’ve said before, if Makeover Mark is going to make this election a referendum on his voting record, he’s going to lose. Trying to make himself over as an independent is just too difficult a task, even for the high-paid media consultants the GOP gets for Kennedy.
Technorati Tags: Mark Kennedy
Published by Matt 1 year, 9 months ago
in Blog.
It’s slowly coming together; so take a peek as it develops and let me know what’s good and what’s bad: MN Publius Calendar
These type of posts are obnoxious, but here I go anyway: I’m thinking of creating an events calendar that would track significant political events around the state. Fundraisers, get togethers, district meetings, you know, the usual. I know these exist already on the DFL site and candidate sites, but I’d like to have a one-stop-shop here for my personal use and anyone else’s. Any thoughts? Tips on implementation/sources?
Ok, it doesn’t completely fail to mention it - there is a 13 word story about the endorsement, but that’s pretty much it. The idea for this post came via MyDD, linking to The Hill [emphasis is mine]:
Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who is in charge of keeping Congress in GOP hands this fall, surprised the political establishment yesterday by airing an early television advertisement that made no mention of his party affiliation.
[...]
In addition, Reynolds, a 30-year veteran of upstate New York politics and a former GOP minority leader in the state Assembly, is one of several House GOP leaders who do not mention their party affiliation on their campaign websites. In ads posted on their sites, Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) also do not state their Republican credentials.
We all know that Kennedy strategically scrubbed President Bush [almost completely, but not quite] from his website, but now Makeover Mark also joins Blunt and Pryce in NOT touting his party affiliation on his campaign website.
Try it at home! Here’s the procedure…[parents, have your kids help you when they are done updating their MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and Dodgeball pages....]
1) Go to Makeover Mark’s MadeOver Website
2) Hold down Control, and press ‘F’ for Find - enter ‘Republican’
3) Click through every top-level page, repeat #2
Not a single occurrence of the Scarlet Letter Word ‘Republican’ can be found.
If you search his entire site, not just the top-level pages, for ‘Republican’, there are only 6 results, and they are hilarious….see ‘em after the jump….
Continue reading ‘Kennedy’s Campaign Website Fails to Mention He’s A Republican’
In his latest “Reality Check” segment Pat Kessler calls out Mark Kennedy for his blatent lies in his 1st TV ad for US Senate. Citing the facts that Kennedy doesn’t mention anywhere in the ad that he is a Republican (just amazing) or that he’s a three-term Congressman! But those are just omitted facts, the biggest lie, as Kessler points out is the assertion that Kennedy isn’t a party man; Kessler doesn’t let him get away with that:
“Dad likes to help people. He’s principled, independent, just not much of a party guy. I meant … he doesn’t always do what the party says to.”
But the FACT is Kennedy almost always votes with the President and the Republican Party.
The non-partisan Congressional Quarterly ranks Kennedy as among the most loyal to President Bush and Republicans. For issues on which President Bush took a stated position, CQ reports Kennedy supported him 87 percent of the time in 2005, and 97 percent of the time in 2002, 2003, and 2004. [WCCO]
This is an excellent piece that sorts truth from fiction in Kennedy’s latest ad. Definitely worth a watch or, at the very least, a read.
Technorati Tags: Ethics, Mark Kennedy
This is absolutely amazing:
Thank you Crooks & Liars for bringing this wonderful piece of television history to my attention. I hope that those slaps weren’t staged (and from the look of Stossel’s run they weren’t) because John Stossel is an asshole. Man, I could watch that over and over and over and…
Technorati Tags: John Stossel
Tonight’s “Reality Check” segment with Pat Kessler was UNBELIEVABLE–he annihilated Kennedy. If Makeover Mark thinks that even his make-up team can successfully re-brand him an independent, well, he’s just delusional.
I promise that the second I have a video clip I will post it.
But to tide you over, here’s Kessler’s last masterpiece (can someone get this guy a Pulitzer please?).
Technorati Tags: Mark Kennedy
The Associated Press has released the following about Norm Coleman Sr.’s charges:
(AP) Police cited the father of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, Norm Coleman Sr., on Tuesday for lewd and disorderly conduct for allegedly engaging in a sex act in a car outside a pizzeria.
According to a police report, the elder Coleman, 81, was having sex with 38-year-old Patrizia Marie Schrag, who was also cited for lewd and disorderly conduct. The St. Paul Pioneer Press first reported the citation. A police spokesman didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.
Coleman raised his son in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and now lives in Minnesota.
“I love my father dearly,” Sen. Coleman said in a statement Wednesday. “I do not condone his actions or behavior, and I am deeply disturbed by what I have learned. He clearly has some issues that need to be dealt with, and I will encourage him to seek the necessary help.”
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