And it’s gooooooood.
Tim is authentic, hard-working, extremely bright and will make one hell of a Congressman for the 1st District.
Click here to listen, or right-click here to download [~16MB]…
Archive for August, 2006
This little gem was casually posted to the comment line at MDE. This letter (full text below the fold) is written by a General Partner in the partnership that owns the land that MDE claims Denise Dittrich owns. Some of the highlights from the letter:
She does not own the property; a limited partnership owns the property. A simple check of Hennepin County property tax records would show that. The land is owned by a partnership (Duddy, LLLP) and has been continuously for 20 years. During this time period, Denise Dittrich is not, and has never been a partner, of any kind, in the Partnership.
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Her husband has been an owner of approximately 1/3 of 1% of the Partnership. Maybe, by way of law, she owns a portion of her husband’s interest.
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the increase to the 2006 value from 2001 (about 5% per year) was consistent with the overall increase in property tax values of Hennepin County
Overall, the guy seems to know what he’s talking about and he thinks Dittrich is in the clear on this one. Additionally, a quick donor lookup indicates that this guy is clearly a Republican. So I don’t think he’s writing this with a political agenda in mind.
Technorati Tags: Denise Dittrich
Continue reading ‘General Partner Responds to Accusations Against Denise Dittrich’
I’ll be a guest on Minnesota Matters, direct from the State Fair today from around 5:35-6:00pm.
Matt will be there as well, so if you want to swing by the Air America booth [near the giant Zena I'm told] and ask him any conceivable question, I’m certain he’ll have the answer 
I imagine we’ll be talking mostly about the 5th District Congressional race. If you feel so inclined, tune in over the good ol’ AM airwaves or you can listen online.
A quick break in the politics for a very unimportant message: Google SketchUp is really fun to play around with. It’s free, download it.
One of Makeover Mark Kennedy’s favorite things to brag about is his voting record in the House:
I was one of 9 of 435 that didn’t miss a vote last year. I’ve worked very hard to make sure I continue to represent my constituents. [MPR Midday, 3/2/06]
But it seems as though he’s fallen asleep at the reins this year. A quick look at Congress.org’s attendance record shows that Makeover Mark is tied for dead last among the Minnesota delegation! He ranks 326 out of 435 (number 1 has the best record) and that’s even counting the Speaker (who doesn’t vote). I know that he’s been busy losing a Senate race, but come on Mark, you still have a job for a little while longer, the least you could do is show up to it.
Technorati Tags: Mark Kennedy
Former Vice President and Attorney General of Minnesota Walter Mondale and former Attorney General of Minnesota Warren Spannaus announced their endorsement of Steve Kelley in the Attorney General race today. To get the endorsement of such big Minnesota political figures is a pretty significant event for the Kelley campaign. Read the full letter of endorsement below the fold.
Technorati Tags: Steve Kelley
Continue reading ‘Mondale and Spannaus Endorse Steve Kelley for AG’
From the 09/01/06 edition in mailboxes today [emphasis is mine], pdf here:
…voters could make an emphatic statement - one that would gain national and international attention - by casting their ballots for Keith Ellison. The 43 year-old state representative would would bring a singluar intelligence and passion to the job of representing citizens of Minnesota’s Fifth District; in many ways, Ellison represents the progressive populist vision that Minnesota lost with the untimely passing of Paul Wellstone in 2002.We think Ellison has the attributes to be a dynamic and effective representative in Congress. In Ellison, we have a moderate Muslim who extends his hand in friendship to the Jewish community and supports the security of the State of Israel. He is a person with a vision of a more humane and equitable society and he is the candidate we favor in the Fifth District DFL primary election.
Eloquent, true, relevant, and substantive…this endorsement reflects the real Keith Ellison - the devoted public servant I’ve met, talked with, and come to respect. Those that think he’s Anti-Semitic need to think again.
It seems that Mike Erlandson and Ember Reichgott-Junge’s campaigns are not above attacking Ellison either…I know Erica Prosser has already been accused of malfeasance by other party members for her voracious support of Mike Erlandson…at this point, she could become a liability for Erlandson and Rybak- ergo sum: if what AHS contends is true, that she is “Lynn”, I’d pretty much lump her in with Jason Amundsen. It’s one thing to support your candidate who isn’t endorsed, it’s another to call the endorsed candidate a racist on a right-wing blog that has basically become a clearinghouse for DFLers in the 5th to attack one another. Let’s hope this turns out NOT to be true.
American Hot Sausage [emphasis is mine]:
Also on MDE, a poster named “Lynn” has been accused of being Erica Prosser, a former Sabo staffer and a current Mike Erlandson operative who works in R.T. Rybacks office. Nearly all of her posts hammer a theme of “Keith is a racist, I’ll be voting for Erlandson.” More daunting, they’re all done during working hours.…apparently an Ember supporter is mailing attacks, either with her silent permission or on her behalf (she surely hasn’t set a tone for a fair election).
I guess we’re seeing what naked ambition can do to our party, and we’re seeing why our endorsement must be final. All fence jumpers are a threat to our effectiveness, and a source of assistance to the nastiest of Republicans.
This is the year to clean house of three names for sure: Ostrow, Junge, and Erlandson. It won’t be hard, they haven’t been Democrats for years.
UPDATE: Lynn is Erica Prosser’s middle name.Coincidence? Perhaps…or perhaps not.
UPDATE 2:Note: I’m linking to, and quoting, a contention made by another blogger. I clearly state in this post that from MNPublius’ perspective, Prosser as ‘Lynn’ remains unconfirmed- as well as note the fact that we hope that this will turn out NOT to be true.
That being said, we are looking into these kinds of baseless attacks on Ellison. When we have hard, confirmed, evidence of this kind of nefarious conduct it will say so in the post and the evidence will be provided and explained.
It was with utmost frustration and sadness that I read this story posted today on Minnesota Democrats Exposed by Michael Brodkorb. Brodkorb, a paid operative/blogger for Mark Kennedy, details the 911 calls of a local mentally ill woman claiming she was assaulted. Michael saw the chance to score cheap political points in his months-old effort to Swiftboat Keith Ellison and derail his run for Congress in the 5th District and he took it. In reality, this woman has been harassing Keith for some time. Here is Ellison’s affidavit and petition for a harassment restraining order, which he filed on June 6th, 2005:
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I’ve confirmed that this information was shopped to the mainstream media over the past few weeks. Why hasn’t this story hit the StarTribune, the Pioneer Press, Reuters or the AP? Because there is simply no story. No story, that is, other than the tragic struggle of a local woman dealing with the turbulent, anguish-laden reality of living with mental illness. Even more unbelievable than Michael’s lack of ethics is the apparent source of his information – Jason Amundsen, campaign manager for City Councilman Paul Ostrow. On August 21st, Jason sent the first email below, a legit campaign communication - yesterday around 3pm, the second email was sent by ‘britishflyonthewall@yahoo.co.uk’ to Britt Robson at the City Pages. The contents were 2 images, mpd1.jpg and mp2.jpg, but I’ll get to that in a minute. How do we know Amundsen is responsible for both emails? Note the ip addresses of the sender are the same - 208.42.94.31 - what’s an ip address? Think about it like a phone number for the internet. Upon some investigation using reverse DNS Lookup - the ip address 208.42.94.31 resolves to: jason.amundsen.dsl.visi.com. See the 3rd image below. Busted.
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Now let’s look at the content of Jason’s email - the 2 images that are in fact screen captures from ECHOS, the Emergency Communication Historical Online System. Note, we have no way of knowing that Jason Amundsen was Brodkorb’s original source, but we do have strong evidence demonstrating that it’s probable - he sent an email to the Star Tribune editorial board at 4:22 today with another ECHOS screen capture, this one showing that a bus driver dropped Keith Ellison’s kids off at the wrong place (home, instead of their after-school program. Ostensibly, this shows Keith is a bad father - I think his kids would disagree, but that’s not the point.) 
The point is Amundsen was shopping the information around 4:30 today. Michael Brodkorb posted this at 5:03 - anyone got an egg timer? Coincidence? I think not. Given the similar nature of the content, and the timing, there is little doubt in my mind Amundsen leaked all three emails to Michael Brodkorb. Deplorable, especially given the fact that Ostrow doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the seat. So is Keith Ellison guilty of anything other than having to deal with a regrettable tragic situation? It certainly doesn’t look like it. It’s important to know that the judge granted his petition for a restraining order:
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Have a migraine yet? Let’s have a look at the 911 ECHOS records that Amundsen initially sent to Brodkob [probably] one of which MDE didn’t post. Michael chose to use the first one below, and ignored the second. Why? Have a look, she tried multiple times to cancel her emergency, and is uncooperative with the police…it ends with ‘CLR SAID SHE OVERREACTED - IS UNDER STRESS’:
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Update: Paul Ostrow on Ethics:
A more personal statement about this truly tragic situation after the jump…
Continue reading ‘MNPublius Exclusive : MDE Uses Woman Suffering from Mental Illness to Smear Keith Ellison’
From Hutchinson Unhinged:
One measurement showed that 90 percent of black students had failed at least a portion of an 8th-grade basic-skills test. Suddenly the picture had turned bleak.And then something very odd happened. Peter Hutchinson vanished.
An announcement went out: Hutchinson was temporarily leaving his post as superintendent ‘for strictly personal reasons.’ Others within PSG, along with school district staff, would step in to fill his role. But that never really worked. Fifty days later, Hutchinson reemerged as superintendent, but only briefly, appearing at a fiery meeting during which he was harangued by Native American community leaders and others for failing to meet minority students’ needs. Hutchinson shot back that the district was doing everything it could, and that resources were too scant to deal with students who ‘don’t know their colors, don’t even know their own last names.’
If Hutchinson were elected Governor - when the chips are down - and going gets tough - how can the citizens of Minnesota know he’s not going to just go on vacation, like another failed elected official so often does?
The Executive Director of the NRCC is concerned about Bachmann’s campaign, and for good reason - Patty Wetterling has been raising money like a superstar and getting her positive message of change to voters in the 6th. It seems the neoconservative, batshit-crazy, nuke-slingin’ homophobe Michele Bachmann bringing Bush, Hastert, and Cheney to fill her campaign coffers is no accident - she’s in trouble [emphasis is mine]:
“The executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee Tuesday told supporters she is very worried about her candidates’ fate this year.The e-mail featured photographs of four Republican congressional candidates “in serious danger of losing,” including a photo of state Sen. Michele Bachmann, who is running for Congress from Minnesota’s north and west suburban district. Her opponent in the 6th District is Democrat Patty Wetterling.
“Republican Congressional candidates are facing a desperate situation nationwide. Our candidates in targeted districts are in very serious danger of losing on Election Day. And if we lose those swing districts, the Democrats will undoubtedly win the majority on November 7th,” Sally Vastola, NRCC executive director said in an e-mail to supporters today.
The dire e-mail was designed as a pitch for Republicans to contribute campaign cash.
“There are ten short weeks until Election Day and the Democrats have surpassed us in countless ways,” Vastola wrote.”
Amy and Makeover Mark will be debating on the Meet the Press Senate Debate Series with Tim Russert on 
Sunday, October 15th.
We’ll be watching, and hopefully I’ll have my video capture tech working by then so we can post some highlights. This week, fyi, it’s Bob Casey and everyone’s favorite - Rick Santorum.
I for one cannot wait to see Mark try to take his Makeover to the national stage.
The full schedule after the jump…
Continue reading ‘Amy Klobuchar Debates Makeover Mark Kennedy on Meet the Press - 10/15/06′
Yesterday we broke the news that State Representatives Paul Gazelka (R-12A) and Rob Eastlund (R-17A) have been violating House ethics rules by using taxpayer dollars to campaign. We now have the letters in question and can confirm that the dates these letters were sent out on clearly consititutes a violation of the “House Policy on Campaign Activity” detailed in CRLAR97-13.
Here are the letters that Reps Gazelka and Eastlund, respectively, sent out:
Gazelka’s mailing is dated August 14th and Eastlund’s is dated August 4th, both clearly after the 60 day cut-off which would have begun July 20th. This constitutes an unfair and unethical use of taxpayer dollars in preparing, printing, and mailing what amounts to campaign material. Both Representatives, and any others doing the same thing for that matter, should fully reimburse the Minnesota taxpayers for these unethical expenditures.
This is plain and simple, State Representatives Paul Gazelka and Rob Eastlund are abusing their powers by campaigning on state time and using taxpayer money to do so.
Some of these rules are confusing, so I have laid out a more detailed explanation below the fold.
Technorati Tags: Paul Gazelka, Rob Eastlund
Continue reading ‘Gazelka and Eastlund Violate House Ethics Rules, #3′
DFL candidate for State Auditor Rebecca Otto announced today that she raised $81.270.59 in the third fiscal quarter compared to incumbent Patricia Anderson’s $73,487.88. This is the second quarter in a row that Otto has managed to out-raise incumbent Anderson. But even more startling are the cash on hand figures:
OTTO: $67,061.82 CoH
ANDERSON: $15,125.58 CoH
If you do the math, that means Otto has 4.43 times the Cash on Hand that Anderson has! And we’re only two months out in a State Auditor race!! Anderson has to be scared as hell considering she can’t run on her record with much success and her victory in 2002 was incredibly narrow: Anderson one by .7% in 2002, which was a pretty strong year for GOPers across the ticket. In a year like 2006, where Republicans are taking hits across the board, Anderson should be looking to out-raise Otto by a significant margin to ensure victory. Obviously, she’s not in that position.
Rebecca Otto will make a terrific State Auditor. So I can only hope that news this good keeps coming from her campaign!
Technorati Tags: Patricia Anderson, Rebecca Otto
Earlier today we reported the breaking news that State Representatives Paul Gezelka and Rob Eastlund may be in violation of House ethics rules. We can now confirm that this is, indeed, the case.
The “House Policy on Campaign Activity” rules, as laid out in the “Campaign Activity Policy” (CRLAR97-13, approved 4/29/97), clearly states:
Exceptions to the definition of “campaign activity” includes but are not limited to:
1) preparing or assisting in the preparation of mass mailings of newsletters, questionnaires, legislative reports, or letters of congratulations, unless that activity occurs more than 60 days after adjournment sine die in an election year for the house
In other words, corresponding with constituents is an important part of office, but sending out mass-mailings more than 60 days after the House adjourns will be considered a campaign, and not an official, activity. As such, no mass mailings are to be sent out 60 days after adjournment on the state’s tab. This is where Gezelka and Eastlund get in trouble…
See, adjournment sine die was Sunday, May 21st this year meaning that anything sent out after July 20th is considered campaign activity. Gezelka and Eastlund, however, sent out mass mailings on August 14th and 4th respectively. Both mailings were clearly after the July 20th cut-off.
This amounts to a serious violation of House campaign ethics and a misuse of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes (the postage was paid for by their legislative allotments and the preparation was no doubt done by tax-paid legislative staffers). Hopefully both Representatives will reimburse the state for the misuse of these tax dollars, but if they don’t, they may be brought up on ethics charges in the House for their violations of the ethics rules.
Scans of the violating mailings will be posted tomorrow, along with an analysis of the possible implications of these mailings. Moreover, both Reps may have violated Minnesota Statute in sending out these mailings. More to come as it develops…
Technorati Tags: Paul Gazelka, Rob Eastlund
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