Steve Drazkowski, Republican endorsed candidate to replace Steve Sviggum has quite the personal endorsements page.
It doesn’t have much in the way of Republicans on it, at all!
“Congrats!!! We are all thrilled to hear you won, clearly the voters down there know a good candidate when they see one! Our thoughts and prayers are with you! God Bless.” - Sue Jeffers, candidate for Governor
Sue Jeffers was running as a libertarian last year when she attempted to run for the Republican endorsement. The Republican party refused to consider her.
“I’m more convinced each day that Steve Drazkowski will make a great State Senator... Draz’s courage in standing up to… the poor judgment of his own political party demonstrates what we all should look for in our leaders.” - John Adams (Former Republican Party State Vice Chair )
While this guy may have been a ‘former Republican party State Vice Chair’ I have a hard time believing he’s on the ins when he refers to the “poor judgment of his own political party” As well, Draz, you might want to update your quotes, FYI you aren’t running for State Senator any more.
But, this is going to be a hard fought race! Where are the endorsements from Tim Pawlenty? Marty Siefert? Or, most importantly, Steve Sviggum?
Finally, there is one quote the Draz-ster isn’t going to put up anytime soon.
“(Drazkowski) is a guy who’s just disgruntled. He makes me nervous, but what do you do?”
— Sen. Dick Day (R-Owatonna)
We’ll have more on this guy. Lots more.
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That’s the quotes page; the endorsements page has the MN GOP’s endorsement on it, although that may be dated, too, since one of the groups that endorsed him seems to have quit functioning.
The issues page (“Where Steve Stands”), though, make me wonder if Draz knows which office he’s running for in 2007. Quotes there:
“Senator Murphy wants to raise the gas tax.”
“Upon election to the senate, Steve will draft legislation to exert Minnesota’s leadership in helping build the security fence along the Mexican border.”
” Upon election to the senate, Steve will vote for the right to life every time.”
The resume attached to the bio page is a little dated, too, since he doesn’t work for the Whitetails group anymore. Didn’t you guys write a post last year about why he quit?
We’re going to post a lot more about the Draz-ster. Sean
Good stuff up at Vox Verax too, about political trends in SE MN: http://voxverax.blogspot.com/2007/07/minnesota-elections-big-changes-can.html
Desperate times call for desperate candidates. Maybe he just wants to show how “green” he is by recycling material from his last campaign for a different office. To me this is another case of just how much in disarray the Republican Party in MN is. Thank God they re-elected Ron Carey.
On another front what about the Kiffmeyer revelations over the weekend, I kept waiting for a gloat or crowing or something from Publius. TPaw manged to get re-elected but his administration seems to be dis-functional. Has anyone seen Carol Molnau?, I thought I saw her mug on my milk carton this morning, made it hard to finish my cereal.
Are you guys that stupid? (oh yeah, you guys are “that stupid”)
Sviggum has aggressively campaigned for the Republican candidate. Marty has been all over campaigning for him and as far as I know the Governor is definitely with him.
If Franken and Ciresi aren’t down around Wabasha tomorrow, should we assume they aren’t with him?
Has Klobuchar been door knocking yet? No? Oh my God, are you trying to tell me Klobuchar is distancing herself from the DFL endorsed candidate?
Lest we all forget, you imbeciles, it is the DFL that has a contested primary.
Why does the DFL have a contested primary? I hear it is because many of the potential primary voters are embarrassed by the choice they made.
Are you fools hearing the same thing? I assume you are since Lori Swanson hasn’t held a press conference yet for her.
Where does Pfeilsticker live?
Where is she on choice?
Where is she on any issue? In a few weeks, the district could be electing a representative for decades as they did last time. Drazkowski is very well known for better or worse. All the voters know of Pfeilsticker is that a few dozen delegates picked her. No wonder there is a primary. It sounds as if her DFL opponent has no problem pointing out his credentials and strong stands on issues important to Democrats, a real problem for Pfeilsticker and the DFL if they stick by her.
“Dumbing it Down For the Left”
Your name makes you instantly irrelevant and ignorable, pally. Just an FYI.
Get lost, loser.
Nitro,
Once again chasing people to the bottom I see.
“Can’t we all just get a lawn”
(Rodney King, John Deere Mower spokesman)
Of course, Hat. I’ve been inspired by the Republicans.
Last week, my husband took part in the screening process of the candidates for the House 28B seat.
When he asked Drazkowski questions pretaining to working men and women, here is where he stands on Labor Issues.
Steve Drazkowski opposes….
the raising of the Minimum Wage at the State and Federal levels because that would cause workers to lose their jobs.
Prevailing Wages based on Experience.
Universal Health Care that could include Single Payer options.(What is Medicare?)
any closing of loopholes to Coorporations that decide to locate overseas. Let alone getting Coorporations to pay their fair share of Taxes.
Interesting that Steve Drazkowski would be this staunch regarding Labor issues. Just that he repeated the GOP talking points from the party platform than give a more personal thought as to where he stood on the same issues.
kathy,
Considering how Big labor is a bought and paid for subsidiary of the DFL, it is no wonder Republican candidates don’t take their screenings too seriously. If Big Labor began supporting political candidates the way their members actually vote, maybe they could get more Republican support and maybe they could get more done on behalf of their members. My goodness, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and it took almost six months to pass the minimum wage increase the President said last year that he would sign.
“Steve Drazkowski opposes….
the raising of the Minimum Wage at the State and Federal levels because that would cause workers to lose their jobs.”
Any MBA Economics course will prove this to be true. Is this an issue? Higher wages do lead to fewer jobs. The question is whether it’s worth it to have higher unemployment while artificially inflating the wages of those that get jobs.
Dumbing-
“Why does the DFL have a contested primary? I hear it is because many of the potential primary voters are embarrassed by the choice they made.”
Uh, no, it’s because Moreland (who will be out of the country until three days before the primary - and who recieved zero votes at the 28B special convention) didn’t withdraw before the deadline.
A serious candidate? No.
Given a glance at Moreland’s abbreviated platform (a general education appeal, local transportation improvements, and “impeaching President Bush”), I kinda doubt he has more than a snowball’s chance in Hades of winning the DFL endoresment in 28B.
The big losers here are Winona, Wabasha and Goodhue counties. They’ll pay close to $10,000 for a primary.
I doubt Draz is too happy about the situation, either. Linda Pfeilsticker’s name isn’t well known in 28B and a slam-dunk contested primary only raises her name recognition for the general.
Ron Carey just sent out a GOP Newsline asking for money to help keep “Swiggum’s seat” - without mentioning the actual GOP candidate’s name. No dysfunction there!
I heard that Andy Aplikowsky is going to be the manager for Drazkosky’s race — apparently, Andy wants to keep his losing streat intact for a littl while longer.
Andy, how’s your US Senate campaign coming along?
Nony — The minimum wage was last increased in 1997. Eleven million jobs were added between 1997-2001 (when the recession hit hard).
I’m not claiming that the increase created more jobs; I’m saying it doesn’t look like it stifled job creation.
“My goodness, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and it took almost six months to pass the minimum wage increase the President said last year that he would sign.”
That’s an atypical, laughable, ignorable comment, “Chris”.
Just an FYI.
Chris,
You know full well the reason it took 6 months to pass the minimum wage bill. Senate Republicans blocked the bill until it was attached to a war funding bill they couldn’t oppose. Your latest parroting of the GOP talking points is like most of your posts, shallow and transparent.
As for “Big Labor” Business Pacs outspend Labor Pacs by 14-1.
BTW, no dues money can be spent supporting candidates, only voluntary donations. No union member is forced to support a candidate he or she doesn’t like. Who is bought and paid for? Labor supports those who support labor, just like business supports those who support bidness, as Molly Ivins called it.
Polling shows that union members are better educated on issues and vote in higher numbers than almost any other segment of the population. And they vote for the Union endorsed candidate at about a 70-30 ratio. Are some Union members Republicans, sure, and some business owners are Democrats. That doesn’t stop the Chamber of Commerce from endorsing Republicans.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that labor would support almost only Democrats. Republicans don’t support working families, only their corporate oligarch masters and the radical religious right (isn’t generalizing fun!).
You can have a business and not be a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Ever tried to get a job at a union shop and not belong to the union? The working families line is awfully tired and attempts to portray only those that belong to unions as people that work for a living. Since most of the country does not belong to a union are you saying they are not working families? What is a “working family” anyway? It would be nice if somebody, just once, that uses that term would have the courage to define it and therefore have to defend something real rather than repeat slogans.
An increase in the minimum wage has little effect either way if most of even the lowest paid people are already earning more than the increase would provide. The 1997 increase from $4.25 to $4.75 was such an increase. Such a small number of people were making a wage between those two numbers there was no economic impact in either direction. That and 1997 was the beginning of a technology boom that skewed all economic figures as to make inferences difficult. The most recent change is much bigger and the economy more stable so it will be interesting to see how the numbers go.
Rick,
What you said about the minimum wage is just untrue. Senate Democrats and House Democrats could not agree on the minimum wage. Just look at the website of Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus. Baucus wanted to offset the minimum wage increase with targeted tax credits for small businesses. The House had an increase with no targeted tax cuts. Pretty hard to blame Republicans when Democrats can’t even agree.
With respect to union members, some 35% of union members are Republicans. More than 91% of union contributions go to Democrats. Are unions really representing their members? I don’t think so. Also, business PACs do not give only to Republicans. Look at a few campaign finance reports and see for yourself. I’m not even going to talk about how ridiculous your comments are about Republicans not supporting working families.
Chris,
Senate Democrats and House Democrats couldn’t agree Because Republicans in the Senate insisted on huge tax cuts for business in exchange for allowing a vote. Democrats DO NOT have the 60 votes needed under the Senate rules to pass anything unilaterally. The GOP has taken the position that is better to stall everything in the Senate ands then be able to accuse the Democrats of not being able to get things done. it’s a strategy that has been used by both sides in the past with limited success. We will disagree on whether Republicans look out for working people, you have your talking points and I have mine. You still can’t change the numbers that Business contributes much, much more money to campaigns than labor. Do they give money to Democrats, they do now, in the previous cycles when the GOP was in charge, much, much less. Business lobbyists know that money buys access, Labor unions know that too. This is the system we have, the Supreme Court has ruled that money=free speech. Until meaningful campaign reform is accomplished you get what you pay for, very cynical but true for both sides.
In the end Labor Union PACSs and Business PACs are both trying to influence legislation that supports the goals of the majority of their members.
As far as Max Baucus, I hardly regard him a the poster child for progressive issues.