Tracking Minnesota Politics Since 2005
Carlson also was critical of what some characterize as short-term budget fixes. “This nonsense of Band-Aids and Band-Aids and prayer does not work,” he said. “Far too much is focused on, ‘Oh Lord, how do I get through the next election?’ as opposed to doing that which is right. [Strib, 3/14/07]
A particular point of contention for the former Governor are cuts made to his wife’s fetal alcohol syndrome program and how these large cuts in preventative programs are misguided in the long run:
The former governor, who said he was appearing as his wife’s surrogate, said government was ultimately spending more money by cutting prevention programs and then being forced to build more jails. “All we keep doing is shouting for more and more people to go into the system,” he said. [Ibid]
I’ve said for a while now that I honestly believe that the policies of the Pawlenty administration are going to have significant damaging consequences on this state for years to come. Prior to Pawlenty’s entering the office of Governor Minnesota found itself at the top of the rankings in almost every category whether it be education, job creation, health, or how many people we get off our welfare rolls successfully each year.
But since his taking office we’ve begun a precipitous decline and I think the reason is that Pawlenty and his cohorts just don’t understand Minnesota; they think of us as any other state and believe that the solution to our problems are generic Republican solutions applied elsewhere. Carlson is a Republican but he at least understood that Republican solutions in Minnesota need to look and function different than Republican solutions in Louisiana, because here we’ve built something different.
The tragedy is the same as it always is: it’s easier to demolish than it is to construct.
Each week, a member of the House DFL Majority will be writing a guest post for this blog. They’ll talk about what’s going on down at the Capitol and the issues of the week. Hopefully it will serve as a way to further illuminate the sometimes underreported happenings at the Legislature. The most regular participant will be House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, but given that the Leader has a job that is kinda demanding, other members will pinch hit from time to time - especially when they offer special expertise in a policy area that is in the spotlight. The first guest post will appear tomorrow.
One last thing: These guest posts are the functional equivalent of an op-ed in a newspaper. While we are happy to be able to facilitate the dissemination of the commentary of prominent local politicians, these pieces are nothing more than submissions approved by the contributors of this blog (Matt, Sean, and me) and released at a time of our choosing. The writer(s) of this piece have no editorial or administrative control over this blog or its content. A variation of this disclaimer will appear in every guest post.
The delegate breakdown is as follows (in actual delegates attending, and then votes assigned)
Nelson-Pallmeyer 3 Delegates (1.5 votes)
Franken 2 Delegates (1 vote)
Undecided 3 delegates (1.5 votes)
Of the nine delegates elected to attend congressional district and state DFL conventions – the latter where party endorsement for Senate will be given – satirist and former liberal radio talk show host Franken captured six and Nelson-Pallmeyer three.
These two reports capture JNP’s math problem. When he does win, he wins by small margins. Franken has rolled up some big margins in populous parts of the state. I have yet to see any delegate block that JNP has that could counterbalance Franken’s lead. If JNP supporters have evidence contradicting this analysis, please share it.
Older reports, largely confirming my hypothesis, are after the jump.
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“He is not my man,” she said. “Our candidate was chosen by the media. But there are other races out there.”
Wow.
In addition to that great quote, Bachmann unloaded a fresh batch of her craziness:
On global warming:
“The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax,” Bachmann said.
And on Iraq:
“What our service men and women have accomplished over there has been nothing short of astounding,” she said “Though you never hear about it in the media. God has not abandoned us.”
Prof who ousted Ciresi eyes Franken
Joe Bodell is outraged, and not without reason. I think its kind of silly to suggest that it was JNP that pushed Ciresi out of the race. Especially when Franken is turning in delegate counts like these from the Iron Range (per our favorite Ranger Blogger, Aaron Brown)
The nitty-gritty: Franken won Itasca County 8-4. In Hibbing at the SD 05 convention, Franken won 18-7. In essence, Franken carries the Iron Range today 26-11 — more than 2-1.
The Range isn’t the only place where Franken is on a roll. For instance, in the western suburban SD 44 (which includes Al’s childhood home), Franken picked up 15 delegates to JNP’s 5 with 2 uncommitted. While I haven’t kept a precise count, I’m very confident in saying that Franken had significant delegate leads coming out of most (if not all) of the conventions in the 3rd Congressional District. I am only aware of two Senate District or County Conventions that JNP has carried. Now, JNP may have won more, but in order to be competitive with Franken at the DFL Convnetion, he would need to make up for the enormous wins Franken had up on the Range, in SD 44 and other places. I have seen no evidence that he has done this. Franken has dominated around the state and DFLers are taking notice. After this weekend’s delegate counts sink in, I would not be surprised to see some heavy hitters endorse Franken in the near future.
Bottom line: based on the hodgepodge of delegate counts I’ve seen from around the state, I think it is becoming increasingly likely that Franken wins the DFL endorsement on the first ballot. Don’t take it personally JNP backers, I like your guy, but its hard to argue with cold, hard math.
Steve Sarvi, the DFL candidate in the 2nd announced this week that he picked up a bunch of new endorsements.
Teamsters Joint Council 32
Teamsters Local 120
UAW Minnesota
Representatives:
Rep. Betty McCollum (4)
Rep. Keith Ellison (5)
Steve’s campaign has also been endorsed by the national non-partisan VoteVets organization. He’s up for some fat bank to help him beat John Kline, but he needs your help. Vote for Steve Sarvi.
Statistically the Second Congressional district is a pickup opportunity for the DFL, and Steve Sarvi is the strongest candidate we’ve had to take on do-nothing John Kline since 2002. There will be (and no, I’m not kidding this time) a write up of Steve and his experience not only in Iraq but also here at home coming on Tuesday. But before any of that can happen, vote for Steve Sarvi here!
Total Elected Delegates
Bonoff - 48
Madia - 84.5
Uncommitted - 7
Total Superdelegates
Bonoff - 15
Madia - 2
Uncomitted - 2
Total Delegates
Bonoff - 63
Madia- 86.5
Uncommitted - 9
95 delegates are required to win the DFL endorsement. That means Madia can win the endorsement without getting a single Bonoff defector if he sweeps the uncommitteds. Also, many of the superdelegates endorsed Bonoff when she was the prohibitive front runner. It would not be surprising for some of them to change their vote or, more likely, don’t show up to the convention. Bonoff’s best strategy at this point may be to attempt to block the endorsement and shoot for the primary. That would be difficult to do - conventions want to endorse a candidate.
SD 33 - Shorewood/Excelsior/Wayzata/Orono/Medina - 16 delegates
Bonoff - 5
Madia - 9
Uncommitted - 2
SD 40 - Bloomington - 9 delegates
Bonoff - 2
Madia - 6
Uncommitted - 1
SD 41 - Edina/Bloomington - 19 delegates
Bonoff - 7
Madia - 11
Uncommitted - 1
SD 44 - Hopkins - 1 delegate
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 1
Uncommitted - 0
SD 45 - Plymouth - 2 delegates
Bonoff - 1
Madia - 1
Uncommitted - 0
SD 49 - Coon Rapids - 6 delegates
Bonoff - 2
Madia - 4
Uncommitted - 0
UPDATE 11 - All numbers except SD 45 are now final. I’m going to put up a new posts with the final totals and a little bit of math/analysis. Watch for that in the next 20 minutes.
So, as always, we’ll be providing comprehensive coverage of the conventions through a live-blog Zack will put up a bit later today — you’ll have the results as soon as we do.
Until then, check the list below to see if there’s a chance to participate near by and, if so, head over to your SD convention (and send us a comment or email as to how it’s going)!
| SD 05 | 10 AM | Hibbing Park Inn | 1402 East Howard St, Hibbing 55746 |
| SD 19 | 9 AM | Buffalo Community Middle School | 1300 Hwy 25 N, Buffalo |
| SD 29 | 10 AM | Kasson-Mantorville Community Ed Bldg | 606 16th St NE, Kasson |
| SD 33 | 8 AM | Medina Ballroom | 500 Highway 55, Hamel 55340 |
| SD 40 | 10 AM | Burnsville City Hall | 100 Civic Center Parkway, Burnsville 55337 |
| SD 41 | 9 AM | Kennedy High School | 9701 Nicollet Ave S, Bloomington 55420 |
| SD 44 | 9:30 AM | St Louis Park High School | 6425 W 33rd St, St Louis Park |
| SD 45 | 10 AM | Robbinsdale Middle/Spanish Immersion Schools | 3730 Toledo Ave N, Robbinsdale 55422 |
| SD 49 | 9 AM | Coon Rapids High School | 2340 Northdale Blvd NW, Coon Rapids 55433 |
| SD 58 | 9:30 AM | Patrick Henry High School | 4320 Newton Ave N, Minneapolis 55412 |
(let me know if I missed any; it’s entirely possible)
SD 33 - Shorewood/Excelsior/Wayzata/Orono/Medina - 16 delegates
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted - 0
SD 40 - Bloomington - 9 delegates
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted -
SD 41 - Edina/Bloomington - 19 delegates
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted - 0
SD 44 - Hopkins - 1 delegate
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted - 0
SD 45 - Plymouth - 2 delegates
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted - 0
SD 49 - Coon Rapids - 6 delegates
Bonoff - 0
Madia - 0
Uncommitted - 0
Total Elected Delegates (includes last week)
Bonoff - 31
Madia - 52.5
Uncommitted - 3
Total Superdelegates
Bonoff - 15
Madia - 2
Uncomitted - 2
Total Delegates (95 needed for endorsement, 80 needed for 50% + 1)
Bonoff - 46
Madia- 54.5
Uncommitted - 5
Tom Scheck has an interesting story up on MPR about Governor Pawlenty’s frequent absence from the state:
Gov. Pawlenty is clearly racking up the frequent flyer miles.
MPR News analyzed the governor’s campaign travel, his public events schedule and press accounts and found that he’s been out of the state all or part of the day at least 25 times between Jan. 1 and March 12.
Much of that time was on behalf of Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Pawlenty has traveled to Michigan, Iowa, Illinois and Florida to campaign for McCain.
Frankly, I don’t think that this is a significant issue as long as these frequent absences aren’t interfering with his duties as Governor. Although, his response to a pointed question about his VP ambitions is funny:
“You know, I have a day job,” Pawlenty responded. “I support him because I think he’d be a great president, not because I want to be vice president.”
But the question remains, how often do these non-ambitions interfere with his day job? I don’t think anyone can rightly have a problem with a politician having higher ambitions, it’s just a question of whether those ambitions get in the way of the job they’ve been elected to do.
There were some mumblings around the capitol recently that the House Republicans felt that they were left out to dry by the Governor’s lack of accessibility during the crucial moments leading up to the veto override vote. It seems that House Republicans felt that their position was weakened because the Governor wasn’t around to help pressure key Republican reps. So, I guess I can deal with that type of travel related job neglect…
MPR also has this great graphic by Than Tibbetts up; go here to read the full story.
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