My personal favorite blogger in Minnesota, Spot at The Cucking Stool endorsed Jim Hovland this morning.
Spotty writes:
Spot has watched Hovland in local government for a long time, and his commitment as a council member and as the mayor is commendable….
Jim Hovland seems like the only DFL candidate who points the way toward single-payer universal coverage. And he does it on competitive and business grounds. This is also a theme that will reverberate in Spot’s other endorsement.Ol’ Spot has crossed swords with Mayor Hovland a couple of times, but he always believed he got a fair hearing. Spot says that Jim Hovland would be a great Congressman, and he urges all of you delegates to support him.
MNPublius probably won’t be endorsing a candidate in the 3rd CD, because the field is an embarrassment of riches — three candidates who would be great public servants in any of Minnesota’s congressional districts (although, as the former chair of the Minnesota Young DFL, I do have to admit I’m a little sweet on Madia) but I thought that the wizened pup Spot’s endorsement was worth noting.
[update] Oh, and with the same whining that accompanied my write up of Steve Sarvi, I’ll have, again God willing, my now comically past due write up of a great talk I had with Jim Hovland up this week.
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Strong endorsement from Spotty.
I have personally spoken to more than one “Ramstad Republican” in the west metro who are actually holding off on contributing to Paulsen until they see if Hovland has a chance. If they sense that Hovland is ever out of it, I think they will quickly support Paulsen.
He appeals to moderates because he they sense his fiscal conservatism is more than just lip service. Single Payer Healthcare aside, he may have the most moderate appeal of anyone in the race. And this is a moderate district.
Hovland does seem like the real deal.
He’s self-effacing & seems to have a reasonable head on his shoulders.
I’ve talked with him at length a few times.
Didn’t expect to be impressed with him, but I am.
It seems like the press is has its entire focus on the DFLer-Come-Lately (Madia) and the Senator (Bonoff) who really hasn’t been the chief author of anything noteworthy. Hovland certainly has a record of good work, and he is clearly brighter that the others.
Well, I think Madia shows some shine too.
But Hovland has a very “Minnesota” quality about him.
He is low key Norwegian. He doesn’t give the impression of someone who feels he needs to shout. People should have enough courtesy to listen.
Kind of the “bridge-builder” type without suppressing his own personality. (And Man, could we use some bridges RE-built in this state!)
Of the 3 people running, the only one I’ve probably excluded, is Bonoff. Not quite sure I can put my finger on why.
The broadest appeal really ought to be Hovland, but I also like Madia’s energy.
It might be funny to say -
but Hovland has a little “Lake Woebegone” about him.
(Hope he’s a Keillor fan).
As for passing on Bonoff, maybe its just that I had to eliminate someone for the moment, in lieu of making a final decision about any one candidate.
(just musing out loud).
I wish Hovland were running a better campaign. I might be able to consider him if he were. I, too, have eliminated Bonoff. Anyone at SD42 last weekend? Her campaign is loose with the rules, rude and obnoxious.
I’m supporting Madia but could go for Hovland if he firmed up a campaign.
I’m really impressed with Mayor Jim.
In a general election, he pounds Paulsen. Beats Paulsen like a cheap drum.
Hope his team is ready and has people in place this Saturday for the five SD Conventions……
I could live with having Hovland in Congress.
Hey folks why don’t you shut down your website. You claim to be objective, but remove posts critical of Al Franken.
When challenged you say you will make a comment and don’t.
Which means that whatever you try to claim is the truth the opposite should be assumed.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
I commented Walter — thanks for posting. Sean
I saw the Franken AP story on this site earlier today, and it looked out of place since it was in a thread that was about a totally different race - Congress vice Senate.
Guess the poster just wanted to get it ‘out there’ and did not care if it was relevant to the thread or not.
Just like this post is not relevant to Hovland thread!
over and out . . .
Threadjacking - its what people do when they have nothing noteworthy to say…..
I also like Hovland- in fact he was my first choice! He hasn’t been able to build a credible campaign though, and I am not sure why. He has/had a good campaign manager, but it doesn’t feel organized or strong enough to go anywhere. Too bad. Hope he plans to run another race in the future. There is certainly a place for Jim Hovland in the Democratic Party!
I have also eliminated Bonoff. Her campaign is very negative and her supporters are rude and obnoxious. I also was at Sd42 and was taken aback by the “sign war” and the obvious disdain for the leadership of that senate district!
I am supporting Madia because of his organization and positive campaign at this point. Jim is a strong second though, and if something happens in the next couple of weeks to Madia I would have no trouble voting for Hovland.
You do get the feeling that Hovland would do very well in the General.
“An endorsement for the Third District “ http://www.mncampaignreport.com/
The only campaign to this point is the campaign for DFL caucus delegates. Hovland doesn’t have any kind of base in that group and his moderate positions aren’t going to appeal to that group either.
The typical voter in November likes moderation. The past three decades of 3rd district elections proves that.
The DFL caucus might get their base candidate nominated, but then lose the general. The 3rd district has moved to the left, true, but has not become “blue”. By moving to the left, it simply means the district isn’t has conservative as it once was.
But it is nothing like the 5th or 7th. A non-moderate candidate will be beaten in November.
Just one blogger’s (strong) belief.
Let me clear up something here. I was at Eden Prairie as a volunteer and observer. As a lifetime democrat and former Wellstone Delegate, I have never seen more Republican like tactics than I did from (Jigar) Ashwin Madia and his campaign at Eden Prairie. The convention started very nicely. I was there early to help with signs. The Terri Bonoff campaign came better prepared and early. They had signs ready to go and followed the rules laid out by district 42. The Madia campaign got there later and started to put signs outside in front of the Bonoff signs already posted and were asked to move them as they did. The front entry area was rearranged by the request of the Eden Prairie officials and no one had any problem with this. I do believe they asked for balance and each campaign was allowed the same number of signs at the door. I was standing there myself when the discussion took place and witnessed many campaigns talking friendly about doing it fair. It is true the Bonoff campaign had more signs and were better organized. No rules were broken by Bonoff people. The only negative activity with signs was Madia people placing their signs over Bonoff’s.
Later when the convention started. Several women in Madia shirts came by Senator Terri Bonoff’s table and stood there and chatted. After they spoke for several minutes, they grabbed food laid out by Bonoff’s campaign for the public. They came by several times and grabbed coffee cups with Bonoff stickers on them to fill with crackers. Now if these Madia supporters were hungry, we welcome them to eat our food! I have to wonder though when they had a back room closed to the public with tables full of food, why they were hanging out in front of Terri’s table. Again, if these ladies wish to eat our food, we are the party of caring and helping out those in need and we welcome your need.
This was just silliness, but what happened later was beyond belief.
I was standing in the back near the campaign tables when the sub-caucusing was going on and observing. I watched as Congressional Candidate (Jigar) Ashwin Madia quickly walked past with his campaign manager Cam and another man. Curious to see what the rush was I followed them. I watched the three of them enter the Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer sub-caucus and speak to several delegates in the sub-caucus who were wearing Madia tee-shirts. I grabbed someone else and we took Madia and the other men out of the sub-caucus. I told them they were breaking the Rules and they should know better. They acted as though they did not know the Rules.
(Jigar) Ashwin Madia has a law degree. He is running for Congress. He knows the Rules! Cam proceeded to insult me for calling them on their infraction. I told him face to face, that I objected to his insults and that he needed to obey the Rules. I told him if Bonoff entered a sub-caucus I would remove her the same way. She was about 30 feet away and unaware of what Madia was doing. If Cam wants to deny this, he can do so to my face and I will call him on it publicly! They not only broke the Rules but the Madia people were insulting. Madia himself acted innocent and apologetic, like he just didn’t know better.
Later, Cam went up the stairs to the upper level and came down on the JNP sub-caucus on the stairway. He proceeded to point and gesture to the people down below in the sub-caucus. I again grabbed someone to talk to the Madia campaign about communicating with the sub-caucuses. Cam came down and was insulting to me again and I was not going to listen to his insults. When someone got him off the stairs, he said to me, yah well I saw you smiling at that lady! Like my smiling was comparable to what they were doing. A lady smiled at me and I smiled back.. .how dare I.
During the entire sub-caucus, there were at least 6-9 Madia people within one step of the JNP sub-caucus. I stood there to be sure no one entered. I wanted to leave and pick up my daughter but I wasn’t able to.
In the end, the JNP sub-caucus voted for a leaning Hovland delegate and uncommitted alternate. I spoke to a man who was there for Jack afterward. I told him I felt horrible about what happened and hoped they got a strong delegate who supported their candidate. That is what sub-caucusing is about! He had blonde hair facial hair and really believed in Jack. Find him and ask him.
We talked about Wellstone and the DFL, the importance of getting rid of Norm Coleman and winning the 3rd District seat for Congress. We need to fight the republicans not get into dirty politics like this. If the elected delegate in the JNP sub-caucus supports Hovland, GREAT!
What we need to do is stop insulting each other and play fair!
Wellstone forever,
Are you just going to go copying and pasting your rant everywhere? It’s wrong, unfortunately. Only part of the story. sigh.
WMD
Knowing what the Bonoff campaign is capable of (push polls, false bios, false mailings), how can one be sure this is not their last ditch effort to let some dirt stick.
Y’know, its an embarrassment of riches this election cycle.
(Ooops! The original posting already said that!)
There are so many outstanding choices that they get in each other’s way. That’s both outstanding & unfortunate.
And we still don’t know enough about the individual candidates!
I was going to leave this one alone, however…
WF: That’s not very “Wellstone” to lean into what appears to be character assassination.
Not the Paul I remember anyway.
Although taking his name in a forum is easy.
Maybe what you said is true, I sure didn’t see it happen & I was there too. Maybe we were different places. Or perhaps you’re observations are out of proportion??
Sorry, for my money - I don’t trust any trashing of the progressive candidates unless I know the poster. Too many pretenders & visitors from MDE.
So is the out of state comedian leading the two serious candidates for the senate and the presidential race that will end with one side or the other feeling like they were robbed the embarrassment or the riches? I guess the fact that Democrats for so long have had nothing but Republicans to judge themselves against has given them awfully low expectations.
Wellstone Forever we obviously attended 2 different conventions last weekend!
If you really wanted to honor Paul Wellstones memory you would not be posting trash at various blogs. You would be busy talking about the positives of the candidate you support.
It is so easy to throw a name out there, but so hard to live up to the legacy. Shame on you! Paul never had mud on his shoes, but you are in it up to your eyeballs.
swd — Why when wellstone forever… posts an eyewitness accout of the day’s events is it mudslinging, but when rm continues to spread outright lies about Bonoff’s business background, is that ok? Why when madia backers try to obsure Bonoff’s strong pro-choice position, is that unchallenged? This campaign operated on these pages is as dirty as they come. Why when Westmetrodem posts that bonoff backers were rude, is that ok? And WMD asked if anyone was there and what their experience was. Funny, one person disagrees with those who campaign via MNpublius, and you all attack… again, reflects on your candidate.
Actually, voter, interestingly enough, not one person here has ever mentioned Terri’s pro-choice stance. All 3 of the candidates are pro-choice as far as I know. I can’t imagine running against the party platform, frankly. As far as I’m concerned, that’s off the table.
I haven’t seen any “lies” about Bonoff’s business background. Just questions about the vague claims she has made. No biggie. She is a business wiz per her personal vitae. I would assume, then, that we will accept the fact that the US Marine do not put out complete information about what a marine does in service and that will be okay, too. Law firms also don’t give out tons of info on every case they handle either. There should be a presumed right to privacy by those employing their services unless the case ends up on the news at night (like Ciresi uses the tobacco case in his lit). Right?
Obviously we will also stop the crap about Madia not having a job right now because Terri doesn’t either. She proudly quit to raise her kids. He quit to run for congress. Okay. Fine by me.
How about issues?
Bottom line - I was at SD42. I heard the ranting of the convention chair and the sd chair complaining about the Bonoff people not following the rules even though they knew about the error in the rules. That’s first hand. If someone complains about Madia people. Same thing. Both are fair game as far as I’m concerned. It’s interesting to me to see two people who attended the same convention have such different perspective. I don’t think it’s just lobbing verbal bombs personally.
voter - “but when rm continues to spread outright lies about Bonoff’s business background, is that ok?”
If i post lies i can get sued. Her husband is a big time lawyer.
My questions about her “executive business background” are very valid. You can keep dodging with some half baked release from Navarre that calls her an executive but it does not contradict her own ex-husbands statement that she was an PR gal.
Finally any one who sees her public performance can put 2/2 together when it comes to my assertions. By assertsion would have no credibility if she came across as someone of amazing intellect.
If Jigar Ashwin Madia and Cam wish to deny it, then let them do so publicly and I will call them on their lie. I will look Cam in the eye, face to face and call him a lier if he denies it, Madia too! He knows who I am!!!! Ask him about it!!!! And if Madia wants to lie and say it did not happen then there you go!!!!
There are many witnesses and the Madia camp knows what they did… don’t say shame on me for exposing the truth. Ask the person for from JNP organizer to respond.. I talked to him too.
Jigar Ashwin madia stepped into the Jack Nellson-Pallmeyer sub-caucus to tell his people how to vote for delegates to state!
Both Jigar Ashwin Madia and Cam apologized to me later. They know they did it! Ask them! And they know who I am! There are dozens who witnessed it in the back of the Eden Prairie cafeteria near the snack machines. Find a JNP sub-caucus person!
Cam insulted me and I wasn’t going to listen to it and I am not afraid of your republican tactics! If Madia learned this from working for McCain, then he is in the wrong party!
I have my Wellstone bumper sticker on my car and he is in my heart… I bleed green!
West Metro Dem: Why do you say Senator Terri Bonoff does not have a job? She is a State Senator! I do believe it fits the definition of a job!
Does anyone know how Jigar Ashwin Madia lost his job at RKMC? I do not believe he quit. RKMC is a fine law firm and they would have kept him while running for Congress.
Why hasn’t Ciresi endorsed him? I was at a Ciresi House Party with Bonoff there. I will not speak for him but I have not heard he supports Madia. It makes me wonder?
It must be nice to be able to live without a job. I for one have children to feed and a mortgage to pay. I am happy to support a woman who knows how to care for a family and has lived through tough times as a single mother. She understands the needs of the people of the 3rd District.
Your rants are just that. No substance. If you want to say something be specific instead of general nonsense! People can read through your posts.
rm: You are about as translucent as it comes… Why are you questioning Bonoff’s intellect? Are women not capable in your opinion?