Monthly Archive for May, 2008

More on Bakk

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 29, 2008 at 8:31 am
, filed in General
. 4 Comments

Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk registered a campaign committee earlier this week to run for Governor in 2010.  Bakk is calling the committee and exploratory committee, saying that a final decision to run or not will be made by the end of the year.  According to the Forum Communications, Bakk is hoping to answer three questions.

The senator said he has three issues to examine before he decides whether he will run:

 — If he can raise enough money, which could reach $2.5 million.

 — Whether he can attract enough state convention delegates for an endorsement, which he will investigate at the 2008 DFL convention next week in Rochester.

 — How to devise the right campaign strategy to win, including attracting businessmen.

As with anything remotely related to the Range, Aaron Brown is a must read.  He seems a tad skeptical.

Coleman’s Ties to Disgraced Lobbying Group Run Deep

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 28, 2008 at 3:07 pm
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. 12 Comments

Norm Coleman still refuses to return contributions from the disgraced lobbying consortium DCI Group despite John McCain’s firing of two DCI lobbyists from high ranking positions in his campaign and despite the fact that Norm has divested contributions from far less sinister sources (Larry Craig for instance).

Today, the DFL shows us why Norm has been unwilling to join John McCain in condemning DCI.

It seems the senior Senator’s ties to DCI run far deeper than imagined. A consulting firm known as FLS-DCI (until last year when it was renamed FLS-Connect) serves as a general consultant  to Coleman’s campaign.  In the last several years, Coleman and his PAC have paid some $1.5 million to FLS-DCI.

In fact, in a story published just yesterday in the Star Tribune, Jeff Larson was quoted on behalf of (and identified as Treasurer of) Norm’s PAC.  Larson is a founding partner in FLS-DCI (he is the L).  A Pioneer Press report from late last year said Larson is a member of Norm’s “inner circle of advisors.”

Don’t let FLS’s name change fool you, published reports listed FLS and DCI as “sister companies” as recently as 2004 (which was two years after DCI took on the Junta as a client).  DCI’s Chairman, Tom Syhorst, was a founding parter of FLS (he’s the S) and listed FLS as his employer when making a campaign contribution in 2005 to COLE PAC. The other founding partner of FLS, Tony Feather (the F), lobbyied for DCI from 2001-2005.

Norm won’t condemn DCI because if he did, he would have to fire one of his most important consultants and remove one of his closest advisors.

Tom Bakk Registers 2010 Gov Campaign Committee

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 28, 2008 at 2:50 pm
, filed in General
. 10 Comments

Michael reports that Senate Tax Chair Tom Bakk has registered a campaign committee to run for Governor in 2010.  Bakk has been considering a gubernatorial candidacy for many months now, and publicly flirted with the idea in a Star Tribune article just a few weeks back.  Bakk is loved by the unions but not liked by environmentalists.

If the 2010 DFL primary is a crowded field (and we think it will be) Bakk will be a serious contender due to expected heavy support on the Range and Northern Minnesota.  Nevertheless, he will have some serious work to do to increase his name recognition in the Twin Cities and the rest of the state if he hopes to win the endorsement outright.

Fairmont Sentinel Writes on Al Visit

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 28, 2008 at 1:12 pm
, filed in General
. 1 Comment

See, like I said last night, this guy is getting around the state like no one’s business:

He has spent time touring various parts of the state and recently visited rural southern Minnesota.

One of the biggest issues in rural Minnesota is the 2007 Farm Bill, which recently passed in both the U.S. House and Senate with enough votes to override President Bush’s veto. There was, however, a glitch as several pages of the bill focusing on international food aid and trade were missing due to a printing error.

While Franken said he didn’t know much at this time about the error, he did praise Congress for enacting the new [Farm] bill.

“It’s going to happen, and that’s good,” he said.

Although not perfect, the bill is a big achievement, he added.

“You’re never going to get a perfect bill.”

Rural development has to be important to not just rural Minnesota, but to the country at large, he said.
(Fairmont Sentinel)

(Note: this post has been published on a timer)

TV Ad Targets Michele Bachmann on Lack of Support for GI Bill

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 28, 2008 at 12:05 pm
, filed in General
. 22 Comments

This new GI Bill is an absolute must but it really just gets me peeved when those who use patriotism as a weapon refuse to back it up with legislation. So, all those who voted against this new GI Bill deserve to be called unpatriotic; it’s just disgusting. Hopefully a few people in the 6th will see this new ad that Americans United for Change is running:

(Note: this post has been published on a timer)

Ugh… do I always sound that nasal?

by
Sean Broom
Published on May 28, 2008 at 10:31 am
, filed in General
. 8 Comments

My fleshy facade (damn you beer!) and halfro is the stop screen that greets viewers to yesterday’s Fox9 story about bloggers.

Not quite sure why they used the gun-toting government hating redneck Republican soundbite (I’m still a redneck, and prouder than ever FYI) but whatevs.  What they didn’t include were some of my thoughts about the value of this and what we do — namely that blogs are a very insular community, and that we don’t win elections, but that what we can do is help frame and promote narratives to the traditional or mainstream media. While anyone who has worked on campaigns can tell you earned media is priceless it doesn’t win campaigns, which is why I always try to link to fundraising or volunteer opportunities because those things do win elections.  Also that “we’re on the vanguard” comment wasn’t quite as pompous as it seems, because it came after talking about Minnesota Monitor, Minnesota Campaign Report (although I did mention that Joe is envious of our wittiness, good looks and roguish charm) and other great Minnesota blogs.

And finally, I know I’m working through some allergies, but sweet jeebus, do I always sound that nasal?

Come Party Tonight with Young Dems

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 28, 2008 at 10:15 am
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. 5 Comments

I’ve been asked to send this invite out into the internet and so I shall:

Young Progressive Majority Presents
Nine Days Out:
Party for Change
O’Gara’s Garage
164 Snelling Ave N
St. Paul 55104
May 28 at 7PM

The idea is to promote the delegates with the tag line being: “9 days before we pick our candidate against Norm Coleman, 9 days before we choose our delegates to select our President, 9 days before we gather in Rochester to Rally for Change.” Be there or be square.

(Note: this post has been published on a timer)

Ash Gets Attention As Vets Run For Congress, Sarvi Left Out

by
Sean Broom
Published on May 28, 2008 at 9:35 am
, filed in CD2
. 4 Comments

Who is that handsome devil in the newspaper? It’s Minnesota’s own Ash Madia in a USA Today writeup of Iraq war vets running for congress. Ash gets his own bullet point as a targeted house race featuring a vet

•Minneapolis suburbs: Democrat Ashwin Madia, a Marine, will take on GOP state Rep. Erik Paulsen, a former aide to retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad. Madia, a lawyer, worked with Iraqi officials to develop the country’s justice system.

Ash maybe the most dynamic candidate in the state right now, he’s been raising crazy bank and preparing for what looks to be a bruising campaign against Erik Paulsen.

Sadly Steve Sarvi isn’t mentioned anywhere in the writeup — it’s alright though as he the subject of a glowing write up from Paul Demko at MNMonitor.

Sarvi argues that Kline’s bedrock conservative ideology is out of synch with the district. A National Journal analysis of voting records earlier this year determined that he was the 20th most conservative member of the House of Representatives, the highest such ranking for a member of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation. “He’s really gone to Washington to support the agenda of the Bush administration,” Sarvi says. “His voting record supports that.”…

It’s also widely believed that DFL’ers have failed to mount credible, well-run campaigns against Kline in the last four years… In 2006 Democrats believed they had the ideal candidate in former FBI agent and Time Person of the Year Coleen Rowley. But she flummoxed political observers by failing to raise sufficient cash to seriously threaten the incumbent. “Rowley deliberately ran a sort of unusual campaign — and not the sort of campaign that usually wins elections,” says Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College, which is in the district.

Colleen Rowley spent several hours a week holding a sign protesting the Iraq war on an overpass. True story. This is not the kind of campaign that wins elections. But what we’re hearing is that Steve Sarvi has been running the kind of campaign that does win elections and that his call time is going very well — here’s hoping for a good quarter (a quarter that you could make better by donating a little bit of money to him).

Vote!

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 28, 2008 at 8:50 am
, filed in General
. Closed

General Wesley Clark is going to travel to one congressional district this summer to do a community service project with a democratic challenger. You can help bring Clark to here by voting for one of the two Minnesota districts in the competition.  According to Clark, Minnesota’s 3rd and 6th district are sitting just outside the top five districts:

Thousands of votes are in, but only 75 votes separate first place from fifth. The numbers are tight all the way down the bracket.

Our leader board right now has New Jersey’s 7th, Washington’s 8th, Colorado’s 4th, Nevada’s 2nd, and California’s 4th districts, but it is anybody’s game!

Two districts from Minnesota, two districts from North Carolina, and West Virginia’s 2nd district are all knocking on the door.

There is nobody that I would count out of it, and if any district makes a big push by Friday, they could easily find them selves in the final round.

* Special note for Ashwin and Elwyn: you guys haveMinnesota fired up! Team Tinklenberg has bragging rights for the moment, but there is only a 32 vote difference. Can Madia close the gap?

Take a moment and vote for either Madia or Tinklenberg

Caught Red Handed: Coleman Doubletalking on Medicare

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 28, 2008 at 7:20 am
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. 1 Comment

NormcolemanThe DFL put up a great release yesterday about how Norm Coleman is hurting seniors with his medicare polcies. The full thing is below, but let me hit on some of the highlights.
We’ll see how long it stays up, but Norm Coleman’s campaign site he claims that he supports negotiating medicare prices but just recently publicly opposed the same proposal on MPR. Check out the quote from his site:

By empowering the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices, more seniors can get access to prescription medication without negatively affecting the role the free market has taken in driving drug prices down.

Now check out this quote from MPR Midday on April18th when Coleman was asked about the criticism that Republcans were getting over not allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices:

The CBO has come back and said they’ve looked at that and that simply isn’t true. I supported a provision, I believe it was a year ago, that would allow the Secretary to be involved, not to do price fixing, not to negotiate prices, on his own, but actually to provide more transparency.

There’s also apparently a constituent letter response from Coleman addressing a negotiation program that says the following:

I agree that we must do all we can to make prescription drugs more affordable to our nation’s seniors and people most in need. However, I am concerned about changing a program that is already working.
…
The Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) healthcare system has negotiating power, but I have several concerns with this system.

Talk about caught red handed! This is just more evidence of Norm Coleman trying to run away from his record when he sees the political winds blowing the other direction.

It’s a bit lengthy (like this post is getting), but read the whole release below the fold for some stunning facts on how Coleman’s ignored the interests of Minnesotans when it comes to Medicare issues.
Continue reading ‘Caught Red Handed: Coleman Doubletalking on Medicare’

2 Points Down, After All That!? Oh, it’s on.

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 27, 2008 at 10:43 pm
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. 20 Comments

Al FrankenZack posted on this earlier today, but the news out of the Rasmussen Reports is simply stunning: Franken down by 2!This can only be hailed as an astounding success for the Franken campaign. MinnPost reports:

Rasmussen Reports is out with a new U.S. Senate poll, which shows Al Franken has clawed back within two percentage points of Norm Coleman. Last month, Coleman led Franken 50-43; now, the margin is 47-45.

Rasmussen says Coleman’s margin among “unaffiliated” voters has slid from 18 points to 9, and Franken benefits from more Democrats in the state.

Wait, let’s go over that again: 50-43 last month, 47-45 today…. wow. Al Franken has just weathered a brutal news cycle and come out the other side only 2 points behind Norm Coleman… and the negative ads haven’t even started against Norm yet!

Now, of course, this has to be cautioned a bit as it’s only one data point and we all know that polls can be unreliable, but a move from 17 points down to 2 points down can definitely tell us 2 things: (1) He’s clearly recovering, to some degree, from this bad media cycle, and (2) the polls right after the tax news broke were, as expected, severely overestimating the hit. In fact, Franken’s doing better by this assessment than he was before!

On to a bigger point: Franken is impressing people on the ground. Sometimes this gets lost in the noise of the general media, but every time I hear from someone who sees him on the stump, DFLer or Republican, they come away impressed. Moreover, I think his presence is actually going to translate surprisingly well to TV ads come the fall. Bottom line people: It’s on.

Photo Credit to the incredibly talented Aaron Landry

Madia Pictures from Memorial Day Weekend

by
Matt Martin
Published on May 27, 2008 at 8:46 pm
, filed in General
. 3 Comments

Pawlenty a Drag on GOP Ticket?

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 27, 2008 at 12:28 pm
, filed in White House '08
. 5 Comments

SurveyUSA has been testing VP tickets lately, polling matchups between Obama and McCain with various VP nominees.  The potential Veeps being tested include: John Edwards, Ed Rendell, Chuck Hagel and Kathleen Sebelius for Obama and Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Joe Lieberman for McCain.

So far, Survey USA has released polling data from five states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, California and Iowa.  The results have been disastrous for Pawlenty.  The polls show 16 possible matchups in each state.  In each state, the worst matchup for the GOP has included Pawlenty.

You might attribute these results to simple name recognition.  After all, Romney, Huckabee and Lieberman all have run for President before.  The Iowa results, however, tell a different story.  After all, Iowa keeps a close eye on Minnesota.  Much of northern Iowa is in Minnesota media markets and saw Pawlenty campaign commercials in 2002 and 2006.  In Iowa, however, tickets including Pawlenty were the 10th, 11th, 12th and 16th most successful for the GOP. Moveover the best Pawlenty matchup in Iowa (vs. Obama/Rendell) still finished 4 points down.  So much for Pawlenty carrying the upper Midwest for McCain.

No wonder Chuck Todd noted today that Tim Pawlenty’s VP star seems to be fading.

Doug Grow: Kelliher the Big Winner

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 27, 2008 at 11:53 am
, filed in General
. 16 Comments

Doug Grow writes for MinnPost today that the Speaker was the big winner in the 2008 session:

Speaker of the House Margaret Kelliher was the biggest winner of all, coming out of this session winning raves from Republicans and Democrats alike. Without ever seeming to raise her voice, she managed to outmaneuver Gov. Tim Pawlenty throughout the session.

We already noted that whispers of a Kelliher gubernatorial candidacy are growing by the day.  She’s even getting rave reviews from Republicans:

“She had 100 balls in the air,” said [Rep. Kathy] Tingelstad. “If one of them had fallen, everything would have collapsed. But none fell. She was a great leader in everything she did.”

The Last Big Race Coleman Lost

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on May 27, 2008 at 11:42 am
, filed in MN 2008: Senate
. Closed

The Strib reminds us that Norm lost his last big race just over two years ago when he ran for NRSC Chair.  Norm, if you’ll remember, lost out to Elizabeth Dole in a close (and apparently very expensive) race to lead the campaign committee.

To a much greater extent than any other Minnesota politician, Coleman’s PAC expenditures have been particularly heavy in travel, including stays in Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Palm Beach.

St. Paul business executive Jeff Larson, treasurer of Coleman’s PAC, described the trips as fundraising outings related to helping other GOP candidates.

A lot of Coleman’s travel also was related to his 2004 bid to lead the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which he lost by one vote. Much of that politicking, in fact, required helping GOP colleagues in the Senate. Coleman’s PAC contributed $200,000 to other GOP campaigns in that election cycle, more than any other senator’s.

Dole was, of course, a huge disaster at the NRSC (even when you take into account that 2006 was a horrible year for the GOP).