Tracking Minnesota Politics Since 2005
Rasmussen Reports is out with a new poll of the Minnesota Senate race that shows the contest to be statisticaly tied.
Coleman - 47% (-3)
Franken - 45% (+2)
This poll could be a sign that Franken is recovering from the spate of bad press he weathered in the past month. We’ll have to wait and see if other polls confirm.
With traffic up a tick from the New York Times link, I think now’s an appropriate time to revisit this Sack cartoon:
For those who might not be familiar with the backstory, the Minnesota GOP has had quite a few problems sorting out their finances themselves. I wonder if Ron Carey has a tough time getting upset about Franken making a finance mistake given how familiar he is with those sort of problems.
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has some loft aims for voter turnout in 2008. From te Strib:
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Thursday he is waging a campaign to push turnout of eligible voters above 80 percent, a threshold Minnesota hasn’t surpassed since 83 percent went to the polls in 1956. That would mean more than 3 million ballots are cast.
In 2004, the last presidential election year, a tick above 77 percent of eligible voters took part — some 2.8 million votes overall.
Ritchie, a Democrat, said it’s clear to him that “a wave is already in motion” to pad Minnesota’s turnout figures, which are routinely tops in the nation.
His “80 in ‘08” campaign is aimed at driving up participation by first-time voters, people with disabilities and seniors. Components include recently passed legislation to ease voting by soldiers deployed overseas, the use of high school civics classes to preach the virtues of voting and the coordination of transportation to help older or disabled voters get to their polling place.
While Kiffmeyer set her sights on disenfranchising Native American voters in the state, Ritchie is actually setting up programs to get more people to vote. Let this be a lesson to anyone who thinks that elections don’t make a difference.
We usually don’t highlight when MNpublius appears in the news, but this is the first time I’ve been in the New York Times, so I have to brag a little. Michael and I have our pictures in an article in today’s NYTimes about blogging in Minnesota. And while the story is a bit more about the Franken tax situation than I would have hoped, I really can’t complain because, hey, this is pretty cool (although the picture is a bit dorky!).
Ha.
We’re down towards the bottom of the article:
D.F.L.-leaning sites like MNPublius, the creation of Matt Martin, 23, had turned to claims that Mr. Coleman might face his own financial embarrassment: Mr. Coleman this month declined a D.F.L. demand that he return campaign donations from workers at a firm that once lobbied on behalf of a faction of Myanmar’s military government. Other sites raised questions about the state Republican Party’s own financial reporting issues; state party officials acknowledge they are reviewing Federal Election Commission filings since 2002, but argue that their sort of errors have been common among state party organizations.
And, I’m also happy that I mentioned to Ms. Davey that Minnesota’s voter turnout was the highest in the nation in 2006 — I always love a chance to brag about Minnesota:
Experts here say the abundance of these blogs is a mirror onto this state, its partisan split in recent years and its long tradition of intense political activism (by some measures, voter turnout here was the highest in the nation in 2006). That said, they are anything but Minnesota Nice.
Michael is hyperventilating because some mutual fund that Al Franken has invested in bought some oil company stock. In Michael’s mind, this makes Franken a hypocrite.
Here’s the thing: Michael tried to make the exact same hit on Amy Klobuchar in 2006. We all know how that turned out.
Mutual funds invest in lots of companies. Do you know every company that your mutual fund invests in? Thought not. Frankly, its not surprising that most mutual funds invest in oil companies. Thanks to Republican economic policies, oil is about the only profitable investment on the market these days.
Take a moment and watch this amazing video that the Franken campaign put together summarizing their “Al’s On Your Side” Tour.
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has ranked Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District as the 12th most likely House seat in the country to switch hands in November’s election. The 3rd was not ranked last time. 12th is pretty good when you consider this…
Given the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s massive fundraising take to date it’s not hard to see them spending money in all of the districts listed above. The National Republican Congressional Committee, on the other hand, continues to struggle financially and may not be in a position to spend a dime on protecting any of these seats — even if it looks like they might lose them.
Democrats now appear well positioned to make double digit gains in the House — 20 plus seats is not out of the question…
Here is what Cillizza had to say about the 3rd:
Republicans cleared the field for state Sen. Erik Paulsen and he has rewarded them. He ended March with nearly $700,000 on hand and will face upstart Iraq war veteran Ash Madia, who pulled off an upset in the Democratic convention earlier in the spring. The district is a toss up on the presidential level so candidate quality will matter.
Let me tell you, Ashwin Madia is one quality candidate.
I couldn’t agree more with this letter in the Strib today:
At the end of this legislative session, I would like to thank the 201 Minnesotans who served in the Minnesota House and Senate. In addition to their “day job” as teachers, lawyers, farmers, homemakers (to name just a few of the many professions represented), these people have put in tremendously long hours at their “second job.” It takes incredible commitment to run for elective office and then to put in many long days over a few months grappling with the very difficult issues that face our state. Thanks as well to the families of these 201 people for suffering their long absences these past months so they could work to make Minnesota a better place for us all.
Legislating is a tough job; someone has to do it. Thankfully these 201 Minnesotans accepted the challenge and worked in a way that made us all proud — both in the civility of this session as well as in the good decisions.
PHYLLIS RODEN, MINNEAPOLIS
Remember when everyone was getting uppity because some suggested that just maybe MN DoT being underfunded might have been a part of why 35w came down? I mean, it was fairly outlandish to suggest that infrastructure goes bad when underfunded…. Well, surprise!
Compounding the problems, the report said, was the fact that while MnDOT’s bridge experts were housed in one office, those responsible for inspecting and repairing the bridge were in another office miles away.
For Pawlenty and MnDOT, the harshest criticism may have come in the report’s finding that funding influenced decisions concerning the bridge. The decision to postpone a $13 million redecking — and instead proceed with a $3.5 million overlay that was underway when the bridge fell — meant “funding considerations deferred work on the bridge that would have improved its structural integrity, not just maintain its drivability,” the report concluded. [Strib]
On that note, let the comment war begin!
Despite his urban roots, Coleman says he has spent the last 30 years learning and developing his philosophy of Minnesota and U.S. agriculture.
The first 20 years must have been a wash. From the Star Tribune
Coleman spreads message
“Often admitting that he was in need of more education about farming and rural life, Coleman said, ‘I know what I don’t know and I know that I’ve got to listen.’ Coleman was no better than citified reporters at identifying the crops in the fields along the route, and he told folks at many stops that he was still learning about their region and economy.“ (6/23/1998)
Norm Coleman: He’ll try to be all things to all people but will probably just look like a flip-flopping sycophant in the end.
The DFL has a great web video out today. Take a look…
John McCain is set to release a batch of medical records tomorrow. The timing, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, indicates that McCain wants to bury the medical records. Another sign that McCain doesn’t want much attention paid to the records is the leaking of his meeting with potential running mates at his ranch in Arizona. As First Read writes:
By leaking out word that the candidate will be hosting three potential veep running mates (Charlie Crist, Bobby Jindal, and Mitt Romney) at his ranch this weekend, the campaign has given the press corps a nice distraction story to focus on at a time when he’ll have just released details of his medical records on Friday, which just happens to mark the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend.
So whats in these records that McCain wants bury? McCain’s advanced age is proving to be a liability in the polls. If he was perfectly healthy, wouldn’t he be trumpeting these records as evidence that he’s up to the job? On the other hand, I wouldn’t expect anything too bad. If McCain was suffering from some serious medical problems, he’d probably roll it out in a way that would allow him to explain it more fully. My guess is thar the records show that McCain has mild health problems; probably those typical for a man entering his 70’s. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Several weeks ago when I rounded up the possible DFL candidates for Governor in 2010, I said that House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher might be a serious contender if the 2008 session came to a successful conclusion. Well, it did and now she is.
Since session ended on Sunday, it seems like every DFLer I talk to is buzzing about a potential Kelliher candidacy. Profiles like this one in the Strib only add to the chatter:
Matched all session against a popular governor and a tenacious Senate leader known for brinksmanship, Kelliher negotiated relentlessly rocky terrain for the past 3 1/2 months.
But she emerged from the session as a newly formidable force in state politics, capable of outmaneuvering Pawlenty at key moments while dragging more militant members of her own party toward compromise.
Thats not even the best part…
That override dramatically changed the dynamic of the session, putting political observers on notice that House speaker version 2008 was sharply upgraded — faster, smoother, more adept at wielding the power available to the second-most powerful figure in state government.
Often Buddha-like in her calm, Kelliher seldom gets riled in public, but has shown a surprisingly firm hand this year with unruly members and unsuspecting opponents.
As I noted several weeks ago, the 2010 gubernatorial field is likely to be crowded with some very big names. The camps of Congressman Tim Walz, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak are all sending out signals indicating possible runs. With her impressive handling of the final days of the session, Kelliher is now firmly in that tier one list.
The Speaker brings a lot to the table as a gubernatorial candidate. Her caucus is very loyal to her and I would expect she’ll have the support of the vast majority of House DFLers. That will give her a leg up in reaching out to delegates and donors across the state. In addition, Kelliher shows a remarkable discipline in press conferences and on the stump. After the disasterous Hatch candidacy, discipline is an attractive quality in a gubernatorial candidate. One final advantage is her gender. Most of the other rumored candidates are men (Susan Gaertner and Tarryl Clark are the exceptions). DFL activists would love to nominate a woman for Governor and recent election results (McCollum, Bachmann, Klobuchar and about 40% of the legislature) show that women candidates do well in Minnesota general elections.
A friend brought this to my attention.
From, the Writers Almanac by Garrison Keillor (audio here),
It was on this day in 1927 that Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in Paris, completing the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight. Lindbergh grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota, and first wanted to become a pilot when he saw planes passing over his town as a boy. He eventually got a job as an airmail pilot, flying between St. Louis and Chicago. It was an incredibly dangerous job at the time. Of the first 40 pilots hired, 31 died in crashes. But in his first four years on the job, Lindbergh flew 7,189 flights without a serious incident.
A man named Raymond Orteig was offering a $25,000 award for anyone who could successfully fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Several pilots had tried to win the prize and died in their effort. Lindbergh decided that the way to win it was to fly alone, saving on weight. He got financial backing from St. Louis businessmen and bought a single-engine plane with a large gas tank, which he called the Spirit of St. Louis.
In order to keep the plane as light as possible, he redesigned it himself to make it lighter. He didn’t take a radio, a parachute, or any navigational equipment. He started down the runway at 7:51 a.m. on May 20, 1927. The gasoline tank was so heavy that he had trouble getting the plane into the air, and only cleared the telephone lines by 20 feet.
From the take-off in New York, he flew north over Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, navigating by checking maps against the landmarks he could see on the ground. He reached Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and then flew in toward the city of St. John’s because he wanted people to know he’d gotten at least that far. People who saw his plane said they could almost read the serial number on the underside of the wing. It was the last land Lindbergh would see until he reached Ireland.
He turned east toward Europe just as night was falling. For the next 15 hours, no one would know if he was alive or dead. People across America would later say that they stayed up thinking about Lindbergh that night, praying for his safety. The humorist Will Rogers wrote in his column, “No attempt at jokes today. A … slim, tall, bashful, smiling American boy is somewhere over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where no lone human being has ever ventured before.”
After reaching the halfway point of his journey, Lindbergh began to hallucinate, and even saw a coastline before his calculations said that he should. When he flew toward it, the coastline vanished. After more than 24 hours, Lindbergh spotted fishing boats on the water. He reached Ireland a few hours later, and turned south toward Paris.
As he approached the airfield where he was supposed to land he was confused by the strange array of lights. He had to circle around awhile before he realized that the lights were cars stuck in traffic, people trying to get to the airfield to see the landing.
Lindbergh touched down at 10:24 p.m. on this day in 1927, 33½ hours after he’d taken off. About 150,000 people mobbed the landing strip in Paris, shouting, “Vive Lindbergh!” When he got out of his plane, the crowd picked him up and passed him over their heads, before he even had a chance to step on the ground.
He became one of the most famous men in the world overnight. Several songs were written about him and a dance called “The Lindy” was named after him. New York City gave him the largest ticker-tape parade of all time, and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “In the late spring of 1927, something bright and alien flashed across the sky. A young Minnesotan who seemed to have nothing to do with his generation did a heroic thing, and for a moment people set down their glasses in country clubs and speakeasies and thought of their old best dreams.”
Last night the Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama released another month of amazing
fundraising numbers, 31 Million dollars. In the dog-eat-dog world of political fundraising this is a staggering number that brings his total to 256 Million dollars only a little less than the 262 Million dollars raised by George W. Bush during the entire 2004 campaign. It is not unreasonable to think that Barack Obama will have raised and spent more money before gaining the Democratic endorsement than any Presidential candidate has raised through an entire election campaign.
What’s amazing about this is the preponderance of small donors. 94 percent of the campaigns donations have come from people donating $200 or less, and more than half of the total donations come from donations of $25 or less.
This is a historic feat. And it also gives amazing room for growth, the people who gave $25 or $100 or $200 haven’t maxed out for the primary so they could give again and again and again.
Senator Obama hasn’t announced yet whether or not he’ll abide by public financing of his general election campaign, but if he doesn’t he has the potential to raise mind numbingly ginormous sums of cash in the general, between his maxed out for the primary donors who can donate again, his voluminous base of small donors and the big money Clinton donors who will support the Democratic candidate his fundraising haul in the general election could, not unreasonably, be over $300 Million dollars.
In the latest issue of The Atlantobama Josh Green sheds a little light on the fundraising machine behind these extraordinary numbers.
The Amazing Money Machine
History has a way of prizing timeless qualities like vision and oratory above temporal things like money. So if Barack Obama becomes our nation’s first black president, civics textbooks will probably never note his fund-raising prowess…
What’s intriguing to Democrats and worrisome to Republicans is how someone lacking these deep connections to traditional sources of wealth could raise so much money so quickly. How did he do it? The answer is that he built a fund-raising machine quite unlike anything seen before in national politics. Obama’s machine attracts large and small donors alike, those who want to give money and those who want to raise it, veteran activists and first-time contributors, and—especially—anyone who is wired to anything: computer, cell phone, PDA.
Here’s another thing: he is doing it almost effortlessly. That is to say, in an era when the imperative for campaign dollars demands more and more of a politician’s time and lurks behind so many recent scandals (including the auctioning-off of the Lincoln Bedroom), Obama has raised more money than anybody else without plumbing ethical gray areas or even spending much of his own time soliciting donations. During the month of February, for example, his campaign raised a record-setting $55 million—$45 million of it over the Internet—without the candidate himself hosting a single fund-raiser. The money just came rolling in.
I’ll admit it, I boosted the Scrooge McDuck from the Atlantic article.
Newest Diaries
Loading ...
People are Shouting