Yesterday, Mike Kaszuba of the Star Tribune put out a great piece chronicling the political maneuverings of various prospective DFL candidates for Governor in 2010. Of particular interest was the news that former State House Minority Leader Matt Entenza has been setting up meetings with other prospective candidates.
I have spoken with two Democrats who have knowledge of what was said at these meetings (but are not in the Entenza camp). They both, independent of the other, told remarkably similar stories:
They said Entenza told the other prospective candidates that he plans to announce his gubernatorial candidacy in January of next year. He also told them that he would be running in the primary regardless of the outcome of the DFL Convention. Finally, Entenza told his fellow DFLers that he was prepared to spend $6 million of his own money on his campaign.
Both DFLers I spoke to thought that the Entenza meetings were an attempt on the former Leader’s part to push potential candidate out of the race. Both DFLers also indicated that the conversations actually had the opposite effect - it made the other candidates want to run even more.
Earlier today, I spoke with a Democrat close to Matt Entenza. This Democrat disputed some of the details of the story I heard from non-Entenza sources. According to this source, Entenza has not yet decided whether to run for Governor. In fact, this source put the odds of Entenza running at around 50-50. This source also told me that Entenza did not commit to spending $6 million, but rather sought to impress upon the other prospective candidates that the 2010 gubernatorial race would be very expensive, perhaps requiring 6 or 10 or even 12 million dollars.
Will Entenza run? How much will he spend? I leave it to you to decide. This much is clear: the race for Governor of Minnesota is already on, if under the radar.
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Do you know where Entenza got that money? From his wife’s fat bonuses as an executive at United Health Care. Unlike Bill McGuire, she didn’t have to give hers back.
There’s always the oddball darkhorse “look at me look at me I’m quirky!” candidate with no record that nobody was expecting to get in. This person will overnight pick up the support of half the commenters on this blog.
This is pretty much exactly why I don’t want Entenza to run. I don’t want this to be a bidding contest and I want a candidate who will respect the party process and not run in the primary if they don’t win the endorsement or come close.
That disqualifies Dayton, Bakk and Entenza so far.
Dan, are you the same “Dan” as “Dan at the Hatch office,” “Dan in the phone room” running the Hatch campaign on the taxpayers’ dime and spreading around this crap? Give it up. Hatch is history. He should should be wearing an orange jumpsuit like his pal Tom Petters.
I am not that same Dan, and I don’t even like Mike Hatch. And I agree Mike Hatch is history from a political standpoint. But speaking of Mike Hatch, do you remember why Entenza had to drop out of the AG’s race? Because of the sleazy tactics he used against Hatch. Entenza went up against Hatch, and it was Entenza who fell short when it came to ethics. Now that is a sad state of affairs.
But getting back to the point, which has absolutely nothing to do with Mike Hatch. Matt Entenza made his millions from his wife’s multi-million dollar bonuses from United Health Care. While people were getting their medical treatment denied and seeing their premiums and co-pays rise, Entenza’s wife and all the other UHC execs were raking in millions. If anyone belongs in an orange jumpsuit, its Entenza’s wife, Lois Quam. That’s just dirty money, and it will be an absolute disgrace if that dirty money is used to let Entenza buy the DFL nomination.
If you think that this is just “crap” that I am spreading, do you have another explanation? Do you dispute that Quam received millions of dollars in bonuses from United Health Care? Did Matt Entenza come across $6 million dollars somewhere else?
I’m not too worried about the possibility of a Governor Entenza in 2011.
Endorsement process first of all. When was the last time party activists endorsed a moneybag candidate in a contested fight? Answer: Mark Dayton for the U.S. Senate in 1982. And Dayton’s only intra-party opposition that year was a fading Gene McCarthy parachuting in from his Virginia farm for one last vanity bid. Clean Gene’s Senate campaign consisted entirely of sourly insulting all his old enemies in the state party and was most likely a publicity stunt for a book of poetry he had just published. Since then, no moneybag candidate has ever won a DFL endorsement if someone was running against them. Look at Mike Ciresi, Kelly Doran, and Ford Bell. Ciresi lost the endorsement to Jerry Janezich, who nobody outside the Iron Range had ever heard of. Jerry’s campaign budget was made up of spare change fished out from sofa cushions, underneath vending machines, and the proceeds from recycling old cans he’d picked up along the highway. This year, Ciresi finished behind Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Doran spent I don’t know how many millions and got 6% of the vote on caucus night. And spoiled rich kid Bell kept getting bitchier and bitchier as it sank in that activists weren’t gonna give him the shiny new toy he’d had his eye on. Add to that the fact that a lot of activists don’t like Entenza all that much. They believe Entenza’s out for Entenza, and nothing larger. And they’re probably right.
What if Entenza runs in a primary? Well, in that case, it depends on the quality of his TV ads and his statewide profile and the viability of the DFL endorsee or any other candidates who run. I don’t think Entenza has much of a pre-existing profile outside of St. Paul, and he comes across on TV as a total cold fish. His opponent(s) would have to have no money, no charisma, and no sizable base in order to lose a primary to him. (Given DFL conventions’ history with these things, this is probably where Entenza’s best shot comes in.)
What about the general? It depends on who the GOP runs. If it’s Pawlenty again, Pawlenty probably wins. If it’s someone like Geoff Michel from the GOPs suburban, looks-clean, sounds-reasonable stable, then it’s probably Michel. If it’s a nut like Brian Sullivan, Entenza’s got a chance. Does the IP play the spoiler again? Probably. What’s the mood of the country? Depends on who’s president, the economy, whether troops are still getting blown up each night on the news, and everything else. Ann Wynia might have won in ‘94 if the national tide hadn’t been so hostile to Democrats. Do all the dippy-but-well-intentioned neighborhood types in the DFL legislature go nuts trying to tax the hell out of everyone and convince voters that they need a Republican as a check in the Governor’s mansion? I dunno, it’s possible. It would be helpful if they could keep Larry Pogemiller locked in a dark closet with his mouth duct-taped shut throughout 2010. They seem to be doing a good job keeping him quiet this year.
Again, it’s too many moving variables to say for certain, but still, I have a hard time seeing Entenza pull this off.
Dan - I don’t know who you are, either. But if history is any guide, Matt Entenza has already hired a private investigator to figure it out.
Or have we all forgotten about that little incident from 2006? You know, the incident whereby Entenza was caught paying an investigator to dig up damaging info on gov candidate Mike Hatch while Entenza was claiming to run for AG? The incident that forced Entenza out of the race?
Given past history, anybody want to bet against the idea that Entenza will hire investigators to dig around, say, Susan Gaertner’s life? Mark Dayton’s? Margaret Anderson-Kelliher’s?
In any event, let’s just keep this all in perspective: in October of the most important presidential race in a generation, Matt Entenza is spending his time trying to scare people out of a future gov race by … showing off his wife’s money. What a team player, what a candidate. He makes Mike Hatch look like the Dalai Lama, by comparison.
Hey Al - When you posted that comment, did you remember to mark the time spent on it as “vacation” on your AG time sheet? Or did Hatch forget to remind you?
“Dan - I don’t know who you are, either. But if history is any guide, Matt Entenza has already hired a private investigator to figure it out.
Too funny.
I don’t know who Gary Swanson is, but it is becoming clear that the defense to any criticisms of Entenza is to attack Mike Hatch. Matt Entenza was the DFL nominee for AG in 2006 and he had to drop out of the race. That wasn’t Mike Hatch’s fault. Whatever else you can say about Hatch and/or AG employees, Hatch was the victim of Entenza’s wrongdoing in that particular instance.
And I still haven’t heard a rebuttal to my assertion that Entenza’s millions
came from his’s wife’s work as an executive with United Health Care. She made something like 30 or 35 million dollars while her company was screwing ordinary people on their health coverage. And now Entenza is using that money to try to scare people out of the race? Gross.
Dan - Good point about Entenza supporters defending themselves by attacking Hatch. But, then again, it’s not surprise, is it? Political scum - like pond scum - tends to congeal. The Entenza - Hatch/Swanson spat is proof positive of this. I once met a guy who told me that people go into politics either to DO something or to BE something. It isn’t hard to guess where Entenza, Hatch et all fit into that spectrum.
Entenza hires PIs to harass his opponents. Hatch/Swanson use AG employees to post defensive comments on political blogs (ask Jim Nobles). If the DFL has any luck in the coming years, all three will be chased out of the party, thoroughly shamed, and completely forgotten. I am so sick of these people.
Non starter, Entenza’s chance at being elected to a statewide office ended when he withdrew from the AG race.
I wouldn’t count Bakk out of the endorsement race. He’ll probably come in with 25-40% with his labor support. I would think he’ll have a good chance at the endorsement. Karl, the reason we haven’t had a governor since 1990 is because we haven’t had our candidates vetted by a statewide electorate. Primaries are a good thing, remember Rudy Perpich was our last democratic governor, and he had to run in a primary EVERY year he ran for Governor. He also won, twice and was a great Governor.
Couple of thoughts/responses:
1. Another Chris asks “When was the last time party activists endorsed a moneybag candidate in a contested fight?”. 2008, Al Franken beat Mike Cirisi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. According to the latest polls Franken is ahead.
2. Opposition research is good. (Note this is a defense of Entenza that is not a knock on Hatch). Politicians use of opposition research keeps candidates honest. Vetting candidates leads to better elections and better governance.
I am all for vetting candidates. But if what Entenza did was good, why did he drop out of the AG race?
Brodkorb and/or Hatch timed the attacks on Entenza until just before the deadline for him to drop out and others to throw their hat into the race. Entenza did handle the story badly, but that does not make what he did — oppostiion reseach — unethical.
Calibrate your sleaze-o-meter, Dan. It’s way off.
Anonymous -
If it was campaign opposition research, then Entenza should have reported the full cost of the expense on his campaign disclosure forms. But he didn’t - leading many to believe (correctly, in my opinion) that he used his wife’s money to pay for it. Now why would he do that? Well, then he wouldn’t have to disclose that he was spending thousands of dollars on investigators - which never looks good on a campaign disclosure report. Given, the Campaign Finance Board never followed up on this, likely believing that the public humiliation that Entenza experienced was punishment enough.
In any event, I VERY much look forward to hearing Entenza follow your lead and claim that off-books PIs are “ethical.”
“Brodkorb and/or Hatch timed the attacks on Entenza until just before the deadline for him to drop out and others to throw their hat into the race.”
Wow, again it was Entenza who got busted investigating Hatch, but its Hatch’s fault for releasing the information? Unreal.
“Calibrate your sleaze-o-meter, Dan. It’s way off.”
Well, let’s see. Entenza had to quit the AG race for his ethical failings, not to mention the huge conflict of interest since the AG was investigating his wife’s company. He is funding his campaign with the millions of dollars his wife made screwing people for United Health Care, and now he is trying to scare opponents out of the race with his millions and his threat to ignore the endorsement. The sleaze-o-meter has been calibrated. And Matt Entenza is as sleazy
as they come. Certainly a lot sleazier than Mike Hatch, the apparent scapegoat for all of Entenza’s problems. You can just rubber stamp Pawlenty’s re-election if the DFL puts up Entenza. Despite all his ill-gotten millions, I suspect DFLers know better than to do somthing that stupid.
That was the kicker - his campaign expenditures were off the books. The Matt Entenza sleaze-o-meter just went a little bit higher. This guy is a joker if he really thinks he is going to be governor.