I don’t know anything about Dillon - I was speaking mostly about Barkley and Hutchinson. If Anderson only raised $200, his votes were “none of the above.” Again, though, we have to deal with the fact that the IP is going to run a candidate, regardless of whether there is someone qualified to do so or not. And the biggest problem is not the IP candidates, its the DFL candidates. We should have destroyed Coleman this year, just as we should have destroyed Pawlenty in 2006, but our own candidates held us back.

We can’t use lack of media coverage to provide evidence that little was done…alot was done…it was literally censored off the newspagers.

Contracts were drawn requiring the candidate to reference Independence cross-endorsement in any publication where DFL or Republican endorsement was listed. Mr. Tinklenberg did that…the press did not cover it at all.

As far as resources. As long as we don’t take PAC money, and subsequently don’t get the independent support of PACS, we have to ration support. It must always go to primary endorsed candidates. I don’t think anyone could argue against that. With that said. 10 press releases went out from the IP regarding the cross-endorsement and the party chair attended several press conferences.

I personally was against the cross-endorsement of El, not because I didn’t like him or think he would be a good candidate, but because the logic was severely flawed. John Binkowski took 8% on 2006 by promoting libertarian issues. Our federal candidates skew quite libertarian (in fact folks, the gubernatorial candidate in 2006 saw our third greatest support. Policies include spending freezes, getting rid of the Dept of Education, hawkish budgeting and definitely gun rights (Dean Barkley had a pledge to gun owners).

Now I ask those of you on the left on this website to listen without attacking. Our federal races are different from our state races. Noone has taken the time to notice the fact that we have strong federalist views, and our policy positions as such can be remarkably tailored to the level of government.

Where did John Binkowski and now Bob Anderson do well? Not in the burbs and exurbs, but rather in Benton, Mille Lacs and Wright Counties, where the electorate is more social conservativism (Bachman voters)mixed with a dose of libertarianism (our voters in these areas). Dean Barkley was getting mid 20’s in many of these areas while Bachman won majorities. Bob Anderson, with $200, was grabbing 15% (anyone calculate the $ per vote?).

I am speaking with some knowledge on the sixth…I grew up just north of it in a town called Pierz. While you were all celebrating on this site last night, my high school teacher Al Doty, very nearly got beat by the Republican (70 votes). 12B, which was hardcore DFL when my dad was IndependentRepublican twenty years a go (and so was Al), went overwhelmingly for McCain, and Coleman (but they love Oberstar because he delivers).

Frankly, David is right. You need a fusion ballot like Minnesota toyed with and New York has. Each party can endorse a candidate and put him or her on their line. This type of balloting has some effect of highlighting different aspects of the candidate. In New York, candidates appearing on the Independence Party line and the Republican line will get different kinds of voters. It is kind of a coalition voting. Some the candidates that won in NY this way were Hillary Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Governor Patacki, and most recently John McCain (didn’t do much good in the latter, ok).

The IP in New York can put a center/libertarian stamp of approval on the candidate that means something very real in the voting booth. You want to beat Bachman, then bring back that fusion ballot.

Peter

Checking out Anderson’s website, it’s really too bad that people actually thought he was a legit candidate.

“My point was simply that the IP nominates total losers and the other candidates and the press give them a free ride.”

The Ip endorsed Tinklenberg, held a joint press event with El a week ago to reinforce the point. They also endorsed Sarvi.

Tink and Al went negative early and often and that only works if there is nowhere else to go.

The fact Anderson took so many votes, though, does tell me that this is still not yet a safe seat for Bachmann. Who runs against her in 2010?

I had serious concerns about Peter Hutchinson, but I was NOT going to vote for Mike Hatch or Tim Pawlenty.

Dan - the IP didn’t nominate Anderson. Anderson just ran for the seat - but the IP failed to do enough to let voters know who they did endorse.

And I agree with you Nony Moose - again my point is that we shouldn’t be blaming the IP and instead get our own shit together.

I didn’t think I needed to explain moran, but I forgot that we have some IP folks here. From now on, I’ll try to use small words too.

In any case, the idea that the DFL could have picked up a 12,000 vote net gain from only 40,000 voters in a conservative district is doubtful given that some of those voters had Bachmann as a second choice and even more had “no vote” as a second choice.