If you believed conservative hacks like Michael Brodkorb and Katherine Kersten, who think Ritchie is on a mission from God to throw the election to Al Franken, you would have expected that Ritchie would have chosen the most partisan DFLers in the state judiciary. But that is not what happened.
Ritchie essentially punted. He let Chief Justice Eric Magnuson pick the two Supreme Court Justices and he let Ramsey County District Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin pick the two District Court Judges. Magnuson, a very partisan Republican who is a long time friend and former law partner of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, picked himself and partisan Republican Justice G. Barry Anderson. Gearin picked herself and Judge Edward Cleary (lawyers I have spoken have faith that Gearin and Cleary will be impartial). That leaves us with a Board made up of two partisan Republicans, one partisan Democrat who is bending over backwards to be non-partisan, and two independents. Hmmm….
What is the significance of these selections? Aside from the obvious, (Norm is looking at a much more friendly Canvassing Board than was expected) it means that the attacks from hacks like Brodkorb and Kersten have gotten inside Ritchie’s head. Why pick two of the most partisan Republican members of the Supreme Court? Why not pick Justice Alan Page or even the more independent Justice Helen Meyer? My guess is that Ritchie was trying to appease his right wing critics by appointing Republicans to the Board. It won’t work. Brodkorb, Kersten, et al, will feel emboldened to attack now that their efforts have borne fruit. It will get worse for Ritchie, not better. And its really a shame too, because the guy hasn’t done a thing wrong in this whole process. Until yesterday, I was proud of our Secretary of State. Now, I’m worried.
Give the guy a break. I doubt Ritchie cares one dime what the Republicans are saying about him. Personally, I think it is a classy move. He picked two judges, who also pick a judge as well.
Getting on MR’s case for being not very partisan is not the same as Lieberman supporting McCain. Not one iota.
You assume that this garbage from MDE (which is not mainstream in the slightest) is getting to his head. Prove it.
I have to agree with Angry Vet. I have to believe that Ritchie would have done the exact same thing (asked the chief judges to choose the members of the board). Having judges choose is that their judges are not officially tied to any party. I agree that the make up of the board is worrying, but I don’t think this is any reason to worry about our Secretary of State. I did vote for him so as he would tilt elections in our direction, but rather that he would do just what he is doing, providing an objectively fair, procedure based election counting process. I’m still proud of Mark Ritchie (also MDE has lost all credibility in his Ritchie witch hunt).
I’m not worried in the slightest. It’s just going to be fun to watch Brodkorb squirm when a republican leaning state canvassing board verifies that Al Franken won the election.
Let the contested ballots speak for themselves. I’m glad MR is trying to be as fair as possible. Do we really want Franken confirmed by the recount if he needs partisan judges to misinterpret voter intent to do so? I want Franken to win beyond all shadow of doubt and I think he would prefer that too.
Besides, isn’t it possible that with the margin so thin, Franken could pick up enough votes without needing any of the ballots that are likely to go to the canvassing board? Look at the shifts even after only a few precincts in each county were tested. (Cue wing-nuts yelling that I’m clinging to idiot dreams…)
Whatever will poor Mr. B do if Coleman is certified a winner? How will he continue to rage against Mark “Satan Incarnate” Ritchie?
I just hope that Magnuson pulls a “Sandy Keith”, and stabs Pawlenty in the back
If you want to be honest the margin is so small that neither candidate has much chance of winning beyond “all shadow of a doubt”. The idea from either side that their candidate is going to head to Washington knowing they received a plurality of “voter intent” continues to be ridiculous.
I’m glad Ritchie did this. It was a wise move, and should dispell doubt about his status as a partisan.
In other news: Shut up, KH. You are a one note wonder, and it’s getting cloying.
Have Magnuson and Anderson made overtly partisan rulings while sitting on the Supreme Court? I honestly don’t know since I don’t follow the State SC that closely. Maybe I’m naive, but I want to be able to trust the justices to be non-partisan as much as I’m trusting Secretary Ritchie to be non-partisan. Hopefully they’ve put away their party loyalty when they put on the robes.
The loser will take this to court. Everything else is just noise.
Magnuson and Anderson both have impeccable integrity, and I say this as a die hard DFLer. Of course, their take on substantive issues might be more conservative, but anyone who thinks that means they will try and manipulate the Canvassing process or maliciously interpret a squiggle on a ballot to be closer to Norm’s name than Al’s to manipulate the outcome, is just plain wrong.
Give them a chance - my bet is that whatever the outcome of the Canvassing Board process, it will be unanimous.
Barry
KH, yes we know the election was very close. But who gives a crap about what you are saying. Someone has to get the job and this process will determine who it is, even if it is by one vote. The Packers and the Vikings played a game last week that was decided by one point and a last second missed field goal. It would be hard to come away from that game saying one team was clearly better, but the Vikings won that game and that is all that really matters.
This diary is as embarassing as anything on MDE. You are complaining that Richie is not being political enough.
Anderson is a very good judge, and Magnuson had a great reputation as a lawyer - he is too new to have much of a record as a judge. These guys may be conservatives, but they are not hacks. Despite the fact that our shameless Republican governor has been lying lately, not all Republicans are liars.
Richie is handling this just right.
The point is that both sides are framing the results of the election as though they are championing democracy. That they are the ones virtuous enough to protect the intent of the voter down to the last ballot cast. Their premises is complete bullshit. The process is the process and we will most likely have a legitimate winner in the end. That winner though will have been victorious based on something other than a real understanding of voter intend. Those who actually think democracy is important would be interested in what this election might teach us about improving our system. Obviously to some mindless partisan hacks like lojasmo democracy is only a catch phrase to be bandied about when useful but ignored when problematic. For them it seems to be about winning the seat and nothing else.
To correct Dan’s analogy. It would be closer to judging a football game based on who gained more total yards and having the winner determined by an inch. In that case how accurate the measurements can be starts to become important. An honest person would be able to admit that the game was going to be decided by chance and not claim it as an unmistakable sign that their team was superior.
lojasmo, I don’t care a bit that you are annoyed with me disturbing the comfy little echo chamber you have built for yourself. Would it be better if I simply repeated the exact same thing said in everybody else’s posts? Would that reduce your anxiety level to something more manageable?
Hey Hat, I’m glad you’re here. I wanted to ask you if you had changed your mind. Before the election, you were telling me to forget about my vote being one of the ones that would make or break the results. I think you said something about how statistically that was not possible. I may be miss-representing you and I can’t find and/or don’t remember when the posts and your comments from that time were current but I think that was the jist of it. Are you still for IRV? Man, I want it more than ever!
Watching this I have to say that I oppose IRV more than ever. Can you imagine what kind of shitstorm there would be if we were doing this while trying to sort out voter intent through second and third choices?
Good move by Ritchie. I trust these judges, as recount still looks very straightforward to me. Gives Norm much less leeway for challenging the process or outcome. Gives Al’s victory more legitamacy, if he comes out on top.
Football games are decided by points. Elections are decided by votes. Someone will have more votes when this process runs its course. And that person will be the winner of the election. It may in fact be decided by change. And winning doesn’t mean that person is superior or has any kind of a mandate. But those are not questions that are decided by elections. We are simply determining who will be elected senator, and the process will accomplish that.
I don’t know enough about Magnuson yet to say one thing about him, really, But G. Barry Anderson is a fine judge. Sure he’s been my least favorite Anderson on the Court, but that’s just because Paul Anderson is an excellent Justice with a fine community interest, and Russell Anderson was outstanding both in judicial temperament and administrative ability. But Barry Anderson is a fine judge an should not get hammered here.
The panel looks good to me. Ritchie has done well in picking a panel whose integrity should not be questioned. If Brodkorb, Coleman, and company bitch about this panel, then clearly the only panel they would accept would be one made up of Norm Coleman, Laurie Coleman, Michael Brodkorb, Craig Westover, and Katherine Kersten…
VB,
The election will not be decided by one actual vote because we are not able to count that accurately. Even if the end result makes it appear so. Even now with a .006% difference between the two candidates and one of if not the closest election in state history the difference is 206 times more than 1. So your single vote, even in this election will not make the difference. Any single vote in any election is “one of the ones that makes a difference”. Since there never any difference in the outcome based on your ballot you should always vote for the person you think is the best representative. Ignore the “wasted vote” propaganda.
IRV is interesting and might be a positive step but as with most things the devil is in the details. Plus at this point there is zero chance of it happening. The DFL is using it as a fig leaf, just look at who they had carry the bill last time. Now that they have control of the committees in both the house and senate they could easily make it happen, they won’t.
All that being said it looks as though Ritchie is doing a fine job of processing the election at this point. The judges he selection show balance, though I personally don’t like Magnuson I doubt if he would be anything but impartial in this case.
Dan,
Football games might be decided by point but I have never heard of a game determined by .006 points. Yes we will have a winner when everything is done but it won’t be directly determined on “the field”. The game gave us a tie, the winner will be determined by our ability to count.
Thanks Hat, I think I must be mis-remembering what you were saying earlier. Dan was saying that he thinks IRV would have made things even messier at this time? I think we would not be in this mess if we had had it. Just another issue that Franken has been talking about for years… Anyone know Coleman’s stance on IRV?