Tag Archive for 'Mark Dayton'

Absentee governor takes away desperate citizens’ health care

by Jeff Rosenberg | 11 Comments

It seems that governing the state isn’t particularly important to Tim Pawlenty; it’s more important for him to be hobnobbing at CPAC, a major conservative conference, trying to promote his presidential campaign. He did find time while he was there, though, to veto a bill that would have preserved health care for thousands of Minnesota’s most needy citizens.

I’m sure that now that Pawlenty has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from safety-net services that help the poorest Minnesotans, as soon as he returns to Minnesota he’ll be asking our richest citizens to make some sacrifices as well. After all, as Mark Dayton has proposed, just asking the richest 10 percent to pay the same amount in taxes as the rest of Minnesota would raise $3 to $4 billion.

Stop and think about that for a moment. You and I pay roughly about 12.5 percent of our income in state and local taxes. The wealthiest 10 percent of Minnesotans — those who could afford to pay more — actually pay only 10 percent of their income in taxes. Yet instead of demanding that everyone pay their fair share, our governor is instead taking away healthcare from desperate Minnesota citizens.

February 19, 2010, 9:00 am | Category: Misc. Local Politics | Tags: , .

Guv Fundraising Updates: Emmer, Anderson, and Dayton, Oh My!

by Matt Martin | 1 Comment

I have a few updates on gubernatorial fundraising this afternoon and instead of dribbling the out piece-meal, I think I’ll just go through them rapidfire.  First up: Tom Emmer

Republican Tom Emmer has finally released his fundraising numbers and it’s now apparent why it has taken him so long — these are miserable.  To be fair, he raised a somewhat respectable total of $114,852 in 2009, but he spent $79,312 of it!  (I’ll do the math for you: that only leaves him with $19,154 on hand)  Given that his main opponent, Marty Seifert, raised $262,753 and has $133,072 in cash on hand, things don’t look to good for the E-Dog… Bottom line: Seifert has nearly 7 times the resources of his nearest opponent.

Next up: Pat Anderson.  Sure, she dropped out of the race, but these fundraising numbers may finally reveal why:  her Gubernatorial campaign ended the year over $30K in the hole!  A press release from State Auditor Rebecca Otto’s campaign dishes the details:

Anderson’s Gubernatorial campaign fared worse.  She raised just $29,659, which included a personal loan of $3,250, but she spent $65,596, ending the year with $39,174 in unpaid bills.

For those interested, Anderson’s new Auditor campaign has only $149 on hand…

And then we have Mark Dayton. For anyone who thought the former United States Senator wasn’t serious about this race, think again.  Mark Dayton loaned his campaign $570,000!  What’s more, he raised $72,000 in donations for a total of $641,821 in 2009!!  But what’s more, he only has $16,772 left in the bank!!!  Meaning he spent well over $600,000 on his gubernatorial bid last year!!!!  Alright, I’m out of exclamation points.  For those who remember, Dayton spent $12 million on his Senate race in 2000.

One’s thing for sure folks:  This is going to be one rip-roarin’ roller coaster!

The 2010 Gubernatorial Fundraising Cheat-Sheet has been updated with the above PLUS new information from Entenza, Gaertner, Kelley, and John Marty.

February 2, 2010, 4:34 pm | Category: MN 2010: Governor | Tags: , , .

2010 Gubernatorial Fundraising Cheat-Sheet [Updated x2]

by Matt Martin | 17 Comments

After getting Bakk’s numbers this morning, I was in the process of compiling where all the various candidates are in their respective fundraising efforts when I noticed that Tom Scheck over at Polinaut had beat me to the punch [UPDATE: Scheck has an even better list now].  So, in the interest of saving myself the effort, I’m augmenting Mr. Scheck’s summary with additional information I had been compiling:

Tom Bakk (D):

  • Total: $361,927 (began fundraising in mid-2008)
  • 2009 Total: $208,682
  • Cash on Hand: $133,000
  • Other: none reported.

Mark Dayton (D): [NEW]

  • Total: $641,821 (committee registered in early 2009)
  • 2009 Total: $641,821
  • Cash on Hand: $16,772
  • Other: He loaned $570,00 to his campaign (!)

Matt Entenza (D): [UPDATED]

  • Total: Over $400,000 (began around January)
  • 2009 Total: $405,286 from contributors in 2009.
  • Cash on Hand: $73,917
  • Other: Matt made a $10,000 contribution to the campaign and loaned the campaign $70,000.

Susan Gaertner (D): [NEW]

  • Total: $200,411 (began in 2007!)
  • 2009 Total: $110,828
  • Cash on Hand: $4,347

Steve Kelley (D): [NEW]

  • Total: About $200,ooo (he never closed out his 2006 committee, so there are nominal contributions in 2007 and 2008, but he didn’t really start his push for this cycle until 2010)
  • 2009 Total: $187,249
  • Cash on Hand: $39,541
  • Other: Loaned $16,400 to his campaign

Margaret Anderson Kelliher (D):

  • Total: $254,000 (formally announced in September, not sure when she began fundraising)
  • 2009 Total: $254,000 from contributors in 2009.
  • Cash on Hand: $81,000
  • Other: She made a direct contribution of $250 to her campaign.

John Marty (D): [NEW]

  • 2009 Total: $105,895
  • Cash on Hand: $18,910
  • Other: None reported.

Tom Rukavina (D):

  • Total: $135,000 (announced exploratory committee in the summer of 2009)
  • 2009 Total: $135,000
  • Cash on Hand: $60,000
  • Other: None reported.

R.T. Rybak (D):

  • Total: $278,000 (started fundraising at very end of 2009)
  • 2009 Total: $138,000 (additional $140K raised in January, 2010)
  • Cash on Hand: $25,000
  • Other: None reported.

Paul Thissen (D):

  • Total: $370,000 (began fundraising in late 2008)
  • 2009 Total: $233,000
  • Cash on Hand: $85,000
  • Other: He also loaned his campaign $20,000

Marty Seifert (R):

  • Total: $262,753 (stepped down as minority leader in June to form exploratory committee)
  • 2009 Total: $262,753
  • Cash on Hand: $133,072.
  • Other: He also loaned his campaign $20,000 and transferred $20,000 from his now defunct MN House campaign

Tom Emmer (R): [UPDATED]

  • Total: $114,852 (began this summer)
  • 2009 Total: $114,852
  • Cash on Hand: $19,154.
  • Other: via Scheck: “His spokesman said he loaned the campaign and gave in-kind contributions that amount to roughly $10,000.”

I said it once, and I’ll say it again:  The DFL numbers are blowing the GOP numbers out of the water. In fact, just for fun, let’s compare totals here:

Party Totals (so far): [UPDATED]

  • DFL Candidates: $1,849,761 ($2,419,761 counting Dayton’s $570K loan to his campaign)
  • GOP Candidates: $429,463 (includes GOP candidates I didn’t bother listing above)

Let’s not get overly-confident, but let’s also not fall for the argument that our cluttered field has dampened enthusiasm, because that is obviously not the case.

January 26, 2010, 11:55 am | Category: MN 2010: Governor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Rasmussen Poll Is Worthless, But Let’s Pretend Its Not

by Zack Stephenson | 4 Comments

Let me give you a few reasons to disregard the Rasmussen poll that is grabbing attention around the Minnesota political universe today:

  1. They only interviewed 300 people for each horse-race, so the margin of error is very high.
  2. They only conducted interviews on one night, which is considered bad methodology.
  3. I am skeptical of their likely voter model.  As Joe Bodell points out, we haven’t had a competitive statewide primary in Minnesota for a while, so modeling is going to be very difficult.
  4. They misspelled R.T. Rybak’s name in the release (R.T. Ryback?)
  5. And the most important reason: a poll this early in the campaign probably only measures name recognition.

The counter-argument to all of this is:

  1. Polls are fun!

Very persuasive.  So, assuming for the sake of this post that Rasmussen’s numbers are more predictive than those you might pull out of a hat, what do they mean? Find out after the jump.

More »

January 13, 2010, 10:31 am | Category: General | Tags: , , , , , .

The AFSCME Debate

by Zack Stephenson | 44 Comments

AFSCME hosted a debate among the DFL candidates for Governor up in Duluth the other day, and MPR was kind enough to post the audio.  Overall, the debate was very civil, and most of the candidates did not engage each other.  The one exception to this was R.T. Rybak, who took a shot at the all of the current and former legislators in the field, saying “This is not a legislative job, its a chief executive.”  Rybak also slammed Dayton (and possibly Entenza) for their positions on the DFL endorsement.

Below are my impressions for each candidate:

Steve Kelley: Kelley didn’t show me anything new in this debate.  That’s not a criticism, just an observation.  He’s the same candidate he was in 2006.  He did have a couple of odd moments.  He  took a question about the state budget deficit and ended up talking about the public option in the national health care bill.   Later on he stumbled a bit when asked how he would deal with Pawlenty’s disastrous record with the Department of Human Serives.  Kelley said he has not decided on whether to abide by the DFL endorsement.

R.T. Rybak: Came right out of the gate strong and was the feistiest candidate by far.  I already mentioned his hit on the legislators, but he also took a direct shot at Dayton at the end of the debate when all of the candidates were asked whether they would abide by the DFL endorsement.  Dayton had called the endorsement process undemocratic and said he would not abide on principle.  Rybak responded, “I will absolutely abide. No games, no equivocation.  I don’t get this baloney that a party endorsement process isn’t a democratic process.  I don’t get that.”

Mark Dayton:  This was Dayton at his best, passionate and articulate.  He had a great line when asked about jobs, “Pawlenty believes the solution to the jobs problem is to furlough [AFSCME members] from their jobs and then not show up for his own.”  Zing.  As previously noted, Dayton will not abide.

Matt Entenza: He opened up the debate by noting that he is from Worthington, which is so far south that he “doesn’t like Iowa jokes.”  I’m not sure I can support a candidate who doesn’t like Iowa jokes.  On a more serious note, Entenza did a great job of using his compelling personal story to his advantage.  It was a strong performance from Entenza.  When asked about the DFL endorsement, Entenza gave his standard answer, which is that he will abide if everyone else abides.  Of course, he said this just minutes after Dayton said he would not honor the endorsement and would run in the primary.  Pretty obnoxious.  Closed circuit to Matt, just say you are not going to abide.  You are not scoring any points by playing this little game.

Tom Rukavina:  Was entertaining as always.  Described himself as “the love child between Paul Wellstone and Jesse Ventura” and then bragged about his union made underwear.  He had a great moment later when talking about Norman Borlag.  Said Borlag only graduated from the U because of financial aid.  Asked, “how many Norman Borlags are we cheating?”  Said he would abide by the DFL endorsement.

John Marty:  What struck me most about Marty was that he is clearly stuck in the past.  He took every question and used his time to talk about budget votes in the 90s and was also the only candidate to bring up the Time “the state that works” magazine cover.  Get into this decade Marty.  Will abide (and said if he didn’t get the endorsement he’d return to the Senate).

Paul Thissen:  If you are wondering why everyone has been talking about Paul Thissen, you should listen to this debate.  Thissen sounded sharp, engaging and fresh.  Had a nice moment talking about his kid’s struggles with the health care system.  Will abide.

Susan Gaertner: Did a nice job using stories from her time as County Attorney and her personal life.  My favorite line of hers was, “I’ve raised three teenage girls, you think I’m going to have a hard time making the hard decisions?  I’m not.”  Will abide.

Tom Bakk: Spent the whole debate touting his union credentials.  Maybe not a bad strategy given this was a union audience.  Otherwise, he was pretty forgettable.  Said, “my plans are to abide by the DFL endorsement.”  Does that leave the door open just a bit? UPDATE: Sen. Bakk’s campaign emails to say “Sen. Bakk will abide by the endorsement.  The door is not open.”

Margaret Anderson Kelliher: This was not the same MAK I’ve seen in dozens of Capital press conferences.  She was very strong, sharp and showed some passion.  (that’s not to say she isn’t good in the pressers, she just usually doesn’t show a lot of passion).  She had a great answer when asked about the deficit.  A very nice performance.  Will abide.

The Bottom Line

Top performers:  Kelliher, Thissen, Entenza, Dayton, Rybak

In the middle: Rukavina, Gaertner

Not very good:  Bakk, Marty, Kelley

October 10, 2009, 2:34 pm | Category: MN 2010: Governor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Campaign Finance Reports

by Zack Stephenson | 83 Comments

Tis the season for state level campaign finance reporting.  In the 2010 gubernatorial race (which will occupy much of this blog’s attention in short order) we’ve got a couple of filings of note:

Tim Pawlenty

T-Paw raised $750k last year.  That’s a lot of money.  There are a couple of ways to look at this.  Most obviously, it could be a sign that Pawlenty plans to run again.  I have to admit the potency of this argument, but I’m still a skeptic.  As we have noted time and time again, if Timmy has national ambitions (and he does) it makes very little sense for him to run again in 2010.  So why would he raise all that money if he’s not running for re-election.  One question to answer first: how much of that money can be transfered into a federal account?  I actually have no idea, but my gut tells me that most of it should be transferable (Minnesota has tighter campaign finance laws than the feds).  If it can be transfered, then the fact that T-Paw has a huge chunk of money sitting around means nothing in terms of his re-election prospects.

The DFLers

Susan Gaertner raised just $46k despite being in the race since 2003 (and that is just a small exageration).  I am already ready to write off her campaign.  John Marty raised $30k “in the last nine days of December.”  I actually have very little to say about this - I think a thirty point loss (even if it was 14 years ago) should probably be a disqualifier.  Mark Dayton and Matt Entenza both did not file, but we wouldn’t really care even if they had because they both can self-fund.  This brings us to the big surprise of the reporting period:  State Representative Paul Thissen raised $115,000 in “the last seven weeks” of 2008.  For a heretofore unknown state legislator, that is pretty damn impressive.  In fact, Thissen’s campaign has been pretty impressive overall during the last few weeks.  If he can keep it up (and you have to wonder if he can - how much of that 115k came from the Minneapolis legal community?  How much more can he raise with such a narrow financial base?), he might be able to make some waves in this contest.

Of course, the big fish have still yet to get into the race.  Some other commenters have suggested that Chris Coleman and R.T. Rybak’s mayoral re-election bids will prevent them from running for Governor.  Don’t believe it for a second.  Coleman and Rybak will stay quiet until sometime in the late spring or early summer (when it would be too late for a serious re-election challenger to emerge) but I would be SHOCKED if at least one of them didn’t get into this race by this time next year.  Speaker Kelliher is also a good bet to run, but she won’t make a move until the legislative session is over.

February 2, 2009, 2:13 pm | Category: MN 2010: Governor | Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Mark Dayton Slams Coleman On Oversight

by Aaron Landry | 0 Comments

Former Senator Mark Dayton in the Pioneer Press regarding working with Coleman on oversight:

I personally sent Coleman a handwritten note to clarify the seriousness of my intentions. A few days later, I repeated my request in a formal letter. In it, I pointed out that Halliburton had been given $15.6 billion in Iraqi contracts without competitive bidding. The director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency had stated publicly Halliburton’s misdeeds were “worthy of immediate action.”

I never received a reply to my letter. What is more important, Coleman refused to investigate the continuing reports of widespread abuses by Halliburton, its then-subsidiary KBR or other Iraqi contractors with close Republican connections. He did make one inquiry into KBR’s supplying contaminated water to American troops. That contemptible practice, however, had already been exposed and resolved.

If Coleman had been interested, he might have uncovered even worse and continuing abuses…

The entire piece sums up Norm Coleman’s failure to protect taxpayers and our troops.

Had Coleman pursued this and other evidence of dangerous abuses by Halliburton and others, he would undoubtedly have received considerable heat, starting with the Office of the Vice President. However, by failing to meet his responsibilities, he left thousands of courageous American soldiers wrongly exposed to unsafe conditions. By failing them, Sen. Coleman failed us.

October 9, 2008, 11:27 am | Category: MN 2008: Senate | Tags: , .

Interview with Mark Dayton

by Matt Martin | 4 Comments
May 16, 2007, 11:31 pm | Category: General | Tags: .

You Heard It Here First: Dayton Is Running

by Zack Stephenson | 6 Comments

The Star Tribune confirms what MN Publius readers have known since Friday: Mark Dayton will be a candidate for Governor in 2010.

“I intend to run for governor,” Dayton said in an interview, adding that he could change his mind. “Three years is a long time away.”

Dayton repeated remarks he made Friday at a gathering of about 250 party supporters in Rochester at the annual Olmsted County DFL dinner.

“He said he was a candidate for governor,” said Lynn Wilson, chair of the Olmsted County DFL, who said the declaration was greeted enthusiastically.

In the interview Sunday, Dayton said he wanted to let activists know about his intentions because Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, who has filed papers to raise and spend money for a gubernatorial race, also attended the dinner.

I hope to write an in depth post on this subject in the coming days, but I am far too tired after a long day of work to tackle that task right now.

May 6, 2007, 10:46 pm | Category: General | Tags: .

BREAKING: Dayton Announces?

by Zack Stephenson | 48 Comments

Former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton opened the door to a gubernatorial run earlier this year, but according to multiple sources he jumped in with both feet tonight.

Dayton spoke at the Olmstead County DFL Dinner tonight. Also attending was Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner. During his remarks, Dayton recognized Gaertner and noted that she is running for Governor in 2010. Dayton then said “I’m in that race too.”

More on this later…

May 4, 2007, 11:16 pm | Category: General | Tags: .

Zooming in on 2010 (and Attempting to Focus)

by Matt Martin | 2 Comments
March 1, 2007, 1:26 pm | Category: White House '08 | Tags: , , , , , .

Mr. O’Leary Goes to Washington

by Jon-David | 0 Comments

The DFL Executive Director’s victory lap already took him to Jackson Hole - now Andy’s heading to DC with Tim Walz to chat with the DNC Executive Committee…

Release after the jump…

More »

November 30, 2006, 2:02 pm | Category: Misc. Local Politics | Tags: .