A DFL legislator will introduce legislation in January aimed at making it easier to prosecute state employees who misuse public money.

The bill comes in the wake of two high-profile cases in which prosecutors declined to press charges against former employees of the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for what most acknowledge were cases of misappropriating state dollars.

"Scamming the state of Minnesota is always bad, but it's even worse in an economic downturn like this one," Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, said at a St. Paul press conference hosted by the legislation's author, Rep. Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley.

A left-leaning watchdog group is keeping an eye on what the national media is saying about Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount.

In an e-mail Wednesday afternoon, Media Matters for America, a self-described progressive research and information center that monitors, analyzes and "corrects conservative misinformation" in the U.S. media, listed a half-dozen instances of national media repeating incorrect facts about the recount.

The statewide recount of 2.9 million ballots began Wednesday. At last count, only 215 votes separated incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, from his DFL challenger, Al Franken.

"As the list below (indicates), media coverage of the Minnesota recount has been rife with inaccuracies, falsehoods and uncritical reporting," the Media Matters e-mail said.

Here are the instances reported by Media Matters:

Remember that old Jim Croce tune?

You don't tug on superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim?

Somebody should tell Al Franken's legal team that in Minnesota, you don't mess around with Ken.

As in Ken Raschke, the long-time Assistant Attorney General who penned the official Attorney General Opinion sought by DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on the issue of whether Minnesota law allows the review of rejected absentee ballots.

Today the State Canvassing Board voted to give itself more time to decide the issue.

Here (PDF) is Raschke's legal analysis, no doubt also researched and authored by the other two lawyers from the AG's office, Solicitor General Alan Gilbert and Deputy Attorney General Christie Eller.

Here (PDF) is the Franken legal team's "Supplemental Memorandum" on the Raschke's opinion.

Incredibly, the memorandum reads, "With all due respect to the Office of the Attorney General, the November 17 letter contains significant errors."

For those of you who didn't attend law school, one of the first things you learn is that any time you say, "with all due respect," you're really telling the other side, "f*#% you."  Most lawyers avoid the phrase like the plague. 

And smart lawyers never impugn the integrity of the full-time attorneys in the Attorney General's office. These lawyers refrain from insulting the AG's office not only out of respect for the public office, but also because they know that what goes around comes around. The AG's office is a permanent part of the legal structure.  The AG lawyers assigned to different areas have usually practiced in those different areas a long time. They know what they're talking and writing about. 

That's certainly true of Ken Raschke. He has weighed in on many an AG's opinion on election matters over the years, and Minnesota lawyers on both sides of the aisle highly respect him. [See page 8 of this document detailing Raschke's career. ]

The Franken legal team's Memorandum contains other hilarious stuff. What Republican won't chuckle over Franken invoking Bush v. Gore? The Franken team says the AG's office "neglects the Equal Protection recount requirements set forth" in that decision. 

The Franken lawyers also argue a Washington Supreme Court case, McDonald v. Sec. of State, mysteriously overlooking the not inconsequential facts that the Washington Court was interpreting Washington law, and that the Washington elections system -- where about 75% of the voters vote a mail-in ballot -- is Washington's apples to Minnesota's oranges. [Our state, of course, does not have mail in ballots.]

The Franken Memorandum is so insulting and so off target that it begs the question, "Why submit it?"

Norm Coleman's legal counsel, Fritz Knaak, was asked that question today, and he answered that he thought the Franken legal strategy was to set up the public relations rubric [my words] whereby the Democratically controlled U.S. Senate can seat Franken, no matter how our recount turns out, under some semblance of alleged authority.

The Franken lawyers signing the Memorandum are lead counsel David Lillehaug and Steven Kaplan from the Frederickson & Byron firm and William Pentelovitch from the Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand firm.

But the betting among Republican lawyers I talked to is that the Memorandum was likely drafted by the other part of the Franken legal team, led by U.S. Sen. John Kerry's lawyer Marc Elias.

Lillehaug and the other Minnesota lawyers know better: You don't tug on superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind...

Long-time public servant Brad Moore is leaving his post as state Pollution Control Agency (PCA) commissioner to take a job in the private sector.

He plans to leave PCA on Dec. 1, according to a news release from Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office.

Moore started working for the state in 1985 as a public utilities rate analyst in what is now the Commerce Department. He went to work for the state Department of Natural Resources in 1988 and rose to became an assistant commissioner.

Pawlenty tapped Moore as PCA commissioner in December 2006. The Clean Water Legacy to clean-up impaired waters was one of the major pieces of legislation related to pollution control that passed during Moore’s tenure.

The kickoff for the statewide U.S. Senate recount is near, and the press conferences have picked up accordingly. Al Franken's campaign headquarters on University Avenue seems busier than ever as volunteers head into the field carrying gear for recount trainings. The multi-television "war room" is fully staffed and "Election law is the new rock-n-roll" adorns a whiteboard.

Across the country, everyone else has to get serious and start talking about policy; not so in the true land of "Indecision 2008," as Comedy Central dubbed their election coverage. Here, we're just about to break open a whole round of nitpicking and puzzling uncertainties.

The Franken campaign has filed a notice with the new Canvassing Board requesting the count not be certified tomorrow. They handed out a brief focusing on four absentee voters who voted for Franken but had their ballots rejected; the campaign argues that all of these rejections were for spurious reasons. Thus, they argue, if the state can't determine whether the absentee ballots of Jessup Schiks, Bruce Behrens, James Langland and Ordell Adkins should be counted or not, then it's really not right to certify anything at all tomorrow. (The national media is of course gravitating to the story; Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi was on the conference call.)

Franken election attorney Marc Elias and spokesman Andy Barr said 15 counties had already given the campaign data on absentee ballots, while others are waiting to see how the Ramsey County lawsuit turns out. Barr hinted at how there's a bit of a fissure in GOP messaging between Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the Coleman campaign, and as it turned out today, the GOP party chair.

Republican Party chair Ron Carey (who himself faces rumblings among party regulars, and perhaps an electoral challenge to his leadership of the party on December 6th) threw a press conference at the Capitol to discount Franken's trip out east.

Interestingly, Carey didn't raise any issues about Franken apparently raising money with George Soros, which the Franken staff had anticipated he would badger them about. This suggests that Coleman is also out fundraising for recount efforts, and thus shouldn't fall into the category of purportedly distasteful conduct. Carey instead claimed U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) had already essentially won the race twice, and hewed to his customary tack of posing hypotheticals, this time about the U.S. Senate intervening in the race (and of course, calling upon Franken to call upon the Dems' Senate leadership to not intervene. There's always a lot of 'calling upon' in these things). The press was skeptical when Carey tried to cast doubt on various electoral stories that the Coleman campaign had already conceded weren't an issue.

Finally, in yet another press conference, DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie laid out the proposed recount rules to present to the Canvassing Board tomorrow, as well as the spreadsheet detailing the logistics for every one of the recount sites. All the docs are available here on the SOS website. Ritchie says the rules are the product of many sides' input, including the campaigns and the Attorney General's office. (Ritchie added a ballpark estimate of votes marked such that they're unreadable to optical machines at 2 in 1000, which would make about 6,000 votes unreadable by machines statewide.)

Daily recount results will be posted on the SOS website at 8 p.m., essentially starting over from zero. Ritchie says there will be five columns of data, broken down per-recount-site. The five: votes for Coleman, votes for Franken, votes for other, votes challenged by Franken's camp, votes challenged by Coleman's camp. Ritchie said they're open to suggestions from the media about how to best present this data; he added that individual precincts will always be reported in full (never left half-counted at the end of the day). Also, all sites won't start counting at the same time; the details there are on the spreadsheet.

After the statewide audit was completed, it's emerged that the final adjusted number will be 215 votes in Coleman's favor, up from the prior 206; a few dozen examined precincts caused this shift. Ultimately, it appears the Franken campaign's request for their race to not be certified will carry the day, according to Ritchie; they'll likely certify all the election results except the four that are entering recounts.

Ritchie said that the Canvassing Board's meeting will be entirely open to the public, and members of the public can give comments, though he asked for everyone keep their remarks brief to respect the Board and the public.

He added that eventually they'll likely release digital versions of copies of the ballots, scanned in from the reproductions available to the Canvassing Board (in other words, the scans would not be done from the original ballots, because they'd be sealed and unavailable). This, in turn, would let the public find out what the fuss was about for a given ballot, and better let them follow the process.

Ritchie said that the Canvassing Board had allocated about five days at the end to evaluate the ballots, hoping it'll be "done before my birthday," he joked. They're estimating it could take about three minutes per ballot, which would add up to three or four days to evaluate five to eight thousand ballots.

Additionally, House Public Information Services notified the press that there will be a 'clean feed' of the Canvassing Board's proceedings, which will be held with four camera angles in State Office Building room 10. This feed will also be available on the Capitol Complex's Channel 36, which will be provided near the southeast ground floor exit doors of the SOB; the feed goes live at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow. The House's television staff will be producing this affair.

As a joint hearing of the state House and Senate transportation and transit policy committees wrapped up at 4:30 p.m. Monday, state Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, broke the news to the assembled legislators, lobbyists and staff that former Speaker Irv Anderson passed away earlier in the day.

Dibble, the chairman of the Senate Transit Subcommittee, made the announcement in Room 123 of the Capitol after the panels heard more than three hours of testimony on the Metropolitan Council's 2030 transit plan.

"We remember Speaker Anderson and his service to the state," said Dibble, shortly before gaveling the hearing to a close.

Anderson, 85, of International Falls, retired from the House in 2006. He served as speaker from 1993 to 1997.

Former Minnesota Rep. Irv Anderson, DFL-International Falls, who served almost a quarter-century in the state House, died Monday. He was 85.

Anderson, a former speaker of the House, retired from the Legislature following the 2006 legislative session.

"Irv Anderson lived a life dedicated to service, whether as a decorated Navy pilot in World War II, a concerned citizen or as a state leader," current Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher said. "Throughout his legislative career, he remained a forceful voice for his consituents and working Minnesotans across the state."

Anderson, who first ran for office in 1964, began serving in the Legislature in the 1960s.

"It is hard to imagine a time or an issue in our state's recent history that did not benefit from Irv Anderson's leadership," House Majority Leader Tony Sertich said. "While he was known as a leader on the outdoors and tax policy, he was also extremely proud of his recent work to help create a state memorial to his fellow World War II veterans."

Anderson worked as a paper inspector at a paper mill in International Falls, and was an avid fisherman and hunter. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, and two children.

The politically charged recount of U.S. Senate votes for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken got even more political Monday, when conservative group Minnesota Majority filed a complaint against "dismissive" authorities, including Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie.

Coincidentally, the former executive director of Minnesota Majority, just-elected State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, preceded DFLer Ritchie as secretary of state. So DFLer Ritchie is overseeing the ballot recount in the race, which Coleman leads by 206 votes.

Minnesota Majority filed a complaint Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), alleging that state voter registration rolls "revealed a number of irregularities." The complaint is an amplified version of its pre-election notices to officials in 30 counties about the irregularities.

Hennepin, the state's most populous county, was among them.

Minnesota Majority President Jeff Davis on Oct. 16 sent Ritchie a letter on the basis of "limited" analysis, requesting a written reply by the end of the day Oct. 17 about how the office intended to deal with alleged irregularities before the election.

The group wanted cross-checks between voter registration files and other government records, including the Social Security Administration and state Department of Motor Vehicles.

• GOP not playing "Minnesota nice" with Franken, Salon
• The recount referee, Pioneer Press
• Coleman vs. Franken: The Rematch, Star Tribune
• Coleman camp says Ritchie is biased, Star Tribune
• MN board may act on voided absentee ballots, MPR
• Minnesota Senate rivals dig in for recount battle, New York Times
• Franken to discuss recount with Senate leaders in D.C., Star Tribune
• Franken to visit D.C., meet with Senate leaders, AP
• Recount puts Ritchie in the spotlight, KARE 11

• Knaak, Knaak. Who's there? Underminer, Across the Great Divided
• Just so we’re clear on context, here, Shot in the Dark
• ‘Ordinary voter’ in New York Times recount story has strong GOP ties, Minnesota Independent
• MN Senate Analysis, Part 1: Franken underperforms in northern Minnesota, Smart Politics

[This story was first published in the 14 November 2008 edition of the PIM Weekly Report.]

Tomorrow at a hotel banquet room in Oakdale the members of the House GOP Caucus will lick their wounds, hash over what went wrong in the 2008 election and contemplate their future.

House GOP members will also decide whether to retain Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) as their Minority Leader or pick a new face in Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano).

Working in Seifert's favor are what he's accomplished the last two years: Rebuilding a caucus devastated and debilitated after losing the majority in the 2006 elections (which included the delicate dance of eliminating half the caucus staff); starting from zero and raising more than $2 million for the 2008 election; trying to keep the caucus together on difficult votes, always providing a pithy quote countering House Speaker Margaret Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis) and her House DFL Caucus, and only losing two seats in a blow-out year for the DFL.

Seifert, like GOP House Speaker Steve Sviggum before him, stormed the state on behalf of his candidates, and touts with justifiable pride GOP victories in five legislative districts that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) carried. The five are 28A where GOP challenger Tim Kelly beat Sandy Wollschlager (DFL-Cannon Falls), 31B where former GOP Rep. Greg Davids beat Ken Tschumper (DFL-La Crescent), 37A where GOP challenger Tara Mack beat Shelley Madore (DFL-Apple Valley), 41A where GOP challenger Keith Downey beat former Rep. Ron Erhardt (I-Edina) and DFL challenger Kevin Staunton, and 51A where GOPer Tim Sanders beat DFLer Shawn Hamilton.

Emmer announced his candidacy last Sunday night in a three-sentence email to House GOP members. While Emmer recognizes that "Marty worked his tail off," Emmer thinks the caucus needs new leadership... that the caucus should be articulating what it's for, policy-wise, not just what it's against. Unbeknownst to most people, Emmer expressed his dissatisfaction with the caucus last July, resigning as Assistant Minority Leader. Says Emmer, "I just couldn't be part of something I couldn't agree with." Seifert -- who appointed Emmer to the job in the first place -- chose not to make that resignation public at the time because he didn't want to flag dissension in the caucus in a tough election year. Seifert says Emmer didn't help much in races around the state; Emmer says he did help other members campaign. 

Emmer is also running a caucus inside baseball campaign. He thinks too much authority is vested in the House Minority Leader position and that the caucus should govern itself as a team. He also thinks that the caucus didn't take care of its incumbents, pointing to Rep. Lynn Wardlow's (R-Eagan) loss to DFLer Mike Obermueller.

Most GOP caucus speculators have characterized the contest as one between a moderate (Seifert) and a true blue conservative (Emmer), which is somewhat strange given Seifert built his reputation on being a conservative's conservative. 

Others have characterized the race as one between an insider (Seifert), who cut his teeth in the Legislature serving six terms and an outsider (Emmer), who cut his teeth in the private sector (he's only served two terms).

Marty thinks that the contest will help him be a better leader, noting "Brian Sullivan made Tim Pawlenty a better gubernatorial candidate."

Emmer -- while praising Seifert's work -- points to losses the last two elections and pulled a quote he remembers hearing in reference to the 1991 World Series in which he recalls former Twins pitcher Jack Morris saying, "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser."

Who wins? PIM thinks this race is Seifert's to lose. Too many members are beholden to him for the work Seifert did on their behalf in the election. The election requires a supermajority of 60% of the members.

[Emmer fans, take note, PIM also predicted that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN6) and U.S. Rep.-Elect Erik Paulsen (R-MN3) would also lose.]