Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 1, Issue 4 - 5/20/2005

In this issue: Doing the Sen. shuffle. . .a new dance in the DFL, A New DFLer--as in someone no one knows, and a moderate, Jesse Pawlenty?, R.T. no longer an Internet expert, Drinking, Bits & Pieces..., Lobbyist Watch, The Coming Week In Other Media

Welcome to Volume 1, Issue 4 of PolitcsInMinnesota.com.

Second, we mean what we say up there on the masthead: We intend to build Minnesota's premier public affairs news service. We'll bring you the public affairs information you cannot find anywhere else. To do that, we'll be rolling out a series of news products.

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Thanks,

Sarah Janecek and Blois Olson
Co-Publishers

Special Note: This is a slightly abbreviated version of our weekly report. We will have an End of Session Report late Monday or early Tuesday to give you all the insider information on the final 72 hours of the session.

It's more than a year away, but for insiders, the 2006 Sen. race had as much action this week as the Legislative Session.

The first news was a poll released by EMILY's List through the national publication Hotline. In the two-question poll in the Sixth Congressional district it was DFLer Patty Wetterling versus State Senator Michelle Bachman (R-Stillwater) and DFLer Patty Wetterling versus GOP Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer.

There were only two problems: all indications are that Wetterling is running for the Sen. and Kiffmeyer hasn't thrown her hat in the Sixth District race. Many think the EMILY's List poll was a way to try to pull Wetterling back into the Sixth District and away from the Sen. race.

The Wetterling camp reaffirmed she is staying in the Sen. race, which leaves the sixth wide-open for DFLers. If these numbers weren't meant to reel Wetterling back into the Sixth District, they may have been intended to show that the Choice/Life issue isn't as decisive in this district as many think, and that a DFL woman could beat a GOPer.

The EMILY's List numbers were:

A New DFLer--as in someone no one knows, and a moderate

The other significant move was the entry of Kelly Doran into the race. Doran hasn't been very visible in politics, but is the current managing partner of the RW Muir Company, a local real estate developer. Doran's entry made most say, "Who?". But, Doran immediately became viable when he announced that he could be willing to spend up to $5 million of his own funds to get through the primary. Doran's positioning is as a moderate, which is always a tough place in a DFL primary.

The problem is that U of M General Counsel Mark Rotenberg already tried the moderate option, and after sizing up the field with a poll from Penn & Schoen, the renowned Democratic polling firm, he decided against a run.

Doran's possible long shot issue is a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. We can guess that the Doran campaign might be somewhat unconventional, since John Woedele, Ventura's former press secretary, will be a key advisor. And, there are indications that Doran and Woedele have known each other for a while. Doran gave Woedele's very close friend, former Ramsey County Attorney Tom Foley, $200 when he was running for Congress in the Fourth District in 2000.

The race to succeed Mike Erlandson comes to a head this weekend in St. Cloud in a three-way race between former state Rep. Betty Folliard, Wellstone staffer Josh Syrjamaki, and Faegre & Benson partner, and former Minneapolis DFL Chair, Brian Melendez.

This race shapes up much like the race in 1999, when Erlandson took over the seat in what was a battle between the Wellstone wing of the party and many of the younger, more moderate activists who supported Erlandson. Erlandson won, and agreed to make the late Mary McEvoy, his associate chair--but the tension continued. The new twist is the Kucinich, and some of the Dean, supporters from the 2004 caucuses, who are considered even by DFLers too liberal to govern. Melendez is strongest among this crowd, but experience leans toward Folliard and Syrjamaki.

Folliard has an impressive list of elected officials on her side, which is not surprising since she served two terms in the House. Melendez has a good number of Minneapolis leaders on his side, but the people who are most worried about tactics and execution seem to be leaning toward Syrjamaki.

Notable Syrjamaki supporters are: freshman Rep. Rick Hansen, who was in the trenches of DFL campaigns at the local level for more than 10 years before being elected to succeed former Rep Tom Pugh; former Wellstone campaign manager Jeff Blodgett; Ginny Yingling, long-time environmental organizer; and Mary Rosenthal, a previously rumored candidate who is strong with labor. Also on the list are Kerry staffers in Minnesota, Buck Humphrey and Ken Martin.

Folliard's strength outside the elected officials includes DNC member Jackie Stevenson, and some volunteers from the Kerry campaign operation.

Melendez's support in Minneapolis includes: former DFL Chair Rick Stafford; former Sen. candidate Rebecca Yanisch; and, around the state, includes Representative Bill Hilty, and former Speaker Phil Carruthers.

Syrjamaki seems to have the support of both Wellstone insiders and the key people who were behind Erlandson six years ago. Since Folliard is tough to stomach on the communications front, and Melendez's support is so focused in Minneapolis, we give the edge to Syrjamaki going away. 

While it is good that Senator Norm Coleman is using his committee position to investigate the UN's apparent Oil for Food corruption, this week's attention that included a very, un-Senatorial address by James Galloway, (not the flautist) had many speculating about whether this helped or hurt Coleman in Minnesota.

While Minnesota is used to having national leaders in the U.S. Sen.--Humphrey, Mondale, Boschwitz, Durenberger and Wellstone--come to mind, Coleman's visibility on this issue doesn't seem to be the type of thing that people in Minnesota care about. Nor do any "normal" people throughout the country.

Coleman has been given a national stage, which, for the most part, he has used very well. But, during a week when the Sen. is debating a significant change in the rules of debate, we think the political drama in Coleman's subcommittee will soon be forgotten, and that might be a good thing after Galloway's diatribe against Coleman.

Governor Pawlenty is beginning to sound a little like Governor Ventura. His choice of words over the past week signals a very different tone than Minnesota is used to from its Governors.

First he called the Sen.'s tax plan, "profoundly stupid," and while on some points we don't disagree, is that any way for a Governor to address other elected officials?

Then, while vetoing the bipartisan transportation bill, he said that the DFL legislators hadn't done "squatzki" on transportation for years, and asked the rhetorical question, "How dumb can they be?". We don't want to seem to elitist, but that is not the type of language that gets anything done in the final days of the session.

Around the Capitol, people are entertained by political gamesmanship for effect, but some are disappointed these issues are not being taken a little more seriously by the Governor at this point in the game.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak was once a high-priced "Internet Consultant," but the blog on his Web site shows that, despite the changes in the Web, including the introduction of blogs in the past four years, Rybak hasn't kept up. But, of course, that is expected, as he's been busy being mayor.

This week, he conducted some sort of blog-chat with supporters, which is almost innovative, but the Mayor stumbled (in writing) on how to spell. He openly admits he's not used to blogging, which seems mildly disingenuous in our minds.

The other notable was Rybak's backpedaling on his quotation "taking his campaign to the normal people" as he left the deadlocked DFL convention. "While we couldn't agree more, the mayor seems to be backpedaling from the endorsement process, and positioning himself as the elitist candidate, another unpopular thing with DFLers, especially in Minneapolis.

Drinking

Last year about this time, during television's sweeps month, KMSP Channel 9 ran its story, which included lots of hidden camera shots, about drinking at the Capitol. While the story surprised no one at the Capitol, (drinking in the evening hours, particularly toward the end of session, has gone on for years), it did resonate with the public: what was the do-nothing Legislature thinking by drinking when they couldn't get their work done?

There are reports-but not confirmed-that the station is running around the Capitol this week as a follow-up. Sen. Democrats are joking that they hope Channel 9 can find the State Office Building because that's where all the Republicans have their offices (a fact seemingly not accounted for in last year's story). Meanwhile, promoters of the energy drink Red Bull came to the Capitol this week with a barrel of the stuff. But at $2.50 a can, it was a tough sell. And, big boxes of Caribou Coffee are delivered regularly to the Governor's office. [For the record, Caribou, headquartered in Minneapolis, is a client of one of your publishers.].

Politics In Minnesota: Bits & Pieces...
--Tracking people and events--