Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 1, Issue 10 - 7/08/2005

In this issue: What does Krinkie's Leaving Mean?, Politicians Missing a Parade?, Rowley is "Off" and Running, The Minneapolis Park Board, a New PR Position and a Slate of Challenger Candidates, On Other Minneapolis Matters..., Inside the Fund-raising Race, Politics & Podcasting, Bits & Pieces..., Lobbyist Watch, 20 Years Ago, The Coming Week In Other Media, Setting The Record Straight

What does Krinkie's Leaving Mean?

Rep. Phil Krinkie's (R-Shoreview) resignation of the "tax working group" co-chairmanship could mean another great delay in or a quick resolution to the special session. For sure it is a significant and very visible slap at House Speaker Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon) and Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. Krinkie's resignation over opposition to gambling and cigarette tax/fee revenues puts the spotlight on these once stalwart issues (anti-gambling, anti-taxing) the Republican party was hoping to gloss over to get to a budget deal.

Krinkie deserves points for sticking to his principles, but at this stage of the session, guys like Krinkie and Sen. tax working group chair Sen. Larry Pogemiller (D-Minneapolis) live for showdowns like this, and Pogemiller lives longer. Certainly Krinkie's candidacy for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District is a key consideration. Republican endorsing delegates don't like gambling or raising taxes.

The greater issue is how many members of the Republican House Majority line up with Krinkie on the gambling and tax issues? To be honest, your publishers don't have that answer, which could be the key to or the stumbling block in solving the budget stalemate.

Politicians Missing a Parade?

Politicians go with the Fourth of July as well as fireworks. Most of the time they are beautiful, but sometimes there is tragedy. This year, it appears that many politicians avoided the beauty of Fourth of July parades. We have received several reports of state legislators who are mainstays in parades, not showing. We're not surprised. The shutdown has people angry, and we are hearing about it at the grocery store, on the golf course, actually, almost everywhere.

There is also a trickle up effect; one congressional staffer commented that parade goers shouted that one Congressman should not be at the parade but working to end the shutdown. So much for a successful basic civics education.

A report from one of our "citizen correspondents" in Delano. This former small rural town northwest of the Twin Cities was once a rural enclave of Democratic domination. Neighboring Waverly is the late and former Vice President and staunch Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey's hometown. But, in the 21^st century, this new exurban enclave is exurban/suburban and solidly Republican. The House District, 19B, that includes Delano and Waverly, voted 59.2%-39.7% for George Bush over John Kerry in 2004. That information makes this item from our e-mail much more edifying. Reports our Delano citizen correspondent, "As 4^th of July parades go, the west-metro Delano parade is usually a 'can't miss' for politicians. Between 70,000-100,000 people usually line the long parade route through town. U.S. Senators walk, governors walk . . . I don't think [U.S. Republican Rep. Jim]Ramstad has ever missed. The state reps. and senators are always there. This year, they all skipped it. There were two local mayors and someone quietly handing out [Hennepin County Attorney and DFL U.S. Sen. candidate Amy] Klobuchar stickers--and that's it. Not a single state or federal politician showed his or her face. It has to be the shutdown. Comments were uniform in the crowd, 'They couldn't stand the boos--no one of either party could risk it.'"

Minnesota Vexillology.

When Sen. Democratic media master Vic Thorstenson was adjusting the Minnesota flag to make a better visual behind Sen. Majority Leader Dean Johnson (D-Willmar) at a press conference this week, Thorstenson flagged (sorry) an important issue unrelated to the budget stalemate: Our state flag is tacky. Seriously. Look at one up close. As Thorstenson noted, "it looks like it was printed on a cheap dot matrix printer." In 1955, the last time the Legislature dealt with the Minnesota flag, the former white back of the flag was changed to the current blue (the idea was to make the flag cheaper and thus more accessible to the people). The Legislature also proscribed exactly what should be on the flag. Here's to hoping some legislator--in the spirit of getting something done in the special session--drafts a bill to add a new flag requirement. Something simple like "the flags colors should not bleed" or maybe "the manufacture, sale and display of tacky Minnesota flags are strictly prohibited." And, by the way, there were no manufacturer labels on the two flags we checked at the Capitol. Readers, look at your Minnesota flags. Are they tacky? Were they made in China?!

Rowley is "Off" and Running

A few weeks ago, we wrote a piece about the looming candidacy of retired FBI agent Coleen Rowley in the Second Congressional District against incumbent U.S. Rep. Republican John Kline and the things she needed to do be successful. We hear through two very highly placed Democratic operatives that she is dismissing all traditional political consultants for her own advice.

We also found out that Rowley was kind of campaigning this weekend, at a Fourth of July parade where she was wearing a hand painted t-shirt that said 'Rowley for Congress' on the front and ' Always Try' on the back.

The 'Always Try' appears to be an emerging campaign slogan -- it is also on her Web site. Rowley will face an uphill battle against Congressman John Kline no matter how you cut it, but will not do herself any favors if she ignores good experienced Minnesota political advice.

Her candidacy is attracting immediate national media attention as we suspected it would. Stories on it ran in BusinessWeek and the Today Show within 12 hours of each other, there were reports on MSNBC and CNN on Wednesday, and on Fox News on Thursday.

When Rowley was going one-on-one with Katie Couric (in a Tom Cruise v. Matt Lauer combative style) she focused on her "conservative" values and admitted that she voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000 and other reports have said she previously voted for Kline.

One term or message she is espousing is "ethical decision making" when discussing the war on terror and the Republican congress and administration. While we are guessing this phrase isn't poll-tested, we think it will begin to lay some groundwork implying that somehow Kline isn't ethical. In the end, that is a tough case to make about the former Marine.

Rowley has hired one well-known Democratic fund-raiser, Ellen Stankiewicz, in hopes of raising $2 million to challenge Kline. And Kline, by the way, is happy to have Rowley in the race: it puts his race on the national map under the scrutiny of Republican donors across the country.

The Minneapolis Park Board, a New PR Position and a Slate of Challenger Candidates

Ask any Minneapolitan to name the best thing about the city and the answer is usually "the parks." Ask any Minneapolitan to name their favorite Minneapolis unit of government to bash and the answer is usually the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB). Certainly the Park Board has provided detractors with plenty of material. Recently, Jason Stone, who is challenging incumbent District 5 Commissioner Carol Kummer, was accosted by three Park Board squad cars because he was handing out campaign literature to citizens attending a community meeting at a park building. Southwest Journal editor David Brauer provides the details and opines on what he calls the "Tinpot park dictators". The Park Board built itself a $6.5 million (and $3 million over budget) swank new headquarters on prime Mississippi riverfront real estate. And, people are still talking about the lucrative relationship between the Park Board and its attorney and lobbyist, Brian Rice, who earns more than $400,000 a year in fees.

Park Board critics are also fond of using harsh words like "arrogance" and "incompetence" to describe some members of the board, all of whom are up for reelection this fall. Strikes your publishers that the critics aptly describe the latest move by the Park Board: A recent posting for a PR person [PDF]. It also strikes us that nothing could be more arrogant than--in an election year--hiring a person with a salary of up to $75,000 plus benefits to "design and implement marketing campaign strategy with established goals and quantifiable results to further MPRB's base of support." We can't help but have fun trying to read between the lines in other parts of the job description. For example, "track all media contacts and coverage" seems to flag blogs and perhaps the best repository of online Park Board criticism at E-Democracy's Minneapolis Issues list.

In the past, defeating incumbent Park Board members has been almost impossible. Democratic party and labor endorsements rule. And, while there seem to be plenty of good issues, it's hard to get voters to pay attention. However, there's a new group, Minneapolis for Park Board Reform, forming a formidable slate of challengers. And behind the slate is one of the state's most formidable grassroots organizers, Michael Guest. To date (filings close next week), the reform slate includes former Commerce Commissioner Jim Bernstein against incumbent Bob Fine in District 6, Tracy Nordstrom in the open seat in District 4, Jason Stone against Carol Kummer in District 5, and Scott Vreeland for the open seat in District 3.

The reform group made somewhat of a splash handing out literature at this spring's Minneapolis Democratic city convention, but it didn't have a specific roster of candidates at that time. Here's their platform: "Trees die. Beaches and Pools Close. Youth Programs Cut." Other issues the group hopes to gain traction on include the Fort Snelling sports complex fiasco resulting in only a parking lot and creating a $2.5 million lien on the property, mismanagement of concessions revenues, a new "Superintendent Slush Fund" of $500,000, and the hiring of three new managers at $100,000 a piece.

We hope (and expect) we'll hear from a few current Park Board members.

On Other Minneapolis Matters...

Not much seems to be happening on the Minneapolis mayoral contest front, although several incumbent Mayor R.T. Rybak campaign insiders are griping that Rybak doesn't stay on message and is hard-pressed to name an accomplishment other than balancing the city budget and complaining about Republican state lawmakers' local government aid cuts. In contrast, challenger and Democratic Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin consistently hammers on crime and safety, schools and neighborhoods.

Given the focus on reform and the Park Board, here's to hoping that some of that reform spirit rubs off on other units of Minneapolis government. Recall that the Star Tribune devoted an entire Sunday's Op Ed section to what's wrong with Minneapolis city government, and the only responses seemed to be from those entrenched in the status quo of too many units of government with some serious unaccountability and duplication. One good idea currently being floated around town is to wipe out the city's Board of Estimate and Taxation and give its powers to the City Council. In return, the City Council should strengthen the mayor's powers, like giving the mayor the authority to appoint his or her own department heads.

Inside the Fund-raising Race

Political fund-raisers are like CFOs these days, always looking at quarterly results. This quarter in Minnesota Democratic circles was no different than the previous quarter, and the candidate or company with the results was Amy Klobuchar. She ended her second quarter with a total of $1.2 million raised and $1.1 in the bank. The fact that she hasn't had to spend more than 10 percent of what she has raised to continue raising funds is quite impressive. Klobuchar's chief competitor, Patty Wetterling, has raised $750,000 but she spent almost half--most likely on fund-raising efforts like direct mail and telephones, making her expenses a little high for most CFOs.

Other DFLers in the Sen. race trail distantly. Real estate developer Kelly Doran has raised $61,000 in addition to the $250,000 he personally gave his campaign. But he only has $90,000 on hand. Ford Bell raised $100,000 and only has $75,000 on hand.

In sum their "expense percentages" are as follows: Doran is at 72 percent, Wetterling 50 percent, Bell at 25 percent, and Klobuchar 9 percent.

Politics & Podcasting

When the Apple computer company got some major press last week for the addition of a podcasting subscription feature to their iTunes music download service, Al Franken got a whole new audience because his show on Air America was among the first iTunes offerings of cost-free podcast subscriptions and was highlighted on the front page of the podcast section. Also included among the first podcasts at iTunes is Peter Idusogie's Democratic-slanted "Inside Minnesota Politics" podcast. Read Pioneer Press's Julio Ojeda-Zapata timely, for us, article on the effect iTunes new service has had on broadening local podcasters' audience.

Two days after adding the feature, Apple announced that podcast subscriptions had topped one million. The service makes it vastly easier to find and subscribe to podcasts.

Apple sold 5.3 million iPods during the last quarter, 15 million overall. A Pew survey found that 11 percent of Americans own iPods or MP3 players, " or more than 22 million of those who are age 18 and older." As a rule, podcast subscribers will tend to be younger, primarily between 18 and 34 years of age.

The consumer electronic research firm The Diffusion Group said that podcast demand "is expected to grow from less than 15% of portable digital music player owners in 2004 to 75% by 2010."

A June 27 article by Ojeda-Zapata illustrates how reporters can use the iPod as a digital voice recorder: "I can go on a trip somewhere and do 10 interviews in a day," he quotes St. Paul freelance writer Kevin Hendricks.

Podcasting has the potential to reshape radio audience listening habits in much the same way DVRs have created "time shifting" viewing habits among television audiences.

Franken also got some publicity from iTunes last week when his "celebrity playlist"--basically, 10 songs he likes--was featured on the front page of the download service. His list?

1. "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival -- "I like it 'cause I saw it on a jeans ad."
2. "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits -- "I love Knopfler."
3. "China Cat Sunflower" and
4. "I Know You Rider" by Grateful Dead -- "It's from Europe '72, man."
5. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones -- "Reminds me of when I was young."
6. "Better Things" by Dar Williams -- "It's Dar doing the Kinks. What could be better?"
7. "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan -- "It reminds me of Paul Wellstone and gives me the chills."
8. "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues by Elton John -- "It's his most heterosexual song."
9. "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor -- "I like songs with beautiful melodies. For example, I'm not a hip-hop fan."
10. "One Time One Night" by Los Lobos -- "My favorite Los Lobos song. It's all heart, and makes me dance."

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

[Publishers' note: Please e-mail us at staff@politicsinminnesota.com with anything we've missed or something that's coming up, or fax same to 651-293-9056.]

We have been remiss in not mentioning Scott Mortenson is also running as a DFLer in the Sixth Congressional District.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is searching for a candidate to run in the Third Congressional District against incumbent U.S. Representative Jim Ramstad. A long shot at any cost, but the DCCC wants Ramstad to stay busy.

Mike Freeman has filed a campaign committee in his race to get back his old job as Hennepin County Attorney. His chief competition is impressive upstart Andy Luger who has already solidified core Democratic and law community support.

It should be noted that Teresa Daly, the Democratic party candidate in the Second Congressional District in 2004, told ECM Weekly Newspapers that she will be running for something in 2006, "whether it be Burnsville City Council, Congress or statewide". Pretty ambitious in our minds for someone who lost handily in 2004.

While Coleen Rowley is often cited as one of Time's people of the year in 2002, she was also Ms. Magazine's "woman of the year in 2002", making us wonder if Gloria Steinem herself will campaign for Rowley. And, how would Steinem play in the suburban/exurban Second Congressional District?

Former Vice President Al Gore will be in town next Tuesday to give a presentation on global climate change at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The event will be hosted by Vance Opperman and Tom Gegax.

For those interested in Minneapolis politics, besides the Southwest Journal there's another great source of new news in the Minneapolis Observer. The paper, once weekly and currently monthly, was founded and is published by former Utne Reader editor Craig Cox. Of particular interest is the Minneapolis Observer's online "Ballot Box." Deftly dubbed, "Candidates, Campaigns and Consequences," the online Ballot Box feature brings Minneapolitans local political news that's not appearing elsewhere, and readers will note that the Ballot Box definitely has the attention of Minneapolis pols and candidates. Another worthy read on the newspaper's Web site is its mission statement. Worth noting here is the following: When the local newspaper of record refuses to send a reporter to cover a Park Board meeting, something is irretrievably lost. When the dominant weekly expends its plentiful resources to cover a presidential caucus in Iowa rather than a School Board meeting, it's sending an important message: The life of the city is somehow less important. The newspaper of record, of course, is the Star Tribune and the weekly, City Pages.

We're guessing most PIM readers didn't see the fun story the AP's Brian Bakst wrote about "Camp Impasse" as reporters did their stakeout duty at the governor's residence when the action (make that that inaction) was happening there. The Star Tribune ran it online but not in print.

In case any readers haven't thought to see how far and wide the Minnesota shutdown news has traveled, consult Google.

Politics In Minnesota: Lobbyist Watch
--Who is working what issues--

From the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board:

• Newly registered lobbyists
  • Jennifer Breitinger, for the Association of Minnesota Counties.
  • Former City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, for the Ackerberg Group, JADT Group and Whitney Partners.
  • Former Hennepin County Commissioner John Derus, for the Minnesota Hospitality Association.
  • Jim Girard and Andrea Kajer, of Cook, Hill, Girard, for Deloitte & Touche.
  • Tom Lehman, for the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.
  • Richard Kleven, for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
  • Cordelia Pierson and Susan Schmidt, for the Conservation Campaign.
  • Valerie Jerich, for the Minnesota Soybean Processors.
• Recently terminated lobbyists
  • Rollin Crawford, for the Minnesota Dental Association.
  • Loren DeJonge, for the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
  • Jim Erickson, for Time Warner.
  • Larry Koll, for the Minnesota Self-Insurers Association, the Minnesota Self-Insurers Security Fund and Medical Evaluations, Inc.
  • John Knapp, of Winthrop & Weinstine, for the Center for Energy & Economic Development.
  • Roger Peterson, for the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities.
  • Mark Tyndall, for the Society for Diagnostic Medical Sonography.

Politics In Minnesota: 20 Years Ago
--How political time flies--

Here's an item to make most of us feel old. Really, really old. Twenty years ago--BCP (before cell phones)--after the State Office Building (SOB, and double entendre has always been appreciated) was remodeled, there weren't any pay telephones. Some lobbyists coped by running over to nearby Sears to buy small phones to put in their brief cases. When they came across a phone jack, they plugged in their "portable" phones. When no public phones were forthcoming, well-respected and now-deceased former chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Wendy Anderson and then lobbyist Tom Kelm personally lobbied Northwestern Bell's CEO and two pay phones were immediately installed.

Politics In Minnesota: The Coming Week In Other Media

[Publisher's note: Please e-mail staff@politicsinminnesota.com to tell us about them.]

Access to Democracy: Hosted by Alan Miller and produced by BECT.TV (Burnsville/Eagan Community Television; Channel 15 in those areas).

Almanac. Hosted by Erik Eskola and Cathy Wurzer. Find out what's on this week's show. Airs live at 7:00 p.m. Fridays on TPT Channel 2. Rebroadcasts are Saturday mornings at 1:00 a.m. and Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. on Channel 2. You can also watch the current and past shows. Coming this week:

• Is Today the Day? - That an agreement is reached to end the partial state shutdown? Tune in and find out.
• Look At Your Sources - Out East there's a big fight over reporters and confidential sources. It's landed a prominent journalist in jail. We debate the issues from both sides.
• A TV Dinner Conversation - Find out J.G. Preston's TV tray dinner party guest. We won't tell you the name, but will admit that the food will be mac and cheese.
• Weather with Paul - Minnesota is heating up... and the Gulf Coast is getting ready for menacing Dennis.
• Base Ball in Stillwater - Yes, spell that word baseball the 19th century way. We visit with the St. Croix Base Ball Club that plays the game according to 1860 rules.
• A Political Panel - The Governor and key lawmakers met through Thursday night and resumed negotiating Friday. Is the elusive deal in sight? Hear from our panel.

At Issue with Tom Hauser. Broadcast on Sundays at 7:00 a.m. on KSTP Channel 45 and at 9:00 a.m. on KSTP Channel 5. Coming this week:

• A recap of the week's political news.
• Special guests on the latest in the budget negotiations.
• Political analysis with former Democratic Governor Wendy Anderson and Republican Annette Meeks from the Center of the American Experiment.
• Face-Off with DFLer Ember Reichgott Junge and Republican and AM 1500's Dave Thompson.

WCCO Radio: The Pat Miles Show. 830 AM. Every Thursday morning about 9:30 a.m., politicsinminnesota.com publishers Blois Olson and Sarah Janecek visit with Pat to discuss the week's hottest political news.

Politics In Minnesota: Setting The Record Straight

Don't even ask...it's Kinky Friedman, not Pinky, who is running for Governor in Texas.

We missed one of the purple Wal-Marts in our red/blue analysis of Wal-Marts around the state. Wal-Mart has a superstore in Red Wing and is represented by Sen. Steve Murphy (D-Red Wing) and Rep. Jerry Dempsey (R-Red Wing).

We look forward to hearing what you like as well as what you don't about our new publication. Please, do send your thoughts to staff@politicsinminnesota.com or to the publishers, at blois@politicsinminnesota.com and/or sarah@politicsinminnesota.com