Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 29 - 2/1/2008
Publisher's Note
Heads up to our subscribers: We will be publishing a special edition of the Weekly Report on Monday, February 4th. The issue will be chalk full of all matters du caucus, including the political environments at the time of all precinct caucuses held since 1980, the dawn of the Reagan era.
Super Tuesday: But Where Are The Candidates?
Minnesota's share of the presidential campaign appearance pie was slim this past week: John Edwards, who withdrew on Wednesday, and Mike Huckabee's wife, Janet Huckabee, were the only notables to land in our state. Besides Barack Obama's rally, scheduled for Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the Target Center (click here for more information), the remaining presidential candidates are not planning to visit Minnesota in the days leading up to Super Tuesday, however, we're betting that might change as the campaigns make last minute changes.
PIM received an interesting note from Sen. Don Betzold (DFL-Fridley) related to Minnesota's new Super Tuesday status that sums up the situation quite well:
"For years, political activists have urged us to schedule our precinct caucuses earlier in Presidential election years so that Minnesota could attract the attention of the candidates...the parties moved the caucus dates to February 5, "Super Tuesday." And what will be the net effect of earlier caucus? Nothing new, except for earlier caucuses. With so many caucuses and primaries in other states on that one day, the major (remaining) candidates can't afford to spend any time in Minnesota. It also appears that no candidate from either party can possibly secure the needed votes for endorsement by or on Super Tuesday. Ironically, if we had left the caucus dates where they were, in March, we might have gotten candidates to come here after Super Tuesday because they don't have many other places to go."
We would have agreed with Betzold until now. With the stakes so high in both the Republican and Democratic contests, we think we might see Hillary before caucuses convene Tuesday night. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX 14) will be appearing on February 4th at the U of M, and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is appearing at the Target Center tomorrow. Paul's campaign has trumpeted how he's apparently the only GOP candidate actively making media buys in Minnesota; one PIM reader heard three Paul and one Obama ads during a Joe Soucheray radio show this week. Paul's state caucus information is also quite complete, but can he pull another Nevada surprise?
Caucus Night Media Hoopla
Given the tight races on both sides, expect the turnout in Minnesota to be much larger than in recent years, which means much greater local media coverage than ever before. Here's what we know about local station plans so far. KARE 11 will have a team of four reporters monitoring the results at both the state and national level. The political analysis will be provided by Prof. Steve Smith of Washington University and Prof. David Schultz of Hamline University along with KARE 11's own political team of Scott Goldberg and John Croman. WCCO will have reporters at the Union Carpenters Hall in St. Paul monitoring the Democratic results plus one reporter at a Democratic and Republican Caucus. Pat Kessler will be live in studio, with Don Shelby and Larry Jacobs providing analysis from the Humphrey Institute. KSTP has not responded to requests for information.
As best we can tell, Fox 9 News will have the most extensive local coverage. At 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday night, the station will air a live webcast, and then plans two hours of live television coverage starting at 9:00 p.m. Commentators for Fox include your publisher, Sarah Janecek, and Brian Lambert, the leftie media critic who writes at www.mspmag.com. Will there be fireworks or friendship between Janecek and Lambert, like what transpired on the now-defunct Lambert & Janecek show on KTLK FM? You'll have to tune in to find out.
Sassy Janet Huckabee: Not Your Typical Southern Belle
Daily chapel attendance is required of students at Northwestern; in fact, students swipe identification cards into a computer system for verification. However, on Monday Maranatha Hall was unusually crowded, most likely a result of both students and community members who didn't want to miss guest speaker Janet Huckabee.
Huckabee made a pit stop in Roseville before heading to St. Louis Park to visit an antipoverty relief group. She first spoke to Prof. Kent Kaiser's class (Kaiser is the former Secretary of State Communication and Voter Outreach Director) in a nonpartisan presentation about campaign life, her role as first lady of Arkansas, and her exciting exploits that include bears, rattlesnakes, grenades and airplanes (click here for more).
"The most interesting question asked was how she views the campaigns getting along," Kaiser explained. "She said she gets along with all the first ladies, even Mrs. Romney."
Huckabee's chapel speech was well-received, according to freshmen Lynsey Haglund and Carolyn Smellie. They described her as a good presenter and public speaker who related well to students through humor. Huckabee spoke mostly about her personal experiences growing up and her recent graduation from John Brown University in 2003.
Questions from the student body were varied, from "Is your husband man enough to admit his mistakes?" (yes), to "What can we do to support Mike Huckabee?" (vote at caucuses for him). "Everyone around me was entertained," said Smellie, an early childhood education major. "She was almost sassy, but in a good way. She's not your typical candidate's wife... she came across as friendly and funny."
Haglund, an elementary education major, was planning to support Huckabee before the first lady's speech. Despite leaving a positive impression, Smellie isn't sure she will be a Huckabee supporter yet; she plans to research more about candidates before making her final decision.
On The Eve Of Edwards' Resignation
On the eve of John Edwards' resignation, all was wonderful.
Laura Nevitt, director of Minnesota for Edwards, described the event as "fabulous," and "exceeding expectations." The campaign booked the Carpenter's Hall, expecting 500 attendees. By Tuesday morning their online RSVP totaled 863, and the actual headcount by staff totaled more than 1,200 people.
"People were so excited," Nevitt said. "He [Edwards] was blown away." Nevitt was unaware of Edward's resignation until mid-morning on Wednesday. Due to her late hours the night before, she slept in and missed the media hype. A friend called and broke the news.
Although disappointed, Nevitt said she'll be fine; her past experience in campaigns prepared her for the reality that her candidate might not make it to the White House. Right now, she is more concerned about the volunteers who thrived on their passion and love for the candidate.
"I feel bad for all the people who came last night," Nevitt said. "My heart goes out to them." But Nevitt knows her efforts were appreciated. In his withdrawal speech, Edwards mentioned Minnesota, as one of three states that "almost changed my mind." (For the entire text of Edward's withdrawal speech, click here.)
For now, Nevitt and the rest of the Minnesota for Edwards staff are heading over to the Carpenter's Hall to finish cleaning up. "Volunteers will need time to mourn the loss of their candidate," said Nevitt. She expects people to support other candidates, "but it won't be right away." Independents Cut A Move: Will MySpace-Powered National Party Promises Pay Off?
Two of our staffers, Web Editor Dan Feidt and Nick Lambert, ran the glamorous PIM vendor table at the Independence Party of Minnesota (IPM) state convention last Saturday afternoon, which was held at the Bloomington Civic Plaza, in the City Council chambers. With a proposed national party affiliation on the day's agenda, it was an important day for IPM and all the indie luminaries were there: Tim Penny, Peter Hutchinson, Dean Barkley, former CD3 candidate/blogger Gavin Sullivan, former party chair Jim Moore and current chair Craig Swaggart mingled with around 100 party delegates. Many people sported buttons promoting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for president, while others told us they didn't like Bloomberg. The IPM debated about whether or not they should affiliate with the new Independence Party of America (IPOA), a recently created outfit spun up from the 300,000-strong Independence Party of New York (IPNY).
We spotted an unassuming-looking guy, kind of short, rocking a big earring and a curly rattail (a rare feature at political events these days, we agreed). Not an intimidating political figure, but, naturally, this guy was Frank MacKay, the national chairman of the IPOA (and IPNY as well). After spelling out his case to the KSTP camera guy (who was a good interviewer, by the way), MacKay talked with us for a few minutes. Unexpectedly, we heard he made his career in music promotion and also owns some New York nightclubs. He started the Network music paper in his teens and managed Joey Ramone and magician Criss Angel. No stranger to how MySpace powers the American music scene nowadays, MacKay told us that he had more than 115,000 MySpace "friends," which his business card indicated was "myspace.com/frankmackay". Better yet, MacKay said IPOA had been organizing massively through MySpace, and a vast swath of IPOA's first activists were all MySpace-wired musicians! We checked his page, and yes, the Independence Party of America is technically a band in the MySpace Music section. Now that is a clever move: it puts your profile into a much busier tier of online activity.This new-fangled promotion contrasted with the hardy old-school band of Minnesota Independents, well-regarded among independents nationally because they'd seated Gov. Jesse Ventura, appointed Dean Barkley to the U.S. Senate, and extended their major party status via Hutchinson's serious, policy-driven gubernatorial campaign in 2006. But would these folks team up with a New York music guy? The idea, as MacKay pitched it to the convention, was that the IPOA would take no position on the usual wedge social issues, (abortion, school prayer, etc.), and allow all state-level parties to have their own autonomous platform. MacKay himself tours the country, finding local experts on ballot access, and he guaranteed they would be able to get onto all 50 states' ballots. Hopefully, the party would then also obtain a charismatic nominee for President with enough nationwide appeal to bring in enough votes to legally qualify as a "major party" across the land.
Thus, state chapters could be kicked off nationwide by an interesting presidential campaign, and new independent candidates at the state and local levels could offer a more substantial, nationally-aware challenge to the established parties. MacKay said they all want to get away from the toxic "third party" label, since it connotes losers and "spoilers." The IPOA's agenda for 2008 would center on vote reform; when delegates asked if IPM or IPOA's agenda would become infused with their prospective nominee's own ideology (implicitly meaning Bloomberg, it seemed), MacKay indicated that a more firm party platform would be a matter to weigh at a party convention somewhere beyond this November. If Bloomberg wanted to use the party as a vehicle, MacKay confirmed they would jump at the chance.
DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie also stopped by to deliver some friendly remarks, pointing out that IPM has the great responsibility to speak for Minnesotans who don't like to affiliate with political parties, and that the SOS office would do everything possible to lower barriers for the IPM and promote engagement with the process. As everything unfolded, Dean Barkley clenched the same cigar in his teeth for at least two hours. While watching MacKay's pitch intently from the elevated City Council seats, he rotated that soggy thing. We couldn't help but conclude: this famed outside-the-box operator was up to something. Of that, we can be sure.6th Congressional District Fundraising
The past two weeks PIM has reported on the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts fundraising numbers. The last of the three districts Rothenberg rates as possibly up for grabs is Minnesota's 6th District. Here tax lawyer and independent bank owner Bob Olson and former State Transportation Commissioner and lobbyist Elwyn Tinklenberg are vying to unseat Incumbent Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN 6).
|
Candidate |
4th Quarter Raised | On Hand |
Link |
| Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN 6) |
$297,461.72 |
$1,213,285.71 | FEC Link |
| Bob Olson (D) |
$30,775.38 |
$62,116.38 | FEC Link |
|
Elwyn Tinklenberg (D) |
$133,152.00 |
$133,152.00 | FEC Link |
As Rob Nelson recently wrote in MinnPost, documentaries were popular items to buy at Sundance this year, and a new generation of independent film-makers seems to be emerging. "American Drug War: The Last White Hope" has been stunning audiences (your PIM reviewer really enjoyed the hard-hitting exposé), and America's decrepit election machinery has been fertile ground. 2006's Emmy-nominated HBO special, "Hacking Democracy," memorably featured the gonzo voting rights grandma and Black Box Voting founder Bev Harris dumpster-diving for incriminating material at Diebold headquarters and Finnish computer security guru Harri Hursti showing how everyone can program invisible negative votes into Diebold memory cards. Minnesota is blissfully free of the kinds of toxic nonsense found in other states, but the 2000 debacle and clearly tilted Ohio poll machine practices in 2004 have ensured it remains a hot local issue.
Riverview Theatre in southeast Minneapolis chalked up another well-attended activist documentary event on Wednesday evening; the whole theater nearly filled up for "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections," which explored the thorny thicket of defective, hackable voting machines, gritty activists, strange hidden programs and a generally indifferent media (Nelson also had a review). Hosted by Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota (CEIMN), the digitally projected film explored how the national media finally soured on paperless voting machines in 2006, but that shouldn't make watchdogs complacent, the film's producer/director, David Earnhardt, warned in a Q&A after the screening. CEIMN Director Mark Halvorson told the audience that Minnesota's reliable election practices are envied nationwide, and that the nation's first citizen-based post-election audit here had been a success. Working with other groups to support clean, reliable election processes, fair audits and fair recounts nationwide forms a key goal for these activists. Already in 2008, they see some problems coming as New Hampshire's Diebold optical scanners seem to have anomalous counts; the Election Defense Alliance is now investigating and plans to release a report within days.
The doc itself should be good viewing for anyone on the political spectrum, and was well-received by the audience. Your PIM reviewer would have liked more fun stuff in the final quarter of the film: less talk and more Diebold hacking and dumpster diving. Those motivational "Lobby your congressperson" type messages they always tack on at the end of flicks like this just aren't very much fun to watch, even when warranted.
The RNC Video Online
The GOP recently announced an interesting new way for the public to view the upcoming Republican National Convention, which will be held here in St. Paul. Upstream.TV will be serving as the Convention's official live video streaming provider. Upstream will allow anyone with an Internet connection to view gavel-to-gavel coverage of the convention. This seems the natural progression of viewing the event that featured 19 hours of speeches in 4 days last time. It is interesting to note that along with this announcement the Committee on Arrangements for the 2008 Republican National Convention touted the $150-160 million economic boost Minnesota is expected to receive, which reflects the Department of Economic and Employment Development study (PDF). PIM Publisher Sarah Janecek explored the expected economic windfall in two articles, "GOP Insiders are Working to Divvy up Lucrative Convention Pie" and "GOP Convention Organizers Working to Paint the Towns Red" for MinnPost.com. The fact that these numbers are being mention in an announcement for streaming video seems to show the GOP concern to avoid another costly Convention like NYC's in 2004.
Vending live video services is an expanding market: TheUptake.org, which hopes to train citizen journalists/video bloggers for both the DNC and RNC, managed to set up live feeds at the Iowa caucuses via the Mogulus service. Brave New Films, Robert Greenwald's liberal documentary media machine, has been covering the elections (and will cover Super Tuesday) live online via CoverItLive.com, an impressive free software video package.
Bits & Pieces
Senate candidate Mike Ciresi released a new ad this week, in the hopes that Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum will woo caucus attendees to the Ciresi-side. Other than that, Ciresi's campaign style is sticking to their original plan: pound the pavement, meet the people. The Ciresi campaign has termed their strategy, "good old-fashioned retail politics," with the goal of putting Mike in front of people through mail, email, phone, t.v. and in person.
Another significant full-time hire at MinnPost.com. Susan Albright, the former long-time editor of the Star Tribune's editorial pages who was writing about foreign and national events for MinnPost, will become a managing editor. She'll share managing editor duties with current MinnPost managing editor Roger Buoen (who was deputy managing editor, news side, at the Star Tribune). The job share will allow both to spend more time developing news coverage and opinion writing.
Tune in to Minnesota Public Radio Midday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Super Tuesday for your campaign fix. The first hour features "Where the Voters Stand," a live audience forum moderated by Midday host Gary Eichten and Washington University political scientist Steven Smith. The forum will be recorded Monday night, interested parties can click here for details. The second hour is a live, call-in discussion among DFL Senate candidates Mike Ciresi, Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Listeners can also submit questions online at www.mpr.org.
Sensing a big, long-term issue, MSNBC has put together a Flash-powered trip-planning map system that displays every bridge's inspection status along your way at bridges.msnbc.com.
WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha let everyone know he is also dropping out of the presidential race via his Tumblr blog.
Exco, the new Twin Cities EXperimental COllege, is starting up its entirely free spring semester, and now offers classes for interested people in Minneapolis and St. Paul. If you're interested in teaching, or taking a class, visit the Drupal-powered EXCO website and sign up. Classes will start after enough people take an interest online. There is an info session at the Macalester College Campus Center at 3 p.m. Saturday, February 2nd.
Tuesday night come and live the Caucuses live with the Minnesota DFL. The Centralized Caucus-Night Party is taking place at Carpenters' Hall in St. Paul. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) will be addressing the crowd at 10 p.m. with the event kicking off at 8 p.m. for more info and directions click here.
The ever-changing relationship between religion and politics will be explored in a forum with Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne Jr. and University of Minnesota Professor Larry Jacobs. The discussion will revolve around the fading power of the Religious Right, in a new era where people find common ground across ideological boundaries on issues like social justice, the environment and peace. This is a free presentation and is open to the public without registration. The event is Monday February 18th from 5:30-6:45 p.m. in the Cowles Auditorium on the Campus of the University of Minnesota. For directions or parking information click here.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) appointed John H. Guthmann to the Second Judicial District Trial Court Bench. For the St. Paul Pioneer Press link click here.
Pawlenty also appointed J. Dennis O'Brien to the Public Utilities Commission. O'Brien was appointed to a six-year term that expires in early 2014; he replaces Marshall Johnson. O'Brien had been serving as the Governor's director of strategic planning. O'Brien was an attorney with Little Mendelson for several years, and with the now-defunct Rider Bennett frm for many years before that. Prior to Rider Bennett, O'Brien practiced at the also now-defunct LeFevre Lefler firm, where the Governor practiced law before accompanying O'Brien to Rider Bennett. Trivia: That old LeFevre Lefler firm is also where your publisher worked as a law clerk, along with former DFL Bloomington Senator, now lobbyist Dave Johnson, Farmers Legal Action Group executive director Susan Stokes and Target Corporation senior lawyer Dave Donlin.
Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland has announced his endorsement of Al Franken. Bergland was the former Congressman from Minnesota's 7th District before vacating that post to become Secretary of Agriculture. For a full list of Franken endorsements click here.
Former Secretary of State Joan Growe recently announced her endorsement of DFL hopeful Mike Ciresi. For a list of Ciresi's endorsements click here.
New Hennepin County Library Board Members have been appointed by the County Commissioners. The Library Board has now expanded to 11 members, up from 7 with the addition of Tennant Corp CEO and Library Committee Chairman Roger Hale, former Minneapolis Public Library Trustee Kathleen Lamb, Excel Energy Foundation Director John Pachero, and Jill Joseph.
Politics in Minnesota: Setting the Record Straight
Our apologies - the chair of the Business, Industry and Jobs Committee is President of the Minnesota Senate Jim Metzen (DFL-South St. Paul), not President of the Minnesota Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association Tom Metzen (click here to learn more about the HBPA). It is very likely Sen. Metzen knows Tom Metzen, who, according to The Horseman's Journal, "was one of a small group that was instrumental in the passage of a Minnesota constitutional amendment that led to the 1984 pari-mutuel bill which paved the way for the construction of Canterbury Park in Shakopee." Both Metzens have a history in Minnesota politics, our profuse apologies for the mistake.
Lobbyist Watch
From the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board:
Morning Reports
