Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report, Vol. 4, Issue 7 - 8/8/2008
Independence Abundance
We're still trying to figure out why there are so many Independence Party (IP) candidates in this year's U.S. Senate race, given the theatrics that have played out so far, and those that have yet to hit the stage in the contest between incumbent U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman and DFL challenger Al Franken. Seven IP candidates are vying for the slot on the November ballot:
Stephen Williams, farmer (prairiefireusa.com) [Officially IP-endorsed]
Dean Barkley, bus driver (senatorbarkley.com)
Bill Dahn, Native American activist (billdahn.com)
Kurt Anderson, Minneapolis Attorney (kurtanderson08.googlepages.com)
Darryl Stanton, entrepreneur and inventor (darrylstanton.com)
Jack Uldrich, business speaker, adviser, futurist (dotheimpossible08.com)
Douglas Williams, retired (according to WCCO)
This week, stories on a few of the candidates...
Senator Barkley?
Anyone besides us find Dean Barkley's prominent use of "Senator" in his current U.S. Senate campaign awkward, if not in bad form? All 2008 Barkley campaign communications refer to him as "Senator." Then there's his newly launched web site: senatorbarkley.com. Certainly traditional protocol does provide that former elected officials forever retain their titles. Informally, though, that protocol has evolved to dropping the title when the politician moves on to a different field. For example, both former Governors Wendy Anderson and Arne Carlson are still routinely called "Governor." But in the years Anderson practiced law and lobbied for the Larkin, Hoffman firm, "Governor" was dropped because it blurred his then-current role as an attorney advocate. Another example is Mike Hatch. No one calls him "Attorney General" now that he's practicing law at the firm of Blackwell & Burke.
After serving in the Senate, Barkley went on to work as a contract lobbyist at the Minnesota legislature and then manage the 2006 Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman's campaign. [Friedman received only 12% of the vote despite memorable campaign slogans like his stated goal of the "dewussification of Texas."] Nobody called Barkley "Senator" when he held those jobs. We're guessing Barkley did not insist on "Senator" in his Match.com personal ad.
Maybe our "bad form" sense stems from the fact that Barkley was appointed to the U.S. Senate in the chaos that became the 2002 Senate race after the Wellstone plane crash. At the exact same time, mere days from the election, as Norm Coleman and Walter Mondale were having their one and only debate downtown St. Paul at the Fitzgerald Theater, Gov. Jesse Ventura was up the hill at the Capitol appointing Barkley. Barkley was officially a U.S. Senator for only two months.
One final thought. Barkley, as he as done in all his campaigns, is running as the anti-establishment candidate. Doesn't "Senator" scream establishment?!
Figuring Out The Future: The Innovative, Independent Uldrich
U.S. Senate candidate Jack Uldrich (dotheimpossible08.com) dubs himself a professional futurist, but notes that 'business forecaster' is a more familiar way to describe his day job as an independent business adviser and speaker. Dean Barkley (senatorbarkley.com) and the endorsed candidate, Stephen Williams (prairiefireusa.com), are his main rivals for the Independence Party (IP) nomination, but it's a crowded field (see the list, above). As a sidebar, note that the IP recently overhauled its website, which now routes to independenceminnesota.org. IPers are making regular posts and the site looks great!PIM reached Uldrich, the futurist, this week, and he filled us in on his plans for "an innovative campaign to reach the IP regulars and try to bring in some new primary voters to beat Barkley and the rest of the field." His website's introductory video, which encourages everyone to "reverse our thinking," was quite clever and original.
Uldrich's resume stacks up well against all the other U.S. Senate candidates: The Minneapolis native is a Navy veteran and former Pentagon analyst; he was chair of the Independence Party; he's written and published several books, and he was the deputy director of the state's Office of Strategic and Long-Range Planning under Jesse Ventura, where he promoted bio-tech, green energy and nanotechnology. Today he speaks frequently to corporate groups about emerging trends, boiling down intimidating tech-speak for a mass audience.
He served on the USS John F. Kennedy in the late 1980s, and then got into an intern program to serve as a civilian strategic planner at the Pentagon and advised the U.S. ambassador to NATO in Brussels. While he was interested in working on defense and foreign affairs early in his career, he soon saw that the spiraling national debt was a crucial internal threat, so he came back to Minnesota and became state director of the nonpartisan Concord Coalition, which was founded in 1992. Educating the public about the unsustainability of the federal government's spiraling debt was a tough task, and it's part of his campaign message today. [See Bits & Pieces below for the latest from the State Auditor about local government debts.]
In 1996, he took a shot at then-U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo in the 5th CD as a GOP candidate with IP support, but left the GOP because he sees himself as a moderate or libertarian on social issues.
During his time in the Ventura administration, he says that he tried to get Minnesota on the right track for the future. As he points out on his website, his efforts to convince Ventura, then-mayor Norm Coleman and the unions that St. Paul's Ford plant should get help to switch to hybrid auto production, lest it get shut down were unsuccessful. "No one listened to me," and the results are clear today.
Uldrich says that incoming Gov. Tim Pawlenty asked him to stay on; his first memo encouraged the state to get in front of clean technologies. As Uldrich put it, in four years Pawlenty "did nothing" but now postures as "Mr. Green Energy" at the National Governor's Association; essentially five years were "squandered."
In 2003, he left state government, wrote "The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business" and started a career as a business forecaster. He says that he has a proven ability to see where we're headed and will be able to "act now" once he's elected to the Senate, though he's been frustrated with the political process since it seems to get to problems "10 or 15 years too late." Since 2000, he has served on the boards of Fair Vote Minnesota, Fresh Energy (formerly ME3) and the Citizen's League.
He says that he hasn't "been in a position to exercise leadership," and what others view as problems, he sees as opportunities. His video encourages people to "reverse your thinking," which he expounded on in another book, "Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Businesses Deal with Emerging Technologies." He says that Jump the Curve was essentially a layperson's guide to cutting edge, dense futurist treatises like "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil. Uldrich's strength is that he can always convey tech talk to a general audience.
His case for the Senate is that Minnesotans need someone who understands biotech areas like stem cells (..if you don't get stem cells, "you have no idea" where health care is going..) and how increased longevity will distort programs like Social Security and Medicare. He can "get in front" of reforming these areas, he says. Alternative energy programs can generate 100% of our electricity, and "we can get there in 10 years" with proper leadership.
Pursuing new technology through government is a "healthier perspective" than the typical pattern now days, and breakthroughs like plastic sheets of cheap solar cells are right around the corner. These kinds of innovations should be available to all and within 10 years, generating around 50% of your energy from within the household should be possible, but "real leaders are needed." He warns that while big corporations may throw up roadblocks in Congress, the underdeveloped world will gain a competitive advantage as they do it themselves. If government doesn't play a positive role, the intellectual capital will head "over there," he warns.
Uldrich entered the U.S. Senate race this year at the last possible moment, because of the possibility that Ventura would file to run. Of course, in this year, as in years past, Ventura didn't exactly prioritize the need to strengthen the Independence Party over his interest in baiting the media, as Dave Mindeman astutely pointed out recently. If Uldrich and Barkley could have been in the field back in February, their name IDs would be far better than they are now.
How will he face the juggernauts of Coleman and Franken? Uldrich references the ancient strategic wisdom of Sun Tzu, who advised using the greatest strength of the enemy as a weakness. He knows he can't raise "anywhere near" $25 million, but an innovative Internet strategy could do the trick. Soon he'll release a new video, asking people to contribute two cents to his campaign, and tell two other people about his ideas. Then they can contribute two cents, and tell two more people. If this repeats twenty times, the exponential doubling will give him 2 million pennies and 1 million potential voters!
He'll try viral videos and old-fashioned campaigning, along with working the State Fair. He'll address the dissatisfaction with the major-party candidates and offer a solid message above the "clutter" in debates. Voters would see that he makes sense and has a credible background to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. He doesn't say it will be easy, but he wouldn't run if it wasn't possible for him to win.
Not surprisingly, Uldrich is an avid proponent of Instant Runoff Voting, which clearly would help independent chances in many races. It's a "far better way to elect officials" than the current system. He also favors cutting back the military budget to get the government's books in order, and feels qualified to address this since he's the only veteran in the race. The idea that funnelling in more money generates security is a false one, and there's a ton of waste to tackle. At $200 million/unit, the new F35 fighter program is "ridiculous," and the former Pentagon strategic planner points out that 200 unmanned drones can drop ordinance for the same price.
It's an unfortunate reality of political coverage these days that the rules for debates are slanted against the independents: Uldrich was "arbitrarily excluded" from joining Barkley, Al Franken or U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) onstage at FarmFest this week.
Uldrich has his own own way to fire back against the blackout: He posted online video responses to all the debate questions. Apparently, Barkley got in because he once held the Senate seat. Fortunately, KSTP has guaranteed that they will let the Independence Party primary winner join three debates with Coleman and Franken if their poll numbers are above 5%.
PIM Doubts The Blog Net's Dubious Declaration Of Digital Dominance
National blog mega-aggregator BlogNetNews has compiled a list of the most influential Minnesota political blogs. Putting aside for a moment the question of usefulness of sites like BlogNetNews, we have to wonder how they could have possibly come up with a list like this. BlogNetNews says that their "Blogosphere Influence Rating combines a variety of data sets to determine which blogs are most powerfully influencing the direction of the Minnesota political blogosphere. The exact method BNN uses to calculate influence scores must remain proprietary in order to prevent attempts to game the system." Fair enough.
With congratulations—and absolutely no offense—to any of the blogs listed, it strikes us that the BlogNetNews methodology has some grave flaws. Did anyone read this list, or did a computer spit it out? Where are Minnesota Democrats Exposed and MN Publius, both recently featured in the New York Times and both well-read by by delegates, campaign staff, and/or party activists?
Where are SCSU Scholars and the mnPACT! blogs, with their focused and original work in politics and policy? How about True North, the clearinghouse blog for a huge chunk of the high-profile conservative voices? Or Minnesota Brown, providing the voice of the Iron Range? All these blogs are much more influential than the ones on the list as it stands. Minnesota politicos are fortunate to have an active and robust community of citizen journalists on the 'net, and lists like this do a disservice.
So how is this influence actually calculated? BlogNetNews (somewhat redundantly in our opinion) qualifies their list by calling it an "experimental" attempt to discern which blogs influence the "direction of the blogosphere." To us, this sounds like some "proprietary" blend of the completely standard metrics of incoming links, pageviews, links from other blogs, etc.
The problem with these metrics systems is not that some cadre of bloggers will try to fudge numbers to get on the all-important BlogNetNews top list—it's that they create artificial categories that aren't relevant to the ideals and goals of a healthy blogosphere. What we want in Minnesota blogs is an interested, involved, many-sided, creative conversation by citizens from all walks of life.
Most of the blogs on the BlogNetNews list are good, and they add to the conversation. But they are not the most influential in Minnesota politics. So what's the use of the site like BlogNetNews? Little. It's one of the countless hangers-on in the Web 2.0 world that operate with a very low signal-to-noise ratio. They trade in unfiltered aggregation of posts and pretend rankings that completely ignore the actual content of the blogs. They portend to be an all-in-one source, but there's no editorial vision to separate the wheat from the chaff.
There's hope. We can make our blogosphere flourish without the help of counterproductive cookie-cutter web tools like BNN. Read a new blog this week. Post a comment on a blog you already read. Email a link. Set up an RSS reader so you can make your own decision about what is influential. Be a part of the conversation, and celebrate the fantastic news, analysis, and commentary that's coming from the Internet. The blog community doesn't need outsiders telling them who's important to Minnesota.
[Publisher's Note: We work hard to make good blog selections in our Morning Reports. We do that because that section of our report is doing what's it's supposed to do: Provide busy people with the news and analysis that's happening online. Our rules for inclusion are simple. Blog posts have to be well-written and provide new news or analysis and opinion that's new to the Minnesota political conversation. And, while we're on the subject of aggregators, PIM is now a "trusted source" on politigg.us, which appears to be much like the popular digg.com, wherein users can vote to promote stories they find interesting.]
It's Becoming A Mean Crowd: Lord Faris Slaps Franken, In Order To Block Slaps At Franken
We hear lots of Democrats saying they wish late entrant to the DFL primary contest, Priscilla Lord Faris, (uniteminnesota.com) had run for the DFL endorsement as opposed to running in the primary against DFL-endorsed Al Franken. She could have created quite a presence in the less-than-riveting Franken-Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer-Mike Ciresi contest.
Lord Farris is getting noticed nationwide, she's released an ad full of bombast -- it must be the meanest ad ever launched in Minnesota by one DFLer against another. [Her ads are also sized in widescreen HD format - a new trend!]. Here's what she says in the ad:
"Early on, I believed Al Franken could defeat Norm Coleman. Now, two years and millions of dollars later, it’s clear his record of pornography, degradation of women and minorities and questionable financial transactions will be the source of blistering ads from the Republican attack machine. I represent Minnesota values as a teacher, volunteer and advocate. September ninth, I ask for your vote in the DFL primary. I'm Priscilla Lord Faris and I approve this message."Other Democrats tell us that DFLers should remind themselves that it wasn't especially fair for Lord Faris to wait around until the last second to file: If she is demanding victory in the primary, she owed the rank-and-file DFL activists a chance to check her out before this phase of the race.
Front-and-center on the top fold of Lord Faris' website, it says "Al Franken cannot win against Norm Coleman and every poll supports that conclusion." This message -- used as the 'kicker' for an entire Senate venture -- ought to tick off every DFLer.
It's fair for Lord Faris to demand a debate, but when she's launching hard-core hit piece ads against Franken it's fair for Franken to turn her down. [At least, that's the line Obama surrogates float to justify canceling town hall meetings with U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).]
While most political insiders in both major parties might agree that Franken has not been able to establish a good ping-pong rhythm of messaging required to really rock a U.S. Senate race, Lord Faris' effort to flip over the metaphorical coffee table without making a perfunctory effort to "sound nice" about it won't work to her party's benefit in the general election nor for the downticket races in the state.
The GOP's tireless efforts to place Franken's career of exposing and satirizing the right wing's political corruption, wrongdoing, and defective oversight into a context of "Bad! Shrill!" have nearly succeeded. The GOP game is aided in no small part by the waves of red ink crashing at the doors of the newspapers that used to have enough staff time to nitpick what Dems see as U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's (R-MN) profoundly passive, chummy-with-the-Beltway K-Street gang record. As the press bench gets shallower, Democrats rightly gripe, so does their institutional memory.
Compare this boring mess to the amiable, constructive discussion between Dean Barkley and Jack Uldrich on the August 1st episode of Almanac: these guys both seem quite senatorial in tone, and they know that an independent campaign has to downsize personal attacks and upsize a pitch for useful rather than wasteful government.
Both Coleman and Franken have high negatives: the rules of the trimmed press augur against the quality of coverage of independent campaigns as much as the scrutiny of elected officials, but at least the numbers in this year's situation work in the indies' favor. Along with the attack message consultants working on all sides, Lord Faris might really be the independents' best friend.
Bits & Pieces
What a coup for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Lorie Gildea. She has received endorsements from three former chief justices of the state's high court: Russell Anderson, Kathleen Blatz and Sandy Keith. Mostly because she's the newest justice on the bench up for reelection, Gildea has three challengers, Minneapolis attorney Jill Clark, state public defender Rick Gallo and Hennepin District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund. The race is of particular interest to Capitol insiders because her husband, Andy Gildea, is a long-time top staffer to the House GOP Caucus. Readers interested in judicial races should check out Minnesota Lawyer Editor Mark Cohen's law blog, wonderfully titled, "If It's Legal, You Can Discuss It Here."
Tough times at the Citizens League (CL)? Ann Kirby McGill has left the League because her position as deputy director has been eliminated. CL President Sean Kershaw is on vacation and unavailable for comment but CL's Catherine Wood told us that the League's "short term financial situation is not good, but last year was our best year, and we're retooling for our long-term financial health." Let's sure hope so. As we've noted numerous times, Kershaw has done terrific work at the League the last few years, reinventing the organization and starting programs to appeal to new people like the League's "Policy and a Pint" series.
Sometimes the best political intel comes from unexpected places. According to one sales clerk at the downtown Minneapolis Neiman Marcus store, employees were told that a "significiant" number of Republican National Convention goers have asked whether our fair town has a Neiman's. Apparently Neiman's is psyched about that and the store is bringing in a ton of new inventory to accommodate the expected GOP shopping rush. The plan is to have all that new stuff ready and on display on Monday, August 25th. Ladies and gentlemen, schedule your fake meetings and doctor's appointments now. Store opens at 10:00 a.m.
Former GOP U.S. Sen. Rudy Boschwitz sent out his biannual email to GOP donors assessing Senate races across the country. After handicapping the races, Boschwitz concludes, "I do not believe the Democrats will gain a filibuster proof 60 votes. It doesn't look like a great year ahead [for Republicans], but it's only August 4. A Democratic pickup of 3-4-5 Senators is entirely possible as it looks today, over 90 days before the people vote."
The Commission on Judicial Selection announced that applications are currently being accepted for two trial court bench vacancies in the Fourth Judicial District in Hennepin County. One vacancy came with the retirement of Pamela Alexander on June 6th and the other will occur with the upcoming retirement of Anne McKinsey on October 3rd. All licensed attorneys who are residents of the Fourth District may request an application by calling John Hultquist at 651-296-0019 or email at john.hultquist@state.mn.us. [Meanwhile, Alexander is now president at the Council on Crime and Justice, and we hear she's doing great.]
Rep. Paul Gardner (DFL-Shoreview) has been tangling with his challenger in a series of letters to the editor in the Shoreview Press (we would've included this interesting exchange in the Morning Report, but we don't link to LTEs). The specter of the transportation bill is back in currency as Shoreview resident and Gardner's endorsed GOP opponent John Kappler strikes out at him on fiscal responsibility, legislators' per diem, and the gas tax. Whatever side you fall on, it's great to see citizens debate with their reps in a public forum. Gardner's blog is a great resource too; as a champion of transparency he gives it a great "at the Capitol" feel and writes with an insider's take on legislative issues.
Author and Bush White House speechwriter David Frum will join Minneapolis lawyer and Power Line blog co-founder John Hinderaker for a breakfast forum sponsored by the Center of the American Experiment. The morning event is called "If I Were Writing John McCain's Acceptance Speech Thursday Night...Or Rewriting Barack Obama's Last Week..." The forum will be held at Solera Restaurant at 7:30 a.m. September 2nd. Registry is online at americanexperiment.org. The program will feature these writers discussing what the candidates should say if they want to rally their supporters in the heat of the national convention weeks.
From Washington, RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan has announced the officers for the Convention. U.S. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) will serve as Permanent Chair, while his Congressional colleague from the Senate side, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will be Temporary Chair. Many other prominent Republicans have deputyships or other positions; the full list of officers is available on the Convention website.
Two Minneapolis Obama supporters want change so badly (bikeforobama.com), that they plan to bicycle to Denver in a symbolic show of support for the Democratic candidate. Along the way they also plan to help raise awareness for other causes such as green energy, Midwest flood relief and "a new way to run America." Currently, there are two confirmed riders. However, as their website puts it, they "...welcome all individuals who fear another republican president in these most turbulent times to join or support our journey." Along the way, the duo plans on continuously uploading content to their website in the form of news feeds, pictures, videos and writing. The pair hope to create a "buzz" by biking the nearly 1,000 mile route and increase civic awareness by encouraging people to vote in this fall's election. Bike for Obama plans on leaving August 14th, giving them two weeks to reach Denver and capture as much media attention as possible to "help heal the nation we all know and love."
The city of St. Paul has $50 million in federal funds at its disposal for the RNC, so just what exactly is it being spent on? The city disclosed some of it this week, but there are "black budget" items. According to Steve Perry at the Minnesota Independent, nearly $4.75 million is going towards non-disclosed purposes, including the mysterious $3 million allocated to "Venues." Additionally there is a cool $1 million being spent on "private security personnel." Perry spoke with Tom Walsh, St. Paul police media rep, and asked him about the budget and the mysterious items only to be told "Keep in mind that this budget was redacted by the DoJ... the things that are redacted were redacted by the DoJ for a reason. We're not going to talk about them." Walsh also added that after the RNC, the budget will be made public with the redacted items listed. However, until the DOJ tells the St. Paul Police that they can disseminate the black budget items, only a handful of people will know how the money is being spent or misspent. Other large ticket items, that were disclosed, include $1,059,500 for Chemical Masks, $961,080 to Rent/Purchase Vehicles, $612,000 for 800 Mgz Radios, and $20,000 for latex gloves (latex allergies anyone?).
Xerox has been named the official document provider for the 2008 Republican National Convention. All print shop operations within the Xcel Center will be handled by Xerox. The Host Committee and Xerox seem energized and excited by the deal. Doug Lord, President of Xerox's United States Solution Group said, "Our technology and services literally document the buzz on the convention floor." PIM Note: It is still uncertain if Xerox will be handling the Host Committee's paper shredding needs.
Lobbyist Watch
From the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board:
Morning Reports
