Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report, Vol. 4, Issue 9 - 8/22/2008
The RNC Is Almost Here And We're All Over It
Politics in Minnesota and our sister publication, the Saint Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report, will team up to provide our own unique blend of news coverage for the Republican National Convention. Some of us are credentialed for the convention. Some of us will be running all over town. And some of us will be set up at the New Media Space nearby the Xcel, hosted by TheUptake.org. PIM's team of Dan Feidt, Peter Bartz-Gallagher and Andy French, along with publisher Sarah Janecek, will join Capitol Report managing editor Bill Clements, reporters Betsy Sundquist and Charley Shaw, photographer Bill Klotz, and Web Editor Adam Johnson. We'll be posting at PoliticsInMinnesota.com (RSS feed is also available). We're also beefing up our team with free-lancers Kevin Featherly and Frank Jossi.We're proud to announce that prominent Minnesota Republican blogger Michael Brodkorb of MinnesotaDemocratsExposed will blog for us, as well. Brodkorb is an elected delegate and we hope to have him blogging live from the convention floor.
We plan on posting news stories and our observations 24/7 as soon as things start heating up, probably mid-to-late next week. For the best inside political coverage, be sure to make www.politicsinminnesota.com part of your surfing routine.
You'll find much more news on the RNC in a special Bits & Pieces section below.
Best Ever Guide To Judicial Elections
Minnesota Lawyer launched its online judicial elections guide this week and it's terrific (although we'd expect no less from our sister publication). Mark Cohen, Minnesota Lawyer's Editor in Chief, rightly notes that "With all the excitement in the other major campaigns, judicial races tend to be underplayed or ignored by the media." This is the third election in which Minnesota Lawyer has put together a judicial elections guide, and the paper usually gets about 90 percent of judges and judicial candidates to participate.
What's particularly valuable about the Minnesota Lawyer guide is that all the information -- including answers to specific questions -- is provided by the candidates and Minnesota Lawyer does not edit their statements. The unedited views of the candidates are quite telling. For example, Jill Clark, an attorney challenging incumbent Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Lorie Gildea, writes, "The current appointee [Gildea] didn't go through the merit selection process." That's patently untrue and tells court watchers and voters more about Clark than it does about Gildea.
Clark, by the way, pulled a weird quick punch last week seeking to disqualify Gildea from the ballot. Clark, in a motion to be argued next Tuesday, maintains that the Minnesota constitution does not allow Gildea to run because she was appointed by GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Cohen rightly notes in his blog that "It's a novel argument unlikely to wash given that it flies in the face of the longstanding procedures under which most of the members of the state's judiciary initially got and retained their seats."
Besides Cohen, kudos to the rest of the Minnesota Lawyer team who worked on the elections guide: Special sections editor Michael Krieger, Web Editor Adam Johnson and graphics girl extraordinaire Nancy Spangler.
Former Legislators On The Bench And A Wannabe
A run through of the Minnesota Lawyer judicial elections guide shows that two former legislators who are now judges are on the ballot this year. The lucky two are both running unopposed. They are former GOP Minnetonka Representative and now The Honorable Ron Abrams and former DFL Senator and also now The Honorable David Ten Eyck.
And there are two former legislators who are running to be The Honorable. Former DFL St. Paul Representative Howard Orenstein is one of eight candidates running in the Second Judicial District. Former DFL Minneapolis Senator Jane Ranum is running in the Fourth Judicial District among six candidates.
Liquor Lobby In Transition
Former DFL legislator Jim Farrell has quietly left the top job at the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA). Several liquor store owners along with Farrell describe the departure as an extremely amicable parting of ways. The liquor store owners note that it was gracious and thoughtful of Farrell to leave this time of year, giving them plenty of time to find Farrell's successor before the Legislature cranks up after the election.
We caught up with Farrell this week. He was at home on a ladder, paint can in hand. Farrell decided to move on because he was burned out. Who wouldn't be? Farrell spent close to ten years defending the industry well on a variety of issues including .08 and a slew of smoking bans in bars and restaurants around the state culminating in the statewide smoking ban that became law last year. Farrell is going to take a few months off to finish home projects, spend more time with his wife and daughters and explore what are sure to be a number of good next career options. A highly partisan legislator, Farrell deftly shelved his politics and earned a great reputation as an ardent advocate for MLBA on both sides of the aisle.
The rest of the liquor lobby remains intact. Paul Kaspszack continues to head the Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association (MMBA), and Joe Bagnoli and Sarah Psick from McGrann, Shea, Anderson, Carnival provide the contract lobbying support for both the MLBA and MMBA.
There will be no rest for the liquor industry in the near future. Tragic student deaths caused by binge drinking and several Minnesota college presidents calling for lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18 will be hot legislative topic in 2009. Then there's the issue of allowing the sale of wine in grocery stores.
The Minnesota Grocer's Association (MGA) has been working to allow same for about seven years now, but to no avail. Right out of the box, liquor lobbyists successfully framed the debate in terms of Minnesota's quality of life, with the highly controlled sale of liquor as a contributing factor to that quality. The MGA has, so far, unsuccessfully, argued for consumer convenience.
Going forward, it would appear that changing times may be on MGA's side. 34 states now allow wine to be sold in grocery stores, and there are new studies like this one in which Massachusetts' grocers determined that allowing wine in grocery stores saves consumers substantial dough. Complicating matters for the liquor industry is the reality of life online in the 21st century where anyone can buy virtually anything 24/7 with the click of a mouse.
MGA has been quietly regrouping on wine in grocery. The group temporarily terminated its relationship with highly respected contract lobbyists Larry Redmond and Brian Halloran, but the severance doesn't appear to be permanent. According to the MGA's Jamie Pfuhl, the group is "looking at retooling" its lobbying and public relations efforts. [Himle Horner has done the PR work in the past.]
Other issues loom large for MLBA and MMBA. We hear that Representative Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) may work to allow the sale of liquor on Sundays, and that several legislators are openly pondering why Minnesota still has a three-tier liquor distribution system -- a system designed to meet Minnesota's needs, post-Prohibition, that no longer fits with the times.
This week, a new coalition of college presidents and chancellors got a lot of press for its movement to lower the drinking age to 18. The Amethyst Initiative seeks to reduce binge drinking by dissolving the culture of underage consumption on college campuses. The Star Tribune reported in March on a movement in the Minnesota legislature to lower Minnesota's drinking age to 18—Kahn was chief author on the House side. There have been high-profile drinking deaths recently that beg for an answer to binge drinking; is 18 the answer?
PIM talked to Senator Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing) who guaranteed us that as long as he was chair of the Transportation Committee, the legal age to drink alcohol in Minnesota would remain 21 years old. He noted that a lower drinking age is statistically proven to increase traffic fatalities, and so "goes against everything we are trying to do in Transportation." Murphy did not want to disparage the efforts of the college professors to combat irresponsible use of alcohol, but pointed out that there are plenty of 18 to 20-year-olds who aren't in college who would also make inappropriate choices. These less experienced drivers, Murphy said, would create major risks on Minnesota roads.
The other fork of the drinking-age debate is the consequential loss of part of federal highway funds for any state that chooses to lower the age from 21. Murphy said that this angle, for him, is moot. The issue of funding cannot compare to keeping Minnesotan drivers safe, and so the drinking age will stay right where it is.
John Brandl: Remembering The Best
The entire Minnesota public affairs community is mourning the death of John Brandl this week. Brandl was a wonderful breed unto himself. He was one of the "legislative gods" when your publisher first arrived on the Capitol scene in the late 1980s. Her fondest memory of John was that he was the only legislator crazy enough -- and smart enough -- to offer a compromise on the abortion issue. The compromise never went anywhere, of course, given how entrenched the interest groups are on both sides of the issue.
All the best to the Brandl family and his HHH Institute family and friends as we all grieve his loss.
In case you missed any of the tributes that appeared in other media this week, here's a roundup:
Associated Press,
Star Tribune obit,
Star Tribune editorial,
Pioneer Press,
MinnPost. More information and a video from a June 2008 dinner honoring John Brandl from the U of M HHH Center.
Bits & Pieces: RNC Edition
As preparations downtown are in full swing for the RNC, we decided to go to the front lines and see how St. Paul is coping. At the very edge of the vehicles-prohibited zone lies the world-famous Mickey's Diner. Over a Lil' Jill (grilled cheese with tomato and bacon, side of chili—it's a must) PIM staff learned that Mickey's has been suffering a decline in business over the past few weeks due to the closing of the Xcel Center—no late-night concertgoers to fill the seats. Up by the grill, we talked to rapid-fire chef David Steien, who said it would be business as usual for the Convention, except he'd have to leave his motorcycle a few yards east of its normal parking place to respect the vehicle ban. Otherwise, Mickey's wasn't sure what to expect. Business should be brisk during the day, but Steien thought the no-drive zone might put a damper on evening traffic downtown.
Outside the Xcel, transformations are obvious. Fenced areas with black hybrid Chevy SUVs seem to be sprouting everywhere. We saw crews adjusting a huge bundle of cables coming from the X; the venue was chosen partly because of its cutting edge data connectivity. Finally, the most obvious modification to the cityscape is the addition of an incredible number of surveillance cameras, attached to streetlights and buildings.
Bob Collins at MPR's News Cut has an interesting post about who's on the other end of the cameras. He highlights an online forum's debate that calls the cameras "creepy and unwelcoming." Interesting media play: KSTP reported August 11th that the cameras would be connected to a public website during the RNC, so all could view the Big Brother perspective as webcams. "This is just another way to confirm with people of the level of trust with the St. Paul Police Department," said Sgt. Jack Serier. Interestingly, Serier told the Pioneer Press in an August 13th story that the camera feeds would not be rigged to the Web until after the RNC. [We'd bet the city lawyers didn't like the idea!]
Amusing billboards are popping up: Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has the priceless message, "Welcome, Rich White Oligarchs!" on I-494, as visitors leave the international airport. The Daily Show will be broadcasting from the History Theatre at McNally Smith College of Music; theoretically you could get tickets here. Taping time is 5 p.m., show up at 3 p.m. or else keep an eye out for roaming correspondents of "the best campaign team in the universe ever," now nearly the most trusted source of news in America, the NY Times noted. A 2007 Pew poll showed Jon Stewart tied for fourth most-trusted, alongside Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper. [Unlike most news sources, they can process both irony and public relations spin that saturates mainstream coverage now days.]
CNN's decidedly irony-free Wolf Blitzer, along with Campbell Brown, Anderson Cooper and the rest will be at the Eagle Grill, and they are even going to bring John King's favorite device, the famed "magic wall" touchscreen famously deployed during the primaries. They will be filming in HD.
Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine's Brian Lambert plans to park at and blog from the bar at The Liffey, just across the street from the X. Do check out "Lambert to the Slaughter."
MSNBC will be broadcasting from Rice Park, and reportedly the St. Paul Library system director Melanie Huggins' office in the adjacent Central Library has been turned into MSNBC's green room for talent. How many anti-GOP slams will MSNBC pack into their broadcasts?!
FOX News will be offering "The FOX Experience" from the large media tent across from the Xcel Center. Will they be able to set a new record for most onscreen American flag graphics?!
Chino Latino has a billboard on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown saying "Delegates, Try Our Capitalist Pig Roast." Parasole founder and partner Phil Roberts issued a clarification press release this morning, saying "Some callers find the billboard in bad taste, even after they discover that the Pig Roast is an offering that might be of interest TO delegates, not one we prepare WITH delegates. Others call with credit card in hand, wanting to book a party of 20, then end up accusing us of false advertising."
More than 40 local makeup artists applied to be the RNC makeup artist. Don't have a clue who made the decision at the RNC, but whoever did sure made the right call: KARE 11's Bonnie Erickson got the job. Bonnie is simply the best. [Publisher's note: On occasion, Erickson has performed makeup miracles on your publisher. No small feat, that.]
Keegan's Irish Pub has declared itself the "Official Blogger Headquarters" with free Wi-Fi and TVs tuned to coverage. "Bloggers who enjoy face to face interaction with follow bloggers are invited to meet at the pub. Bloggers who wish to work quietly and on their own are also invited," they say. They point out that the Northeast Minneapolis locale will have less traffic congestion than elsewhere.
The Pioneer Press has launched a sub-site organized in blog form at rnc2008.twincities.com. The PiPress has put forth consistently good blogging (especially "Political Animal," from the dynamic duo Rachel Stassen-Berger and Bill Salisbury) but the paper does need to make blogs much easier to find on the site. Currently the link to the new site is hidden away on the lower-right of the front page, and in fact that link doesn't even go to the new rnc2008 sub-domain - it goes here instead.
The American Cancer Society is running an ad campaign dubbed "Harry and Louise" directed at the convention audiences, under the aegis of the Cancer Action Network. They're running spots on national cable networks and the Sunday morning news programs during the conventions; the ads will also run about 40 times on local network affiliates. On September 4th they're throwing a fundraiser with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has started up the Center for Health Transformation. Check out the Gingrich event and an interview with their national president.
The National Journal has a free 2008 Convention Alerts service, which will include analysis from National Journal, Hotline and CongressDaily. Material from Charlie Cook, Ron Brownstein, Amy Walter and Jim Barnes will be highlighted.
There will be 1,000 bikes provided to the public by Humana and Bikes Belong, in a program dubbed the "Freewheelin bike-sharing experience." Here are the locations (pdf) to get them. Pre-register here.
Google, a tech sponsor of the RNC, is offering a press center at the Minneapolis Convention Center, "next to media row." YouTube has a special splash page for convention coverage. Wired adds a bit of snark, saying Google "coyly continues to eschew the notion that it is a media company." Motley Fool calls them media moguls.
Microsoft is also a RNC tech sponsor and will help out with "collaborative virtual workspaces," volunteer management and venue scheduling. "Digital concierges" will be available via the spiffy new Microsoft Surface touchscreen computers, with transportation, hotels, restaurants and entertainment. They also sponsored an essay contest about the American flag - winners Victoria Blackstone of Roseville and Mark Rugnetta of Savage (15 and 13 respectively) won Xboxes and laptops from Qwest. More here.
The Mall of America will have a variety of events going on, and the most promising looks like "Kids Stump the Delegate Game Show" on September 3rd at 10 a.m. In "a contest of wills," six local fifth and sixth-graders will take on six RNC delegates in an "exciting, action-packed game show."
Bits & Pieces
PIM has been running a fun and spirited chain of emails this week between Ian Marsh, the lead staffer in charge of the House GOP Caucus races, and Melissa Parker, who has the same job for the House DFL Caucus. The topic? Selecting and trying to agree on the hot House races in play to be discussed by House Speaker Rep. Margaret Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis) and House Minority Leader Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) at the Politics in Minnesota/Saint Paul Legal Ledger Capitol Report Post-Primary bash on September 10 at the St. Paul Hotel. Not registered yet? Click here.
This will come as no surprise to those who worked with former Park Rapids DFL Rep. Tony Kinkel: The business community in Colorado Springs collectively thinks that Kinkel is doing a fantastic job as president of Pikes Peak Community College, the second largest community college in Colorado. Here' more about Kinkel from one of our sister publications, The Colorado Springs Business Journal.
Super lobbyist Bill Strusinski and super lawyer Kirsten Libby are hosting a farewell and thanks for 24 years of successful service bash for Rep. Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) at their home on Crocus Hill in St. Paul on Thursday, September 11. PIM was asked to pass the word, and so we are. Contact Marilyn Brick at marilyn.brick@house.mn or Gloria Pinke at gloria.pinke@co.dakota.mn.us or Libby at kirstenlibby@libbylawoffice.com for more information and to RSVP.
A new documentary about Minnesota politics, promoting bipartisanship, is on the way: "Escape From History -- The Minnesota Legislature" will be released September 1st, the first in a planned series from writer and director Bob Carney, Jr. It will focus on the "Republican State Legislator's Contract with Voters," study the history of the Minneapolis park system, political solutions for gay marriage and examine "post 9/11 architecture." Former Speaker Steve Sviggum is interviewed, Reps. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka) and Kathy Tingelstad (R-Andover) discuss the fallout from bucking the GOP party line this year, and returning Minnesota to a non-partisan legislature is considered. The video will be introduced on a bus tour around Minneapolis on September 2nd. Check out RepublicanContract.com for more, or contact cassie@republicancontract.com to get a spot on the bus.
Weber Shandwick, the Minneapolis-St. Paul branch of the worldwide firm won a campaign with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs to support a campaign offering "complete and accurate information about depleted uranium (DU) and drive awareness about government-provided screenings for exposure." DU is mainly U238, a waste product from the refinement of uranium ore; nuclear reactors need the fissionable U235 isotope to sustain nuclear reactions. DU became a favored ingredient for heavy war munitions because it is 1.67 times denser than lead, waste was piling up, and it is pyrophoric, which means it can easily ignite upon impact. The Pentagon and contractors such as the RAND Corporation have been reluctant to admit the role of DU exposure (much of it likely caused by the emissions from incendiary rounds) in contributing to the array of maladies and increased birth defects among veterans and their descendants generally labeled "Gulf War Syndrome." Interestingly, Weber Shandwick will use special funds approved by the Legislature to notify veterans about uranium screenings, organize a forum with an expert panel, and help experts develop a white paper, other materials, and do media outreach. It's fascinating that Minnesota's Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, is the nation's #1 DU manufacturer, while the Minnesota Legislature sets aside funds to ameliorate the effects of these same munitions.
Veteran sportscaster Dave Mona has a new book, "Beyond the Sports Huddle: Mona on Minnesota," looking back on decades of "moments and memories on the Minnesota sports and news scene." More info here. The Rochester Post-Bulletin had a thoughtful writeup from Craig Swalboski, who got trained in sports writing for his high school yearbook by Mona in 1968.
University of Minnesota Press is releasing "Doorstep Democracy: Face-to-Face politics in the Heartland" by James Read, which talks about how kitchen-table politics can "get us beyond the television ads, mass mailings and sound bites to rejuvenate American democracy." He'll be discussing his book on September 2nd at Common Good Books at 165 Western Avenue North in St. Paul at 7:30 p.m.
DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie announced the "Vote in Honor of a Veteran" initiative, which features an online tribute gallery for veterans and active-duty members. Special buttons are available via the SOS website or by calling (651) 201-1374.
DFLers are getting hip to the blog thing: Down in CD2, DFL challenger Steve Sarvi has launched a campaign blog, and CD3 DFL contender Ashwin Madia had an official blogger day, which led to a bit of cash for the campaign coffers via the Democratic online cash machine ActBlue. ($60,643,000 since 2004 ain't chump change.) Madia, in particular, is something of a darling to the 'netroots' set.
Heading Home Minnesota has hired former Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Commissioner Kit Hadley to lead a statewide effort to end homelessness. Hadley was recently director of the Minneapolis Public Library, leading its merger with the Hennepin County system. Heading Home Minnesota was spun out of a working group created by GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2004.
Your publisher sat in a chair next to another customer in a hair salon this week. That customer was loudly bragging -- New Jersey accent and attitude clearly intact -- about how the I-35 bridge would definitely be finished ahead of schedule, and "construction guys like me will pocket an extra $25K because of it."
Speaking of the bridge, and following up on an unusual story we first reported last July, and followed up last December, PIM has released a new and improved batch of documents from MnDOT about a plan to build an advanced RFID-powered tracking system on Interstate 35, under the aegis of the North American Super Corridor Coalition or NASCO, with Lockheed-Martin providing the technology -- and collecting data from its operation. [See our web-only story earlier this week.] Get the now completely searchable PDF here (43 MB/598 pages). Lawyer Nathan Hansen, who originally obtained the documents from MnDOT, got more docs released just days ago [download them here]. NASCO's website says that their "integrated corridor management" system will be installed in Minneapolis, but Hansen got a letter dated August 4th from MnDOT attorney Peter Zuniga saying that there is no more paperwork within MnDOT about NAFTRACS, the system which Lockheed and NASCO would implement. No one at the state Legislature seems to know about this, and perhaps they should, since the DFL transportation finance law that GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty tried to block specifically bans the privatization of highway management in Minnesota.
Lobbyist Watch
From the Minnesota Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board:
Morning Reports
