Briefing - Monday January 30, 2006

Posted at 7:16 AM on January 30, 2006 by Bob Collins

Wikipedia is fast becoming the research tool of choice on the Internet, which is too bad because if you don't like the history that is there, you can change it. Apparently that's what Rep. Marty Meehan did according to the Lowell Sun newspaper.

On Sunday Rasmussen released a poll on the governor's race in Minnesota shows Tim Pawlenty leading Mike Hatch in a two-way contest, with a wider lead against DFLer Steve Kelley. Keep in mind these are two-way races, throw in the Independence Party (Peter Hutchinson) and one can imagine a more comfortable position for the governor.

In the Senate race, according to Rasmussen, Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Mark Kennedy are in a statistical dead heat. But Kennedy bests Ford Bell, which has to be comforting to the GOP since a Zogby poll a week and half ago showed Bell giving Kennedy a run.

As we get deeper into the campaign, look for how many media outlets require a candidate to get at least X percentage of a vote in a poll to qualify for the debate. Then ask yourself, "how are they supposed to get X percent when their names aren't even mentioned in the questions being asked of the respondents?"

From the blogs today, Centrisity has an open letter to the "fringe on the left."

Minnesota Democrats Exposed is on Hatch's case about missing a forum in Martin County. (Hey, did anyone attend the Stonewall event over the weekend?)

MN Publius launches one against Mark Kennedy over a fundraising letter.

Cindy Sheehan and Hugo Chavez were arm-in-arm over the weekend. So if you're a Republican running against a Democrat who was arm-in-arm with Cindy Sheehan in the last year...well....they said that algebra class wouldn't pay off.

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