Briefing - February 7, 2006

Posted at 8:56 AM on February 7, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

So Martin Sabo gets a DFL challenger today, eh? The guy has lots of things to say about the state of the DFL and its reticence to take on the White House. It'll be interesting to see how much coverage he gets today (and, no, I have no idea if MPR is covering it.)

City Hall Scoop has a cool caption contest going with a funny -- well, it could be funny if you provided the laughs -- photo.

The Pioneer Press says Rep. John Lesch has left Iraq. Apparently an Iraqi official told him it's not a place for grandstanding, which -- I guess -- could confirm that progress is being made in Iraq in the war on grandstanding. We have to fight the grandstanding in foreign lands because otherwise, we'll have to fight it here. I don't know. Regardless of how you feel about Lesch's politics, his blog is a good read anyway.

Earl Newtal jumps into the race for the SD 62 seat. Which reminds me: I've got to figure out how to present all the legislative candidates this year on Campaign 2006. In 2004, we set up a giant table (HTMLy speaking) and had all candidates and incumbents fill out a form on issues. I was surprised by the number of incumbents who were offended by the request for a statement on issues. "Things could change," many of them said. You think? Goes to show how in the Internet age, many politicians are leaving no traceable evidence of having a position. Not sure what we'll do this year although I suppose I could link it in with Votetracker. But then, how to display the challengers, whoe -- often -- have no voting record? I'm up for opinions on this.

I feel like I'm stealing, but I can't help myself. I don't have a subscription to Roll Call, but I notice material via RSS is bypassing the usual log-in page. Maybe it's supposed to. Maybe it's not. But I read, Early money key in many '06 primaries, which was difficult since I was looking over my shoulder every few minutes.

Is the Democratic Party a big tent? Hillary Clinton is defending a contribution to a candidate who opposes abortion.

Comments (1)

Hmmm. Some competition might do Sabo good, he's probably become a little complacent. However, his positions well represent his constituency's interests and political leanings. To be honest I get a fair amount of communication from Sabo, but I can't say we pay much attention to it because we can depend on him voting the "right" way on the issues that matter to us.

I admire Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer's drive and motivation. But he probably doesn't stand a chance.

Posted by auntie | February 7, 2006 11:27 AM

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