Polinaut: March 2006 Archive

Lockdown

Posted at 9:41 AM on March 1, 2006 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)

It was interesting to see how the blogosphere was "alive" with chatter about the posts yesterday regarding the marriage amendment CD. For a time it was #1 on Slashdot (someone who wanted to get his traffic numbers up lifted parts of the post off this site, put it on his, and then put a message on Slashdot with a link to the "article" on his site. That's just paisley-and-stripes lame. Tons of responses there, lots of folks commenting on what the article said -- its merits and flaws. Only problem is, very few actually read the original posts here and were operating in relative ignorance. Intead, they relied on what some blog said some blog said about the post. As much as the exercise revealed about privacy concerns, for me it revealed how quickly and effectively reposting a blog's information (deleting somet things, and editing ot others) can spread misinformation. Sometimes it's just carelessness. But it's a lesson learned and I hope readers of blogs will remind themselves that unless they're reading the original post on the original blog site, they may be reading garbage.

Now then. The company responsible is CH Consulting. And if you're interested, they've published an article about database marketing and how it works.

The data we referred to was available on CH Consulting's Web site, by virtue of a link off the main site to viewyouriq.com talks about what kind of value they bring to political campaigns. It's now not accessible, but Google Cache can show you the page.

The theory behind the CD is exemplified by the company's product, ProCard, a significant feature of which is its ability to get around the do-not-call rules that have hampered telemarketers. CH cites IQ Central on its Web site, which gives a glimpse into the appeal of accessing the gathered data. However, keep in mind that political organizations -- and non-profits -- are exempt from Minnesota's Do Not Call rule.

In terms of a product however, Christa Heibel, the executive at CH, also has written about the effect of the Do Not Call laws and how to get around them.

Remember, it's OK to call someone if your company has an existing prior relationship. How that relationship is built will be the difference for many firms seeking to return to telemarketing.

So you run the program, and you transmit your data, and you establish a relationship.

ProCard lets a company present their sales material to prospective clients on a CD. The CD can be loaded with multiple-choice personal data questions to gather information on the viewer, as well as tracks where and what was done with the CD.

I can't recall, by the way, if I mentioned this earlier but there is a Terms of Use on this CD, one to which you must agree in order to get it to function. However, the contents are for the protection of the vendor (no decompiling, reservation of copyright etc., and a mention that the user is responsible for any damage caused by any downloads as a result of running the program). There is no mention of data collection and transmission. There was, I'm told, no mention of it at the news conference unveiling the CD on Monday either.

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Fallout

Posted at 11:58 AM on March 1, 2006 by Bob Collins (12 Comments)

Striking all previous and subbing Scheck's story.

GOP peers into voters' data with CD

* * *

Talking with Mark Drake at the Republican Party this morning, it's probably going to say that it was always the company's intention to secure the data at the time the CD was released. That the CD that was provided to the media at Monday's news conference was a BETA version and the "security" will be installed -- and was intended to be installed -- before the program will be sent out.

The Party hopes to get the CDs from the vendor on Friday and hopes to mail them out on Friday.

Here's what happened as has been explained to me by the folks who took the program apart.

CH Consulting used a program called DotNetNuke at the Internet data repository for their survey results. But they neglected to secure their DotNetNuke site. We don't think this was intentional, especially since the entire mailing list with the assigned codes was posted.

As for securing the CD, I haven't seen the final copy yet, but the security problem we found wasn't on the CD, it was the server.

The Republican Party is not happy with me and I understand their frustration. I also understand the frustration of the people who wanted -- desperately -- to get the destination IP and I understand it sounded last night like I was saying "ha, ha, I know something you don't."

I accept that and there's nothing I can do about it except to point out I don't think CH Consulting needed to be put out of business today by denial-of-service attacks. Nor can I legitimately talk about the importance of protecting data, and then give you the address of where you can get it.

As bad a day as the Republican Party and CH Consulting may (or may not) be having today, believe me, it could have been a lot worse. Any nefarious individual could have mined the information.

Some of the blogs I read last night seemed to suggest that when you answer a question, you should know that information is being sent somewhere. And when you go to a Web site and click SUBMIT, I think that's reasonable.

But this is a Flash presentation about a political issue featuring cool video. And in Flash, interactivity is accomplished with the presentation. If you, for example, were to answer that you are a "sometimes Republican," there's actually every expectation by the user that this could lead to a somewhat, shall we say, softer video than if you had selected another choice. So saying "people should just know" their answers are being sent isn't necessarily true.

And in that case, all of that could be eliminated as a concern, just by telling them in the first place. The subject didn't come up at Monday's news conference for a simple reason: nobody asked.

We don't yet know what the "final CD" is going to have on it or what the wording is going to be to make clear to the participant what and how the data is being used. The Republican Party spokesman said he would "look into it."

Sometimes the best response is "whoops." And move on.

Here let me show you. You know how I said the server had the questions the presentation asked and we could've changed them. It's true the questions are on the server, but they're in the Flash document as text too. So I was wrong about that. Whoops.

(Update 1:04 p.m.) Here's the packaging. Methinks this will boil down to a question of what "interactivity" means.

(Update 1:15 p.m.) GOP says this is draft.

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What else is going on?

Posted at 3:24 PM on March 1, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

State Rep. John Lesch tells all -- OK, some -- of what the heck happened on his unauthorized trip to Iraq a few years ago. He talked with Tom Crann on All Things Considered.

And Mark Kennedy is on MPR's Midday for their Meet the Candidates thing... tomorrow.

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Sound Bytes

Posted at 6:29 PM on March 1, 2006 by Bob Collins

Couple pieces of audio hanging around here looking for someone to listen to 'em. These are expanded versions of what was on the radio.

Rep. John Lesch talks about his trip to Baghdad.

Christa Heibel, CEO of CH Consulting, defends the lack of explicit language revealing the data mining practice in GOP CD. (Listen)

Rumor has it Gov. Pawlenty is holding a news conference tomorrow to talk about -- wait for it -- data privacy.

Briefing - Thursday March 2, 2006

Posted at 7:38 AM on March 2, 2006 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

Nothing earth-shattering but Townhall.com has a little profile of the 6th District from Chicago writer Daniel Sullivan. "Sixth...Sixth...Sixth....that's all we hear about...sixth...sixth...sixth," District 1-5, and 7-8 were heard to mumble.

For your calendar, “The Media, Public Policy and the Age of Indifference,” is seminar scheduled for March 25th at St. Thomas. 8:30 a.m.-5p.m. Guests include Featured speakers will be David Mindich, chair of the Journalism and Mass Communications Department at St. Michael’s College, and Deborah Howell, ombudsman for the Washington Post. I think MPR news boss Bill Wareham is in there somewhere too.

Mark Kennedy is on Midday today at 11. City Pages has a little blurb on Kennedy's success raising dough from the execs at Target Corporation. Newsmeat has some of Richard Ullrich Robert Ulrich's campaign contributions in Minnesota. He gave money to both Mark Kennedy and Amy Klobuchar. In fact, judging by this list, Klobuchar is the only Democrat he gave money to.

Strategic Vision has a new poll out from New York. Forty-seven percent said they do not think of George Bush as a conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan. Sixty-one percent oppose overturning Roe V. Wade. Eighty-percent expect another terrorist attack here.

Future Tense has more with Christa Heibel, the CEO of CH Consulting and architect and developer of the data-mining CD that is expected to be in the mail on Friday.

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The future of political Web sites and blogs

Posted at 1:32 PM on March 2, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I'm not a big reader of Daily Kozs. I have it on my RSS (bloglines) but usually don't bother seeing what they're running because it's Washington-centric. But I think there's an article there today that is of interest to political junkies of all stripes. In The Return of H.R. 1606, there's a good look at the question of how political activity online should be regulated -- or whether it should be.

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Can you hear me now?

Posted at 1:48 PM on March 2, 2006 by Bob Collins

Well, yeah, that was kinda painful listening to 5 minutes of technical problems during Rep. Mark Kennedy's appearance on the Meet the Candidate series today. So I've edited out all the garbage and isolated the portion of the show featuring Kennedy. It's on his page on the Campaign 2006 site.

(Update 3:08 p.m. -- I've just about finished slicing up the program and isolating the answers by issue. On the same page.)

Pawlenty on the CD

Posted at 3:27 PM on March 2, 2006 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

Gov. Tim Pawlenty today weighed in on the controversy surrounding the CD being distributed by the Republican Party in support of a constitutional amendment defining marriage. The CD actually accumulates data from those who put it in their computer -- including, but not limited to, responses to questions it asks.

Pawlenty today said the CDs should make clear that the CD is mining information. Listen.

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Jumping in

Posted at 10:25 PM on March 2, 2006 by Bob Collins

Cloquet Mayor Bruce Ahlgren is going to announce his candidacy for state Senate in District 8 on Friday. That would be the seat presently occupied by gubernatorial candidate Becky Lourey.

Klobuchar, Bell in "thing" today

Posted at 9:00 AM on March 3, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Many pressing and important decisions cross an editor's desk during the course of the day -- none more important than this one: is today's thing with/between Amy Klobuchar and Ford Bell on Midday at 11 this morning a debate, a forum, another episode of Meet (some of)the Candidates, a joint appearance? What?

People get all atwitter of word choices. Personally, I think if two candidates are running against each other (check) are in the same place (check) answering the same questions (check) and can respond immediately to the other's statements (check), that's a debate.

Otherwise, we'd have to call it "the-thing-on-the-radio-before-they-both-drive like-hell-to-get-to-AnokaMounds View (or wherever)-for-the-real-debate-with-Mark-Kennedy" event at 12:30.

(Update 1:21p ) -- I didn't get a chance to listen but here's the audio. They're working on the "old" MPR building now that we've all moved into the "new" one. Well, everyone except the on-air studios. I understand if you listen closely you can hear drilling and hammering in the background.

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The three amigos

Posted at 2:40 PM on March 3, 2006 by Bob Collins

Mark Kennedy, Amy Klobuchar, and Ford Bell faced off for the first time, I believe, at the Metro North Chamber of Commerce. I'm encoding the audio of the debate now and will post at some point this afternoon.

Tom Scheck will have a story on it tonight.

(Update 4:32 p.m.) Better late than never, I suppose. Listen (RealAudio)

Medicare program may be congressional weathervane

Posted at 8:58 AM on March 4, 2006 by Bob Collins

AP special correspondent David Espo has a look at how the Medicare Part D reaction might determine who gains control of Congress.

Polinaut out

Posted at 5:25 PM on March 6, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Exploring the inside of a CTscanner and other devices. Back as possible.

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Foursquare and one debate ago

Posted at 1:03 PM on March 7, 2006 by Bob Collins

Julia Schrenkler dropped me a note. Said there's a forum discussion for the DFL gubernatorial candidates debate on Midday.

Would you rather hear the debate or see it switch to a game of foursquare:

They could settle it schoolyard style, which unfortunately would probably draw more voter attention than a standard round of Q-n-A.

Polinaut out. More updates as possible.

What's going on at Center of the American Experiment?

Posted at 9:17 AM on March 8, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Among those reportedly leaving are:

Jonathan Blake, Research Fellow
Ryan Griffin, Director of Development
Annette Meeks, President and CEO
Corey Miltimore, Director, Media Research Study
Chris Tiedeman, Director of Government Affairs and MinnesotaVotes.org
Randy Wanke, Communications Director

No updated news release appears on the Center's Web site, although one was issued.

According to MPR's Tim Pugmire. "A statement from Meeks said she was proud of many accomplishments during her tenure and looked forward to continuing to build the conservative movement in Minnesota.
The center's founder and president emeritus, Mitch Pearlstein, said the restructuring involves a change in subject matter. He declined to offer further explanation."

Six people get blown out becaue of a change in subject matter? To what?
By the way, MinnesotaVotes.org was a useful tool that Chris Tiedeman invented. A little kludgy, but useful nonetheless. The MPR version, which does not intend to track every bill, is also running.

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Birds do it. Bees do it. Even the Democrats in DC do it...

Posted at 11:34 AM on March 8, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

From the Washington Post:

A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.

The main question I have, of course is: are they telling people what they're doing?

One wonders -- well at least I do -- whether those interested in protecting privacy should just not vote.

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Wake me when...

Posted at 12:02 AM on March 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

I've been pretty much out of touch with politics since last Friday. Anything happen? I was busy battling a vertigo and deafness thing as the result of Meneier's Disease, which suddenly made it all a bit less...well... interesting. Things like that happen when you walk down the hall like a pinball.

Now I'm able to stand up long enough to hear Kirby is dead, Jan Berry is dead, the Wolves won a bunch of games (OK, two, that counts for something), the folks who everyone figured would win the caucuses, won the caucuses (which is to say, I guess, everyone), I turn on ESPN and there's a baseball game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands (the Netherlands?), and Mike Mulcahy has started a podcast -- Policast. What did you people do to the planet while I was away?

But as near as I can tell, some things are dependable. I still can't find a poll anywhere that acknowledges the race for governor is a three-party race. I mean, sure, the polls are interesting and all in their two-party sort of way, the way big neon signs at drive-in car-hops are cute. Fifty-five percent of the people who voted in 2002 did not vote for the guy who ended up being governor. So what good is a two-party poll now?

The Analyst debuts

Posted at 6:23 AM on March 9, 2006 by Bob Collins

Just when you think some of the political blogs may never live up to the hype, along comes word of one today that is now on my must-reading list for intelligent political discourse.

In The Analyst, Why Suburbs Matter

Now, the immediate reaction of many folks living outside the metropolitan area is: what makes that 40% any more special than the 46% of the population living in greater Minnesota? Well, from a political point of view, there are three key reasons to focus on the burbs:

(1) Money. I won't get into the economic statistics here (maybe that could be fodder for another post), but the folks living in the suburbs have more money available to give to campaigns and interest groups seeking to affect the electoral process.

(2) Proximity. Since all of the folks in the suburbs live relatively close to one another and pay attention to the same media outlets, it makes it easier to get a message out and to organize -- much easier than in greater Minnesota.

(3) Competitiveness. For years, suburban voters in Minnesota have been closely divided between the two parties. This had been most true in the inner suburbs like Roseville and Richfield, but it is now becoming increasingly true across the board.

On goes The Analyst to the RSS favorites list. And off comes....well... we'll just see. But let's look forward to more frequent posting and analysis.

Building Select A Candidate

Posted at 7:35 AM on March 10, 2006 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

I can't remember if I've told you this story before but Select A Candidate has been the most successful interactive tool we've ever developed at Minnesota Public Radio and it's one of the most sought-after codes among many other media Web sites around the country.

I started it with help from some of the smarter MPR folks -- past and present -- about 6 years ago for a couple of reasons. (1) Mainstream media tends not to cover "marginal candidates" so you can size them up and
because of #1 (2) voters end up voting for people because their name is Anderson, or Johansen or whatever. That's a massive failure.

At the same time, we were developing these robust candidate sites on MPR.org (guess who the first media or Web site was to interview and present the views of an unknown accountant named Mark Kennedy?), but nobody was finding them. Nobody was reading about them and when nobody finds them or reads about 'em...well... Anderson it is.

So we came up with the idea of Select A Candidate to make it more interesting -- dare I say: fun? -- for people to get to know the candidates. With Select A Candidate you take a quiz asking you your opinion on a set of issues (I like to keep it around 12-15), hit SUBMIT and then see a stacked list of the order of all candidates and how they matched you. You'll also see a cumulative list of how all the candidates stacked up with everyone taking the quiz
(it's a poor man's poll but you hard-core candidate supporters can forget about trying to up the score for your candidate. It won't work that way). And you can see what issues are driving the electorate.

And the key is once the voter's appetite is whetted, each candidate's name links to a very robust Web page on Campaign 2006 (in this case) dedicated to information about that candidate. More informed voters make more informed decisions and that's all to the good.

I hope to have the first Select A Candidate survey -- this one for governor -- out next week, and the Senate version thereafter.
The new version is powered by a terrific new administrative interface developed by Andy Beger, an absolute genius, in MPR's Information Technology Department (and, yes, this is where that membership money goes and how it comes back to you and serves the public. I'm glad Andy works for us. He's also the brains behind Votetracker.) We can build them faster and now we can better document in bibliographical format, the positions of politicians.

There's still some work to do and this is a good time for you to get involved. In the interest of transparency, here's the quiz, so far, for the governor's race. Add to it, modify it with your suggestions, make corrections.

1. Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment that would define marriage -- or its legal equivalent -- as between one man and one woman only?
2. Do you support or oppose an increase in the state's gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects in Minnesota?
3. Which of the following statements most closely matches your view on the issue of health care in Minnesota?
4. Do you favor or oppose repealing the so-called concealed-carry law in Minnesota?
5. Which of the following statements most closely matches your vision for K-12 education in Minnesota?
6. When it comes to building new stadiums for the Vikings, Twins, and/or Gophers, what is your opinion?
7. Do you support or oppose efforts to constitutionally dedicate a portion of sales-tax receipts to several areas, including natural resources and cultural projects in Minnesota?
8. Do you support efforts to constitutionally dedicate motor vehicle sales tax revenue to transportation projects (it is now split between the General Fund and transportation)?
9. Do you support or oppose a statewide ban on smoking?
10. Do you consider an increase in sales or income taxes to be "in the mix" to balance the state's budget if necessary?
11. Which of the following statements most closely matches your view on immigration policies in Minnesota?
12. Which of the following statements most closely matches your view on job creation and economic development in Minnesota?

And here's the quiz, so far, for the Senate candidates. Please note, I have not finished coming up with questions for this race. So input away!

1. Which statement most closely matches your opinion on U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq?
2. Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment definining marriage as only between one man and one woman?
3. Should tax cuts given in the last few years be made permanent?
4. Do you favor or support a balanced budget process that eliminates deficit spending?
5. Which of the following most closely aligns with your position on abortion?
6. Which of the following health care statements most closely aligns with your view?
7. Do you believe military force is an option to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon?
8. What is your opinion of the CAFTA trade agreement?
9. Which of the following statements most closely aligns with your view on the federal education program, "No Child Left Behind."
10. What is your position on agriculture in Minnesota?

Obviously, we can't get to every issue that may come up in the campaign. We're just trying to introduce the candidates to voters.
Now, the hard part of all of this is getting firm answers for candidates. As I've said before, when you hear an answer that starts with "we need to..." you usually don't get an answer, you get a stump speech. Answers that start with "and I'll accomplish this by..." are much better. Some politicians hate that. In 2004, I sent letters to every sitting lawmaker asking their position on 10 issues. You can go back and see how many thought it was important enough to respond. And a handful of those sent letters criticizing my even asking. Yep, wouldn't want a position on an issue to get in the way of a campaign. But I digress.

At present, these are the missing answers for each candidate. If you see a printed or audio item of record that answers it, send it along.

GOVERNOR:

Doran - None
Hatch - 8,9
Hutchinson - 7,8,9,12
Jeffers -- All but 9 (I'm working on that one today)
Kelley -8
Lourey - 7,8,9
Pawlenty - 7,8, 12*

SENATE:

Bell -- None
Kennedy -- 7, 10
Klobuchar -- 2
Uldrich - All
Fitzgerald - All
Cavlan - All but 1
Shudlick - All

Hope you enjoy the final product. Help build it.

Oh, one point because these things should be -- and are here -- stated up front. When you take the quiz, we collect no data other than 0s and 1s and we determine your IP so we can block the effect of taking the quiz more than once on the cumulative results. We don't care who you are. We only care that you're getting access to the information you want.

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Iraq war vets as candidates

Posted at 2:40 PM on March 10, 2006 by Bob Collins

On Monday, Midmorning's going to take a look at Iraqi war veterans as candidates in this fall's election. Nearly 100 veterans are running for congressional seats in the 2006 election. Midmorning looks at why these soldier-candidates have hit the campaign trail in numbers not seen in more than 50 years.

GUEST: Burdett Loomis, professor of political science at the University of Kansas. He joins us by phone from Lawrence, Kansas.
GUEST (9:00-9:30): Van Taylor, a Republican running for congress in the 17th district in Texas.
GUEST: Jon Soltz, Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America political action committee. He joins us by phone from his office in New York.

Should voice votes be silenced?

Posted at 3:39 PM on March 10, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I should probably leave this topic to Mike Mulcahy, who is way smarter than I'll ever be on matters of politics at the Capitol, but for someone who spends a lot of time trying to document the positions of lawmakers (since they'll run a campaign at some point in the future), I'm growing more frustrated by the lack of roll call votes in committee.

OK, it's a selfish thing since I take care of the MPR Votetracker program, which allows people to see how pieces of legislation are doing and -- and this is where the campaign part of this comes in -- allows people to look at a legislator's page and see, instantly, where they stand on the issues.

Easy enough, right? Wrong. Today, for example, I was working up a datasheet for a bill that probably is going nowhere -- HF 3099 -- which would allow online wagering. I was interested primarily because the bill died on a tie vote (which indicates something resembling a roll call) and then, the committee reconvened, a legislator moved for reconsideration, and then it passed on a voice vote.

OK? Who changed? And why? Who are the people who are for it? Who are the ones against it?

Rep. Duke Powell's committee did the same thing a few days ago on a pretty interesting bill -- the one allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs they find morally wrong. Good luck trying to find out how the members of the House Health Policy and Finance Committee feel about the bill in an instant. They threw it up for a voice vote too.

A big task force trying to figure out how to ungum the works at the Capitol came out with a report a few weeks ago. It mostly involved raising salaries and letting 'em all get a drink together sometime (alright, maybe it didn't include the last part).

But for all the laws being proposed around this state in the last few years, here's one I've never heard proposed: if you're an elected politician and you take part in a vote, your position is recorded, for all to see, and voters to evaluate.

I'm sure someone has a good reason why a legislator's position ought to be secret until a floor vote. I'm sure anxious to hear it.

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CD controversy redux

Posted at 8:06 AM on March 12, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

According to MDE, the GOP CD on gay marriage has begun arriving in the mail at homes of voters in districts represented by some senators who have prevented the same-sex marriage (and its legal equivalent) ban from a Senate vote.

You may recall the flap here -- and elsewhere -- after the GOP held a news conference to unveil the spiffy technology, only to have it discovered that the CD also extracted identity and other information from the computer and went to a Republican database to be used in other party activities.

The party contended that even though no mention of the CD's purpose was made at the news conference, and that the packaging contained no warning that the CD itself was doing something other than trying to tell you about the marriage amendment, and that no disclaimer or opt-out appeared during the program, it was always the intention to put that stuff on in the 4 following days after the news conference.

Looks like it went out about a week later than planned. I have no idea other than the picture on the MDE site what changes were made since the Party did not follow through on the promise to get me an evaluation copy as soon as they had it. Nor, for the record, did I ever hear again from the party spokesman who promised to "look into" the questions I had regarding conversations the party officials and the CD developer may -- or may not -- have had about privacy and data issues prior to the time when they were revealed by the media.

BTW, judging by the number of people asking for a copy of the CD (the Symantec "crisis response team" even asked me for one), it may have some value on E*Bay.

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House cleaning

Posted at 6:08 PM on March 12, 2006 by Bob Collins

Cleaning out my RSS feeds. Not watching the Kirby Puckett thing. I liked the guy, fine, but I don't think there's anything left to say, so I doubt there's much more to hear. So on goes the old Ricki Lee Jones CD and up goes the laptop.

How closely to link to the White House? That's the issue Republicans who think they might live there one day had to wrestle with this weekend, according to the New York Times.

In interviews, officials attending the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here described themselves as shaken by mistakes that have afflicted the White House, culminating with the collapse of the deal to allow a Dubai company to manage six American port terminals. Several urged the president to bring in new advisers to avoid losses in the midterm elections ahead and three fallow years in the White House.

Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine has another one of his blurbs on blogging and its role in the universe. I don't know, frankly, how much any of the things like this are true or false but I do know the more you predict the future, the more likely folks will listen to you in this business and create it.

Journalism schools gave out degrees in PR (which I think is a mistake for both). PR became more powerful and lucrative. Spin became an art. Soon, everyone was no longer famous for 15 minutes; that’s so over. Instead, everyone got media training. The problem with gatekeepers is that they try to control, to get in the way, to keep us from getting what we want.

Speaking of which, at some point, the Star Tribune is going to have to write an article on something that they got beaten on by the bloggers without taking a swipe at the bloggers who beat 'em. But not yet, I guess. You know, I'm with Jarvis, I just don't think the blogs are going away.

Wouldn't mind seeing a few more northern versions of The Bluegrass Report. No name calling. No grenades lobbed from one blogger to the next. Just stuff that would be, you know, useful if I lived in Kentucky.

David Kirchner's got that mapping software humming at The Analyst. David was kind enough to let me know that a future post will probably not be real complimentary toward Select A Candidate. That's fine. I'm having a hard time getting this thing put together and out the door so I'm not real happy with it right now, either.

By the way, on the governor's race, I sent out a bunch of questions to candidates for governor via their Web sites (they all have links to contact them, so I thought I'd try 'em out). I think I sent them to everyone but Kelly Doran (I had all of his positions), I think. I only heard back from Sue Jeffers, who -- incidentally -- has one hell of a great Web site. I think she updates it every day. You won't find much mincing of words there, either.

As for the others, c'mon... answer your mail.

Digging out

Posted at 2:53 PM on March 13, 2006 by Bob Collins

I never did get to dig into either paper today -- beyond the front page. Too much snow to blow and other things to catch up with. But, you know, I've done a lot of newspaper delivering in my life -- and still occasionally do -- and those folks deserve a big tip for getting the papers on the doorsteps today -- especially in the 'burbs. They work 7 days a week and beat the heck out of their cars and days like today are really horrible for them. So, if any of 'em are reading this -- thanks.

Didn't see much on the various RSS feeds. Apparently Rambling from the North is suspending his campaign for state auditor. There is an Edwards for Auditor Web site, but..well... it appears to be all messed up.

Tim Pawlenty was on Midday today. I'm falling farther and farther behind but I'll try to get it sliced up and put on his Campaign 2006 Web site page too.

(Update 5:14 p.m. -- This is now done)

The mystery endorsement

Posted at 8:41 PM on March 13, 2006 by Bob Collins

The Hill is reporting on a overzealous press release from the Kennedy campaign.

Minnesota The Senate campaign of Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-Minn.) recently sent out a release questioning why his likely Democratic opponent this fall, Amy Klobuchar, has not touted the endorsement of retiring Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.).

Dayton’s office has a simple explanation: The senator has not officially backed Klobuchar. However, Dayton has hinted that he will eventually endorse the Democratic front-runner to claim his seat.

Heidi Frederickson, press secretary for Kennedy’s campaign, said she received the information from a Minneapolis Star Tribune article. However, the article doesn’t explicitly say that Klobuchar was endorsed.

Officials from Klobuchar’s office were not available for comment.

“Ms. Klobuchar has been silent about lots of issues during this campaign. I suppose Minnesotans shouldn’t be surprised she isn’t talking about Senator Dayton’s endorsement either,” said Frederickson in the release.

— Jessica Alaimo

Apparently the Strib article said Dayton had given his "blessing." His blessing? For what? To run for his Senate. Did she need it?
Check the campaign contributors. He's playing it coy.

His donations in this cycle:

$25,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte
$2,100 to Tim Walz
$2,100 to Robert Byrd
$1,000 to Elwyn Tinklenberg
$1,000 to James Oberstar

A fair amount of Dayton money -- but not Mark's -- has been split between Ford Bell and Amy Klobuchar.

So what's Dayton waiting for? The state convention, probably. Or maybe until the job approval numbers come up.

An endorsement? It's in the bottom right-hand corner.

Daily Briefing - Tuesday March 14, 2006

Posted at 8:29 AM on March 14, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

The Analyst analyzes Select A Candidate. I tried to post a comment but I've finally reached the phase of remembering too many passwords and if you get it wrong, you have to type in those random letters that keep spammers from posting. And if you get it wrong again, there's a bunch of new letters to type in. If you get it wrong again, even more. Since it's 8:30 and I have to be at work by 11, I gave up.
Good article, though.

NPR has started a newsroom blog. Some of Mixed Signals has to do with politics. Most doesn't. But if you read closely you can almost hear how stories are discussed.

Christy Mihos has joined the race for governor of Massachusetts. Rasmussen has a Bay State poll out today. Merrimack College has a poll that says about the same thing. Mass., to many people's surprise, has a habit of not electing Democrats to the corner office that often since Foster Furcolo. Of course, in that state, the big cheese is the House Speaker.

Oh, and John Kline jumped into the race yesterday officially yesterday. Given the news load yesterday, the timing wasn't that great to get many mentions. Of course, it was no surprise either.

Unrelated ponderables
Northwest Airlines to charge $15 for an aisle seat. Doesn't anyone like looking out the window anymore? And you don't have to get up every 10 minutes to let someone go to the bathroom.

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Lourey for Lourey

Posted at 11:53 AM on March 14, 2006 by Bob Collins

Tony Lourey is running for his mother's seat. The other candidates are Bruce Ahlgren, Bruce Chaffe, Dan Reed, Kelly Riihiluoma, Tom Skare and John Westmoreland. The DFL endorsing convention is April 8.

Endorsement

Posted at 11:57 AM on March 14, 2006 by Bob Collins

I'm not exactly sure why the blogs are abuzz today with whether Mark Dayton did or did not endorse Amy Klobuchar but the gist of the hand-wringing today seems to be that Klobuchar is somehow ashamed of Dayton's endorsement. The Hill, as I mentioned last night, reported on a Kennedy press release asking why Klobuchar won't talk it up.

For the record, everyone seems to be pointing to a Strib article. At least one blog said that the article said Klobuchar got the endorsement.

What the story said was:

"In contrast, the party's other front-runner, in the U.S. Senate race, found no need to trumpet an important endorsement on Wednesday.

Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar finally received the official blessing from U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, whose retirement is leaving the open seat she seeks, but there was no prominent announcement. Her convincing triumph Tuesday night means the endorsement is all but hers, and her challenge now is to find mainstream positions heading toward the general election, and maybe keep just a little distance from liberals such as Dayton."

OK, let's see if I got this right. Dayton didn't have any prominent announcement; didn't appear to have any announcement at all. Dayton says he hasn't endorsed Klobuchar yet but probably will. And Dayton gave her a "blessing," the meaning of which remains unclear to me.

Time to take a walk and go talk to average voters, folks. Find out what they are interested in and then -- just a suggestion -- talk about that for awhile. See how that goes over.

By the way -- going out on a limb here -- I'm gonna guess that the senior Minnesota senator , a DFLer, will -- in fact -- endorse the DFL candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

Briefing - Wednesday March 15, 2006

Posted at 7:23 AM on March 15, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Minvolved has some more on the end (?) of the Center of the American Experiment, including some pretty darned good questions, I think, about why it's gotten almost no coverage. Was this some sort of ideological civil war? Was it mere finances? What?

* * *

I find myself not chuckling during the Daily Show with Jon Stewart as much anymore; it tries too hard sometimes and some of the better folks have left the show. But presumably later on today they'll post the video of Ed Helm's piece with Paul Hackett, who was forced out of the race by his own party. It's funny, yes, and a sad, sad commentary on the state of politics.

* * *

"It's a busy, unhappy budget week on Capitol Hill. At a time when Republicans are eager to prove their mettle on spending restraint, their deeds are falling far short of their election-year promises," says AP today.

* * *

Oh, and Norm Coleman doesn't like the White House team anymore. And I guess this was all before the Justice Department ralphed on the 9/11 terror trial.

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Three Greens announce

Posted at 1:13 PM on March 15, 2006 by Bob Collins

Jay Pond, for 5th District U.S House of Representatives, Dave Berger for Minnesota State Auditor and Julie Risser for State Senate District 41.

You can vote? Prove it!

Posted at 3:55 PM on March 15, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

There's a bill at the Capitol that made some headway today that's bound to gin up some controversy during this election season. HF2600 will require proof of citizenship and also require photo identification when you go to vote. It'll probably stir things up because it's shaping up as a classic DFL vs. GOP issue.

The measure advanced, barely, at the Civil Law and Elections Committee today on 6-5 vote. Committee Chair Jeff Johnson, a sure "yes" vote, was busy testifying elsewhere on identity theft and Rep. Torrey Westrom wasn't in the room. So the committee recessed until they could round him up and get the bill approved.

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Johnson vs. Johnson

Posted at 8:05 PM on March 15, 2006 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

The free world is buzzing today about a column in the Pioneer Press (OK, I admit it, I've been getting the Pioneer Press free for two weeks, I love their Washington County coverage, and I didn't open today's Press...or yesterday's) from Craig Westover.

As near as I can figure from the audio posted on the Minnesota For Marriage Web site (and may I say for the record that I've been for my marriage for 23 years, 25 if you count the first date), Johnson says former Chief Justice Blatz told him the court isn't going to touch the issue because "we have to stand for election too."

His office released a statement saying...

"First and foremost, I have at no time ever received any promises or commitments regarding any potential judicial cases from any member of the state Supreme Court."

OK, well, that's clear as mud.

According to the Star Tribune, Blatz said:
"It would have been highly unethical for me as the chief justice to ... give assurances to anyone on how the court was likely to decide an issue that might come before it. It just never happened."

A spokesman for the Court is quoted as saying judges discussing cases that may come before them would be inappropriate. but would it under the new vision for running for judicial office in Minnesota? Political parties in the state seem anxious to be allowed to endorse judicial candidates. So... what do you suppose they might ask them in that process?

This particular issue, of course, has been described as putting the issue to a Senate floor vote. Actually, that's wrong. That's not the issue at all. The issue is getting the bill a hearing in the first place. Sen. Michele Bachmann tried -- and failed -- to get it out of a committee, where it had been sent to die. And during that debate, Sen. Don Betzold promised it would get a hearing. It didn't.

One of the things I find fascinating about this latest dust-up is the court justice's allegedly contending they wouldn't touch a challenge to the existing state law. Whether they would or not, of course, is what keeps bloggers in business because I don't believe there's presently a challenge in process. Why doesn't someone challenge it? Anyone? On either side. Just to see?

For all the quoting -- proper, I might add -- of Westover today, this last graph of his apparently went unnoticed.

Sooner or later, social issues devolve from noble intent to political food fights, and feeding the frenzy becomes more important than nourishing the debate. The marriage amendment is at that point. It's time to expose the exaggerated rhetoric on both sides of the issue in open debate on the Senate floor and bring the marriage amendment to a legislative vote.

Up until the last point, bingo! But if you believe the people should get a chance to have a say, then you really have to be for it first getting a legislative Senate hearing, where they could actually, you know, say something.

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What would you do if you inherited $10 million from your father?

Posted at 10:51 PM on March 15, 2006 by Bob Collins

Maybe she's already been to Disneyworld.

Harris to Stay in Race for Senate Seat.

Meanwhile, back at the House, House Leaders Propose New Ethics Rules.

CAE updated

Posted at 8:08 AM on March 16, 2006 by Bob Collins

Minvolved has more information today on the Center of the American Experiment's demise. Just went to Guidestar to see if their 990 told any tales...well, other than they lost a wad of cash. The pdf file is here. You'll need a username/password but it's free for 990s.

More CTscans and MRIs for me today so probably not many posts.

Straw polls. So what?

Posted at 12:45 PM on March 16, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Ken Rudin at NPR asks a good question.

Excuse me, but what "meaning" could possibly come out of a presidential straw poll taken of 1,427 Republicans at a party conference some 650 days, give or take, before the 2008 Iowa caucuses? We haven't even had the '06 midterm elections yet, for gosh sakes, and we're paying attention to straw polls on whom the GOP will pick two years hence? Hello?

(Update 7:26 p.m.) And J.J. Sutherland answers him.

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Johnson on Johnson

Posted at 1:42 PM on March 16, 2006 by Bob Collins

Chuck Darrell of Minnesota for Marriage Darrell held a news conference to report that 81,000 Minnesotans have signed a petition calling for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. (MPR Photo/Tom Scheck)

MPR's Mark Zdechlik has been at Camp Shelby in Mississippi for the last few days, covering the send-off for the Minnesota National Guard troops to Iraq. I asked him to intercept Sen. Dean Johnson, who is part of the political entourage to today's celebration, and get him to explain his reported remarks on what the Supreme Court in this state would or would not do on the existing laws regulating marriage.

The audio was just sent along to me and I send it along to you unedited. (RealPlayer required).

(Updated 5:10 p.m.) - Here's Tom Scheck's story, and Craig Westover has an update on Johnson's comments.

Couldn't Hackett

Posted at 3:09 PM on March 16, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

A couple of days ago I commented on an outstanding piece on The Daily Show the other day. Now, they've finally posted Couldn't Hackett on the Web site.

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Your name here

Posted at 8:45 AM on March 17, 2006 by Bob Collins

I'm in a pretty much day-long meeting today. Friday's are slow in politics anyway so I may not miss much. Will try to update the universal radar during the breaks. Otherwise,I'm fine. Thanks for asking.

In the meantime, go check out Mike Mulcahy's Policast and his Capitol Letter.

The pastor speaks

Posted at 11:52 AM on March 17, 2006 by Bob Collins

The folks at Morning Edition today interviewed Pastor Brent Waldemarsen, who is the person who was running the tape recorder that caught Sen. Dean Johnson's comments on potential judicial action on the state's marriage laws.

For time reasons, it was edited down to fit the space available. They've sent a longer interview and I'm forwarding it on to you. (RealPlayer required)

(Updated 12:00) -- Sen. Dean Johnson today apologized for is comments. We'll try to post the full audio at some point this afternoon and I imagine Tom Scheck will have a story on ATC.

Johnson's apology

Posted at 2:51 PM on March 17, 2006 by Bob Collins

Here's the full audio of his session today. (RealPlayer required).

and the AP story that goes with it which will be replaced by Laura McCallum's script when it becomes available.

Who's next after Sabo?

Posted at 3:56 PM on March 17, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

OK, let's try to sort this out.

According to the Star Tribune, Martin Sabo is retiring. I heard this rumor this afternoon after it leaked from the Strib and my first reaction was, "a good DFLer wouldn't give the rest of the field such little time to organize." Then I remembered who his chief of staff is. Mike Erlandson, who stepped down as head of the DFL Party in Minnesota last year. Theoretically, it's possible Erlandson got a heads-up, but I'd also think putting a campaign together -- especially in the DFL -- in anticipation of the announcement -- is pretty hard to do under the radar.

Given the other names that come up, makes me think the real winner in last November's city election in Minneapolis, was Peter McLaughlin, now fairly unencumbered to make a bid, whereas R.T. Rybak, who has been speculated about as a guy with higher aspirations, would have an impossible time chucking his gig for the fairly safe DFL congressional seat.

We'll see.

So, what does Larry Jacobs figure is going on? He was just on All Things Considered and I lifted a little piece for you. (RealPlayer).

And, if nothing else, at least I got a couple of TO DOs off my list today, setting up Campaign 2006 pages for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and Jay Pond. Something tells me I'll be working this weekend setting up more.

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Past the politics and to the persons

Posted at 3:27 PM on March 18, 2006 by Bob Collins

You know, if you ignore the perspective of politics, there's nothing I like more than chatty grandchildren and a grandfather's laughter. Listen to Martin Sabo's announcement today and you'll see what I mean. And husbands should cry when they talk about their wives and children. We should do more of that.

It's on the story page, up on the right side.

I'm just sayin'...

Posted at 7:19 AM on March 20, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

In a good display of self-interest (which also happens to serve the interest of others on many occasions), many of the nation's newspapers and broadcast outlets declared it Sunshine Week last week, and then dedicated what resources they could marshall in producing stories about how access to public data is better for a democracy than government secrecy.

This is particularly important in Minnesota, we're told, because our state government appears to be moving in a direction of closing access to data in the interest of privacy.

If you get most of your information from the blogs, you probably didn't know about Sunshine Week because very few of them -- and none of the more than 40 I read every day from Minnesota -- touched it. The issue of access to information, let along the ability to transmit it, just isn't that important, I guess.

Well, now it's the bloggers' turn.

Some of the big blogs have railed against the effort to regulate the relationship between political parties and independent blogs for a few weeks. I even linked to a few although I can't even find the entries now. But a quick Google search shows the Daily Kos discussed the issue to a fair degree in November. Bradley Smith at CNET took a whack it almost a year ago, in a column that was picked up by bloggers from the far left to the far right.

And now this week, it's possible Washington may finally move on the simmering controversy to decide whether political blogs are subject to campaign finance rules.

Here's the bottom line on the issue courtesy of The Hill:

The heated debate over a proposal by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) to exclude online content from the “public communications” covered by campaign-finance law has engulfed every corner of the political world, splitting both Democrats and Republicans and pitting mainstream editorial boards against left- and right-wing bloggers.

(paragraph of background deleted)

FEC Chairman Michael Toner has thrown his weight behind the Hensarling bill. The bill attempts to resolve a federal court mandate for clear congressional guidance on how the commission should apply the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law to the Internet.

And here's an editorial Toner wrote on the subject last week.

OK, to coin a phrase that's cropped up in the past few years: if you're not taking cash to run your blog -- hard or soft -- why give a rip?

Personally? I can't get my arms around this yet. It's clear to me that many blogs obviously exist to promote a particular agenda or candidate (and does so in almost every case by focusing almost exclusively on dissecting the opposition, thus allowing the party itself to maintain a clean, hands-off deniability. Why get mixed up in it if someone is doing if for you?) , but in many cases I don't know (a) who writes them or (b) whether they get any money to write them or (c) what -- if any -- the ties are to another campaign or party.

At the same time, I think we have to admit, parties have brought these "independent" bloggers in and told them "we want you to be part of the team." Could what follows a meeting like that qualify as an expenditure? And if so, is that a coordinated expenditure in this future Washington-think? That would be illegal under campaign laws I believe.

On the other hand, to what extent do you want the government to do your figuring out for you? As near as I can tell, the only thing that's presented an obstacle to relevance for some bloggers, is the blogger. The good ones thrive and are read. The hack jobs end up like so many drug pitches, former Nigerian get-rich-quick schemes, and, well, you know. Crap is crap in any medium and people have done a pretty good job at recognizing it when they see it.

Still, there is that nagging voice out there that wonders whether a blog, for example, that regularly accuses (usually in the form of a "I don't know, I'm just sayin'") fashion political opponents of breaking the law has even a chance of being heard in intelligent political discoure.

Maybe this week we'll take the first steps in finding out the answer to that question and -- and more importantly -- whose job it is -- or isn't -- to say that's a bad thing.

By the way "freedom of the press" does not apply equally across all media. Maybe that's something we should look at sometime too.

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Johnson story not going away; move made to bring marriage amendment to Senate floor

Posted at 11:28 AM on March 20, 2006 by Bob Collins

The chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Russell Anderson, had a conference call with reporters today to say, apparently, that there were no conversations between any Supreme Court justices and Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson on the subject of the state's marriage

"We have talked amongst ourselves and our former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz and there was no conversation about the Defense of Marriage Act. It never happened," he said.

Anderson also talked about the changing landscape of campaigning to be a judge in states like Minnesota, which elect their judges.

It was a fascinating conference call, the bulk of which you're probably not going to hear in many places because the technical quality was horrific. But, hey, what do I know about technical quality? So here it is in all of its RealPlayer feedback glory. Enjoy!

1:50 p.m. The Senate has just started debate to try to get the marriage bill out of committee. So far the Senate president has ruled the request out of order. A debate rages at the moment.

2:03 p.m. Sen. Jim Metzen under heavy fire from Republicans for ruling the request was not a recall of the bill from committee.

2:05 p.m. Vote is 34-31 to uphold the ruling of the chair, keeping the bill bottled up in committee.

Some things just beg for a caption contest

Posted at 3:32 PM on March 20, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

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And then there were 6

Posted at 6:36 PM on March 20, 2006 by Bob Collins

Gail Dorfman, Hennepin County Commissioner, officially entered the 5th District race this afternoon. I've set up candidate Web pages for the race in the Campaign 2006 section. I'll get to hers tomorrow, I guess.

And then they'll be 7

Posted at 12:41 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

Mike Erlandson to announce for 5th District tomorrow.

Make it stop

Posted at 12:42 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

Stories have particular phases they go through in newsrooms, the Dean Johnson story has reached the "let's write letters to the newsroom asking what the big deal is here" stage. The Republican CD story reached the same stage. Of course, they all actually know what the story is, they just don't like that it's getting airtime. Just like when the shoe was on the other foot a few weeks ago.

My favorite e-mail of the day on the subject:

You might want to pull the tape that Brent Waldemarsen secretly made of Dean Johnson.

If the person who secretly recorded Pastor and Senator Johnson at the pastors' meeting was NOT the same person who asked him the questions about the anti-gay marriage bill, then it would appear that the recording was illegal.

Minnesota State Law holds that secretly taping a conversation is illegal unless one of the parties involved in the conversation is doing the taping.

Now, while Pastor Brent Waldemarsen was the person who did the recording at this private event, I have yet to find out who actually asked the question to which Senator Johnson was responding. The news stories seem to indicate that the person who actually asked the question was not in fact Pastor Waldemarsen. If this is indeed the case, then the taping is illegal, and its use in stories on websites is also illegal.

There's something in my mind about prying the 1st Amendment from my cold, dead fingers but I can't quite get the sentenced formed right now...

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What happens to whiny kids?

Posted at 3:38 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

This is one of those entries that should just be posted without comment.

So here.

Oh, but I can't. You just know I can't. Ladies and gentlemen, someone must rise to the defense of the conservatives who have been wronged -- wronged, I say -- by those ...those.... Canadians!

And so I give you the last place you'd expect to find that defender.

National....Public.... Radio.

Or so I hear.

Smear campaign appears underway

Posted at 3:47 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Earlier today I received an e-mail as a comment to Polinaut along the lines of "questions are being raised about (name of 5th District candidate or soon to be candidate here). I don't know if they're true but if so.... he/she/it should explain (1) alleged moral transgression here and (2) alleged moral transgression here."

You never saw it because, one, it was a phony e-mail account and, two, it involve the creative use of passive voice. I hate passive voice. Passive voice strips responsibility.

Passive voice is a favorite tool of politicians. Here's an example. A president admits that his administration screwed something up, so he comes out and accepts responsibility and says "mistakes were made."
Really? By whom?

Anyway, back to our story. A few minutes ago, Laura McCallum sends a fax that is being sent around the Capitol. Same thing, basically, except that it had added 4 more transgressions. But the first ones were word-for-word the same as the e-mail I received. And to make this an official release, this faxed document (from the Kinko's in Richfield, by the way) said "For Immediate Release."

Yeah, you wish.

We get hate faxes all the time; well, every morning, actually. And we just trash 'em. These will get trashed too but not before a little sermon. Come out in the light, make your allegations, state your proof, and say your name.

If you think the electoral process is important, that is.

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As Freeborn County goes

Posted at 11:37 PM on March 21, 2006 by Bob Collins

Albert Lea Tribune has some breakdown of the Freeborn County DFL county caucus.

No Dean

Posted at 11:37 AM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

Dean Johnson was supposed to be on MPR's Midday at 11. I'm told he bailed out. I believe the decision came after the Republicans delivered an ethics complaint against him.

Looking for some audio of Sen. Claire Robling and Sen. Mike McGinn, who served Johnson with the ethics complaint? Here you go (RealPlayer)

And Sen. Dean Johnson's reaction. Listen (RealPlayer)

Erlandson announces

Posted at 12:02 PM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

Mike Erlandson announced his candidacy in the 5th District today. Want to watch a Web site being built. http://www.erlandsonforcongress.com.

It's built.

Just say it. Whatever it is. Just say it!

Posted at 12:21 PM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

There seems to be some confusion...somewhere.... about what Gov. Pawlenty said yesterday regarding Dean Johnson. Why, I don't know. It sure seemed clear to me. But these are the times of politicians and political spin and a lot of simple use of the English language gets sacrificed. Noun. Verb. Noun. Verb. It used to be such an easy concept.

Let's take a look at what Gov. Pawlenty had to say yesterday about Sen. Dean Johnson.

"From my standpoint, it should be handled like this: Senator Johnson has admitted that he's not been truthful. He's asked for forgiveness and second chance. We should give it to them and we should move on," he said."

Senator Johnson was not truthful in describing conversations he says he had with Minnesota Supreme Court justices. He has asked for forgiveness and we should forgive Senator Johnson and give him a second chance. But I also believe a full explanation is needed.

OK, great, governor, but what about that strategy you outlined if you were handling it? The one about ... moving on. Where did that go? And if it changed, why did it change?

In the Pioneer Press today, Patrick Sweeney wrote this:

Later, Ron Carey, the Republican state party's chairman, said Pawlenty had telephoned to talk about the Johnson controversy, but Carey said the governor did not ask for an end to the party's criticism of the majority leader.

"This is certainly not the governor saying we should all just forgive and forget and let this all die and go away," Carey said

So let's see if I'm following this. The governor has a news conference and announces he's going to call Ron Carey later on and suggest, shall we say, a different approach.

Then he puts out a press release that suggests that a full explanation is needed. Then Carey says Pawlenty did call but it doesn't look like any sort of different approach was suggested. Huh?

So did the governor tell the news media one thing and Ron Carey another? Does the governor think his comments were misrepresented? Or am I just missing the nuance of the word "forgiveness?"

You decide. Here's the governor's own words. And, yes, he knew the tape recorder was running. Listen in RealPlayer.

This whole controversy has been yet another example of how politicians do immense damage when trying to engage in damage control. They're terrible at it. Just terrible. I pointed it out after the GOP marriage CD controversy. The smart thing then -- and the smart thing now -- would've been for the person making the "mistake" to slap themselves on the head and say, "you know what? I screwed up bigtime. What an idiot I am." People understand that. People are smart that way. Sometimes politicians are loathe to admit that people are smart.

Instead, for the second time in a month, we see politicians and political parties falling over themselves trying to talk their way out of something... and just looking more and more foolish to the real world in the process. Did the "definition of 'is'" debate not register as being completely ridiculous anywhere inside political circles? Because I'm pretty sure everyone else figured it out pretty fast.

It's amazing, sometimes, why so many consultants get rich advising political parties and politicians on how to communicate. They're really not very good at it.

Johnson speaks... again

Posted at 4:02 PM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Ace Capitol reporter Tom Scheck had a few minutes between assignments today so he went up to Dean Johnson's office to see what's new. There was Dean starting a conversation with Eric Eskola of WCCO and Brian Bakst of the Ap (two of Polinaut's favorite dinner companions -- well at least once every four years in some far-off city where a political convention is being held). So they locked the door behind them and had a chat.

Here's the audio in all of its RealPlayer splendor.

As I was just driving back from a doctor's appointment awhile ago I was struck by the talking points that "this could all go away if he'd just let the same-sex marriage bill go to the floor for a vote."

That's true. And the way the same-sex marriage bill goes to the floor is if the DFL Senate caucus has a little civil war and the one DFLer who'd like to bolt, is allowed to bolt in the vacuum that results....and the half-dozen or so who would follow him if he did. This is where Johnson's whips -- like Ann Rest -- are earning their money this week. It's a good time to be a DFL senator and need a few favors from the leadership in exchange for your loyalty, I would think.

That's what this is about. That's how this goes to the Senate floor and that's why the GOP won't relent. Not to get Johnson to change...but to get the caucus to erupt.

Now, putting on the other side's hat for a moment, I still don't understand why Sen. Don Betzold doesn't just hold a hearing and -- if the DFL wants to kill the bill -- has a vote in the Judiciary Committee and -- like a couple thousand other bills up there every year -- kills the bill there.

Assuming Judiciary has the votes to kill it.

So what would the net effect of that be? It got its vote. It got killed, and the other party has no leg to stand on since they kill unfavorable bills in committee too.

Meantime, we're left with a Senate Majority Leader who says something, then tries to explain what he said...and explain what his explanation said etc. A governor who gives his strategy....then issues a release clarifying his strategy...and then the GOP chairman says the original strategy wasn't the strategy. Confused? You're not in politics, then. Because maybe the real story is this all makes sense to someone. Usually the same ones who will be quoted in a couple of months -- as they were last year and the year before that -- kvetching about how things just can't get done at the Capitol. The same ones who start every session predicting a new bipartisanship. After awhile, you'd think we'd all wise up. But we are -- and this is the good news, I guess -- far too idealistic to admit that this is not possible.

It's certainly politics in its form. It's just not being practiced as an art right now. Well, unless you think those mud flaps on tractor-trailer trucks of a naked woman's silhouette is art.

Mud flap. Hey, that actually is apropos. Polinaut loves it when the oxygen mixture gets enrichened.

This would, by the way, be a great time for someone to revisit a question that was asked after last year's government shutdown. "What did you learn?" Multiple answers? At this point, I'd be darned impressed with one.

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Oh yeah, that Senate race

Posted at 4:50 PM on March 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

According to the Ford Bell campaign, these women are endorsing him. And, yes, I know it's a formatting disaster.

Arvonne Fraser
Margaret Perryman
Pam Klema
Rep. Alice Hausman
Gretchen Hafdahl
Ana Maria Parins
Ruby Hunt
Patricia McCullough
Dr. Kristine Petrini

Susanne Hutcheson
Franchelle Mullin Barbara O’Leary, DVM

Paulette Will
Elizabeth B. Myers
Bonnie Marshall

Emily Galusha
Maureen Kelly Neerland
Rita Salone

Amy Bell
Alicia Phillips
Kathleen Farber

Cathie Hartnett
Perrin Lilly Shannon Wesley

Ruth Meany Murphy
Mary Grace Flannery
Kate An Hunter, DVM

Meredith Brown Alden
Mary Plant
Ana Batsakes
Dr. Pamela Jane Armstrong
Diane Neimann
Michelle Cullum
Nancy Balto, DVM
Connie Sillerud, DVM
Kristen Rose
Lisa Nilles
Adaire Peterson Christina M. Gassman
Pat West
Patti Lacrone Lorna Reichl, DVM
Ann Clausen
Betty Kramek-Heffernan, DVM
Mary O. Petra
Vicki Moore
Emmie Hester Lori Fedje Paulson
Sarah Bell
Carol Santana Zena Kocher
Diane Bourgeois
Juanita Lewis Mary VanPilsum Johnson
Ann E. Brownlee
Yvonne Lewis Betty Caldwell
Donna Buckbee
Jennie Bell Penny George
Patricia Burns, DVM
Kathryn Anonsen Ginger Simon
Erin Bursch
Stephanie Thompson Kamila Marciniak
Josephine H. Carney
Sue Bohn
Nancy Engh
Judith Cooperman
Samantha Matson Rebecca Davies
Judy Dayton
Nancy Butler Judy Healey
Mary Lee Dayton
Beth Birke Theresa Johnson
Carolyn Fletcher
Nicole Hubert Mary Collins
Kathleen A. Fluegel
Vicki McMorrow
Dee Dee Loegering
Gerda Gassman
Donna Freeberg Polly Etzel
Ellen George
Deb Reed, DVM Jane Etzel
Barbara Greig, DVM
Dorothy Horns
Linda Simmons
Daina Rosen, DVM
Judith Ingemann Maudie Johnson
Dr. Mildred Hanson
Eileen Weinberg Julie Palmer
Marian S. Hoffman
Ruthey Lawler
Patricia deLuna
Elizabeth H. Howell
DiAnn Clendening
Stephanie Shulman, DVM
Kathryn L. Jensen
Irene Lilly Marian Saksena
Nancy Johansen
Kristin Miller Melissa Lindsay
Lucy Rosenberry Jones
Mary Bell
Clare Sorman

Linda Kaufman
Edwina Franchild Sally Baker Ross
Diane Klausner
Susan Slattery-Burke
Barb Liebenstein
Joan Lapensky
Pamela Johnson Mary Ellen Alden
Georgia Ray Lindeke
Mary Sauter
Shannon Gale
Nancy Lindley
Anita Martinez Christine Brown
Roberta Mann
Judy Covey Lucia Newell
Annabel Marcouiller
Karen Fraase
Tild Brodin Oen
Barbara Meier
Andrea Nelson
Tara Varco
Dr. Aimee H. Meyer
Francie Nelson
Mara Gollin-Garrett
Patricia Ketola
Susan Shearer Rhonda Haddorff
Amber Thompson
Vicki Tousey
Leann Kispert
Roseann Mammoser
Sarah Volk
Dorrie Spahr
Annette Rondano
Kristina Lantz Thelma Hunter
Joni Scheftel, DVM
Starla Krause
Kristina M. Clark
Vicki A. Schulz, DVM
Jennifer Boyd
Christina Denton
Alexis Scott
Bev Ramolae Tabitha Berglund
Sue Skog
Kathleen Davies Beth Girard
Noa Staryk
Rebecca Hope Jennifer Vieth
Ellen D. Sturgis
Stephanie Pommier Elizabeth Carlson
Lucia Watson
Nicole Wagner Kathy Zonne
Sue McCarthy
Laura Freeman Vivian Neiger
Kate Hanson
Jill Cochrane Anne Hunter
Jill Determan
Sharon L. McNamara
Kay McCarthy
Krista Erickson Anderson
Amanda Clausen Sima Seaver
Lisa Koch
Debbie Apland Gretchen Amis
Sara Dickson
Georgiana Campbell Krystyna Skrowaczewski
Diane Penwarden
Cathi Broat Melissa F. Weiner
Sharon Stitler
Susannah Baudhuin Alison Falldin
Christine Johnston
Sarah Dixon
Molly Maass
Laura Sharp
Jane Goggin Dr. Julia Ponder
Joanna Furnans
Marilyn Lee Hafdahl
Maria MacNamara
Lori Arent
Tina Gassman Jessica Gonzalez-Moore
Amy Swank
Jennifer David Kelley L. Benedict
Courtney Yasmineh
Sally Herfurth Tina Ritchie
Joan Strand
Sharon Ritchie Margret Stankovsky
Mary-Stuart Snyder
Sara Pierson Isabel Keating
Jody Poling
Julie Churchill Blythe Brenden

And then there were... like... a lot

Posted at 8:56 AM on March 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

Ember Reichgott Junge is officially in. It'll be easier to list who's not, at this point, perhaps.

Today I confirm that I am a candidate for the Fifth District Congressional Seat. A formal announcement will be made shortly.

I want to re-ignite the agenda that hasn’t been heard: access to health care, affordable child care, investment in youngest children, good-paying jobs, protecting human rights. Bringing peace to Iraq and rebuilding U.S. credibility around the world.

For more information about my current bio, and a current picture, go to www.womenonthemove.us.

I assume she gives up the radio gig.

Briefing - Thursday March 23, 2006

Posted at 11:35 AM on March 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

I probably won't be posting a lot today because I'm working on a Flash multimedia project to go along with a piece that Mark Zdechlik is putting together for tomorrow night's All Things Considered. It's a year in the life of a Minnesota National Guard soldier in Baghdad.

But there's a few things to get off my desk before I go immerse myself (the payoff at the end of the work day is the Roomful of Blues concert at the Fitz!).

* * *

First, I'm late getting to this but a week or so ago I talked about Select A Candidate and some folks commented on the "boxed-in questions." I'll deal with that later but admit that a flaw in Select A Candidate is that it mirrors the campaign. If they ain't talking about the issue, the issue ain't gonna show up on Select A Candidate.

So how to get them talking about what you want them to talk about? Right here, my friend. This is part of MPR's Public Insight Journalism effort; something else I should write about one of these days.

* * *

On Midday, the whole same-sex thing is getting aired out again.

Michele Bachmann and Scott Dibble are the guests.

And Tom Scheck snapped this to prove that a Republican and DFLer really can sit down at the same table... sort of.

* * *

Oh, and this. The Diet Sprite! Where's the Diet Sprite!

* * *

Off to tween now.

(Update 5:45 p.m.) - OK, I'm done. And because you know the secret handshake, you get to see it a full day before it appears on the Web site.

And now this important announcement...

Posted at 4:17 PM on March 23, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Someone is not running for Martin Sabo's seat.

Statement from Julie Sabo

I will not be a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. While it is an honor to be included in the list of people who are considered to follow in the footsteps of my father, Martin Sabo, this is simply not the right time for me to take this on.

I have had the great privilege of serving the Minnesota State Senate and as a Minneapolis public school teacher. I greatly enjoy my role as mother to Jakob and Oskar.

And I must say that I am very proud to be the daughter of Martin Sabo. His decades of service to the people of Minnesota are an inspiration to anyone who values the life we enjoy in Minnesota and in the United States of America. He is genuinely a hero to me.

Furthermore, we are fortunate to have an excellent candidate who, I believe, will be Minnesota’s next great progressive Congressman.
In urge my fellow 5th District DFLers to support Mike Erlandson for the DFL Endorsement.

Mike is the strongest candidate because he will bring to the office a 20 year record of supporting DFL values in the United States House of Representatives.

As Chair of the Minnesota DFL and as my father’s Chief of Staff for the past 13 years, Mike has demonstrated his values and his effectiveness.

Mike is committed to the things we value in our government –honesty, integrity, fiscal responsibility, and protecting our basic rights and opportunities – The very values that are being systematically attacked and undermined every day by the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress.

And he has the skills, knowledge and relationships to do something about them immediately.

I will be on that convention floor working to earn the DFL endorsement for Mike Erlandson.

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Just thinking

Posted at 7:14 PM on March 23, 2006 by Bob Collins

So the rumor du jour is that Kelly Doran is going to drop out of the governor's race. I thought he seemed like a decent sort. Not at all a politician and his ideas had some meat to them. He hurt himself, of course, when he switched from the Senate race to the governor's race, but he was such a longshot, you can't really say it was a fatal decision.

Still, lots of folks who are, well, politicians, run by saying they're not politicians. But in almost every case, they are. There are even some people running in this state for high office this year who are already in office, who have actually said in the last few months, "I'm not a career politician." Because, I guess being a politician makes it tougher for you to win elections.

Really? On what planet?

Just wondering: is it possible for a non-politician to run for statewide office and win? Sure, Jesse Ventura did it, but that was a talk show promo that got out of hand.

I mean, serious candidate. Someone who doesn't -- and never has -- made a living running for office, but works in the real world.

Can it be done? Lots of people talk about how government needs to be run more like a business. And lots of people nod their heads when they hear people say it. So how come businesspeople can't even register a small seismic reading when they run for office?

* * *

As for Doran's running mate, Sheila Kiscaden, she really can't hop onto another campaign at this point; it just wouldn't look... right. So presumably she tries to keep her seat and that sets up a really sweet looking battle... potentially a three-way.

Many voices can do good work

Posted at 9:06 AM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

It looks like Minvolved is giving up the ghost as a result of unspecified e-mail. Too bad. The blog has a point of view -- most political blogs are supposed to and it's always a good idea to read and listen to as many as possible.Mr. Sponge says his e-mails had nothing to do with ideology, for the record. But nonetheless a voice is silenced and it's a good time to remind ourselves of the value of sitting in the den, banging away at a computer, with something to say and a way to say it. And how important the person across the street doing the same thing is too.

Minvolved aside, sometimes, in our passion for politics, we forget that it's kinda important to maintain perspective a little bit. The political blogosophere in Minnesota is rough-and-tumble and a lot of times where good writing could take place...often you end up with one blog firing a salvo over at another blog until you wonder whether there's anyone else reading the darned things besides the people throwing spitballs. I'm not referring to any specific blog here, but a climate that can, unfortunately, encourage the gridlock rather than help people sort through issues, learn to talk to each other like adults, identify and work toward a common good.

That's not everyone's goal in politics,of course and some of the folks who created this environment, are the ones creating it in the blogosphere too.

The only thing people longing for a more intelligent process can do... is participate in a more intelligent processl. This is an independent medium where some Democrats, some Republicans, some Independents, some voters, some non-voters say some really interesting and insightful -- as opposed to inciteful -- things. Seek them out. Ignore the rest.

Awhile ago, a series of 10 guidelines for people who want to write blogs crossed my desk. These were issued by, I think, the Charlotte Observer, for their staff. I'll try to dig 'em up and post them because if you've thought of writing a political blog -- or are writing one now... they make for a great refresher.

Bottom line? Set out today to do good work. And let's all refocus and try to leave Minnesota better than we found it this morning, OK?

The whole point of the blogosphere is to provide more voices than MSM can. It's not really logical for any of us in that world to consider it a "good day" when a voice goes away.

Is this it?

Posted at 11:28 AM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Word from the Capitol is that the ethics hearing for Sen. Dean Johnson is over and the upshot is he has to apologize on the Senate floor next week.

Familiar ground

Posted at 11:38 AM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Lots of comings and goings in the races today so I'm trying to update Campaign 2006 like crazy and falling a bit behind. So we'll take all of these today one by one.

First, Rebecca Yanisch. She announced her candidacy for the 5th District congressional race this morning. I should have the audio of her speech on her C2006 Web page in the next hour or so but looking through the transcript, it sounded rather familiar.

"When I was 21, I had a high school diploma, a job that paid less than the minimum wage, a two-year-old daughter and a marriage that wasn't working. I decided to enroll in college, and after working my way through as a single parent, graduated with a degree in finance and, later, a master's degree in business administration."

It's certainly a compelling story. It could be her campaign theme. It was in the campaign of 2000. Take, this line from Michael Khoo's profile of her back then.

Yanisch downplays the gender card, but it's subtly woven throughout her campaign. She married early and divorced early. The story of the candidate giving birth without the benefit of health insurance and, as a single mother, working her way through the University of North Dakota, has proven too potent for the campaign to resist. At nearly every public appearance, Yanisch reminds potential voters she has not just studied their problems, she has lived them.

I miss Michael Khoo. He was a fabulous reporter. But, alas, he's gone off to Yale Law School and the next time we hear from him will, no doubt, be when he's nominated to the Supreme Court.

This next paragraph from his story was a keeper.

Meanwhile, the campaign de-emphasizes other aspects of her past. She was born on a family farm, but a fairly prosperous one which, by her own reckoning, covered more than 3,000 acres in the fertile Red River Valley. She says, however, she didn't lean on her family for support in the years after her daughter was born.

Anyway, will familiar themes echo louder in the 5th than they did statewide in 2000?

Jon Olson in 5th

Posted at 12:38 PM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Minneapolis Parks Board President Jon Olson has announced his candidacy in the 5th. A page is built for him on C2006 and some audio is there from him from an interview Brandt Williams did with him this morning. I'm going to be adding more info to that page later on.

Surprise! Kelly Doran is leaving the...the....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Posted at 3:41 PM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

It's been rather interesting seeing some of the various political sites over the last few days breathless over the rumored end of the Kelly Doran campaign. By the time Doran unveiled his future plans today, it wasn't a secret any longer. And that's the kind of situation I love about politics. The guy gets to provide no suspense whatsoever in ending a candidacy that was an apparent secret to a whole lot of people in the first place.

And now I've performed the Campaign 2006 gubernatorial Web site ritual of removing him from the list of active candidates, and moving him to the honored list of withdrawn candidates, where Bud Philbook has been living a lonely existence for far too long.

Audio of Doran's announcement is here (RealPlayer required)

All that said, I found Doran to be a decent guy and I enjoyed meeting him when he came into MPR last summer to spend 45 minutes answering my questions for his page on the Campaign 2006 Web site (yeah, we actually start kinda early on the online side of things). He had a hard-working campaign communicator in Tonya Tennessen. His campaign manager, John Wodele, knows a little something about getting people elected. And he had a message. And he sure had the cash.

I remain fascinated by the question, however, of whether someone from the business world can actually be elected to a statewide office without becoming a career politician first -- at least here.

If Doran's experience sours anyone with a message, money, and a good staff from running in the future, then I guess this really hasn't been a particularly good day for Minnesota politics.

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One for the 5th

Posted at 5:04 PM on March 24, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

I think I've got pages now set up for everyone who announced today in the 5th congressional district.

The last of 'em -- well, for me and for today is Anne Knapp.

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Briefing - Monday March 27, 2006

Posted at 8:10 AM on March 27, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

City Hall Scoop talks to Jay Benanav about his political plans. He’s thinking about running for a spot on the Ramsey County District Court bench.

Sonny Perduce. There, I've said it. I love the name. Apparently the voters in Georgia are still thinking about it. A new Rasmussen poll shows he's lost a bit of real estate in his gubernatorial re-election bid.

The New York Times article today, In an Election Year, a Shift in Public Opinion on the War, chronicles a shift among war supporters in Congress. The lead on the story was great, but got me completely off the subject. A politician takes her car to the local oil-change joint, gets out, and jumps in the pit to change her own oil. There's a metaphor there somewhere.... somewhere.....hmmmmmm.

Broken Nails has a play-by-play of the SD65 convention. I just love these things. Minnesota Campaign Report stopped by the SD44 shindig. Residual Forces took on SD51.

Recurring theme of the weekend. Why is the media so concerned about Dean Johnson. I can't find any information on the bonding bill? Don't they care? Psst. Also got a bunch of e-mail, somewhat similarly worded, wondering why the media wasn't keeping track of the legislators' performance on other issues besides Dean Johnson. Pssttt.

From the "I'm not with him" department. GOP's DeWine Stresses Independence.

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Johnson's apology

Posted at 2:39 PM on March 27, 2006 by Bob Collins

It wasn't exactly the Checkers speech, but Sen. Dean Johnson issued his apology on the Senate floor today. Here is is (RealPlayer required).

What's in Pawlenty's future?

Posted at 6:02 PM on March 27, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Rumors about Gov. Pawlenty's Washington aspirations have swirled ever since he announced he was running for the U.S. Senate years ago.

A visit to the toney Club for Growth during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York could've been a little "toe in the water" action. And they liked him and, especially, his no-new-taxes pledge.

In 2005 he pushed -- hard -- for the ethanol bill in last year's Legislature, and then called the agriculture department to get some talking points for a trip to Iowa -- where, you may have heard -- they have some presidential caucuses; significant because Pawlenty wasn't doing any out-of-the-state travelling at the time, so DFLers couldn't complain that he wasn't tending to the state while they and the Republicans were tying it up in knots in the Legislature.

And, of course, he completely ticked off the White House with his effort to set up a Web site for cheaper Canadian drugs, and looked good doing it, which made some seniors -- I hear they're an important voting bloc -- pretty happy since their organization -- AARP -- had pretty much sold them out in Washington's effort to get the issue off the table in the 2004 election.

I thought of all of that this afternoon while listening to him speak during a conference call after returning from a visit to Iraq. In the past, his visits have primarily been of the "boosting the Minnesota soldiers" variety.

But this sounded different... this sounded like a guy muscling up on the foreign policy stuff.

In a few weeks they're arriving in Kuwait and they're going to be training up for three weeks in Kuwait and then from there they'll deploy in country. I hope during that time that the announcement of the formation of a unity government can be made and then things will begin to improve relative to today over time."

Pawlenty was on a delegation that was led by Sen. John McCain. We probably shouldn't read much into that since I believe Sen. Russ Feingold was on that trip too.

But I do anyway. If Pawlenty isn't checking out the national waters, then maybe McCain is taking a look at Pawlenty.

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In defense of bull****

Posted at 10:58 AM on March 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

Buzz Machine from Jeff Jarvis takes on the FCC today for its determination that the word, well you know, and its various derivatives is obscene.

Jeff argues that BS (is that a derivative?) is political speech, but it amazed me that he got through the entire article without mentioning the name Barry Commoner. He was the guy who proved it.

Commoner ran under the Citizens Party banner in 1980, and produced one of the more memorable political commercials (at least next to the daisies, Willie Horton, and Morning in America, which, by the way, sounds exactly like the ketchup commercials on A Prairie Home Companion.), it was memorable to me).

I don't remember the entire commercial. I only remember the first word. Yep, it was bull****. And it got your attention as he took the next 58 seconds describing how politicians threw it around back then.

He also was taking advantage of an FCC rule at the time which prevented broadcast stations from (a) rejecting the ad or (b) altering the ad. (Actually this was the FCC carrying out the wishes of the politicians who passed the laws that also included such self-serving provisions as stations had to sell them the airtime at the lowest rate on their "rate card").

So the FCC got what it deserved. To the extent that the word -- and its derivative -- has crept onto the airwaves, the FCC has nobody to blame but itself.

Oh, by the way, here's the ad via RealAudio.

Kids for Kennedy

Posted at 3:16 PM on March 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

It's still early, but I've been puzzled by the apparent lack of interest -- and I realize that's a broad generalization -- by many candidates in mobilizing the campus forces.

I'm not sure exactly why that is although the "young people" who were supposed to influence the election of 2004 ended up mostly taking a pass and reinforcing the stereotype.

So it's interesting to read in the Mankato State University newspaper that Mark Kennedy was working the crowd this week.

I don't know anymore whether college campuses are DFL or GOP turf, but Kennedy's going to find out.

Michael Bruner, a member of the College Republicans, said "I think students across the board are going to play a huge part in the elections coming up."

Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on what issues end up dominating. Health care? Good luck selling that one on campus.

In 2004, 51.6% of people under age 30 turns out to vote. That's relatively lame, although it was 10% higher than the previous election.

But listen to the comments of Ivan Frishberg, outreach and development coordinator at the New Voters Project, in an online chat at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Over the long course of this campaign, I don't think either party or either candidate made an exceptional effort to reach this population. Young people were clearly enegergized on both sides and I would expect that to continue. We all know that elections have winners and losers and most of us have the good fortune to experience life on both sides of that.

The good news about this turnout for the long term is that voting is a learned behavior, and the masses of young people who have been newly engaged in the political process are much more likely to keep civic participation as a part of their lives from here on out.

G'bye, whatsername

Posted at 3:35 PM on March 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

So Rebecca Yanisch has dropped out of the race for Congress, proving that a campaign really is a sprint, not a marathon.

What was your favorite Rebecca Yanisch for Congress moment?

(Update: Got an e-mail suggesting a gender bias and saying, "I’ll be curious to see if male candidates get the same treatment on your pages." By the way, I get this a lot. Not about gender but anytime we focus on, well, anything. After the Republican CD controversy, I got a bunch that said "I can't wait to see how you'll handle it when the Democrats get in trouble." To which I say: "meet Dean Johnson." But I haven't heard from those people again. Anyway, back to our story about my gender bias and curiosity with how I'd handle it when a man drops out of the race after 4 days. Well, why wait? I already did it.)

Man, facts are a drag on a good conspiracy.

And they never tied in the whole "Saint" thing...

Posted at 7:09 AM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins

It was a big night for Minnesota on the Comedy Channel.

OK, anytime St. Paul is mentioned on the Comedy Channel it's a big night, I guess. Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report focused on Bunnygate, happening even as we speak in St. Paul's City Hall. It included one of the more controversial graphics I've seen, even by Comedy Channel standards, in which Christ was shown shooting it out from behind the rock that covered his tomb as "War on Easter" was splattered across the top of the screen. I'm going to guess there'll be no rioting in the streets today, but we'll see. No video up on the Colbert Report Web site, but maybe later, since the St. Paul story was the basis of last night's "The Word."

Which brings us to The Daily Show last night whose guest -- and I admit I usually shut it off before the guest -- discussed the immigration "problem."

I bring this up because in my morning read of area blogs, I stumbled across a couple of screeds on the issue and I was reminded of one of the points of the guest. who was the editor of Newsweek International.

Immigration is the one thing this country does better than anybody else, and these people want us to be more like France?

It was another moment of Zen when I realized -- again -- that in the age of blogs, and multiple media, it's a comedy show that at least gets us thinking about the possibility that maybe there's another perspective to consider.

I wonder if it works that way in France?

The White House inside out

Posted at 11:20 AM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins

Hope you get a chance to listen to Midday today. Host Gary Eichten has NPR White House correspondent Don Gonyea as a guest. The show is originating from the spiffy MPR Forum, with a crowd on hand to watch.

Listen Live (Windows)

Obligatory 5th District entry of the day

Posted at 11:37 AM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Ember Reichgott Junge made her candidacy for the 5th District official today with a news conference in St. Paul.

She says she will not abide by the party endorsement and she will continue to run her radio show. She says she pays for the air time and will list it as a campaign expenditure.

Hmmmm. She -- or her radio station -- might want to have a talk with the FCC because that turns her radio show into a political commercial and requires -- from my station-owning days as I recall -- the lowest available ad rate. I don't know anything about her radio show but the station would now be obliged to sell a similar block of time to everyone else in the race should they request it. I don't know if the station -- wherever it is -- would be interested in doing that, but there you go.

Audio later and it'll be posted on her page in the Campaign 2006 section.

That reminds me. I'm getting occasional cryptic phone messages from people who wonder why they don't have a page yet in the Campaign 2006 section.

The reason is:

(1) I don't know who you are.
(2) I don't know you're running for office.

If you're running, send me a statement of your candidacy (for the snapshot section), a mug of yourself, as much personal information as you'd like to share (date of birth, where born, where do you reside, married? To whom? Kids? How many? What religion (I'm not actually sure why this is relevant but some candidates think it is so I include it), political experience (if any), education (don't bother including high school unless you didn't graduate or get a GED, Web site (if you have one, of course)

And once I set it up, if you could stay in the race for longer than 4 days, my life will have a little more meaning to it.

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Picture of the Day

Posted at 11:45 AM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins

Spotted by Tom Scheck at the 21st Amendment restaurant (OK, bar) in Boston.

What's going on here...

Posted at 2:37 PM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Another candidate has dropped out of a race in Minnesota, after barely getting into it.

Sharon Marko has bagged the 2nd District race against Coleen Rowley.

"The obstacles seem insurmountable," she said in a news release. She said she could not spend the time she needed on the congressional campaign and still serve her legislative district.

She apparently is going to honor her decision not to run again for the Legislature.

Translation: She can't beat John Kline.

That seat is moving closer to the "safe" category for John Kline. The DFL appears in complete disarray in the 2nd.

Here is MPR reporter Laura McCallum's interview with Marko in its RealAudio glory.

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Dueling for delegates

Posted at 5:06 PM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Lots of press releases still flying around the governor's race (and the 6th District race) about delegate counts.

Gubernatorial candidate Steve Kelley says these are hard numbers.

Steve Kelley: 131.5 (21%)

Mike Hatch: 129 (20%)

Becky Lourey: 74.5 (12%)

Uncommitted: 206 (33%)

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More evidence Pawlenty is working on the national image

Posted at 6:42 PM on March 29, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I wrote a few lines the other day about the various pieces of evidence that Tim Pawlenty is burnishing his national image -- basically indications that he really is thinking of something Washington-like in his future.

The latest: upon his return from Iraq, both of MPR's "bookend" shows -- Morning Edition and All Things Considered -- tried to get the governor for an interview about his trip. According to ATC producer Jayne Solinger, they were both told the governor would be "unavailable."

She was surprised to see the national lineup tonight for All Things Considered from National Public Radio and who is on coast-to-coast? Yep, our man Pawlenty.

The subject was immigration reform.

Be sure to listen for the obligatory Washingtonian "Minnesota as cute" treatment from the inner-Beltway crowd.

Once you've seen the bright lights...

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The Crystal Ball

Posted at 8:16 AM on March 30, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Political wag Larry Sabato in his Crystal Ball today says things continue to look OK for Democrats in November, although he says things have stabilized and the Dems are playing with fire on the censure issue, which he calls "a left wing fantasy."

"What's good for Feingold '08 is poison for Democrats in '06," Sabato says.

For some reason, whenever I read the censure stories, I recall the Kucinich delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Boston threatening to scuttle the attempt by Kerry forces for a unanimous nomination.

Anyway, back to Sabato. Lots of good stuff in there. Governorwise, he's still saying Minnesota is leaning Republican, Wisconsin solid Democrat (Rasmussen yesterday had Doyle up by 5), North Dakota likely Democrat; no changes on any of those.

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CSI Baghdad

Posted at 11:30 AM on March 30, 2006 by Bob Collins

From the Times...

On Web, Error Is Uncovered Through Relentless Pursuit

WSJ take on Minnesota

Posted at 12:15 PM on March 30, 2006 by Bob Collins

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Minnesota politics in an article today (Subscription required)

K.J. McDonald, a former Republican state legislator who now is mayor of Watertown in Carver County, recites a litany of party woes from "the ineptness of the Bush administration" to the national debt and the Iraq war. "We are due for a fall," he worries. "We're a disgrace."

Yikes!

But most revealing are the House races. In the First and Second districts, incumbent Republicans are challenged. In the Sixth, the seat is held by Mr. Kennedy, but the race has sparked party infighting as conservatives jockey to try to succeed him as he runs for the Senate.

I wonder when Tim Walz is going to get some coverage in the Twin Cities?

But as Ms. Rowley's campaign has faltered, another Democrat, State Sen. Sharon Marko, jumped in recently to offer a more moderate approach -- and to put greater emphasis on traditional economic issues.

Ummmm.....ummmmmm....this just in: bigtime newspaper doesn't read Polinaut, or apparently any other news coming out of Minnesota.

Yet, after compiling a near-perfect party unity rating in recent years, he now describes himself as a "conservative but independent" Republican and faults the White House for resisting pension-relief provisions important to bankrupt Northwest Airlines in his district. "They're wrong," he says of the administration.

Both Republican incumbents worry about voter concerns, even with Minnesota's low unemployment. "You think, 'What if I lost my job when I'm 55 or 56 or 57?'" Mr. Kline says.

The 2nd District is thick with unemployed -- and barely employed -- Northwest Airlines workers. It's a valid concern -- the voter backlash thing. But only if Rowley makes it an issue. I'm not on the stump with her, but on her page of issues on her Web site, there's nothing about the economy. And none of her press releases (at least that I can find) has been about Northwest. The now-closed Sharon Marko campaign didn't appear to till that soil either.

Foodfight in the 6th!

Posted at 3:37 PM on March 30, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I'm really late getting to this because I've been... well... never mind. But the 6th District race is really getting interesting among the Republicans... specifically Phil Krinkie and Jim Knoblach.

Check out this puppy from the Knoblach campaign:

Krinkie put out a press release (and by the way, the Krinkie Web site needs to get itself up to date since the last release posted there is almost a month old) saying:

The reason Phil voted against this huge omnibus bill had nothing to do with “Katie’s Law” or sex offenders. The bill contained the creation of a huge government computer database called CRIMNET that cost millions of dollars to implement and put the privacy rights of individual citizens in jeopardy. In fact, private information about regular citizens was collected and stored in this government database, even the names of suspects, witnesses and people who sought handgun permits.

The last thing Phil wanted was for state government to compile a database that would track gun owners!

The bottom line: Phil Krinkie votes against boondoggles and government intrusion into our lives, even when it’s not politically expedient. That’s just what we need in Congress.

You don't usually see Republicans beating themselves up like this. I can't imagine it's entirely comforting to GOP boss Ron Carey. The blogger at Residual Forces, who I also believe is a GOP operative of some sort at the committee level, has also seen enough. He points out that Krinkie also lobbed a grenade in Michele Bachmann's direction. And he has good reason to be nervous since the nightmare scenario for any party is that its candidates pick each other off in the primary, and are considerably weakened in the general.

But it's interesting that the piece from Knoblach focuses on two things (1) the ability of a candidate to beat Patty Wetterling and (2) protecting chldren.

Let's fast-forward here to November. If you're a Republican, do you really want to have protecting children be the issue you want to run on against Patty Wetterling? Bueller? Bueller?

Now, I suppose the issue that one might expect to come into play is taxes and spending. But it's hardly a surprise that Krinkie, who heads the House Taxes Committee, is known as "Dr. No" at the Capitol when it comes to taxes, so you can't get a heck of a lot of mileage out of that now.

It's an odd -- at least to me and I'm not genius -- combination.

So where do these two differ. Enter Votetracker.

See Knoblach from the '05 session. See Krinkie from the '05 session.

Ethanol and casinos. On the major votes last year... that was it.

Don't they still have farmers in the 6th? And is the whole casino issue just too hot to touch?

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Things that go bump in the night on Election Day

Posted at 10:58 AM on March 31, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

I was watching a couple of talking heads on CNBC this morning, just a few hours after filling up the car ($31) and noticing that gas prices have quietly hit $2.66 a gallon. "Shoot," I thought, "I must've missed a big catastrophe somewhere -- a hurricane, a refinery fire." Nope, it's just the, you know, market forces at work.

This can't be good news for incumbents because at least once a week the drivers of America are reminded that things aren't as "good" as they used to be ("good" defined by cheaper, and it doesn't really matter why).

There's nothing politicians can do about the market, really. But it doesn't matter. Voters are an emotional lot and if they sense things aren't all that great, no reciting of facts will change their mind.

Anyway, these CNBC folks were saying you can expect gas shortages and $3-a-gallon gasoline by the middle of May, just in time for the "driving season."

One wonders whether it'll drive a "throw the bums out" mentality.

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Things looking up for Pawlenty; down for Kennedy

Posted at 11:06 AM on March 31, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Wall Street Journal has the latest polls from their provider -- Zogby.

In the Senate race, Amy Klobuchar has 49.2% to Mark Kennedy's 41.8% -- a slight increase for Klobuchar, a slight decrease for Kennedy.

In the governor's race, Mike Hatch has been caught by Tim Pawlenty.

Anyway, Pawlenty is at 43.5% vs Hatch at 42.6%. Pawlenty is 6% better than Becky Lourey, and 6.5% (roughly) ahead of Steve Kelley.

Add Peter Hutchinson into the mix, and I'd bet Pawlenty's lead would double in each of those races. The Journal, by the way, says all of the polls show "Tim" Hutchinson polling 6-8%. Great. They can't get the guy's name right.

(Update) - I notice a couple of political sites, in an effort to dismiss the Zogby methodology, posted one paragraph of Zogby's methodology, making it look like it's little more than an online survey. Here, is the actual methodology, unedited .

These polls were conducted by Zogby International. Online polls were conducted by the company's Zogby Interactive unit. Phone polls were conducted by Zogby International.

Online polls were conducted by Zogby Interactive, a unit of Zogby International of Utica, N.Y. Zogby has assembled a database of individuals who have registered to take part in online polls through solicitations on the company's Web site as well as other Web sites that span the political spectrum. Individuals who registered were asked to provide personal information such as home state, age and political party to Zogby, which in turn examined that data and contacted individuals by telephone to confirm that it was valid.

Zogby International telephoned about 2% of respondents who completed the interactive survey to validate their personal data. To solicit participation, Zogby sent emails to individuals who had asked to join its online-polling database, inviting them to complete an interactive poll. Many individuals who have participated in Zogby's telephone surveys also have submitted e-mail addresses so they may take part in online polls.

The Interactive polls were supplemented by 20 to 50 telephone calls in 19 states (AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, MO, NV, NM, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, TX, VA, WI) to ensure proper representation of all demographic groups.

Margins of error for each candidate vary by state and range between 3.2 and 4.3 percentage points. Margins for specific states are available on the state panels.

Zogby International President John Zogby says 15% of the company's U.S. database of online-poll participants are "regulars," who take part in half of the interactive polls the company conducts; the balance of the names of respondents in the database change frequently. Likely voters in each of the 25 states followed instructions sent by an e-mail that led them to the survey located on Zogby's secure servers. Those polled were asked unique questions pertaining to the races in their state.

As is usual in polling, weightings are applied to ensure that the selection of participants accurately reflects characteristics of the voting population, including region, party, age, race, religion and gender.

For the overall party breakdowns shown in the governor and senate panels: Races that aren't being polled are assumed to stay in their current party's possession.

Regarding 2006 races, the actual matchups that voters will see on ballots haven't been decided. Primary elections that will narrow the field will be held beginning in early March. Until the fields are narrowed for 2006, the Zogby polls match up multiple candidates in each state and identify some of the strongest candidates from each party. Voter sentiment is gauged on declared candidates along with others whom political observers have identified as potential contenders.

This graphic highlights a sampling of matchups for each race. In some cases, Zogby has polled additional matchups that aren't included in the graphic. Full polling results are available from Zogby.

There's a lot more information in there than just one paragraph and the way I read that is that obtaining names of people via online is part of a vetting process that identifies them and their characteristics are then worked into whatever science pollsters use to determine whether there's a proper sampling.

How is that any different than me picking up a telephone and calling someone and asking them for the same information and then deciding whether their characteristics fit the science?

Now, I don't dispute that John Zogby doesn't appear to like Republicans very much, all the more interesting that the Wall Street Journal, not exactly the Onion, chose his firm.

But Zogby's personality aside, I think if you look at his numbers in the waning days of the 2004 campaign, you'll find them relatively accurate.

Some of his detractors point to polls he produced in January and May of that year and compare them to the November results and say, "see, he's wrong." That, for the record, is what I call the Bill Cooper method. He led the fight against the Star Tribune's polling system by comparing polls to November results. That's not even bad science. That's just bad logic.

I understand the concerns against Zogby, but if you actually read more than one paragraph -- well, assuming someone actually tells you there's more than one paragraph -- it makes sense. And I also trust the Wall Street Journal not to pin its polling with a hack.

Could I be wrong? Of course. But seeing some polling that showing a different trend would be the place to start. Anybody?

We (MPR) have been looking at polling firms to see if there's something we'd want to do locally, and I think Rasmussen is pretty interesting -- mostly because they're polling Minnesota. But in checking them out, a lot of folks put up the red flag because they use automatic dialing. I'm not sure what that means, but AP doesn't touch Rasmussen stuff.

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Fun with graphics

Posted at 2:16 PM on March 31, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

We got a chuckle here today while browing Michele Bachmann's campaign Web site.

This is a reference to a Tinklenberg poll in head-to-head matchups.

Holy cow! Have you ever seen a difference not even outside the margin of error look so insurmountable?

Since we were on methodology awhile ago, the methodology of ConnectUSA, the firm that did this particular poll, is particularly suspect. As near as I can figure, the poll isn't even scientific. It's random. But you get what you pay for, which is why I never trust candidate-purchased polling.

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Kennedy on Kennedy

Posted at 6:45 PM on March 31, 2006 by Bob Collins

One of America's hardest-working political reporters, Mr. Tom Scheck, has just delivered to me the tape of his interview with Mark Kennedy.

Tom has been interviewing the candidates to gather data for the upcoming Select A Candidate extravaganza.

I'll put the audio on the site (The C2006 site) on Monday.