Capitol View: March 9, 2006 Archive

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.