Polinaut: April 10, 2006 Archive

Whatever happened to the AG race?

Posted at 11:36 AM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins

There's actually a pretty good race for attorney general in Minnesota this year between Rep. Jeff Johnson and Rep. Matt Entenza.

And I'm late getting to this because I took a couple of days off and wasn't near any audio workstations, but here's the audio of the debate they had late last week.

Property tax stirs legislators

Posted at 12:28 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins

House Republicans today put the "taxes" issue in play in the campaign of 2006; an issue that they used masterfully to ride to victory in the state in 2002.

As outlined, their plan provides rebate checks that would equal 10 percent of a homeowner's 2006 property tax bill - with no cap on the relief amount, and the checks would arrive a few weeks before Election Day.

Democrats are also working on a property tax reform plan that uses LGA (local government aid). They say theirs is a long-term solution while the Republican plan is a one-year fix.

Either way, some votes are going on the record soon.

Blogger to challenge McKinney?

Posted at 12:47 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins

Sure looks that way.

Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine says this is the beginning of a trend; people running from citizen media. He says it lowers the barrier to politics and government.

And on that note...

Posted at 1:37 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

Still clearing stuff off my desk. Here's the audio (RealPlayer) from Sen. Barak Obama on Saturday. Tom Scheck sends this along. I'm pretty sure we didn't do any news stories on this event.

One of these days, I'm going to write another tome on campaign music. It was seriously painful to edit this audio down to get rid of everyone not named Barak Obama because I had to wade through overmodulated '80s music -- in this case Tina Turner, I believe.

I'm not sure why the Dems are still stuck on the '80s music but I'm pretty sure it's related to Bill Clinton's fascination with Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop." But the only good thing about the music in the '80s -- the big hair stuff -- is it wasn't music from the '70s.

I haven't heard much Republican rally music yet this campaign. I'm hoping Lee Greenwood will write another song soon, though.

I'm not sure whether music choice is reflective of the state of politics, or the state of music in our society. I long ago passed the age where I have actually heard of the bands they play on The Current, for example.

Every now and again, Morning Edition has a sports commentator on who happens to be the guy who selects the music at the Metrodome. Maybe he can explain it to me sometime.

If you have a recommended playlist for the campaign season, by all means share it. I will not recognize any of it, but have at it anyway.

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Is this issue going anywhere?

Posted at 1:56 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins

The Minnesota Senate took one of those votes on an issue a few minutes ago that I can't quite figure out has campaign implications or not. It was also one of those strict party line votes (with Votetracker, by the way, you can break the vote down pretty easily).

It's on the issue of unemployment compensation for Northwest strikers.

The issue may well be going nowhere since the House hasn't even given it a committee hearing yet. Must've been a tough call for Rep. Chris Gerlach, who I think was a co-sponsor of the bill at some point (don't quote me). He voted against it. He represents Apple Valley, which, last time I was there (and it's been awhile) was thick with Northwest employees.

Starting to look at a battleground state

Posted at 2:01 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

On the heels of rising "Senate star" Barak Obama's visit, Gov. Pawlenty announced today that Sen. John McCain (an already risen star) will be in town on Wednesday.

The press release said nothing, zero, nada about why McCain is here, only that there'll be media availability with McCain at the Capitol Wednesday. But the release was issued on the campaign stationery.

Pawlenty and McCain on the same podium. Hmmmm...

Polinaut is still chuckling about McCain's ability to completely disarm philosophical opponents, as he did on The Daily Show to Jon Stewart the other night, finally getting Stewart to say, "don't make me love you."

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When Colin Peterson retires...

Posted at 4:54 PM on April 10, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

The GOP picks up a seat. Or so this would indicate.

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