Polinaut: April 12, 2006 Archive

Political doodles - April 12, 2006

Posted at 8:03 AM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

As I continue to move... slowly... toward getting Select A Candidate done (the governor's race SAC will be done before the Senate), I still have a few issues to try to get a straight answer from the candidates on. One of them is agriculture. It's not exactly a source of great philosophical pronouncements in the campaign for U.S. Senate so far. So it's interesting to note the Marshall Independent, a good newspaper in farm country, has Ford Bell's take on the issue in an article today.

On the ballot front, the House Transportation Finance Committee yesterday changed the ballot question that might be on November's ballot regarding how to spend motor vehicle sales taxes. Before it wasn't broken down between highways and transit. Now it is: 60% for highways, 40% for transit. Votetracker is tracking (otherwise I'd have called it VoteStandingAroundDoingNothing) but I've got some more work to do on it today.

The U Daily has an article today on retiring Rep. Martin Sabo. However, it looks like they mostly regurgitated quotes from his retirement speech. I'm waiting for the question, "who are you voting for in the primary?"

Kennedy v. the Machine asks today why Amy Klobuchar's campaign said former campaign manager Jessica Vanden Berg was staying on as an advisor when Ben Goldfarb was brought in as campaign manager? According to a Raleigh newspaper, Vanden Berg has turned up as the campaign manager for Virginia Senate candidate James Webb. Dems have a primary battle there.

Comment on this post

Krinkie to abide by endorsement

Posted at 10:59 AM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins

If Phil Krinkie doesn't get the GOP nod in the 6th District race, he's confirmed that he intends to honor the party endorsement in the race. MPR Capitol reporter Tim Pugmire sought confirmation of that today. "As you may know, there's been some whispering from the Bachmann and Knoblach campaigns about Krinke and his commitment to the GOP endorsement. They say he made a statement at a district convention last weekend about possibly running in the primary. "Krinkie told me this morning that he did indeed make the comment (at the district convention), but insists it's much to do about nothing. He says he mentioned the option of running in the primary during a heated procedural discussion, in which he feared the potential disqualification of 30 to 40 ballots. Ultimately, he says only two spoiled ballots were thrown out, and he cooled down.. Krinkie insists he still plans to abide by the endorsement," Tim reports.

Oh that crazy blogosphere

Posted at 11:24 AM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins

It says in The Hill today that politicians have a love-hate relationship with the world of bloggers. Get out!

What do people give a rip about?

Posted at 1:17 PM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins (17 Comments)

I'm sitting here watching the bonding bill debate on the floor of the Minnesota House, surrounded by lots of charts that may or may not be telling me something interesting. I'm not sure, yet. Charts do that to me.

As you may know, as part of the Campaign 2006 Web site, we've been asking folks to fill out a form to ask what issues candidates should be focusing on in the coming campaign. Ideally, this information will then be given to show producers, hosts, and reporters for some cred.

The folks who are doing this, the Public Insight Journalism team at MPR, haven't yet processed these to weight them according to registered voter breakdown, which might be important because Republicans and Democrats -- and I know I could knock you over with a feature here -- have different takes on the issues, including what they are.

Let's break it down between U.S. House and Senate races and the state-level races.

SENATE AND HOUSE

Republican rankings (first choice)
1. National security
2. Abortion
3. Taxes
4. Immigration
5. War in Iraq
6. Federal budget
7. Health care
8. Social security
9. Energy
10.Patriot Act

Democrats (first choice)
1. War in Iraq
2. Health care
3. Federal budget
4. Global warming
5. National resources/environment
6. Ethics
7. Energy
8. Abortion
9. Early childhood education
10. Higher education

STATE-LEVEL

Democrats
1. K-12 funding
2. Health care
3. Early childhood education
4. Transportation
5. Natural resources/environment
6. Higher education
7. Gay marriage
8. Energy
9. Budget
10.Local government aid

Republicans
1. Taxes
2. Gay marriage
3. Abortion
4. Budget
5. K-12 funding
6. Health care
7. Crime
8. Immigratin
9. Higher education
10. Stadiums

None of those are terribly surprising, and keep in mind that's just a list of what people's first choice is. When you drill down a bit and look at other issues they're interested in, it gets a bit more fascinating. Atop that list is electoral reform.

I find this fascinating, and am encouraging this to get into some polling we're going to do. One of the bills that's languished up at the Capitol this year -- and gotten no spotlight at all -- is one that would reduce the size of the Legislature and make it so some members of the Senate are up for election every other year. There's also the possibility of instant run-off voting.

What issues are you interested in seeing get some more publicity? Let us know.

Comment on this post

Immigration: It's a Republican thing

Posted at 3:11 PM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Rasmussen Reports is out this week with a fascinating poll that explains pretty well why the immigration issue has gotten such a big blip on the political radar.

37% of Americans now trust Republicans more than Democrats on the issue of immigration. Just 31% trust the Democrats more.

A separate survey earlier this month found that "a plurality of Americans would vote for the candidate (in a hypothetical congressional matchup) who favors more enforcement on the immigration issue.

Comment on this post

Old guard meets new guard

Posted at 4:56 PM on April 12, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

MPR Capitol guy Tim Pugmire sends along this rather artistic, wistful shot of the young and the old.

It's almost as if the two are looking into the future, seeing something we can't see. I wonder what that could be? A week at Canyon Ranch? A big inning by the Twins? A free chalupa because the Wolves scored 100 points?

Or something more?

Anyway, here's the audio (RealPlayer) of their news conference today.

Comment on this post