Capitol View: April 24, 2006 Archive

The 5th District debate

Posted at 7:21 AM on April 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Candidates for the 5th District had their first debate yesterday.

I'll have the full audio available in a few hours.

Here's the full nearly two-hour debate. (Real Audio)

How much is your vote worth?

Posted at 11:13 AM on April 24, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

$3.82, if you're a Minnesota resident, according to an analysis of the 2004 election cycle in the state by The Institute on Money in State Politics.

Almost $27 million was raised by candidates. In the House elections, those who won raises rased an everage of $36,028 and those who lost raised almost half that - $19,776.

Republicans were slightly more prolific in fundraising, but most of that is because of money that poured into Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who wasn't on the ballot in 2004.

The top contributor, was you, in the form of the public subsidy to candidates. But the top candidate was Rep. Denise Dittrich, who raised an astounding $98,364. She knocked off inbumbent Reublican Bil Hass by fewer than 1,000 votes in 47A.

In terms of special interest contributions, these were the top:

Contributions Total $ Percent of Total
Public Subsidy 494 $1,709,949 6.44%
Party 926 $595,148 2.24%
Labor 709 $218,735 0.82%
Candidate Contributions 537 $198,539 0.75%
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate 704 $164,415 0.62%
Lawyers & Lobbyists 520 $120,017 0.45%
Health 512 $119,762 0.45%
General Business 337 $87,505 0.33%
Transportation 157 $45,782 0.17%
Other/Retiree/Civil Servants 201 $44,661 0.17%
Communications & Electronics 176 $42,361 0.16%
Construction 150 $31,797 0.12%
Agriculture 159 $29,989 0.11%
Energy & Natural Resources 90 $20,565 0.08%
Ideology/Single Issue 43 $14,553 0.05%
Defense 6 $290 0.00%

Comment on this post

District conventions

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

The North Star Liberty blog has a very excellent write-up of the weekend's Senate District 43 convention.

Likewise, Broken Nails has a look at the CD 4 confab.

If there are others, kindly let me know and I'll add 'em.

Update:

Northern Debater on CD 4

Comment on this post

Too far

Posted at 5:28 PM on April 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Last week, in this spot, I told you about some "unflattering" images of lawmakers that a group supporting the same-sex marriage ban had produced for a newspaper campaign.

Here's the update. One of those legislators -- Sen. Satveer Chaudhary -- said he received a letter, pieced together from the ad, that said, "You didn't vote 63 times last session. What the hell are you doing? Eating curry?" He says it included a photo of Chaudhary with a bullet hold drawn on the forehead.

Capitol Security, the State Patrol and the Fridley Police Department are investigating.

When is lobbying not lobbying?

Posted at 6:13 PM on April 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Patrick Condon of the Associated Press just moved a story that is likely to cause a ruckus.

The two groups pushing hardest for a constitutional ban on gay marriage in Minnesota have not filed lobbyist disclosure reports, despite their work at the forefront of a debate that's dominated the Capitol much of the last three years. Instead, Minnesota for Marriage and Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage have designated themselves as political committees working on a ballot question. The distinction means they face less stringent reporting requirements for salaries, advertising and PR campaigns, among other things, than do registered lobbyists.