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Maybe a stadium is no longer a political poison pill

Posted at 5:42 PM on April 21, 2006 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

So the Twins stadium bill has emerged from its years-long death sentence and now looks like a certainty at the Capitol. There were some interesting things about this afternoon's vote.

One thing I always chuckle over is the legislators who don't cast a vote until they get a better sense, I guess, how the legislation is faring in the vote. Rep. Ron Erhardt and Rep. Larry Howes, both passed on their turn to vote, and eventually voted no, after it was assured that the bill would pass. Or maybe they just couldn't decide after 20 hours of hearings over three days.

Second, since I'm sort of "in" to streaks, political combatants Phil Krinkie and Jim Knoblach are now 9 for 9 voting the same way on issues this legislative session that Votetracker is watching. Who'll blink first?

And finally, it's always interesting to me when DFLers stand arm-in-arm with their GOP counterparts at the Capitol. Here's the breakdown of the vote sorted by party, courtesy of the fabulous MPR Votetracker. That's some good-old-fashioned bipartisan ... something.

Legislator Party District Vote
Document Irv Anderson Democrat 03A FOR
Document Joe Atkins Democrat 39B FOR
Document Connie Bernardy Democrat 51B AGAINST
Document Jim Davnie Democrat 62A AGAINST
Document David Dill Democrat 06A FOR
Document Mike Jaros Democrat 07B AGAINST
Document Lyle Koenen Democrat 20B FOR
Document Ann Lenczewski Democrat 40B AGAINST
Document John Lesch Democrat 66A FOR
Document Paul Marquart Democrat 09B FOR
Document Joe Mullery Democrat 58A AGAINST
Document Tom Rukavina Democrat 05A FOR
Document Katie Sieben Democrat 57A FOR
Document Ron Abrams Republican 43B AGAINST
Document Laura Brod Republican 25A FOR
Document Gregory M. Davids Republican 31B FOR
Document Chris DeLaForest Republican 49A ABSTAINED
Document Dan Dorman Republican 27A FOR
Document Ron Erhardt Republican 41A AGAINST
Document Larry Howes Republican 04B AGAINST
Document Jim Knoblach Republican 15A AGAINST
Document Paul Kohls Republican 34A AGAINST
Document Philip Krinkie Republican 53A AGAINST
Document Morrie Lanning Republican 09A FOR
Document Peter Nelson Republican 17B FOR
Document Dean Simpson Republican 10B FOR
Document Ray Vandeveer Republican 52A AGAINST
Document Andrew Westerberg Republican 51A FOR
Document Kurt Zellers Republican 32B AGAINST

And, finally, the non vote by Rep. Chris Delaforest is puzzling to an outsider. He voted on several amendments during the day, participated in the three days of hearings, but when it came time to vote, he either wasn't still at the hearing or decided not to vote. I have no idea which. Or why.

Comments (7)

Congratulations on being the first major media I've seen that has bothered to list the roll-call vote. Neither the Strib nor the Pioneer Press took the two minutes or so to provide that service. One would think on a vote so controversial as this one--indeed, any vote--the breakdown whould be included in a news story. They could have just signed up to Votetracker, but even appears to be too much trouble for these folks.

Posted by Karl | April 22, 2006 8:27 AM

yeah, Bob-thank you. i concur with Karl, i looked long and hard in the strib & PiPress but couldnt find it. i dont know about the Press-but the Strib has been for this from the beginning years ago. Kate Parry, the ReaderRep there wrote today about the lack of polling this legislative session, i had been wondering about that the day of Krinkie's Tax Committee vote. u were the only one. ive lost alot of respect for the Strib over the way theyve handled this. its okay to disagree, but not putting out the list of votes from the legislator-i do not respect that at all.

Posted by jcb | April 23, 2006 9:49 PM

I appreciate the comments but I have to admit the Strib had the roll call on the jump page of the story.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 24, 2006 7:23 AM

okay, bob. i wasnt aware of that. to be honest, i dont read the paper-i look at their website. i honestly dont remember when the last time i bought a newspaper was. i really only buy them if im traveling or will be away from my computer for long periods of time.

Posted by jcb | April 24, 2006 10:46 AM

Ah, the Web site, yeah...that's another story. The Strib has had a key online editor leave the paper in the last couple of weeks; same one who filed a grievance with the union over the Web site functionality since the paper redesign came out.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 24, 2006 12:53 PM

i wasnt aware of that-that the online editor had left. for the first time in my life i wrote a letter to the reader's rep at both the strib & pipress. it was about how they covered phil krinkie's property tax rebate and the non coverage of joe atkin's rebate. i didnt even know of atkin's proposal until i checked out mpr.org. the papers didn cover it at all. i thought it deserved as much coverage as krinkie's which was front page on both websites. i got a email back from kate parry about an hour later saying she would sent it to the political writers/reporters and the pipress never responded.

ive always assumed that the website and regular paper would be about the same. or that the website would be better because its updated frequently throughout the day. the only have one daily edition of the paper, though.

guess i was wrong : ) lol.

Posted by jcb | April 24, 2006 2:21 PM

IN a core media world, the frustration of many online editors is they want the Web site to be more than just a regurgitation of the core medium. It should do things BEYOND what's in the paper (or what's on the radio) because the medium allows for it.

OTOH, most budgets and most power still resides in the bosses for the core medium so a lot of online editors get frustrated that they're just shoveling stuff from the paper (or radio) onto the Web.

It's kind of the eternal battle for a still developing medium. The only thing that can change is the generation of people growing up with the Internet moving into the workforce to replace the tired old "we've always done it this way" geezers that we thought we'd never become -- but have.

Posted by Bob Collins | April 24, 2006 2:49 PM

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