Capitol View: May 22, 2006 Archive

Moving on

Posted at 7:32 AM on May 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

Now that the Minnesota Legislature has completed its work for the session, the political world swings back to the November election. But not for everyone. Tim Pugmire looks at the number of seats that are opening up. I didn't see Rep. Irv Anderson's name in is piece. There were rumors last week that he would announce his retirement and I noted he didn't make any of the stadium votes over the weekend.

Who voted for/against the Twins stadium?

Posted at 2:01 PM on May 22, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

I don't know what I was doing (other than watching a pretty fair Pirates-Indians game) when I was inputting the Twins stadium vote into Votetracker at home yesterday, but the votes were all messed up. I even remember thinking, "Ann Lenczewski voted for the stadium???" as I inputted the obviously incorrect information. I should've listened to the inner voice. Anyway, they've now been corrected.

Judging, however, by the number of calls I got or were relayed about people calling their legislators angry that they voted either "for" or "against," the measure, I'm thinking that maybe this issue isn't quite the dead matter that we were led to believe in the last few days of the session.

We haven't started putting together the election results application yet, but I'm thinking we should build something that will show the vote on the stadium side-by-side with a lawmaker's election result. I remember CBS did that one year with the House Judiciary Committee vote on the impeachment of Richard Nixon. On election night they replayed what was a very solumn roll call vote, and as each representative was shown, a graphic showed the result of their re-election. It was, even for that long ago, one of those most compelling pieces of election night coverage I've ever seen.

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Leap days

Posted at 2:09 PM on May 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

Yeah, I guess this is about politics, sort of.

Advance copies of former MPR host, Pioneer Press columnist, and Air America sidekick Katherine Lanpher's new book "Leap Days" -- arrived in the newsroom today. Folks seem to be quickly scanning and have yet to find their names. That appears to be a good thing.

Some people got them. Some people didn't. I didn't. Figures. I use to tell Lanpher I made her what she is today...or was...yesterday...actually, since for 10 years I got up every day of the week and delivered the Pioneer Press, with her column, to the doors of anxiously waiting Woodbury subscribers.

Apparently she still doesn't believe me.

The book comes out in October.

Can it happen?

Posted at 4:47 PM on May 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

Now that the Legislature is over and the real campaigning is probably going to take a week off, attention turns to November, and guessing whether XYZ can "really" win? Articles are being developed by the bucketload because, well, when there's no actual news, this is what we do. Could it happen? Will it happen? My friends, no editor in America is paying freelancers to write two-word stories ("beats me"), and so this is what we're left with to power our economy. Speculation, the lifeblood of politics.

The latest one to cross the desk is from Congressional Quarterly, which has taken 9 "experts" and sampled what they think. Could Democrats take control of Congress. Sure, it could happen. The Red Sox won a World Series.

The most honest answer may have come from Rhodes Cook who said, "At this point, one result is as likely as the other."

Which brings up another potential question that is likely to produce as little firm information: "is the result of one, likely to be pretty much the same as the other?"

Beats me.

Testing the amnesty issue

Posted at 7:54 PM on May 22, 2006 by Bob Collins

FactCheck.org is out with a look at Republican House candidate Brian Bilbray's testing of the "amnesty" issue in the "illegal immigration" debate.