Polinaut: June 26, 2006 Archive

Who are independents?

Posted at 7:28 AM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

A Bill Cooper of Wayzata, who I presume is the Bill Cooper, former state Republican Party chair and still, perhaps, its most influential member, had a letter in the Pioneer Press this morning taking issue with the notion that Republicans need to move to the left to attract "independent voters."

He opines that independents are not moderates, but that they think "politicians will say anything to get elected, don't keep their promises and you can't trust any of them -- a view many conservatives are starting to share."

Cooper says the way for Republicans to win in November is to do what they promised, pointing out that the state has elected Paul Wellstone, Rod Grams, and Jesse Ventura -- three politicians with differing views, but guys that, according to Cooper, generally kept their promises.

Well, except for that "this'll be my last term" thing.

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New candidate forum

Posted at 11:31 AM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins

By way of colleague Euan Kerr, Larry Jacobs has sent the following message:

I'm wondering if you could help spread the word in your digs about a new series that I'm starting at the Humphrey Institute. The series will invite candidates for state wide office in Minnesota to give a talk that is rich in substance about critical challenges facing Minnesota and the country. Georgetown University in Washington DC has been a favorite platform for Republicans and Democrats in office or running for office to break away from the stump speech and talking points to say something meaningful -- "big think" as George H.W. Bush put it.

Amy Klobuchar is starting things off with a talk on Thursday at noon about ethics in government service. Mark Kennedy's campaign manager told me that they would participate later in the summer. I'm meeting tomorrow with a close adviser to the governor to work on his participation as well.

I wanted to let you know about this new series as I hope it will be of interest to you. The format is designed to give ample opportunity for Q&A especially from journalists.

I'd be delighted to talk with you about the series.

Take care,

Larry

Lawrence R. Jacobs
Director, Center for the Study of Politics
and Governance
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute and
Department of Political Science
University of Minnesota
Humphrey Center
301-19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Office: (612) 625-3384
Fax: (612) 624-0068

More audio from IP convention

Posted at 11:45 AM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins

As promised, here's the Robert Fitzgerald audio from Saturday's convention. It starts with the nominating speech by his grandfather, Ralph Maxwell. (RealAudio)

Update 3:20 p.m. - Peter Hutchinson was on MPR's Midday today. Here's the audio.

Update 4:40 p.m.

Here's 5th District congressional candidate Tammy Lee (RealAudio)

And 6th District congressional candidate John Binkowski (RealAudio)

Maybe the spokespeople should be on the ballot?

Posted at 2:32 PM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins

A press released came in yesterday (or maybe it was Saturday) after Mike Hatch named Judi Dutcher as his running mate. Ostensibly, it was a competing candidate's response; only the single quotation in the release was not from the candidate, but the candidate's spokesperson.

There's an article today in the paper analyzing another candidate's position in crime and the opposition gets a few shots in (oh dear, I suppose that's a bad pun). Only the opposition wasn't the opposition candidate, but the candidate's spokesperson.

What are the candidates doing? Are they out back mowing the lawn? Planting the last of the gladiola? Still sleeping because they went to the drive-in movies last night? (I admit, one of the wierd things when I moved here was drive-in movies that don't start until close to 10:30 p.m.).

During my leave -- when I'm not mowing the lawn or planting gladiola bulbs. -- I think I'm going to keep track of all quotations contained in news stories that feature either the candidate or the candidate's "spokesperson," to see who gets more "ink." Feel free to send any you see in the course of a day to me at bcollins@mpr.org. Maybe I'll sit outside of a few candiates homes to see if they mow their own lawns too.

It's a beauty! Only driven on Sunday by a little old lady.

Posted at 2:57 PM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins

So the bathing suit competition began today as the Democratic National Committee has arrived in town to check out Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The Republicans will be here in August for a similar look-see.

Both sides (that is, the parties themselves), according to Mark Zdechlik's story, seem to be downplaying the political meaning of the region as a significant criteria. Right. Boston hardly was a good pick for '04 given its cramped nature. And New York isn't friendly Republican territory (or did you Republican delegates actually enjoy running the gauntlet of protestors as you entered and exited the arena), but it did have a big smokin' hole in the financial district.

So Minnesota as a battleground state is a legit pitch, although Mayor Rybak may want to think twice about using that imagery in his pitch:

"If you think about what happens as you at the headwaters of the Mississippi nominate a president and then put that president, over the next few days, down the river as we think about Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, which is very much a state that's in play, and then right as the Republicans are convening, our candidate pulls into New Orleans. There's a strong, strong message that we can really send out of that and that matters."

Been there. Done that ('cept the New Orleans part). Remember the first place Gore-Lieberman went after the '00 convention?).

Should be interesting how Rybak sells the city when the GOP comes to town.

Or maybe they leave that to Tim Pawlenty.

It's still early. But still...

Posted at 3:41 PM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

By way of Kennedy vs. the Machine, the American Spectator reports it's gotten ahold of internal polling numbers from the Democratic National Committee and they don't look good. (Oddly, the KvM post is in my RSS reader but not on the site). (Update 4:17 pm) Try it now.

As stated before, there's very little in this election season that would surprise me. If the Democrats win control of something, it wouldn't surprise me. If the Republicans maintain control of something, it wouldn't surprise me. I just have no idea what's going to happen.

Which is just as well. As my Cleveland Indians friends have once again shown me, if you believe in the certainty of something strongly enough, you'll ignore virtually all data that might suggest some other result. Thus, my favorite team's front office -- as well as its misguided defenders -- have ignored the very obvious problems on the team for 4 straight seasons...and chanted -- predictably -- "it's still early" through April, May, and June...finally waking up long enough to realize the squad was now 16 games out of first place and ranked 12th in a 14-team league.

Anyway, back to politics. The American Spectator says this about the DNC's polling of the U.S. Senate race here.

In Minnesota Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) is polling ahead of expectations.

Maybe. Maybe not. I don't really know what that quote means. Either the numbers are really good, or the expectations are really low. But you know what would make me believe the American Spectator really has seen the polling? Printing some actual numbers because, man, we'd all love to see 'em.

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DFL treasurer quits

Posted at 4:29 PM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)

The blog, Rambling from the North, carries a letter from DFL Party treasurer Kerry Gauthier, who has resigned from the party, in order to work on non-endorsee Becky Lourey's campaign for governor.

The letter says "I also respect my party and the requirements of office."

Is supporting the endorsement now a requirement of holding a job?

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The power of blogs

Posted at 5:41 PM on June 26, 2006 by Bob Collins

The blog Shot in the Dark is capitalizing on what is clearly the power that blogs have that no MSM can duplicate -- the ability to marshall a large number of forces to research a story. In other words: people power.

The blog is putting together a team to research all of the people who signed the letter in the Strib saying they were ready to pay for a better Minnesota (in other words, "raise taxes.")

They're going to document the employers, to see if there are organizations, common to each. Past campaign contributions and other political background.

This will be a very interesting project to watch.