The Daily Digest: 8-6-06

Posted at 8:43 AM on August 6, 2006 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)

Dane Smith’s article on Mike Hatch’s decision to keep his campaign operation “frugal” at this point in the campaign leads the digest:

But strategy, not just self-confidence, appears to be behind Hatch's approach. He says that because of his penny-pinching, he will have a cool $2 million to spend on television ads this fall, twice as much as the last two (losing) DFL candidates for governor.

The West Central Tribune has a story profiling Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson’s opponent in the DFL primary. The article examines the DFL credentials of Michael Cruze:

Last week he provided the Tribune with what he called proof of his DFL affiliation.

He has an autographed photo of himself and his wife with Democratic Gov. Wendell Anderson in 1976. He also provided an e-mail he wrote two years ago, saying “our overall thoughts regarding economic and governmental politics align closer to the Democratic Party than the Republican.”

However, in that same e-mail, he says he has voted for Republican candidates in the recent past “because of life issues,” and he told the Tribune two weeks ago that he has had campaign signs in his yard for President Bush. He told the StarTribune of Minneapolis last week that he would support the Republican Gimse if he loses to Johnson in the primary.

The Washington Post has a story on how Republican Mark Kennedy and Jim Talent are working to distance themselves from President Bush:

For months, political analysts have waited to see how GOP candidates would navigate the challenge of running in the face of what polls show are dismal approval ratings for Bush and the Republican-led Congress. The ads give an answer: Endangered candidates are presenting themselves as independent-minded problem solvers who are not part of Washington's partisan wars.

Kennedy is running for the Senate against DFLer Amy Klobuchar.

The Washington Post also started a site that compiles the political ads running this year. One of Klobuchar’s ads is featured right now.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a story on Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Minnesota. It says Minnesota farmers don’t like where she's from but are happy she’s focusing on ag issues:

For Pelosi to become speaker of the House and overcome the caricature of her as a "latte liberal,'' she must appear at ease in places like Redwood Falls (pop. 5,435), where the nearest Starbucks is more than an hour away and where locals looked at the pouring rain that turned their dry fields and the outdoor festival into muddy slop, and said: "Thank God.''

Her visit to Redwood County's 25th annual FarmFest provided a glimpse at how Democrats hope to chip away at the Republican advantage in rural America, which has long balanced the Democrats' domination of big cities.

Decked out in boots and blue jeans, Pelosi refrained from attacks on President Bush and the GOP Congress, which are a mainstay of her San Francisco and Washington appearances. Instead, she focused on an energy plan she insisted will send dollars "to the Middle West, not the Middle East.

Pelosi told MPR that DFL Congressman Colin Peterson would become chair of the House Committee on Agriculture and Congressman Jim Oberstar would chair the House Committee on Transportation if Democrats took control of that chamber.

That may be news to some Democats according to Time Magazine’s The Allen Report. That blog says Pelosi told ranking Democrats not to expect committee chairmanships. It may be an effort to defuse a Republican attack that the committee chairs would be out of the mainstream and liberal leaning:

To try and defuse that line of attack, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently announced to her ranking members before they left for the summer break that they could not count on winning a chairmanship if the party took over.

"She said members should not feel entitled and nobody should assume anything, including who will be chairs," said a House Democratic aide. "It's very clear that the Republican strategy is to attack the ranking members. It's part of their scare campaign to try to sow fear of the Democrats.

Finally, the push is on for the three DFLers running for Minnesota Attorney General. State Senator Steve Kelley, former Congressman Bill Luther and Minnesota Solicitor General Lori are preparing for the party’s endorsing convention next Saturday. DFL Representative Debra Hilstrom just sent out a fundraising letter touting Swanson's experience.

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Comments (2)

The Star Trib’s “Big Question” blog (www.startribune.com/blogs/bigquestion) is reporting that the newest Rasmussen poll has the Governor up 10 points on the Attorney General, consistent with the July 24 SurveyUSA poll that had the Governor up 14 points.

Posted by Sundog | August 6, 2006 4:48 PM

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The leaks on these #'s so far tend to suggest that Klobuchar Kennedy Hatch and Pawlenty are all down a statistically significant amount since last month's Rasmussen poll.

Posted by Mike Grimes | August 7, 2006 11:16 AM

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