Polinaut: September 27, 2006 Archive

AG debate added

Posted at 8:04 AM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins

the folks at Midmorning have scheduled a debate of attorney general candidates for Tues. Oct. 10 in the UBS Forum. Half the seats go to the campaigns and half go to the public. You'll be able to reserve seats starting oct. 2.

I'll add the event to the Political Calendar on the Campaign 2006 Web site. If you know of more that should be there (( think MM has a 6th Dist. debate scheduled too), fire them along.

"But we've always done it this way"

Posted at 8:26 AM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins (13 Comments)

Roll Call has a story today about the upstart polling firms moving in on the old liners. Unfortunately, I don't have a subsription to Roll Call, but I'd love to see the article (maybe that's a hint, maybe it's not), because a lot of old-time media are ignoring the upstart firms too.

The daily issue also apparently has a piece with the GOP feeling good in the 6th District. In the absence of any other polling -- will someone in the media PLEASE pay attention to this race! -- other than the one that shows Michele Bachmann up by 9, I have to think at this point they're right.

Especially since Patty Wetterling did an uncharacteristically Wetterling thing and launched an attack ad this week. (Watch)

The ad proves that Democrats are just as good at pulling things out of context and presenting a distorted view of a candidate's position as Republicans are. The ad makes it sound as though Bachmann is proposing a new national sales tax on top of existing taxes. It even cites a Star Tribune article (do politicians read anything BUT the Star Tribune? Geez.) Bachmann has proposed the consumption tax but it's part of a bigger plan to eliminate the federal income tax and a bunch of other federal taxes.

If there's a debate to be had about taxes between these two candidates, both can do a better job about being honest concerning the others' position.

Given all the possible things you could scare voters about where Michele Bachmann is concerned, being a tax raiser seems way too much like a Hail Mary. Or maybe you've never seen VoteTracker. She's not exactly Mrs. tax-and-spend.

And I sure wish Mason Dixon would break out this poll by congressional district. I presume the 6th would be the exception to the numbers but if not, it practically charts Wetterling's strategy the rest of the way.

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The Daily Digest: 9-27-06

Posted at 9:58 AM on September 27, 2006 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

The war in Iraq and President Bush lead the digest today. A MPR/St. Paul Pioneer Press poll says people aren't happy with the war and President Bush. Here's a story by MPR and one by the Pi Press.

Mark Kennedy's U.S. Senate campaign released the ad that got the chief spokeswoman of his Democratic rival fired. The Pi Press and Star Tribune have stories. I also wrote about this in an earlier post.

The Center for Public Integrity has an interesting analysis of how much consultants, like the person who created Kennedy's ad, made in past years. Scott Howell made $16,532,521 in '03 and '04 as a media consultant.

Think there are too many negative ads this year? The New York Times says it's a theme across the country.

WCCO's Pat Kessler has a story on how polls are conducted, which features Kennedy's campaign manager ripping a Star Tribune poll.

The St. Cloud Times says two of the three candidates running for Congress in Minnesota's Sixth District debated yesterday. Democrat Patty Wetterling was one of those kids who was doin' her own thing and didn't attend. That led to accusations from Bachmann and the MNGOP that she was ducking the debate. Wetterling's folks say they never agreed to attend. You can read about the entire flap at Eric Black's blog. Warning: This type of campaign spin can make you dizzy.

Roll Call (subscription required) says the GOP is going all out for Bachmann even though they insist it's a conservative district. That leads to this question - What does it say about the GOP's chances this year when they're investing all of this time and money on a race that they think they can win?

The GOP should hope that there are plenty of married couples in the Sixth. USA Today says strong GOP districts are stacked with married couples.

House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio is reportedly going to campaign for fellow Republican Gil Gutknecht in October.

The candidates for governor debate the issues tonight.

Meanwhile, Governor Pawlenty starts talking timber. The Duluth News Tribune and Star Tribune have stories. I wonder if he'll tell those future unemployed workers that "Minnesota's economy is red-hot!"?

Hatch's office says they called for the summit last week. This story focuses on the fact that Hatch couldn't walk the letter across the hall.

The Marshall Independent picks up on Michael Brodkorb's posts on Hatch.

The MNGOP has a news conference on the issue today at 2:15 in St. Paul.

The Duluth News Tribune reports that the state subsidies for politicians who abide by the spending limits have been sent.

WCCO-TV and KARE-11 have stories on a debate between the two candidates for Ramsey County Sheriff.

Tim Dolan's bid to become police chief of Minneapolis may have hit a snag says the Star Tribune. The city council discusses the issue today in an executive session.

Finally, good bye to Byron Nelson. May your journey be all fairways and one putts. The Masters won't be the same without you on the first tee on Thursday greeting all of those golfers.

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Klobuchar hits back

Posted at 12:02 PM on September 27, 2006 by Tom Scheck

Amy Klobuchar, the Democrat running for U.S. Senate, is running an ad featuring family members of crime victims (no link yet). The members thank Klobuchar for prosecuting identity theft, drunken driving and murder crimes as Hennepin County Attorney. One of them is Linda Longino, the mother of Tyesha Edwards who was killed by a stray bullet.

Here's the tag line at the end of the ad:

"Trust their word, not Mark Kennedy's.

Longino then says "Mark Kennedy, you should be ashamed."

The ad is in response to Kennedy's recent ad criticizing Klobuchar's work as Hennepin County Attorney.

Republicans pick the Twin Cities for the 2008 convention

Posted at 12:19 PM on September 27, 2006 by Tom Scheck (16 Comments)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans have chosen the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 2008 presidential convention, a GOP source said Wednesday.
The selection was expected to be announced later today, said the Republican source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The choice of the Twin Cities would provide a major political punch for the GOP, capturing the media markets in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota - all battleground states in the 2004 election.
The convention would be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., home of the hockey team.
The Twin Cities are also in the running for the Democratic national convention.
The GOP held its last convention in New York City, where GOP delegates nominated President Bush for a second term.

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There's probably a TV ad already in production

Posted at 2:07 PM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins

Depending on whom you listen to, the vote on the Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005 in the House is either aimed at the mid-term elections, or it's not. Pretty much like everything else.

The bill prohibits plaintiffs in cases that sue cities, towns, states, counties etc., over the public display of religion on government property from being awarded attorney fees.

Read one side of the debate here. Read another side here.

Local roll call: The usual results. Republicans voted for it. Democrats voted against it. Collin Peterson went with the GOP.

Who will the convention boost?

Posted at 2:47 PM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins

Lost, at least so far, in all the brouhaha over where to stick a convention is this nugget: does it really help a party in a particular state?

The prevailing wisdom seems to be that the GOP has selected the Twin Cities to boost GOP chances in a state that is more geographically red, than blue. Two things are in play: Norm Coleman's re-election bid to the Senate and Minnesota's 10 electoral votes in the presidential bid. OK, maybe Tim Pawlenty as the VP on a ticket with John McCain too, I guess.

It's hard to imagine Coleman's chances being changed one way or another by the location of the convention. He's not going to stand out as a bigshot on a national stage because there are too many , well, bigger shots in line for that. It only works if he gets the keynote spot and the party isn't going to put a convention here to help him and give him the keynote. His re-election is important, but it's not that important to the GOP; not in comparison to getting a Republican president elected.

Ron Carey says it helps the upper Midwest go Red. Let's look again at the results of the 2004 election:

No question, it was close. But do folks really think if the 2004 Republican Convention were held in St. Paul instead of New York City, the results would've been different?

And if that's true, then shouldn't the convention be in Duluth? And, by the way, Kerry mopped the floor with Bush in New York state in 2004.

So does it make a difference in the electoral votes? Well, if that really were the issue, then tell me why Cleveland just lost out on the convention, and why Miami and Houston aren't the frontrunners for the Democratic convention?

Unquestionably -- at least in my opinion -- the Mississippi River Valley is the key to electing a president these days. Maybe that's why Gore and Lieberman's first stop after their convention 2000 (a convention that was held in Los Angeles) was Minnesota, for a riverboat ride down the Mississippi.

In the end, the noisemakers and "coolness" of the convention wears off, usually replaced by people voting for candidate they like. Political conventions are mostly irrelevant in terms of geography.

However, I can see the convention most helping (1) The person who ends up being in charge of the local convention organizing committee. and (2) The local mayor.

In the latter case, those are Democrats.

Irony is cruel.

Of course those are also the people who face the biggest risk if this thing sucks a ton of money out of the economy and people can't get to work.

That's my take on it. Here's Larry Jacobs'.

Welcome to St. Paul!

Posted at 4:17 PM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins

We get the million-person march thrown in free.

I'll be parking cars on my lawn in Woodbury for $5.

Obama coming for Klobuchar

Posted at 4:52 PM on September 27, 2006 by Tom Scheck

A loyal Polinaut reader just sent this along:

Please Join Special Guest

United States Senator
Barack Obama

for an afternoon benefiting
Minnesota's next United States Senator
Amy Klobuchar

Monday, October 9th, 2006
12:00 Private Reception
12:30 Lunch

The Minneapolis Club
729 2nd Ave South
Minneapolis, MN

Nice try

Posted at 8:44 PM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Now that we're the center of the GOP universe, we have to broaden our knowledge a little bit, I guess. So...enough of the Senate race! Enough of the 6th district. That's just so..... so..... Minnesota.

Let's talk presidential race for a minute. I stopped by Red State today and noticed this.

We call Massachusetts the most liberal state commonwealth in the nation only because we call Vermont the only socialist state in the nation. Yet, in that dynamic, Massachusetts elected Mitt Romney as Governor and Romney is widely regarded as one of the front runners for the Republican nomination in 2008.

The suggestion would seem to be that since Romney -- a Republican -- was elected governor of a liberal state like Massachusetts, he must be the frontrunner for president when the Republicans convene in St. Paul, I mean the Twin Cities, in '08. A Republican winning in Massachusetts? Something special, eh?

Nice try.

Want to guess how many Democrats Massachusetts voters have elected governor since 1956?

Two.

Mike Dukakis (twice) and Ed King. And Ed King, said to be Ronald Reagan's favorite Democrat, eventually became a Republican.

It's been 20 years since Massachusetts put a Democrat into the governor's office. That, by the way, is apparently about to change, according to the latest polls.

But let's consider this notion that Romney is a frontrunner. Really? A rich kid from Massachusetts/Michigan carrying the South. Don't tell the voters in Georgia that. I'll give you that he might be a "frontrunner" as in "we've heard of him," however.

But the real frontrunners right now are John McCain and Rudy Guiliani. That, of course, could change, but it hasn't changed yet. And, if the '04 delegates are any indication, Guiliani will find a much friendlier crowd here than McCain will.

Now, don't get me wrong. Romney has a lot going for him. The top GOPer in the Iowa House just joined his campaign, which would be a bigger deal, I guess, if Iowa mattered as much in '08 as it has in the past. And if New Hampshire mattered as much as it has in the past. But, neither does.

And besides, the only people with worse track records at running for president than people from Massachusetts are people from Minnesota.

If Romney should walk out of St. Paul -- I mean the Twin Cities -- with the nomination on September 4, 2008, he likely won't even carry his home state -- either one of them. Ask Al Gore how that works.

Say, now that we're big enough to host a national political convention, can we have a real presidential primary now?

The GOP candidates. Get to know 'em, Minnesota!

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Ad Watch: "Ashamed"

Posted at 9:40 PM on September 27, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

(Click to view ad)

The Mark Kennedy campaign has tried to make an issue of rising crime in Minneapolis. They must have suceeded in registering it on the political scale because Klobuchar's seventh television ad is aimed to address the Kennedy charges.

Unfortunately for the Kennedy campaign, the result is the most powerful ad by any political candidate in Minnesota this year. The ad mixes the testimonials of the families of crime victims with a reminder that Klobuchar was endorsed -- the ad says -- by "Minnesota police."

Well, sort of. Mark Kennedy was endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police. Klobuchar's endorsement came from The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association . That's a draw.

But what makes the ad powerful is that one of the people giving a testimonial, comes back for a final shot. It's the mother of Tyesha Edwards. Tyesha is the 11-year old who was killed in a drive-by in 2002, a case in which arrests were made a month later.

And she ends the ad with, "Mark Kennedy, you should be ashamed."

It puts the Kennedy camp in a tough spot. Who wants to take on the mother of a murdered 11-year old girl? And the ad mixes a testimonial with a frontal attack.

Curiously, the victims' family members were not identified. One was the son of a victim of identity theft, the other the father of a man killed by a drunk driver, and only the name "Tyesha" gives away the identities of the third.

So it's impossible to say if these 'success stories" were as old -- four years old -- as the Edwards case, which leaves an opening for the Kennedy camp to make its point again...that crime is going up now, that things are worse...than then.

Perhaps the next ad will have to be the family members of the victims of unsolved crimes.

This could get uglier.

(Update: See post at Kennedy vs. the Machine on this ad)

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