Polinaut: September 28, 2006 Archive

Broder under fire

Posted at 8:45 AM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)

Not that anyone outside of newsrooms will care but America's "dean of journalism" is under fire from folks who aren't.

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Not much of a race in CD2, poll says

Posted at 9:10 AM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

Survey USA shows a big lead for John Kline over Coleen Rowley. Cue the methodology police!

Same poll firm that has Bachmann up by 9 in the 6th.

Latest Zogby poll says Klobuchar leads, governor's race tight

Posted at 9:17 AM on September 28, 2006 by Tom Scheck

Democrat Amy Klobuchar is leading Republican Mark Kennedy in the race for U.S. Senate according to the latest Wall Street Journal/Zogby Poll. Klobuchar is polling at 49% to Kennedy's 40%.

DFLer Mike Hatch is polling ahead of Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty by .7% in the race for governor! I-P candidate Peter Hutchinson is polling at 6.3% Both polls have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

The Daily Digest: 9-28-06

Posted at 10:50 AM on September 28, 2006 by Tom Scheck

The Grand Old Party will be partying in St. Paul in 2008. The RNC decision to hold the 2008 Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul leads the digest.

MPR, the Star Tribune, the Pi Press, KARE-11, Congressional Quarterly, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Roll Call (subscription required) and WCCO have stories (there are many more but I'm going to get carpal tunnel if I have to type more in).

Apparently, the GOP elbowed out the DNC to get the Twin Cities spot. The AP and the Star Tribune have stories. One side note, Jo Ann Davidson said yesterday that the RNC picked NYC in 2004 before the DNC selected. That's wrong according to several press accounts. I wonder if Howard Dean let out his well known screech when he heard the RNC news.

The Star Tribune has a story on the last time a convention was held in the Twin Cities.

Katherine Kersten says Minnesota searches for its political soul. Hasn't that been happening for the past eight years or so?

The convention price tag won't be cheap says the Pi Press but MPR says local business owners are happy.

It could also be a political boost for the GOP says the Pi Press and MPR.

Get ready for all of those "Minnesota Nice" and "you betcha" quotes..

Oh yeah, there will probably be a demonstrator or two.

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty, DFLer Mike Hatch and Independence Party member Peter Hutchinson debated the issues last night. MPR, the Star Tribune, the Pi Press, KARE-11 and AP have stories.

You can listen to the debate on MPR News at noon.

The latest Zogby/Wall Street Journal poll says Hatch and Pawlenty are in a dead heat. No wonder Pawlenty is turning up the heat on Hatch. He tries to ratchet it up a notch this afternoon with a new ad talking about Hatch's track record. Pawlenty may also be using immigration and a photo id requirement for voting as a wedge issue.

Three GOP House members also held a hearing on "health care fraud" yesterday and brought up the immigrant issue.

Pawlenty will attend a wood products meeting on Friday.

The candidates also take stands on the coal gasification project in northeastern Minnesota.

The MPR and Pi Press have stories on the polls that show a slight shift in opinions on gay marriage.

The Pi Press also writes on the poll on gas prices.

WCCO-TV fact checks a NRCC ad criticizing Patty Wetterling.

Eric Black fact checks Wetterling's ad on Michele Bachmann.

Congressional Quarterly has a story saying Emily's List candidates, like Wetterling, are making gains in their poll. Making gains is political speak for still behind.

But the NRCC may still be a bit worried. They're sending out more mailings.

MPR has a story on the MVST issue that will be on the ballot this year.

It looks like the spokesman for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman is moving over to Amy Klobuchar's U.S. Senate campaign.

Mary Matalin, former aide to V.P. Dick Cheney among others, will hold a fundraiser for Republican Mark Kennedy today. Kennedy will not be there because of his duties in Congress.

Finally, FactCheck.org fact checks that outrageous ad running in a congressional race in North Carolina. Here's the ad.

We interrupt this life-and-death atmosphere...

Posted at 12:18 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

I don't know why a bunch of wrestlers getting involved in a register-to-vote effort strikes me as funny. But the videos are.... funny.

And, face it, we could use a laugh about now.

Debate audio

Posted at 12:33 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

The audio of last night's debate has now been posted on the MPR story page.

You can also hear all the debates for Senate and governor on the Campaign 2006 site by checking the individual home page for any race.

I think the I-P has the joneses for costumes

Posted at 12:36 PM on September 28, 2006 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

Last week, Peter Hutchinson, the Independence Party's candidate for governor, appeared in a news conference with people in duck costumes. Today, the I-P's candidate for Secretary of State, Joel Spoonheim, was walking through the capitol press corps room with a guy in a bison (or is it buffalo?) costume to promote the site askindie. It's a website where you can ask the guy in the buffalo/bison costume any question. The first question I asked was:

"Are you a bison or a buffalo?"

He responded:

"That's better suited for other candidates who love to dance around the issues."

I then asked:

"What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?"

He gave me the same response.

If you type in Mike Hatch or Peter Hutchinson or Tim Pawlenty you get clever responses. I think this is modeled after that Burger King website where you tell the chicken to do some sort of dance and it does it.

Anyway, I'm looking at this buffalo/bison thing and I'm thinking this costume looks like the mascot in the movie Bull Durham (I know it's a bull costume but bear with me). That's the movie where the catcher tells the hot-shot pitcher to throw at the mascot. The pitcher then whacks the bull in the head with a fastball (those types of gags always crack me up). The catcher tells the batter he doesn't know where the next pitch is going and it's instant strike-out.

Come to think of it, didn't the I-P hold their convention in a minor league baseball stadium this summer?

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More convention musings

Posted at 4:13 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

I'm still intrigued by the logistical nightmare -- or dream -- that the '08 convention presents to St. Paul, I mean the Twin Cities.

Cathy Wurzer talked to a guy today who handled putting together the '88 confab in Atlanta. (Listen).

As the gentleman mentioned, this was before 9/11. "I can't imagine what's security like today."

Marty Moylan has just put up a story analyzing the impact.

He quotes Frank Conte, a spokesman for Beacon Hill, which assessed what the convention brought to the "hub."

-Security: Police overtime can be the least of it. In Boston in 2004, the Secret Service ordered a major interstate closed because it ran near the convention site, causing problems for commuters.

-Increased spending to get ready for the convention. Conte said
it appeared that Boston hurried to negotiate a new union contract
with police, perhaps giving away too much, so it would be wrapped
up before the convention.

-Cities forget that if the convention hadn't come to town, some
other event would have drawn people.

And convention-goers don't eat out much, often grabbing the free
food offered by businesses.

"It's a myth that restaurants benefit," he said.

And he also notes that Los Angeles said "no thanks" when invited to submit a bid. Why?

One thing I remember about Boston (and I'm from there) is the number of cops. They were brought in from every suburban department, as far away as Central Massachusetts and Cape Cod as well as the entire Massachusetts State Police force. There was mandatory two week overtime.

Let's just say, nobody will be stopping you for speeding on I-94.

I was also listening to Elizabeth Stawicki's piece this morning with area restauranteurs and hospitals.

You know what business I kept thinking about? Seven Corners Hardware (the world's greatest hardware store, by the way). Guys in pick-ups aren't going to be allowed anywhere near there. What's a business like that supposed to do?

Oh, by the way, -- and completely unrelated to the post -- I was going through my old musings from the Democratic National Convention and stumbled across this picture of the "blogger" section...wayyyyyyyyy up top of the Fleet Center (now called something else but always Boston Garden in my heart).

I wonder if the blogosphere has earned its stripes enough to get a better spot in '08.

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The survey says....

Posted at 4:46 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Minnesota Democrats Exposed has posted a memo from the Republican Party showing an 8-percent gap between frontrunner Amy Klobuchar and Mark Kennedy.

I admit, it's a bit of a head-scratcher having a campaign -- or a party -- putting out numbers that show their candidate is behind, but it's been that kind of a campaign.

I don't much trust polls from campaigns or parties but other than Zogby, I can't seem to find any that show a competitive Senate race right now. Apparently, neither can the Republicans. On the other hand, if you were going to cook the numbers, wouldn't you show the race a bit closer?

And they can't very well hold Zogby up as a legitimate poll (even though I still contend it is) since both the Kennedy camp and the GOP (and my pals in the blogosphere) have ripped me good for citing it during the present campaign.

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Pawlenty will start running a new ad that's critical of Hatch's spending promises

Posted at 4:48 PM on September 28, 2006 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty will have a new TV ad up tomorrow that criticizes DFLer Mike Hatch. The two are running neck in neck in the polls in the race for governor.

The Pawlenty ad says Hatch's spending promises would create an average tax increase of $2912 for every Minnesota family. Pawlenty uses a CPA with an inactive license (and former GOP candidate for the Minnesota House in 2004) to crunch the numbers. The CPA, John Heutmaker, says Hatch's promises would add up to $6.4 billion over four years.

"Bottom line, Minnesota can't afford Mike Hatch."

As you would guess, Hatch says the ad is false, uses figures pulled out of thin air and is designed to scare people:

"It's unfortunate that the governor has stooped to this level."

Pawlenty's campaign says the ad buy is $250,000 and will run statewide.

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A message from Mike

Posted at 5:36 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins

On the way out the door today, political editor Mike Mulcahy said, "tell your Polinaut readers that 'I got the message about Papa John Kolstad.'" Apparently there's an organized protest of some sort because Kolstad isn't being invited to an attorney general debate on October 10th. I've opined on debatesbefore so won't bother to repeat myself here.

But if Papa John wants to stoop to just being on little old Campaign 2006, I'd be happy to to post up the audio and allow folks to submit questions in advance. (But, nothing like Stephen Colbert's "President Bush? Greatest president or Great President?" please)

Oh, Mulcahy says send all letters of complaint to to Kerri Miller. Let's see, I've got her home number around here somewhere....

Retiring the trophy

Posted at 5:53 PM on September 28, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

I meant to make note of this yesterday and some person commenting had it exactly right, it's the type of blog posting that makes you want to stop blogging forever, because you're not worthy. I know exactly what that person means.

It's funny. Read it. We need a laugh.

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