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.

---

Comments (3)

About married voters, yeah, I did a post in May where I looked at the 2000 Census numbers for percentage of married voters in the Congressional districts.

The top four districts have Republicans representing them. They are, in order, the 6th (62.8%), the 2nd (60.7%), the 3rd (57.4%) and the 1st (57.0%).

The bottom four have DFLers representing them. They are, rounding out the list, the 7th (56.3%), the 8th (56.0%), the 4th (44.5%) and the 5th (34.4%).

Interesting breakdown, no?

Posted by Jeff | September 27, 2006 11:15 AM

---

"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."

I know there have been some testy exchanges already about whether this is a personal-blog or journalist-blog. But assuming you'd like us to take Polinaut at least as an informed-intelligent-person-blog, you should be capable of making certain distinctions, such as the difference between collecting money and making money.

I'll bet my blog that Scott Howell did not "make" $16 million as a media consultant. The Howell agency was paid $16 million for radio and television advertising services, the bulk of which was likely passed through for buying media time. Subtract that, salaries for creatives, production costs, overhead, etc., and Scott Howell the consultant may have gotten a good check of the remainder.

Considerable moola? By most people's standards, definitely. Buy $16 million not by a very. very long shot.

Posted by Charlie | September 27, 2006 12:10 PM

---

Excuse the typo: "But $16 million? Not..."

Nice to have a preview post feature...

Posted by Charlie | September 27, 2006 12:13 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor