Capitol View: October 16, 2006 Archive

Fitzgerald on Midday

Posted at 11:14 AM on October 16, 2006 by Bob Collins

Robert Fitzgerald, the IP candidate for Senate is on Midday. Audio will be archived and available by -- I'd guess -- 12:30 or so.

Robert didn't bring the vegetable-oil-powered bus today,though.

Bummer.

The Daily Digest: 10-16-06

Posted at 11:17 AM on October 16, 2006 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

Sunday's "Meet the Press" debate between Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Republican Mark Kennedy leads the digest. MPR, the Star Tribune, the Pi Press, the MN Daily. KSTP-TV and the St. Cloud Times have stories. The Washington Post also has this write-up on the debate and offers this perspective on Kennedy and the war in Iraq:

"I think Kennedy did as good as he can do," said a national GOP campaign official who watched the 40-minute debate and who lamented its initial focus on the Iraq war. "It is just a tough issue to be talking about it in mid-October in a state like Minnesota," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of critiquing an ongoing campaign and candidate."

The Meet the Press debate will air on MPR at noon. You can also listen to it on our website or read the transcript.

The National Review has a story saying the race will probably go to Klobuchar. The writer also says Kennedy's decision to run for the Senate may determine control of the House. I think that's a stretch. Doesn't control of the House depend on the GOP candidates actually running for Congress not the guy who's running for the Senate?

Forum Communications has profiles of Kennedy, Klobuchar and I-P candidate Robert Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald is on Midday today. Klobuchar will be on the program on Tuesday. Kennedy is tentatively scheduled for Thursday. Klobuchar is also holding a news conference today to criticize Kennedy on his latest ad. Kennedy has an afternoon news conference to criticize Klobuchar on the war.

Kennedy still leads Klobuchar in fundraising but she outraised him in the most recent quarter. Wetterling is leading Bachmann in the money race in MN's 6th District.

The Washington Post's David Broder mentions Bachmann and Wetterling in his column on women making inroads this election.

Real Clear Politics says the GOP problem has hit Minnesota.

DFLer Mike Hatch held a news conference on Sunday to complain about rising property taxes but offers no solution. WCCO-TV and the Strib have stories.

The Star Tribune follows Sunday's profile of Hatch with a look at his record.

The paper also follows Sunday's look at property taxes with a story on fees.

KSTP-TV and the Pi Press take a look at the race in the 5th.

DFL Secretary of State candidate Mark Ritchie has a new tv ad out. It's scheduled to run on KARE-11and Fox 9 over the next couple of weeks.

The Star Tribune announces that Katherine Kersten has a new blog. Conservatives cheer and liberals groan.

Finally, the Star Tribune has a story on a radio host who doesn't even live in Minnesota. Maybe callers should ask him who he's going to vote for in Minnesota's Senate race. I wonder how he'd answer that one.

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Earplugs

Posted at 2:10 PM on October 16, 2006 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

You're going to need 'em if this little number is indicative of the governor's race the rest of the way.

These days, the Willie Horton ad is beginning to look like a cute warm-and-fuzzy.

This, by the way, is one of those situations that underscored the Hatch vs. Pawlenty battle that's been taking place at the Capitol since 2002. It was Hatch who first publicized the situation. Which was followed by Pawlenty demanding an investigation.

Two years. It's a wonder it's taken this long to crank an ad out of it.

One of the interesting aspects of political ads,of course, is the innnuendo while maintaining deniability. Clearly the ad did not say that Pawlenty intentionally sent sex offenders to nursing homes. But the use of the word "idea" at the beginning certainly is meant to leave the implication, as in, "hey, I had an idea today...let's send a bunch of sex offenderrs to molest old folks in nursing homes."

There's intent, then there's just negligence and stupidity. Either conclusion, presumably, would be desirable by the folks who produced the ad, which was the DFL Party, not the Hatch campaign.

Close race, I guess.

(h/t Laura McCallum)

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Live by the court records, die by the court records

Posted at 3:34 PM on October 16, 2006 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)

Seems to me if Alan Fine's court records are legitimate news, so are Tim Walz's.

Ah, I love the smell of political napalm in the morning.

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The Minnesota Republican Party runs ad critical of Hatch

Posted at 3:45 PM on October 16, 2006 by Tom Scheck

The MN GOP is running an ad criticizing Mike Hatch, the DFL candidate for governor. The ad, called straight shooter, criticizes Hatch's dispute with a Ramsey County Judge. The dispute is now being investigated to see if Hatch broke any judicial rules.

DSCC pulls out

Posted at 3:49 PM on October 16, 2006 by Tom Scheck

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has canceled its ad buy in Minnesota's Senate race. A public file check at WCCO-TV shows that the DSCC has canceled the last two weeks of ads that were scheduled. That means the DSCC and the NRSC will not be running ads on behalf of Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Republican Mark Kennedy. Apparently, the two national parties think there are closer contests in other states. The New York Times has a story saying Senate Republicans are focusing on just a few races and Minnesota is not mentioned.

DCCC ads scheduled to run tomorrow

Posted at 4:02 PM on October 16, 2006 by Tom Scheck

WCCO-TV's public file says the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will begin running ads on Tuesday morning. The DCCC does not comment on campaign strategy but it's safe to say the ads will be on behalf of DFLer Patty Wetterling. Wetterling is running in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District against Republican Michele Bachmann and Independence Party member John Binkowski. The ads start running in the 6 o'clock hour tomorrow morning. The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has already been running ads criticizing Wetterling.

Vote of confidence?

Posted at 4:05 PM on October 16, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

I think I've documented here before how much I love Nikki Tundel's work here, mostly for the Current. Put her in a studio with my other favorite person at MPR -- Mary Lucia -- and the result is a different perspective on politics.

The November elections are less than a month away. What are voters thinking about at this point in the political process? Reporter Nikki Tundel went to find out.

Here, hear for yourself.

One of the ideas I gave Nikki, and anyone else who would listen -- shortly before throwing my idea in the dustheap of history -- is a segment where each candidate would give us a tour of their CD collections.

Now I'm trying to determine whether there's still enough of a sense of humor out there to write a piece guessing on what's in each candidate's musical stash.

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Hutchinson gets an endorsement and some scheduled criticism

Posted at 5:47 PM on October 16, 2006 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

Peter Hutchinson, the I-P candidate for Governor, received the endorsement of La Prensa de Minnesota (the state's oldest, largest and most recognized Latino publication). Here's part of the release:

The La Prensa de Minnesota cited Hutchinson's support for the Dream Act and his opposition to placing expiration dates in driver's licenses thereby converting the licenses to immigration documents as reasons for the Latino community to support him for governor. The council noted Hutchinson's position that immigration reform ought to include a path to citizenship and a means of reducing uncontrolled flow and exploitation of the undocumented.

The council said Tim Pawlenty has "...proposed some of the most anti- immigrant legislation that we have seen in a long time." Of Mike Hatch, the council said "...he didn't know enough about the Dream Act to give an opinion of it. If he doesn't know what the Dream Act is by now, he will never know." They noted that Pawlenty and Hatch agree that local law enforcement officers should act as immigration officers.

Hutchinson is also being targeted by a DFL leaning group. The Alliance for a Better Minnesota has scheduled a Tuesday news conference to criticize Hutchinson and Pawlenty on school funding. Here's part of that release:

St. Paul--Dave Foster, chair of the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, will hold a press conference at the Capitol Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. along with several parents of Minneapolis School District students and alumni. The press conference, which is co-sponsored by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota and ACORN, is to address the decreased vital funding for Minnesota schools under Governor Pawlenty and Peter Hutchinson’s watch.

“These parents are not happy with the ways in which Governor Pawlenty and Peter Hutchinson have short-changed their children, and they want to make sure Minnesota voters know about it,” said Foster.

Foster said that parents from all around the Twin Cities have told him and ACORN about the problems their under-funded schools have been facing, including larger class sizes, outdated textbooks and technology, and a growing achievement gap between white and black students. He said that Pawlenty and Hutchinson have failed to do their jobs to improve these conditions; on the contrary, they have worsened.

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