Polinaut: October 19, 2006 Archive

WSJ/Zogby Poll says governor's race tight, Klobuchar still leads

Posted at 8:35 AM on October 19, 2006 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

The Wall Street Journal/Zogby poll says DFLer Mike Hatch is leading Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty in the governor's race. But the poll shows Hatch leading by just .1%! The poll says Hatch got 45%. Pawlenty is polling at 44.9%. I-P candidate Peter Hutchinson is polling at 7.4%. With a margin of error of 3.6% this race is tighter than a rusty old lugnut on an old 1974 Chevy (sorry for the Dan Ratherism). You can see the results here .

The poll says Democrat Amy Klobuchar is leading Republican Mark Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race. Klobuchar is polling at 50.2%. Kennedy is polling at 42.7%. The margin of error on both polls is plus or minus 3.6%.

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The Daily Digest: 10-19-06

Posted at 11:12 AM on October 19, 2006 by Tom Scheck

The cameras, the videos and the trackers lead the digest today. Why? Because they're in the news. MPR has a story on the practice of tracking. The Star Tribune has a story on the folks who taped Republican Michele Bachmann at church and posted it online.

Apparently the pastor who says he would vote for Michele Bachmann can't vote for Michele Bachmann. Bachmann in running for Congress in Minnesota's 6th against DFLer Patty Wetterling and I-P member John Binkowski.

The St. Cloud Times has a profile of Bachmann.

Bloomberg says the GOP is faltering in its bid to woo Christian conservatives. Michele Bachmann is one of the candidates that James Dobson says he is working to elect:

In Minnesota, Dobson is trying to engineer a win for Michele Bachmann, a candidate for the House seat being vacated by Republican Mark Kennedy, who is running for the Senate. Bachmann, a Republican who opposes abortion and supported a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriages while in the Minnesota Senate, said the scandals in Washington and Bush's low approval rating mean she faces a tight race in the socially conservative northern suburbs of Minneapolis.

Low Ebb
``Republicans are at a low ebb tide this year, so it's not a given the Republicans would hold this seat,'' Bachmann, 50, said in an interview.
Focus on the Family operatives plan to distribute 250,000 voter guides in Minnesota churches to reach social conservatives, said Tom Prichard, 47, president of the Minnesota Family Council, a local affiliate of Dobson's group. ``It's really a volatile election situation,'' Prichard said.

A Pi Press editorial warns about politics in the pulpit.

U.S. News and World Report looks at the 6th as a race between female candidates. Binkowski not mentioned. I-P Chair Jim Moore sighs.

USA Today has a story on some of the political ads running in Minnesota

KARE-11 says political ads are coming at warp speed.

The LA Times and the Wall Street Journal says the DCCC has GOP Congressman Gil Gutknecht in their sights.

The Rothenberg Political Report also moves the line on the 1st between Gutknecht and DFLer Tim Walz.

For Democrats, the more interesting long shots may include Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), whose 4th district gave Bush 54 percent of the vote in 2004 and 52 percent four years earlier. Or Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R), who represents a competitive district in southeastern Minnesota. A true national wave could hit hard in districts like those, creating opportunities that Democrats ought not have in a normal year. That's why both of these races now are on my list of Democratic challenges to watch.

The Star Tribune has a story on 5th District Congressional candidate Keith Ellison accusing a woman of blackmail. AP also picks up the story.

Ellison will appear at a rally this afternoon with DNC Chair Howard Dean at the U of M. The Star Tribune uses the event to write about the youth vote.

The Pi Press wants to know: What happened to the debates?

Wow, you made it this far in the digest without reading about the race for governor or the race for senate. The Wall Street Journal has a poll saying the governor's race is tight and Amy Klobuchar leads Mark Kennedy in the Senate race. The Nerd Box (the details) are in an earlier post.

A Princeton University newspaper mentions Klobuchar in a story about blogs and YouTube.

Kennedy is mentioned in this story on immigration. It's a theme GOP candidates are using nationwide.

Governor Pawlenty and public safety officials release a new internet tool to track and catch sex offenders.

WCCO-TV's Pat Kessler reality checks the DFL ad criticizing Pawlenty on sex offenders.

The Star Tribune says most nursing homes are free of sex offenders.

Pawlenty is also mentioned in a story saying efforts to help the forest industry is taking shape.

Governor Pawlenty also returned some United Health contributions.

A new poll says Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is leading his GOP challenger.

State Auditor Pat Anderson is mentioned in stories saying health care costs could crush local governments.

That's funny because I'm just watching tv here and this Mike Hatch ad is on. It says it's Tim Pawlenty's fault that health care costs are going up. Oh, the ad is over. Wait, this Tim Pawlenty ad says it's Mike Hatch's fault that health care costs are going up. Wait just one second! Is there politicking going on around here?

The legislative races are getting some coverage.

The Worthington Daily Globe says GOP House Speaker Steve Sviggum stopped by Slayton and The Mankato Free Press says he was in Mankato.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale holds a rally for Democrats in Albert Lea.

The Mankato Free Press also looks at the candidates in District 21.

This Week online also has a ton of profiles of legislative candidates.

Politics: Beats getting beaten up at recess

Posted at 3:33 PM on October 19, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

I love kids. I hated junior high school. I love this story:

Theory: our politicians can behave an awful lot like seventh graders. Fact: Seventh grade is a great place to break into politics.

It's from a Loop show coming up Friday night. But I'm sprinkling some of the stories around over the next day or so, including Tom Scheck's fine story. And first thing up in the morning I'll have one that looks at the non-voters that Sanden Totten did.

Update
Disclaimer: I ran for student council in high school. I couldn't come up with a speech on my own so I stole the one my sister gave the previous year. It was a great speech, delivered expertly. I got my rear end kicked in the election. They went with some football player.

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1st District debate

Posted at 4:44 PM on October 19, 2006 by Bob Collins

Reminder. We'll have a live stream tonight with the 1st District debate tonight from Mankato, between Gil Gutknecht and Tim Walz. Apparently we don't have a reporter assigned to also cover it so I don't know if there'll be a story or not to go with it. Maybe AP will provide something. If so, I'll post it.

Find a link on the front page shortly before show-time for the live stream.

5th District Select A Candidate

Posted at 6:03 PM on October 19, 2006 by Bob Collins

I still have some more issues to add to it, but there's now a 5th District Select A Candidate on the Campaign 2006 Web site.

Indicative of the work people are doing to learn the issues, Select A Candidate in recent days has become the most viewed news page on the Web site.

Doubtful I'll get to pulling SACs together for all the congressional races. OTOH, this is the most SACs we've ever produced for a single campaign.

I've sent the questions over to the Jay Pond campaign and look forward to adding him to the module.

Alan Fine used an MPR photo on his campaign literature

Posted at 6:39 PM on October 19, 2006 by Tom Scheck (12 Comments)

MPR attorneys have sent Alan Fine's campaign a cease and desist letter after he used an MPR photo on its campaign literature. How do I know? I took the picture.

Fine, the GOP candidate running in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, released the campaign mailing on October 5th. It criticizes Democrat Keith Ellison's relationship with the Council of American Islamic Relations.

The photo in question is on the back of the mailer. The reason I noticed it was because of the red brick background.

The photo was taken after Ellison won the DFL endorsement. Ellison talked with a few reporters after his speech to the delegates. No one from the Fine campaign or the Republican Party was there during the interview.

As you can see from the mailer, Fine's campaign flipped the photo and cropped it. Look real closely at the lower left edge of the photo on the mailer and you can see Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Olson's pink sleeve. MPR attorneys issued a letter to the Fine campaign this afternoon. (MPR removed the cease and desist letter).

Fine's campaign told the news media that the mailer was sent to 100,000 5th Congressional District voters. Fine's Campaign has not returned calls on the matter. Independence Party member Tammy Lee and Green Party candidate Jay Pond are also running in the 5th.

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1st District Debate

Posted at 8:53 PM on October 19, 2006 by Bob Collins

Here's the audio of tonight's 1st District Debate. It'll be replayed tomorrow night on MPR, but you get it now.

Here's a huge tip of the hat to the MPR operations department, specifically Eamon Coyne who got this thing recorded and encoded in record time. I don't know who from Operations actually went to Mankato to handle the recording, but I'll find out and post it here.

MPR is a big iceberg and there's a really great group below the water line (above the waterline is hosts, reporters, and bloggers) who do a fabulous job every day, and get no public attention at all.

That's too bad because they really work hard. And they're really some of the best people I've worked with in 30 years in the business.