Polinaut: October 23, 2007 Archive

The Redistricting Game

Posted at 6:53 AM on October 23, 2007 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

Old pal George Linkert sends along this link to The Redistricting Game, from the University of Southern California Annenberg Center. It won't be long now before we start the long process of -- maybe -- figuring out how to carve the state up with one fewer congressperson. Ultimately, I imagine it'll end up getting decided by a judge. But this game lets you take a crack at it.

Comment on this post

Daily Digest 10-23-07

Posted at 9:04 AM on October 23, 2007 by Mike Mulcahy (2 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

State

The University of St. Thomas isn't past the Desmond Tutu controversy yet. Both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press report that Tutu now says he will speak at the St. Paul school, but only under certain conditions. Tutu says the university has to reinstate a professor who lost a leadership post for challenging the original decision to keep him from speaking on the campus.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty continues his trade trip to India. The Star Tribune and MPR cover.

Maybe it's because the governor is out of town, but don't you think it's a little too soon to start talking about the governor's race in 2010? Apparently not.

There's an election coming up much sooner for the mayor of Duluth, and MPR has a story.

KSTP catches up with Dean Barkley because...well, because I guess we just haven't heard from Dean Barkley for a while.

2008

As I mentioned yesterday Bill Clinton is due in town today to raise money for his wife's presidential campaign. It looks like the Clinton campaign is delighted that the GOP candidates are spending much of their time criticizing her.

Democrat Al Franken plans to shadow a nurse all day.

The Washington Post says John Edwards is taking advice from Howard Dean's former campaign manager.

Finally

Maybe this whole Harry Potter thing has finally gone too far.

Comment on this post

Iraq war veteran announces 3rd District DFL run

Posted at 2:02 PM on October 23, 2007 by Mike Mulcahy (1 Comments)

J. Ashwin Madia, a Twin Cities lawyer and Marine Corps veteran, announced today he's running for Congress from the 3rd District. He says he will abide by the DFL endorsement. In a release announcing his campaign he said he wants to end the war in Iraq.

“We must have the courage to change course in Iraq. Through my time in Iraq, I learned firsthand that Americans cannot end this war militarily – Iraqis will have to end the conflict politically. We must have leaders in Congress who understand this conflict and our military. I want to go to Washington to bring the war to an end by changing our mission, changing our strategy, and most importantly, dramatically reducing our presence in Iraq,” he said.

Madia is the son of Indian immigrants. He graduated from Osseo Senior High School and the University of Minnesota, where he served as student body president. He got his law degree at New York University School of Law.

He was an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 until 2006. He worked as a judge advocate in Baghdad, Iraq from September 2005 until March 2006.

Madia is the first DFLer to formally announce his campaign, although state Sen. Terri Bonoff has been raising money for a run.

Comment on this post