Polinaut: July 16, 2009 Archive

Daily Digest

Posted at 6:43 AM on July 16, 2009 by Tim Pugmire (0 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

DC

Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken questioned Judge Sonia Sotomayor during the third day of the hearing on her Supreme Court nomination.

Politico documents Franken's hearing humor.

Franken raised big money after the election.

Second quarter fundraising numbers are also in for Reps. Bachmann, McCollum, Paulsen and Walz.

...As well as Ellison, Kline, Oberstar and Peterson.

Minnesota

Gov. Tim Pawlenty says the health reform bill introduced Democrats in the U.S. House would be bad for Minnesota.

Winona County is questioning the legality of unallotment.

The wish list for next year's bonding bill totals $2.6 billion in construction projects.

2010

Former State Auditor Pat Anderson has joined the GOP list of candidates for governor.

Is state Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, running for congress next year? MinnPost.com and KSTP say she is, but Clark hasn't confirmed.

2012

City Pages looks at Gov. Pawlenty and his potential path to the presidency.

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State loses more jobs in June

Posted at 9:48 AM on July 16, 2009 by Mike Mulcahy (0 Comments)

The Minnesota Department Employment and Economic Development says
Minnesota employers cut 16,700 jobs in June.

That means the state's unemployment rate in June rose to a seasonally adjusted 8.4 percent, up from 8.1 percent in May. The U.S. unemployment rate in June reached 9.5 percent.

The department says job losses occurred in June in construction (down 3,900), manufacturing (down 3,700), professional and business services (down 3,500), leisure and hospitality (down 3,000), logging and mining (down 1,000), government (down 800), other services (down 800), information (down 700), and education and health care (down 700).

Trade, transportation and utilities gained 800 jobs, and financial activities added 600 positions.

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Candidates getting attention at every step

Posted at 1:39 PM on July 16, 2009 by Tim Pugmire (3 Comments)

They're considering. They're exploring. They're filing. They're officially running.

Some candidates for governor are taking multiple bites of the media-coverage apple as they gear up their campaigns.

The latest example comes from state Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie. Hann held a news conference today to "formally announce his intention to run for the Office of Governor."

A few weeks ago, Hann made news when he said he was considering a run in 2010. He also got coverage when he filed his campaign finance paperwork with the state.

Isn't the filing of paperwork a pretty good signal of intent? By that measure, the current list of DFL candidates is Tom Bakk, Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza, Susan Gaertner, Steve Kelley, John Marty, Ole Savior and Paul Thissen.

GOP filers include Patricia Anderson, Leslie Davis, Tom Emmer, Bill Haas, David Hann, Philip Herwig, Paul Kohls and Marty Seifert.

Stay tuned, there are more "formal" announcements to come.

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GOP launches early ad campaign against SOS Ritchie

Posted at 3:29 PM on July 16, 2009 by Tim Pugmire (1 Comments)

Minnesota Republicans say they've begun the campaign to elect a new secretary of state in 2010.

The state GOP is buying radio ad time for the next week to criticize the record of Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a first-term Democrat. Chairman Tony Sutton claims Ritchie failed to properly train local election officials and switched his position on absentee ballots during the recent Senate recount. Sutton says he thinks Ritchie is vulnerable and he's been talking to several potential candidates. Sutton says the party will also work to unseat the DFL attorney general and state auditor.

"In the past I think once an incumbent has gotten in people have pretty much given them a free ride until the seat got opened up," Sutton said. "We going to be very agressive in these constitutional office races."

The Minnesota DFL Party responded with a news release that accused Republicans of launching a smear campaign. Ritchie wouldn't respond to the specific GOP allegations. But he said the ad is a bad signal about the tone of the 2010 campaign.

"This sounds like the kickoff of somebody's campaign to run against me," Ritchie said. "And it sounds like the intention is to make it a dirty, negative, in the gutter type campaign. And I'll just do everything in my power to keep that campaign next year positive."

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