Capitol View: October 15, 2009 Archive

Paulsen raised $317k in 3rd Quarter

Posted at 6:43 AM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen's campaign reported raising $317,640 in the third quarter of 2009. The campaign reports raising a total of $921,306 in this election cycle. He has $725,219 left in the bank. Paulsen if a first term Congressman representing Minnesota's 3rd District.

Seifert not seeking another term in MN House.

Posted at 12:27 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)

GOP state Rep. Marty Seifert announced this morning in Marshall that he will not be seeking an eighth term in the Minnesota House. Seifert, a Republican who is running for governor, held a news conference in Marshall this morning. The Marshall Independent said Seifert made the announcement so other candidates and his constituents know his plans:

"The decision was made a long time ago not to run, regardless of how the governor's race goes and before Governor Tim Pawlenty announced he was not seeking re-election," Seifert said.

Seifert has a a 1:30 PM Capitol news conference scheduled, where he will presumably make the same announcement.

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Seifert: "No looking in the rearview mirror..."

Posted at 2:53 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

State Representative Marty Seifert, a Republican candidate for governor, says he will not run for his Minnesota House seat again. Seifert says he decided earlier this year he wasn't running for reelection. The Marshall Republican says he's announcing now to give other candidates enough time to prepare for precinct caucuses. He says he also wants party activists that he's serious about his candidacy for governor.

"There is no looking in the rearview mirror. We're running for governor. We're running strong and there's no looking back behind us and saying we can fall back...

Seifert is the latest candidate for governor to say he won't run for his current job. Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a DFLer, said she won't run for her house seat again. Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, a Democrat, also won't run for reelection.

You can listen to Seifert's entire news conference here:

Listen

Bachmann raised $345k in 3rd Qtr.

Posted at 3:25 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign manager reports that the 6th District Republican raised approximately $345,000 in the third quarter. She also reports having roughly $617,000 in the bank.

Two Democrats are currently running to challenge Bachmann in November, 2010. DFL state Sen. Tarryl Clark and Maureen Reed released their fundraising totals earlier this week.

Side note: Bachmann's campaign also said she raised more than $111,000 since yesterday. Bachmann's is encouraging her supporters to send a message to "the left" in an online fundraising blitz. Those figures aren't included in the latest fundraising totals.

Walz raised $129,861 in 3rd Qtr.

Posted at 3:41 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

The campaign manager for DFL Rep. Tim Walz reports raising $129,861 in the third quarter. He said Walz has $266,503 on hand.

The 1st District DFLer doesn't have a GOP opponent yet but the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports that two candidates are mulling a possible challenge to the two-term Democrat.

Reed set to kick off campaign, open office

Posted at 3:57 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tim Pugmire

Dr. Maureen Reed plans to "officially" kick off her 6th district congressional campaign Saturday.

The DFL candidate has an event scheduled at her campaign office in Anoka, beginning at 11:00 a.m. A media advisory sent out today says "Reed will discuss her campaign to defeat (incumbent Republican Congresswoman Michele) Bachmann and bring common sense solutions to Washington."

Reed announced back in May that she was filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress.

State Sen, Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, is also seeking the DFL endorsement to run in the 6th district. Only Clark is pledging to abide by that endorsement.

All in or not?

Posted at 5:30 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and GOP state Rep. Marty Seifert both say they will not run for their seats in the Minnesota House if they don't win their party endorsements for governor. Here's where the entire field of legislators (and Ramsey County Attorney) stand if they don't win the endorsement for governor:

DFL House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher - She will not seek her House seat.

DFL state Sen. Tom Bakk - He will run for his senate seat if he doesn't win endorsement.

GOP state Rep. Tom Emmer - He has not decided yet.

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner - She will not run for reelection

GOP state Sen. David Hann - He has not decided yet.

GOP state Sen. Michael Jungbauer - He will run for senate seat if he doesn't win endorsement.

GOP state Rep. Paul Kohls - He has not decided yet.

DFL state Sen. John Marty -- He will run for senate seat if he doesn't win the endorsement.

DFL state Rep. Tom Rukavina - He has not decided yet.

GOP state Rep. Marty Seifert - He will not seek his House seat

DFL state Sen. Paul Thissen - He has not decided yet.

Biden visit

Posted at 10:57 PM on October 15, 2009 by Tom Scheck

Here's the pool report from Vice-President Joe Biden's visit to Minnesota. Biden was in town for a closed door fundraiser.

VPOTUS POOL REPORT

Vice President Joseph Biden was the featured guest at a private high-dollar dinner fundraiser at the Edina, Minn., home of Robert Pohlad, son of late Twins owner Carl Pohlad and the CEO of PepsiAmerica.

The intimate event likely raised about a quarter of a million dollars for the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America, the Democrats' grassroots campaign arm. About 30 people attended, including former Vice President Walter (Fritz) Mondale; Alida Messinger, the sister of Sen. John Rockefeller, D-WV; and state Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul. The event had a $7,500-per-plate donation level.

The vice president arrived at 5:23 p.m. and, after posing for photos, spoke to the group for a little more than 30 minutes.

He spent about half of his speech talking about the influence and friendship he had with Mondale and the late former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, also from Minnesota. Biden said both helped him stay in the Senate after his wife and daughter were killed and two other children were critically injured in a car accident in 1972.

"All I could do is think how to get the hell home...I did not want to stay," Biden said. Mondale, Humphrey and a few others made it possible for him to stay in the Senate, he said.

Mondale, he said, had confidence in him and that gave him confidence in himself.

Biden called Mondale the "single most prominent vice president in American history" and the father of the modern vice presidency.

Addressing Mondale, he said, "Your shoes are awful big to fill."

The vice president said that after Obama asked him to be vice president at a meeting that happened to take place in Minneapolis, Biden first called his longtime chief of staff and then he called Mondale.

"I continue to call on Fritz for advice," he said.

"I'm glad you are still my friend and I'm glad you're still willing to talk to me," Biden said to applause from the small group.

Biden went on to talk about the meaning of the 2008 election. He said the election showed voters were rejecting a philosophy in the country that had held sway since 1980.

He asked the group to recall that Obama "got in trouble" for calling Reagan a "transformative president."

"He was...Prior to that, we had ridden on the New Deal. The New Deal had run out of steam; we were trying to figure out how to make it relevant," Biden said.

He said the election of 2008 was a similar rejection of the abiding philosophy, which "no longer had any relevancy."

Biden quoted a poem from William Butler Yeats: "All changed, changed utterly."

The vice president said he understands the criticism that the Obama administration has taken on too much all at once. But, he said, the issues of energy, education and health care were too urgent to lay aside.

"We don't have a choice," Biden said. "We are not in this for incremental change. Incremental change will not work."

He told the donors that they are going to "take a lot of heat" but that the administration will succeed.

He said things had already gotten better in the economy, in part because of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP.) He said he didn't like TARP -- "it stuck in our throats, quite frankly" - but it worked.

"Look, folks, we've got a long, long way to go," he said. "We are on the right track....I promise you, I promise you this is going to get better."

Your pool reporter was asked to leave after the vice president's remarks around 6:15 p.m. Biden stayed for about another hour taking questions and having conversations with the donors.

The dinner menu, prepared by the local chef/owner of La Belle Vie restaurant, included sautéed trout with braised artichokes, white beans and curry, chestnut ravioli with buttercup squash and smoked bacon, roasted lamb with sweet corn polenta, glazed shallots and Brussels sprouts. For dessert the donors had individual Haralson apple pie with salty caramel ice cream.

The vice president said he could not stay for dessert because he had to fly out of Minnesota with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid so they could discuss the businesses of the Senate on the plane out. Reid had flown to Minnesota for that purpose.

Meanwhile, the RNC issued this statement on Biden's visit:

"Rather than holding a closed door fundraiser for the DNC, Vice President Biden should convene a public forum with Minnesota's medical technology companies to explain why the Administration wants to tax them out of existence. Minnesota's medical device industry develops the newest in innovative medical breakthroughs, and Vice President Biden should explain why he wants to impose a $4 billion tax on them that will kill jobs. Instead, the Vice President will quietly fly in, have a nice dinner, raise cash for the Democrats, all while trying to pay for a government-run health care experiment at the expense of Minnesota jobs," said LeRoy Coleman, RNC Spokesman.