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Capitol View: October 28, 2009 Archive

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The Daily Digest

Posted at 7:30 AM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)
Filed under: Daily Digest

The situation in Afghanistan leads the Digest today.

October is the deadliest month in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001.

A new poll says support for a troop surge in Afghanistan increases.

President Obama is closer to a decision on a troop increase.

The brother of Afghanistan's president denies being on the CIA payroll.

GOP Rep. John Kline wrote in an op-ed that now is the time for action in Afghanistan.

CT Senator Joe Lieberman is threatening to block the public option.

Meanwhile, Democrats are downplaying Lieberman's threat.

The Minnesota delegation weighs in on Reid's public option.

An op-ed in the Wall St. Journal says allowing states to opt out means more than health care would be at stake.

The Washington Post says AARP could make millions off of the health care changes it backs.

The FAA revokes the licenses of the two pilots who overshot MSP.

The Obama Administration will reconsider a trucker rule.

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar calls for an investigation into the sweat lodge deaths.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison denounces a call to probe of the Islamic group.

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann is hopeful an air carrier can provide service between St. Cloud and Chicago. Delta announced last week that it was ending flights between St. Cloud and the Twin Cities.

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson is meeting with Rep. Barney Frank to discuss changes to the financial services industry.

Congressional negotiators reached a deal that would exempt 13 Great Lakes shippers from new EPA clean air rules. DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar is mentioned.

Under the Dome

Three state lawmakers head to Washington D.C. today to offer suggestions on the Climate Change bill.

The Twin Cities housing market is the hottest in the country.

Vice-President Joe Biden held a conference call with Gov. Pawlenty and others to discuss the Recovery Act.

Pawlenty also released a transportation proposal that relies on business money to speed up some road projects. Democrats say the state money came from a transportation bill that Pawlenty vetoed. MPR, the Star Tribune and the Pi Press have stories.

He's also forced to defend his spending in rural Minnesota.

Schools are making a strong push for increased funding.

The House Jobs Task Force held a committee hearing in Milaca.

The Minnesota conservation advocacy group downgraded its ranking of dozens of lawmakers.

Groups are pushing for three additional light rail stops along the Central Corridor LRT.

2010 Race for Governor

A bipartisan group of the candidates for governor will be in Anoka today.

The Republican candidates for governor will be in Benton County on Thursday.

MinnPost says there is no DFL frontrunner.

DFL Sen. John Marty says no public money for a Vikings stadium.

DFL Sen. Jim Vickerman is backing Tom Bakk for governor.

Former state Sen. Steve Kelley got two more endorsements from legislators.

Minnesota Republicans send out a mailer to Minneapolis residents asking "Where's R.T?"

Rybak will speak to the Rotary Clubs about the economy.

Conservative blogger Craig Westover will head up the communications efforts for Pat Anderson.

Pawlenty for Prez Watch

Pawlenty tells Human Events that he supports drilling in ANWR. In 2008, the Star Tribune said he supported drilling in ANWR, "though his support was contingent on drilling technologies that do it safely."

The former NRCC Chair, Tom Davis, said Pawlenty's backing of a conservative over the Republican endorsed candidate is disappointing:

"For a lot of moderates who look at Pawlenty as reasonable, it's kind of disappointing," said former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), a former NRCC chairman. "What Republicans have to realize is that they have to form a broad base of support. But that's not how you win the Republican primary."

Pawlenty sidesteps Newt Gingrich's criticism that GOP support for Doug Hoffman as a "purge."

Pawlenty will speak to the NRSC in mid November.

Remember to check our map for all of his out of state travel.

An Iowa group invites Sarah Palin to a November event.

Palin got a $1.25 million advance for her book.

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Pawlenty trails in another 2012 poll

Posted at 9:06 AM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Tim Pawlenty

A CNN poll of more than 1,000 Americans found that Gov. Pawlenty has some work to do if he wants to win the GOP nomination for president in 2012:

In a very early look at the next race for the White House, the survey indicates that nearly one in three Republican voters, 32 percent, say they would be most likely to support former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in a hypothetical battle for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, with Palin seven points back at 25 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 21 percent. Five percent said they would back Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, with one in ten suggesting they would support some one else.

The CNN poll comes two weeks after a Rasmussen Poll also found that Pawlenty was trailing the other potential GOP candidates.

Pawlenty will try to ramp up his approval ratings when he visits Iowa next month. The only problem for Pawlenty is that the rest of the field is also eying Iowa. The Des Moines Register says Huckabee scheduled a book signing one day after Pawlenty's visit and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is being courted by a conservative group.

Anderson to officially kick off her campaign for governor on Monday.

Posted at 11:41 AM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Republican Pat Anderson will officially kick off her campaign for governor next week. The campaign made a request to hold an event inside the Capitol Rotunda between 8:30 and 10:00 AM on November 2nd. Anderson has been in the race for quite some time but this will be the official kick-off event. The former State Auditor also hired Craig Westover to do communications work for the campaign.

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Monday mayoral debates

Posted at 1:28 PM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck


Minnesota Public Radio News presents an interview with the major party endorsed candidates for the mayoral races in St. Paul and Minneapolis. The day before the election, Gary Eichten will interview DFL-endorsed St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman , Republican-endorsed Eva Ng , DFL-endorsed Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak and John Kolstad, who is endorsed by the Republican and Independence parties, live on Midday.

Noon-12:30 Coleman and Ng
12:30-1:00 Kolstad and Rybak

I'm told that tickets for the event are free but you have to register.

Candidates want more college students, lower tuition

Posted at 4:04 PM on October 28, 2009 by Tim Pugmire
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

anoka21.JPG
Six candidates for governor shared their visions for post-secondary education today during an event at Anoka Technical College.

Four DFLers and two Republicans participated in the bipartisan forum. Much of the discussion focused on issues like tuition rates, textbook costs and the availability of jobs. State Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, pledged to lower community college tuition as governor.

"When I appoint MnSCU board of trustees members, I'm going to give them the directive from the governor's office that their job is to get us out of the top ten in tuition costs for our community college students," Seifert said. "We are pricing people out of the market and the ability for them to work their way through school."

Seifert also said he wants to make sure college graduates have jobs available. And he repeated his contention that high taxes are hurting Minnesota's business climate. Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, took issue with the claim. Thissen said Seifert and other Republicans are doing the state a disservice with their comments.

It's a great place to start of business," Thissen responded. "And these myths that Rep. Seifert and others throw around saying everybody's flocking away from Minnesota because of one single thing, is terrible for this state. And we don't need a governor who's going to continue down that path."

Former state Sen. Steve Kelley said he wants to raise taxes to solve the state budget deficit and increase education spending. Kelley said he wants all children to graduate from some post-secondary program.

"One of the biggest changes that I would make as governor is a shift from this view that higher eduction is only a private good, and therefore we can ask students to pay more and more tuition because it's good for them," Kelley said. "We have to pay attention to the fact that higher education is also a public good. That we all benefit from having more people graduate from higher education."

Sen. Mike Jungbauer, R-East Bethel, wants money to invest too. But he doesn't want to raise taxes. Jungbauer said he would prefer making a shift in tax policy.

"The way we tax today is on income, which is actually punitive, and we're taxing production," Jungbauer explained. "We need to go to a statewide sales tax, or some way to tax consumption versus production." It's much more stable and will actually generate more money."

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said he wants to increase post-secondary participation as well as high school graduation rates.

"We are the only industrialized country in the world where the current crop of high school kids is going to have a lower graduation rate than their parents generation," Marty said. "That's not the way you build for the 21st century."

Organizers of the higher education event invited all the announced DFL and GOP candidates for governor. They said nine were expected to participate, but only six showed up. Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said she was disappointed by the absences.

"What you're looking at up here is not even a third of the announced gubernatorial candidates from the DFL and Republican parties," Gaertner said. "Why aren't the rest of them here? Why aren't we all talking about this very critical issue?"

Here's the complete audio: Listen

Groups want photo id requirement at St. Paul polling places.

Posted at 4:12 PM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck (2 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010

The Minnesota Voters Alliance and the Citizen's for Responsible Taxation say they're launching a petition drive to change the St. Paul city charter to require voters to present photo identification in St. Paul city elections. The groups say the want to submit the necessary signatures by July 10th, 2010 to get a question on the November, 2010 ballot. The groups argue that photo identification will reduce fraud at the ballot box:

"Voter ID protects the rights of legitimate voters! If undocumented persons, convicted felons and dead people are allowed to vote, or if properly registered voters have their identities stolen by someone casting an illegal ballot, THE VOTES OF ALL LEGITIMATE VOTERS ARE DEVALUED!

The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters. Photo identification cards currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check or even rent a rug doctor."

The Minnesota Voter's Alliance unsucessfully sued to prevent Minneapolis from using instant runoff voting in this year's election. Former Republican Secretary of State (and now state rep) Mary Kiffmeyer is on the group's board of advisers.

Meanwhile, opponents of the photo id requirement say there has never been an example of voter impersonation on the books and it will cost the state and local government millions to enact. Here's DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on the issue from February:

"The only argument that's ever made is that this will prevent voter impersonation," Ritchie said. "I've looked through 150 years of Minnesota voting history and haven't found one case. But we have now determined how much the proposals will cost and it's millions for everybody. The locals, the state, everybody involved."

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Franken, Kelliher and Rybak to raise money for Clark

Posted at 5:48 PM on October 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: U.S. House

I just got my hands on a fundraiser that says U.S. Sen. Al Franken, MN House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, MN Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will host a fundraiser for state Sen. Tarryl Clark's campaign for Congress.

The fundraiser comes on the heels of a campaign finance report that showed DFL Congressmen Jim Oberstar, Keith Ellison and Collin Peterson donated to Clark's campaign.

Clark is seeking the DFL nomination against Maureen Reed. Whoever wins the nomination will face off against GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann.

FYI:

MPR's Tim Pugmire takes a look at the contest between Clark and Reed.

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The feature examines statements made by Minnesota politicians and checks them for accuracy. Based on data analysis, document reviews and interviews with non-partisan analysts, statements are rated either true, false or inconclusive. PoliGraph is a collaboration between Minnesota Public Radio News and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. More

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