Capitol View: October 12, 2010 Archive

1st District debate

Posted at 8:30 AM on October 12, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: U.S. MN CD1

The candidates in the race for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District debated health care reform, the federal budget deficit and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The debate, sponsored by Debate Minnesota, was held in Mankato.

Republican Randy Demmer criticized DFL Rep. Tim Walz for voting for the federal health care overhaul bill

Demmer denounced Walz's vote on the federal health care overhaul.

"There is nothing in this health care bill that will drive us to healthy living lifestyles," Demmer said. "Take care of ourselves. Its wrong and it has the wrong people in control of it and it needs to be repealed."

Walz defended his vote, saying it was better than doing nothing.

"We've made a good decision in this country," Walz said. "We've moved forward. It's not going to be perfect. It's going to continue to (be) reassessing. But we've made a step forward."

I-P candidate Steven Wilson told the crowd the bickering between the two main party candidates is why he's the best candidate to get things done.

"Both parties deserve to take responsibility because both of them had a stake in that," Wilson said. "This is something that's been going on for 20 years, that we've become addicted to debt as a nation. We're all responsible."

You can listen to the full debate here: Listen

The copy and audio were supplied by MPR's Elizabeth Baier. Here's her full story on the debate.

Midmorning debate

Posted at 8:52 AM on October 12, 2010 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

The three candidates for governor will debate the issues on MPR's Midmorning at 9AM. We're providing a live blog of the show along with fact-checks of what they're saying:

Clark challenges Bachmann to 8 Town Hall forums UPDATED

Posted at 11:21 AM on October 12, 2010 by Annie Baxter (7 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: U.S. MN CD6

Tarryl Clark, the DFL candidate in Minnesota's 6th District race, is challenging GOP incumbent U.S. House Rep. Michele Bachmann to participate in eight Town Hall Forums.

Clark is also asking Bachmann to show up to tonight's debate in Bachmann's hometown of Stillwater, as well as an October 18th debate in Monticello.

Bachmann's camp has agreed to three debates, all in the final week before the election.

UPDATED 11:50 AM: Sergio Gor, Bachmann's spokesman, says the following in response to the new invitations:

We have announced our debate schedule. The Congresswoman is in the district every day talking with voters. Congresswoman Bachmann has had an ongoing dialogue with her constituents for many years and continues to value voter input.

Clark points out that Bachmann is only doing one public debate that members of her district can attend.

Here's what Clark said about Bachmann on a conference call with reporters:

Is she afraid of coming and talking to me? Is she afraid of what people are going to ask her? What I hear over and over again is that she's not making herself available. And I hear this from Republicans. I hear this from Independents. I hear this from Democrats. She must be afraid of something, and I can't figure out what it is.

Clark and Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson will debate tonight in Stillwater. Bachmann's campaign has indicated she will not attend.

Clark's spokeswoman, Carrie Lucking, says Anderson is not invited to the eight new Town Hall forums the campaign is putting together.

"Voters have the opportunity to see Tarryl and Bob with one another on four different occasions. What they lack right now is the ability to see Tarryl and Congresswoman Bachmann," said Lucking.

Clark says the Town Hall forums will take place regardless of Bachmann's participation. "We want to hear from the community," Lucking said.

The first Town Hall forum will be this Thursday in Woodbury at 7 p.m.

A Rasmussen poll released yesterday shows that 49 percent of likely voters find "most political debates to be informative." The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on October 8-9, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Meanwhile, I can't recall Bachmann's last interview with local media, though she's been talking to national media. She appeared yesterday on Fox Business News. Bachmann did the interview in a studio just up the street from MPR. She has declined two MPR News interview requests in the past week.

Bachmann also appeared last week on Fox talking about U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

UPDATED 11:56 AM: Sergio Gor says "We will have an interview with a local station this week, and a local paper too."

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MCCL backs Cravaack over Oberstar

Posted at 11:10 AM on October 12, 2010 by Tom Scheck (6 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: U.S. House, Campaign 2010: U.S. MN CD8

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. a group opposed to legalized abortion, is backing Republican Chip Cravaack over DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District.

MCCL has backed Oberstar in past elections. Here's the release from MCCL:

"Chip Cravaack exemplifies everything the people of Minnesota's 8th District look for in a candidate for Congress," said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. "Cravaack has a passionate dedication to uphold the constitutional right to life and to protect our country's most vulnerable citizens - the unborn."

Cravaack has made the protection of lives threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia central to his campaign. He strongly believes in the inalienable right to life from conception to natural death. Cravaack opposes the destruction of human embryos for experimentation and supports ethical adult stem cell research, which "has shown great possibilities and does not trade one life to save another," he has stated.

Cravaack and Jim Oberstar, the current 8th District congressman, differ sharply on these issues and on the Obama health care overhaul, which instituted health care rationing and taxpayer funding of abortion. Less than a month before voting for the Obama health care bill, Oberstar stated, "I will not vote for a health care bill that doesn't have the [pro-life] House abortion language in it." The House language, which would have prohibited taxpayer funded abortion, was removed from the final bill, but Oberstar abandoned his pledge and voted in favor of it. He also led an effort to lobby pro-life Democrats in the U.S. House to vote for final passage of the Obama health care bill, even though it included rationing and abortion funding.

"Jim Oberstar has turned away from the pro-life principles he used to hold in common with the citizens of the 8th District," Fischbach said. "He has walked away from the pro-life movement. For years Jim Oberstar has had a 100 percent pro-life voting record and now he has a zero percent pro-life voting record. Just as Jim Oberstar has abandoned the babies, it is time for the voters to retire Jim Oberstar."

Fortunately, voters have a strong pro-life candidate in Chip Cravaack. MCCL Federal PAC urges the people of Minnesota's 8th District to vote for Chip Cravaack. He is the candidate with the courage and conviction to protect unborn babies, senior citizens, disabled persons and everyone else who life is threatened by abortion, health care rationing and other dangers.

Update: Here's a fact-check on whether the federal health care law allows federal funding to cover abortions.

Update:

Oberstar's campaign spokesman John Schadl says voters know Oberstar opposes abortion.

"It's regrettable I think that this decision has been made but people know who Jim is and what his values are. I don't know that this is going to be a game changer. I think we'll work a little harder to just restate Jim's values."

Schadl says Oberstar worked to ensure that federal funds wouldn't be spent on abortions when Congress debated the federal health care overhaul bill earlier this year.

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