Category: DFL Gov 2010

by Dave Mindeman
dmindeman06@yahoo.com

OK, here we go with the DFL Governor list.

I'm not exactly sure what action or event is going to pare this list down. I suspect we will be heading into the 2010 precinct caucuses with everybody in it. Unless, the end of year fund raising figures show some wide differentials. We'll have to see.

The September 15th IRV test run straw poll was a little too confined to be of much value. MAK ended up the winner with Rybak a strong second....but that result had to be expected as most of the voting came from Minneapolis constituents.

The other significant event is that the DFL is moving their convention date to April. That changes a lot of the dynamics and I'll talk a little about that as we go.

Other than that, most of the action is below the radar with local fundraising and meet and greets.

Just as an aside, you can probably see from the side columns that we will be having another Governor Candidate speaker event at mnpACT! in November. Our guests will be Matt Entenza and Tom Bakk. Good chance to get up close and personal.

Now...to the line.

11. Susan Gaertner (formerly #10): The recent endorsement by Patty Wetterling, notwithstanding, Gaertner needs something to shake up the campaign. It is hard for her to get media attention outside of the ongoing RNC court dates. And, frankly, that is the kind of attention she really doesn't need. Unless something favorable and dramatic happens there, I don't see much happening to move her chances.

10. Steve Kelly (formerly #9): Kelly has been trying different things and he has been moving among the potential delegates. Steve has enough old political capital to at least get a hearing with people and that may end up having a cumulative effect. Since he is not a legislator, he can render his opinions on legislative action without much push back. I think we are all waiting for fundraising numbers.

9. Tom Rukavina (formerly #11): Rukavina is a high energy guy and he needs that to come from the back of the pack in a later start. He also has a legislative advantage in that he is a committee chair and the media is always looking to him for a good quote. Since the convention happens right toward the end of session, that is a plus.

8. Tom Bakk (formerly #8): Bakk is still establishing himself as a moderate legislator in a left leaning field. He is going to have to push an electability meme which needs to be credentialed. Rukavina and Bakk will also be competing for Iron Range support and right now, Rukavina might get the edge as that type of regional candidate. Bakk is still a work in progress.

7. Chris Coleman (formerly #5): Coleman has the danger of getting bogged down in his mayoral race as the Republicans seem to be trying to create an opening about his potential and clearly unannounced gubernatorial bid. It is a little awkward to bulk up your staff and use generic signs and then try to convince everyone that you are taking it one step at a time. Coleman needs to be careful and not let any of this escalate.

6. John Marty (formerly #7): With health care front and center, and the Congressional Democrats wimping out, Marty is getting a lot of delegate traction. The earlier convention date is also helpful for him as he continues to push his health care bill in the state Senate. Being a maverick on this issue will not hurt him with frustrated progressives. But can that carry him through a general election? He clearly can't backtrack on this -- he's committed. (Not that that is a bad thing -- just tougher to make a general election case.)

5. Paul Thissen (formerly #6): Thissen keeps edging up, (IMHO), as he makes his case directly to the rank and file. Unlike Marty, he is trying to hold a more moderate position on issues. But what he really needs to do is to generate some splash during the legislative session this year. A good show of strong leadership in a number of areas might get him the real attention he needs.

4. Mark Dayton (formerly #2): Mark still gets points for being honest about moving toward a primary, but that may take him out of the publicity loop until the convention has decided. He needs to have at least a decent showing with delegates...and I think he will. But the legislative session and the immediacy of the convention after that will allow for bigger public personas for the rest of the field and might reduce his name recognition advantage. Still, it is hard to bet against him in a state wide race.

3. R.T. Rybak (formerly #3): There seems to be a pent up demand for support...waiting for a Rybak formal announcement. The Minneapolis Teamsters couldn't even wait as they made a formal endorsement for governor to a candidate who is still running for Minneapolis mayor. Rybak seems to have escaped Coleman's situation -- and some of that comes from the fact that Minneapolis did not have a primary this year, moving to Ranked Choice Voting. Really, of the two mayors, Rybak is by far the best positioned to make a strong and quick transition if he formalizes this.

2. Margaret Anderson Kelliher (formerly #4): When the convention dates were moved up, my first reaction was that the Speaker would be so busy with legislative business that her campaign would have to suffer. And in an organizational sense, it might. However, after a little more time to think it over, I decided that the direct confrontations the Speaker will naturally have with Governor Pawlenty will be to her distinct advantage (at least in regards to the DFL endorsement). She will be the direct opponent and she will have the opportunity to make the DFL case in opposition to Pawlenty, directly and with full media access. I think that MAK has probably moved into the favorite position for endorsement. She also clearly, will have an army of Legislative endorsements to help back her candidacy.

1. Matt Entenza (formerly #1): A strong challenge from the Speaker makes this #1 slot a little more tenuous, but MAK has not proven to anyone..(at least up to this point), that she can compete on the money side of the ledger. Entenza still has the best options moneywise and he continues to do the "grunt" work of moving about the state, making the appearances and letting people get to know him. And as the former minority leader he has picked up some legislative endorsements of his own. Still, the rest of the pack is gaining ground -- he isn't the clear front runner any more.

As I have stated before, this is just one observer's opinion. Take it all with a grain of salt. But we will continue to evaluate what the new convention dates mean...how deeply delegates are going to feel about by-passing the convention by some candidates....and of course, money, money, money.

Stay tuned and stay informed.

Category: GOP Politics

by Dave Mindeman

This really is getting tiresome.

Has the Minnesota Republican Party become so idea deficient that they have given up on policy ideas and just simply toss out allegations like spaghetti against the wall and hope it sticks?

GOP candidates call for ACORN probe

ACORN certainly has had some bad nuts to deal with...just as certainly as David Vitter has his frequent bordello visitor card. But really, is this not just a pre-convention publicity stunt???

As I said when Katherine Kersten disseminated her own ACORN Voter Fraud diatribe....

First, the Franken/Coleman court case scrutinized the Minnesota election system in a detail that would have caused a lesser system to collaps. Yet, outside of some outside talk and veiled allegations, there was never any official complaint about any voter registration issues. There was a great deal of discussion about how absentee ballots were handled and counted, but there was no court investigation about fraudulent registrations.

And Eric Black weighed in at MinnPost on the same issue:

From Kersten to ACORN to Franken to no evidence whatsoever

As I've written before, the lack of any evidence of fraud, or even attempted fraud, in this excruciatingly close, highly scrutinized election is something of which Minnesota should be proud.

But for some reason, that never seems to stop the MN GOP. It is an ingrained modus operandi of Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb.

So, if you thought that maybe Minnesota would get a serious issues debate in the Governor's race this year. You would be wrong. If you remotely thought that our budget situation would be job one. You would also be wrong. And if you thought that the MN Republican Party was going to change what it does after 2 cycles of solid defeat. Well, you would be wrong once more.

Category: Health Care

By Alan Anderson

The health care debate continues to miss the most important issue of all. While many opposed to health care reform, especially single payer and universal access, believe the biggest issue is cost and a universal system would bankrupt our economy, the real issues are spiritual and moral in nature. Opponents say this at a time when CEOs from United Health Group make more than $120 million dollars per year and when profits of the company are up 155% in the last quarter. Congressman Kline, in his recent town hall meeting on health care, when asked about the exorbitant salaries of CEOs and the high profits of health insurance companies, responded by defending them as simply attributes of a free market system. In response, he asked the audience, “since when has profit been made a bad word?” The issue is that profit is not a bad word. Rather, it is obscene profit of such enormous proportions that are the bad words. And the word behind this desire to be rich at the expense of others is greed --simple, ugly, unadulterated greed.

Andrew Greeley wrote of this issue a few years ago (Chicago Sun Times, August 20, 2004). He suggested that greed was the most serious spiritual problem in the country: reckless and untrammeled greed. It was responsible for corporate scandals, such as Enron, and for crooked cops and crooked politicians. It drives efforts to get huge tax cuts for the rich, for outsourcing work to other countries for cheaper labor, and for the general stress in the workplace as everyone struggles to get ahead .

It was greed that drove the Congress to deregulate the banking industry in the late 1990s so they could participate in riskier, more lucrative financial ventures. It was greed that drove Bernie Madoff to cheat and swindle a whole host of people and charities out of their money. It was greed that drove the murders of the narcotics world. It was greed that drove the insurance companies to defeat the people of the Gulf Coast who needed money to rebuild their homes.

Churches and religious organizations have weighed in on greed. As Greeley reminds us, the Catholic Church speaks of four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: two are cheating workers out of their wages and exploiting widows and children. These sins happen every day in America.

Throughout the ages prophets and sages have warned us against the perils of greed. It is greed that directs our interest away from people, love, and humanity, to selfishness, hoarding, and the acquisition of individual power and wealth at the expense of others. It is a greedy society that allows, as Greeley reminds us, CEOs to make 500 times more than the average worker. This means the “boss makes as much before lunch as the worker makes all year.”

And the greed in the health care debate is not without serious consequences. Whether we want to believe it or not, more than 20,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health coverage. That is almost 400 people a week, or 55 a day, who are killed by policies that deny coverage to 45 million people. When it comes to issues of morality and spirituality, this is not the way most Americans want to be known…to their neighbors or to the world.

It is time to address our greatest health challenge: greed. By confronting those who place profits above people, those who think it is OK to allow Americans to die needlessly because we can’t challenge the obscene profit motives of many health care companies, we ask them simply to follow the spiritual mores of America when she is great. It is time to follow the dictates of the antonym of greed --- generosity. America can again be a generous nation, not a greedy country. And when that happens, we will all feel better and be healthier for it.