Rambling from the North

Today's post has nothing to do with politics, but to do with a news story. This is every kid's dream. When I was younger, I wanted to get in one of those things, all my friends did, this kid finally got to, lucky kid.

Its a good thing he was ok, and didn't get hit by the claw. "oooh, he was chosen, you must go! Worship the claw" (toy story 1). That would have been painful, but an easier way to get him out then breaking the glass!

I attended the Olmstead County Convention this weekend, boy was it long! It went up until the school kicked them out and turned the lights off halfway through sub-caucusing! Sometimes, I think the republicans have it right... who needs this whole democracy, gender-balanced stuff? oh wait... we do...

Anyways, one of the highlights of the day was Shelia Kiscaden spoke. She brought a Kelly Doran sign up, and folded it halfway, hiding Doran's name, to leave her own.

She said she was persuing it with several of the current candidates, and then gave a heartwarming speech about the slogan Doran had used: More principal, less politics. It was a good speech, but one thing is very clear Kiscaden has made it her mission to be on the ballot in November under someone. My theory is Hatch.

So watch for her to be lobbying and still speaking on her own behalf. I guess it really is less principal, more Kiscaden.

A new statue ready to go up in New York is for the anti-choicers. However, I cannot think of a worse statue then this.

Yes, thats right. Sean Preston... otherwise known as Brittany Spears' baby. Can you believe that? Seriously? This monument is a dedication to Brittany Spears chosing to keep her baby instead of having an abortion.

Now this could jsut be me... but chosing to have a baby by accident and ruining what was left of your pathetic career should not be held up as a good thing. But leave it to the anti-choicers to do just that. They have nothing left of course but Brittany Spears... how sad.

The Senate Elections Committee voted to reduce the number of legislators in the senate from 67 to 45, and in the house from 134 to 90 in 2012.

I can't believe this. Not only can i not believe that legislators would want to lose their own jobs, but that they think less people can better accurately reflect the views on Minnesotans.

In my opinion, the current legislature barely reflects the make up of Minnesota. The Ironrange and Farmers however, have far less representation, and it seems every other block in Minneapolis has its own representative. To expand this would only do harm. We would see more disenfranchisement, not less.

In most parts of the state, the house member is well known. They walk into the local pub, everyone knows their name. They walk into the grocery store and are greated by everyone. not because they are a celebrity, but because they are part of the community. This would in effect, drastically enlarge the size of our communities, to make them unwieldy.

This can only end badly.

I guess Tim Penny isn't actually running, just opening a fund to deal with some money--you have to admit, it is odd timing though... and if he were smart, he could have capitalized on this year and the state shutdown... but at least Hutchinson will benefit probably from a large donation from Tim Penny's former campaign.

This just in from the Secretary of State's campaign registration form- Tim Penny has filed a campaign committee to run for Governor this year. Penny, a spoiler of Roger Moe's election (aside from Moe's poor campaign tactics) is running as an independence party candidate.

This comes as an interesting addition to an already tight Governor's race. None of the polling done thus far includes Penny as a candidate, so results could be completely skewed, probably in the democrats favor.

Peter Hutchinson, a democrat running as an independent is also seeking the Governor's mansion this fall, but with a low name recognition and very low income, Hutchinson hasn't been able to impact the Governor's race significantly right now.

This is an interesting addition to the race but not a pleasant one for democrats.

My blog has apparently gone AWOL for a bit. I hope this post goes through but blogger has decided to screw my blog up, so I appologize if you are confued and lost for a few days.
Sorry!

Martin Olav Sabo is retiring his seat in the fifth congressional district. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to him. Sabo, who has been a drinker and smoker for years, has made more then 3 hospital trips a month for the past several months, speculation includes whether he is suffering from cancer or not. We here wish him the best and hope it is not a health related issue that has driven him to retire.

Aside from our well wishes, it is time to analyze a race that hasn't even started, but does tomorrow morning. The following is a list of predicted candidates and their chances.

Mike Erlandson- Erlandson is currently Sabo's chief of staff and has been preparing to succeed him for years now. Erlandson's decision to not seek the secretary of State Position he was long rumored to covet, is now not a surprising decision. He more then likely knew about Sabo's retirement for awhile now, lined up donors, supporters, and is read to come out in a strong charge. However, not being an elected official and the enemies he made while chair of the DFL leave him with only mild chances of success.

Mark Ritchie- Ritchie's biggest opponent, is not Kiffmeyer or Sande but CAFTA. A spot opening where he could take his fair trade agenda would be perfect for him. I'm sure Ritchie is considering right now whether to switch races or not. Due to his strong polling, I doubt he will, but there is a chance, he's got the network, if he did decide to do this, he has a decent shot.

Senator Scott Dibble- Dibble has widely been rumored to desire that seat. Its the only logical promotion for him. He has a strong backing in what is largely known as the "Minneapolis Mafia", the same group that helped elect DFL chairman Brian Melendez. Dibble has a strong shot at the endorsement.

Representative Keith Ellison- Ellison too has a good shot at this seat. He has worked hard and made sure to get his voice out there. Slightly less hated then Dibble in a harshly divided Minneapolis, he has a good chance of uniting both sides in support of him.

Mayor R.T. Rybak- After a resounding re-election in Minneapolis, Rybak has a lot of support, a lot of money, and a guaranteed job should he lose. Rumor has it he has his eye on Coleman's seat, but why not start out as Congressman?

City Councilman Gary Schiff- Another prominent person that could possibly run for the seat with a large base of support in Minneapolis, Schiff has a shot but he's drawing from the same crowd that Dibble and Ellison would be drawing on. It'd be a hard squeeze for him to out due both of those two.

Senator Satveer Chaudhary- The only real potential candidate from the suburbs Chaudhary has been out there for the past six months making a name for himself. He has worked hard and received several large rewards in recent months. His eye has always been on the congressional seat and, with a hard push and a lot of work, he could energize the suburban fifth to fill in the ranks and vote him in while the inner-city fight amongst themselves. He has a medium chance.

I have heard some speculation on both Senator Kelley and Represenatitive Simon joining the race but I highly doubt it. Kelley is committed and wouldn't have a good shot at all. Simon, while working hard and winning his seat over Rhodes, does not have anywhere near the clout or name recognition to pull off even a quasi-campaign in the fifth. He would be better off staying in the house a few years, proving he can hold the seat, slip to the other half of his district and run for congress in the third (I wish).

So far these are the people I see as likely candidates. I might have missed a few, but hopefully this is a good beginning rundown. Feel free to post other ideas in the comments section, have a happy and safe St. Patty's day.

We've finally made it! Our short war, has lasted 3 whole years with no signs of turning back! Every day more American boys are dying. But at least Bush got his war, his re-election, and over 2000 lives on his head.

Since Mark Dayton is to busy calling Russ Feingold's censure dangerous, I'm guessing no action against Bush will take place. Only God can judge him now, which sucks for the rest of us.

DFLers had a very interesting article yesterday about a fundraiser for Mark Kennedy.

Apparently Elizabeth Dole and Mark Ritchie are using the same writers when she said the following abou Amy Klobuchar.

According to our source, one reason Senator Dole gave for the need to elect
Kennedy was:
[with noticeable disgust in her voice] "I’m certainly aware of
the fact that we don’t need anymore lawyers in the United States Senate. We got
plenty of those already."

I guess I'm not surprised that Ritchie is looking to the republican for things to say, I'm just surprised he would be this blatant about it. What negativity can we expect next out of Ritchie?

The Secretary of State's race is now threatening to become a negative campaign.

In a surprising move, frontrunner Mark Ritchie fired the first shot up north, where he probably didn't think it'd be noticed.

During a campaign stop in the Falls, Ritchie questioned Sande's leadership ability.

"I think lawyers are great," Ritchie said. "But lawyers are not leaders. What this state needs is a leader."

Source- International Falls Journal

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but a lot of lawyers have made great leaders. Perhaps Ritchie was too busy helping Ralph Nader to ask him how much he enjoyed Law School?

That or the Kennedys, Lincoln, Clinton, and pretty much every other leader the United States has ever had that's been even half decent.

Kudos to Mark Ritchie on alienating half of the political base in one shot!

I haven't seen this reported anywhere else, but here's what I've been told so far:

Edwards has pulled out of the Auditor's race. Not because Rebecca Otto was schooling him, but because a law prevents county employees from actively campaigning to seek public office.

Now, this is just me, but at the point over a year ago he decided to run for public office, wouldn't you think someone running to be auditor would have checked or known the laws? Definitely takes away any confidence I might have had that he could have been a good auditor. I guess its Rebecca, and that's who we all support now.

Edwards has also taken down his website. I will be leaving the link up for a few days just to confirm then it will be taken down.

Congratulations Rebecca.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has just called for a presidential Censure. Its about time! Finally one out of 44 Senators has the balls to stand up to the republicans and openly call Bush on his lies, cheating, and harming of America.
Hats off to Senator Feingold.

I know I haven't posted in awhile but this has been a hectic week. I was a site manager for a caucus on tueseday, and had several mid terms wednesday, thursday, and friday. Including a few papers. At some point you just collapse.
I hit that point about wednesday night.

So I haven't blogged in quite some time. I didn't put up the straw poll numbers, I didn't analyze them, and I guess I'm behind the times.
But thats ok! I am going to pick up where I left off and continue forward. So I'm back and hopefully will have some interesting things to post soon!

Today, The AP reported that Kirby Puckett has died at the age of 45.

This is the final nail in the coffin of my childhood. It is like when you heard the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus weren't real.

I remember the first time I met Kirby Puckett, I was probably 4 or 5, and my Mom took me to a twins camp before t-ball started. I still have the ball he signed for me. I also remember going to game 6 of the 1991 world series, liking the hot dogs more then the game. But, I was there.

Everyone about my age (18-30) remembers Puckett as their hero. He led us to two World Series, and made the twins a real team. I will mourn Puckett greatly, he was too young to go.

So MDE is now on their 14th post or so about the Republican CD. Anyone out there besides me think this is major overcompensation?

His over-zealous responce to this CD just proves a point- the republicans are running scared. You can only defendsomething and point fingers elsewhere so many times before it raises eyebrows. This has gone beyond that level.

Good job MPR and DFLers.org for keeping them paranoid and panicing on this issue.



PS. I have been having some serious laptop problems over the past two weeks, hence the lack of posts. After I'm done with a few papers I will be taking the laptop in. HOpefully I'll be back up and running by caucus night.
Thanks!