Minnesota Campaign Report - Recent Comments

Afraid of either of them...

Emeraldking65 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:48:59 GMT

I don't like Paulsen because he says he is able to reach across the aisle yet duing his time as Majority Leader he let our government shut down. What kind of leadership is that? Madia, outside his military experience what else has he done for the community? Was he part of anything? At least Dillon is part of the community. Raised his children in the 4rd CD. His business is in the 4rd CD. He understand economics better than most. He has a plan for our future. These 2 will do nothing once there because they will have to listen to those special interest that are trying to buy your vote and then once they are there either of them will have to abide by what they want. Dillon at least will not have that kind of influence upon him but the influence of the voters.
A vote for Dillon is a vote for you not a vote for special interests. Tired of all those rotten comercials? I am. If you think all of this rotten treatment will stop once elected I can bet it won't. I want someone with real answers and willing to listen. I don't believe that any of the other 2 will. Ashwin is trying to be a careeer politican and Erik is one. Dillon is trying to fix what is wrong with our current system. He is not looking for a new career. I believe he has a successful one and didn't quit his to run for office.

Whose poll?

rainman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:04:34 GMT

It seems a little strange the KSTP's poll is the one that show Coleman leading. Doesn't Hubbard own the station and isn't he a huge GOP supporter...funny how a later poll by the Star Tribune shows just the opposite. I think the voters are tiring of Coleman's dirty campaigning and false, misleading ads. Franken's last ad with Franni was a winner! I think he's really picking up steam, but both he and Coleman need to be aware of Barkley. It will be intersting if Barkley has more to say on his ads than "they are the problem, and I'm not one of them".

endorsement

rainman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:08:23 GMT

What Opperman has done is basically endorse moderate Democrats like Ashwin & Al Franken, so without naming names, we need only to fill in the blanks. Since these two are the only candidates that have consistently proposed this type of common sense approach to solving our economic problems (as well as saving many lives in Iraq) we need to do what Vance suggests......Vote for Madia & Franken!

Not so subtle

rainman — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:01:53 GMT

When the same terminology is used both in the GOP press conference and then again in their "childish" commandeering of the microphone after Madia had finished his press conference and left the room, it's no stretch at all to believe that what we heard was indeed "racist" and at the least in poor taste, shameless, and embarrassing! If Michel intends to run for re-election in 2 years he has already recruited a number of voters that will be happy to help defeat him....he is really arrogent or just plain stupid! Ron Carey...he's a joke and not worth listening to...the Republicans deserve what he gives them.

Incest is best?

fredmarkus — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:15:30 GMT

I attended the 1994 state convention as a John Marty/Ann Wynia supporter from south Minneapolis and I was not amused, as Queen Victoria would say, by the sullen resistance of the union crowd to Marty's candidacy. Just my humble opinion then, new to the voluntary party process. Since then, I've acquired plenty of bruises and battle scars for not being "an obedient servant".

Yet another example drawn from English political history: the notion of the "rotten borough". There are some seats in the Legislature that are ultra-safe DFL seats and IMHO this leads to the illusion of entitlement (as in the pretensions of the English aristocracy) and complacency. There's also a strong tendency at the municipal level to substitute personal ambition and opportunism for the more seemly practices of representative government that we expect from those we elect.

IMHO new blood has tended to migrate to the Greens on the left and the Independence Party on the right. This has the effect of sapping the volunteer energies one would reasonably expect to see coalescing around the DFL's standard-bearers and not so surprisingly, the traditional Republican money advantage is thus indirectly reinforced by the DFL's incestuous bad habits. Not that the GOP has clean skirts. They get downright loonie at times and were and still are shamefully disrespectful of Governor Arnie Carlson. Jessie emerged the victor in what amounted to a political vacuum in the two major parties.

If the DFL persists in their "top-down" approach to volunteer involvement, the GOP will benefit accordingly because they are simply better at internal discipline and have great buckets of money. If the Obama crew moves both national and state-level Democratic organizations toward "bottom-up" planning, they will empower grassroots participants who may well have more facile skills than the apparachiks that linger on while the world passes them by.

Fred Markus

too intra-party

PaintBoy — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:38:19 GMT

There has seemed to be a very insular path to the DFL gubernatorial nomination. The sense I've gotten is that there is a wait-in-line approach, with party seniority, dues-paying, and favor-hording playing far too large a role in who gets the nod. The senior, waited their time candiates like Moe and Hatch just didn't resonate with anyone, and could really only count on general party loyalty... which doesn't do anything to pull in the nonpartisan or fence-sitters.

I don't think it's a coincidence that some of the DFL's successes have occured when the candidate jumped the line, or came from outside the box... Amy K, Tim W, Paul W

not to say they're any less DFL...I'd argue that the closer to rank-and-file, the more DFLish someone is... just that they didn't seem like apparatchiks waiting their due turn as if it was just a promotion

And the opposing opinion says ...

Gordon — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:05:13 GMT

Actually the state government worked a lot better during Ventura's governorship. Appointees to commissions and boards were based on merit, not past political debts. Appointees came from a mix of Democrats, Republicans and non-partisan professionals. We didn't have "Carol Molnaus" under Ventura. And I know Carol is not your favorite, but we would end up with the equivalent political hacks looking for a payback job under any DFL governor.

You may not agree with the sentiments of my writing, but trying to shut down thought with "sorry to be rude" headlines because you disagree is not the most stimulating way to expand thought.

I don't mean to be rude

Joe Bodell — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:43:43 GMT

But the last time we had a Governor from what is now the Independence Party, nothing got done to anyone's satisfaction. The point of this diary is not to encourage that kind of chicanery in the Senate or Gubernatorial race, but to discuss ways for the DFL to improve its track record in the front corner office.

The rise of the Independence Party

Gordon — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:23:28 GMT

The truth of the matter is that we really need a strong Independence Party candidate to take back the governorship. We need to break the gridlock of the two party monopoly that has brought our society to the brink of educational, economic and foreign policy disaster.

The latest KSTP-Survey USA poll puts Barkley at 19 percent. Hopefully he can pull off a "shock the world" victory. And then the Independence Party can come back strong with a top caliber gubernatorial candidate. I really like the idea of Tammy Lee running for governor.