Shot in the Dark

Category: Campaign ’14

  • The Unthinkable

    It was about this time four years ago that a small group of bloggers and activists got a call from the Chip Cravaack campaign; the challenger was within the margin of error against 200-term congressman Jim Oberstar. It was unthinkable. And was one of the headiest days in my life as a political activist; the Tea…

  • It’d Be Better Than Jeb

    Joe Doakes from Como Park emails: Well, if my other choice was some RINO like Chris Christie or Lindsay Graham, then yes, I’d vote “V” against Hillary. Who would have thought we’d see the day when Republicans – some of us, anyway – think of call Rove and his clients as just this side of…

  • Doug Grow, Narrative Policeman

    Surgeons do surgery. Baseball players?  They play baseball. And Doug Grow? For four decades and change, generations of Minnesota voters know that Doug Grow is synonymous for flogging and fluffing the DFL narrative. Yesterday’s MinnPost piece on the Severson press conference (which I wrote about yesterday) is one for the record books. The DFL and media…

  • The Incredible Imploding Steve Simon

    DFL Secretary of State candidate Steve Simon hasn’t had the easiest time of it. First, he barely squeaked through his own DFL primary – getting 42% against a longtime perennial candidate and a future perennial candidate, in a primary race that should have been a coronation.  Of course, he’s up against Dan Severson, a candidate…

  • Quote Of The Day

    GOP governor candidate Jeff Johnson at yesterday’s debate in Duluth, asked if he and Governor Messinger Dayton had anything in common: “We both love our dogs, and want to control my life”.

  • Promises, Promises

    Governor Dayton, reacting to rumors that have circulated among everyone in the state who’s paying attention that he’s going to resign within a year or two of re-election, to leave Tina “The Butcher” Flint Smith as an unelected governor, promises he’ll serve out his term if re-elected: Dayton, 67, told The Associated Press in an…

  • Thanks, But No Thanks

    Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun grab group issued a long series of endorsements in congressional races, including over 50 Democrat incumbents. Conspicuous by his absence? Rick Nolan, in the 8th Congressional District.. And after all he’s done for them…: Some incumbents didn’t make the Everytown list. The group didn’t endorse Rep. Rick Nolan…

  • Nail-Biter?

    According to Rasmussen, Franken leads McFadden by eight points – but only by three points (48 to 46) among people who are “certain” to vote: Yesterday, Roll Call included Franken on their top-ten list of the most vulnerable U.S. Senators facing re-election in 2014. McFadden had a “fiery” performance in his debate with Franken yesterday…

  • Chanting Points Memo: “Only 4.5%!”

    A friend of mine on Facebook (who admits he based it on a statement by Senator Michelle Benson, on the Dave Thompson show) notes the wierdness of the state’s math in arriving at the “4.5% increase in MNSure Premiums” number that the media is trumpeting. He put it this way:  If a fast food restaurant…

  • Waves

    Watching last night’s gubernatorial debate in Rochester, it’s easy to see why Governor Messinger’s Dayton’s handlers didn’t want to have too many televised debates, and wanted to make sure they were only televised on outlets like C-Span and Farmington Cable Access.  He was awful. At one point, I could have sworn I heard him mumble…

  • More Of That “Blowing Sunshine Up Minnesota’s Skirt” Thing…

    I read yesterday’s headlines about the new, Preferred-One-Free MNSure rates, and got ready to write. Then, I got an email from a friend who works in the Healthcare industry, which explains it much better: The headlines on MNSure saying premiums rose only 4.5%.  This reminds me of an old story. A friend of mine was flying…

  • For Those Tired Of That “Smoke Up Their Skirt” Feeling.

    Daytonomics – a noun, referring to economic conditions that look rosy on the surface, but worse and worse the more one examines them.  See also: “Potemkin”.   The DFL is running the bulk of their state campaigns – the Legislature, the Constitutional Officers and Governor – on the notion that two years of Daytonomics have left…

  • Danger To Self And Others

    CD8 DFL representative Rick Nolan was photographed on “hunting trip” photo op, carrying an eeeevil black assault rifle AR-15. Anyone see the problem? Answer below the jump.

  • The DFL’s Edina Brahmins

    Why does the DFL hate the First Amendment? Trackers – interns for various campaigns and groups filming footage of politicians giving speeches and doing other public appearances – have been a fixture of Minnesota political life for at least a decade now. Most politicians – and by “most” I mean “everyone I’ve encountered, from every…

  • Keith Ellison And That Famous DFL Civility

    Here’s a blast from the past:  Keith Ellison, in an interview on KFAI (a little community station that serves as the drum-pounding id of the loony liberal West Bank, and for which I was a news guy for a while in the early ’90s) exhibits that reach-across-the-aisle comity that Lori Sturdevant is always demanding (from…

  • Lowballed

    SCENE:  At the Mississippi Market co-op in Saint Paul.  Mitch BERG is shopping for steel-cut oatmeal.  He notices Avery LIBRELLE turning into his aisle, looking for free-range humane tofu.  He tries to turn and leave, but it’s already too late.  LIBRELLE:  Hey, Merg!  The Free Market is collapsing! BERG:  Er, OK – how do you…

  • First, The MNGOP Fixed The Deficit

    And now, the DFL is bringing it back. Any questions?

  • If You Live In Albertville…

    … Walter Hudson is running a write-in campaign for city Council. Please pass the word.

  • ABM: Wrong About Minnesota

    I haven’t had the time to do as much in the way of digging into the DFL ad machine this cycle as in some past cycles.  It’s been a crazy summer. Fortunately, Bill Glahn is on patrol Glahn takes apart one of the latest flight of anti-Johnson ads from the Alliance for a Better Minnesota…

  • MPR: Everything Is Juuuuust Fine

    Mark Twain once observed that there are three types of media “fact-check” efforts:  Democrat PR puff-pieces, Bald-Faced Democrat PR puff-pieces, and legit ones. A good fact-checker will note that Twain said no such thing.  My first paragraph was really a bit of hyperbole. As such, it wasn’t intended to be a “factual” statement, per se,…

  • Their Master’s Voice

    The latest poll numbers must be scaring the DFL; the Strib has officially switched into full-time shill mode. In a paper full of “reporters” whose prime directive seems to be “fawn on the DFL”, Ricardo Lopez seems to be aiming for Columnist’s Row with yesterday’s paeon to the wonders of the Minnesota economy: With business…

  • Shot In The Dark: Today’s News, Three Weeks Ago!

    The Good News:  Aaron Rupar yesterday became the first Twin Cities reporter to cover Ron Erhardt’s bizarre alleged [*] outburst to Andrew Rothman, of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance.  Rothman was contacting the 84-year-old Edina representative to remind him to return  his biennial gun rights survey.  According to an affadavit from Rothman, Erhardt told…

  • There’s Gambling Going On In This Establishment…

    I’m not “Minnesota Nice”. Partly it’s because I’m not from Minnesota.  I’m “North Dakota Dour and Taciturn”.   Minnesota is a South Beach conga line dance compared to North Dakota.  And when I hear “Minnesota Nice”, what I think is “Minnesota Passive-Aggressive”.  Bill Salisbury – one of the deans of Minnesota political reporting – and Don…

  • Minnesota’s Potemkin Party

    Minnesota’s Independence Party has been, since its founding in 1998 from the remains of the Minnesota Reform Party, the traditional refuge of people who like their government big, but “good”. Moderate Democrats like Tim Penny, “moderate” Democrats like Peter Hutchinson, liberal Republicans like Tom Horner, and lots of well-meaning moderates who like thinking big thoughts…

  • Six Of One…

    Turnout was low at Tuesday’s primaries.  Was a bad omen for the GOP, or just another data point with some interesting context? Bad Omen:  Michael Brodkorb at Politics.mn throws up a warning sign: Back in February, in my pre-precinct caucus primer, I encouraged people to compare the number of total attendees at precinct caucuses for…