Last week – just before the election – the nation got a look at about twenty minutes of video depicting a group of citizens questioning officials from Crow Wing County – think Brainerd – about an apparent incident of ballot-stuffing.

The video left more questions than it answered.  Who were these people?  What did they see?

The media has touched on the story – and largely asked the really important questions, like “who did the people in the video vote for?”.  We’ll come back to that.

I figured it was time to talk with the actual people involved.

The weekend before election day, Monty Jensen of Brainerd took his girlfriend to the Crow Wing County courthouse to vote in person with an absentee ballot.  He had to take a partial day of vacation to do it; he commutes from Brainerd to the Twin Cities every day to work. His girlfriend commutes with him; she’s in pharmacy school at the U of M in Minneapolis.  “I’m on the road fifteen hours a day”, he points out.  So taking the time out to vote was a bit of an effort.

A little after 4:30 on Friday, October 29, Jensen and his girlfriend walked into the Crow Wing County Courthouse, and went upstairs to the Auditor’s office.  “It was full of people”, Jensen recalls.  They submitted their applications to the auditor, and took a seat to wait their turn to vote. .

“We waited for about fifteen minutes”, Jensen said, “and I noticed there were a lot of people there who seemed to have issues”; they were disabled.  “I didn’t think anything of that”, Jensen added.  

We’ll come back to that later in the story.

There appeared to be a dozen, maybe fifteen handicapped people, and perhaps three supervisors. 

“But what alarmed me”, said Jensen, “was, I’m looking across at a poll booth, and I see a staffer walk over with an individual who’s mentally handicapped, put down ballot w/pen.  The guy walked away from the booth.  She called him back over – you could tell by her body language she was getting impatient, and the guy wouldn’t come back.  So she filled out his ballot.  Then she retrieved hjim, and had him turn in his ballot.”

Jensen continued “So I went “what the hell?”  I couldn’t[ believe she filled out the guy’s ballot!”

“As I’m voting, the woman was 2 booths down with another invividual.  She was talking like he’s a child.  Telling him who he should vote for.  I think “This isn’t right”.   Going right down line, candidate by candidate. I look over – her hand was on the pencil.”  Jensen told me he overheard him instructing the man to vote a straight DFL ticket; “it was DFL candiates – Dayton, Oberstar, Taylor Stevens, Ward, right down the ballot, every candidate.”

Jensen said he asked the woman what she was doing. “She grabbed him, went across the room to other station, and continued filling out the ballot.  I’ve seen her dictate two people’s votes.  My perception is these people [the group of voters] don’t know where they’re at”.

Jensen became concerned.  “I went to counter and asked the county worker – “Is this legal?” 

Jensen stopped for a moment, and pointed out that he knows that it’s perfectly legal for people to help people to vote.  “I’m a disabled veteran.  I support the rights of the disabled”.

But, he added,  “this was more than “assistance”.

He went to a county worker, and asked if she was aware of what was going on.  “She says “Well, yeah””, Jensen continued.  “She seemed nervous. Eventually she said  “You don’t know the half of it.  This is the fourth group we’ve had today”. 

Jensen pointed out that his girlfriend witnessed this statement.  I’ll be talking with her shortly.

Jensen was so upset by this point that he left the courthouse.  “I didn’t really know what to do”. 

That would come later.

More later this week.

I got this email.  The author asked to remain anonymous:

Mitch, in 2008 my mentally incompetent mother at an assisted living facility in St. Paul probably voted. We never had her declared incompetent, but the staff knew she was completely out of it. They also knew she was so afraid of being kicked out of a place she liked she would do whatever the staff person told her to do. She literally didn’t know what day of the week it was let alone who was running for office. I was the responsible party. I never changed her voter registration when she moved. Somehow she registered to vote at her new address. I found absentee ballot application information in her apartment as well as an I Voted sticker on her walker. I was livid, but it was after the election so there was nothing I could do. Before senile dementia had set in she adored Norm Coleman but you can bet her vote went to Franken.

I suspect a lot of this goes on. After all, SEIU represents a lot of nursing home staff.

I have a hunch this state could keep an army of investigators busy.

It might be a good Obama “shovel-ready” project.

A Democrat-linked student group is accused of wholesale vouching of voters:

Members of Students Organizing for America, a group of students aligned with the Democratic Party, may face a criminal investigation and possible felony charges after confrontations with an election judge over voter vouching during Tuesday’s election.

Ginny Gelms, the interim elections director in Minneapolis, said she will submit a report to the Hennepin County attorney’s office and the Minnesota Secretary of State‘s office today. The offices will investigate a possible incident of improper vouching.

Gelms said she was told by the University Lutheran Church precinct’s chair election judge there were two incidents of individuals trying to vouch for people they did not personally know.

Read the whole thing.

And keep telling yourself “Minnesota has the best, fairest, most transparent electoral system in the country!”

Remember this video, from just before the election?

Here’s part I of the video…:

…along with Part II…:

…and Part III.

In the video, Monty Jensen of Brainerd describes what he believes to be an act of egregious vote fraud at the Crow Wing County Court House.

I had a long conversation with Jensen last night. I’ll be blogging about that, as well as some of the other principals in this story, starting tomorrow in Shot In The Dark.

Joe Doakes from the Como Park neighborhood for Saint Paul write to the new MNGOP majority in the Legislature:

Looks as if you’ll control the state House and Senate, but Dayton will be governor. Obviously, his tax-the-rich plan isn’t going anywhere in the Legislature. But how will you get your austerity budget signed?

Remember when the Democrats sent Pawlenty a tax-increasing budget on the last day of the session and he vetoed it, thinking he could use the unallotment process to balance the budget? Democrats rushed to Court to get Pawlenty’s actions declared unconstitutional. Their argument was he should have vetoed the budget and shut down the government.

It was the great political food fight of the past biennium.

Back to Joe:

Learning from your mistakes is a sign of wisdom. Now that you control the Legislature, pass a slash-and-burn budget on the last day of the session and force Dayton to either (1) sign it, thereby pleasing your constituency while infuriating his; or (2) veto it and shut down the government, thereby mildly annoying your constituency while infuriating his.

Sure, he can call you back for a special session. Doesn’t mean you have to pass anything different the second time around. Keep sending him the same deal until he takes it. Remember, he can’t unallot – they made sure of that – so you’re in the driver’s seat.

This last bit is what’s important:

One more thing : buy some earplugs. The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by the unions, welfare recipients and drive-by media will be deafening if you don’t. Ignore them and do the right thing. Your kids and your grandkids will be glad you did.

And if you don’t, you’ll have a great time telling those kids and grandkids about your one term in Saint Paul.

Because you have a mandate. You rode to Saint Paul on a wave of energy, passion, enthusiasm, anger and determination like this nation has not seen – ever! Last night’s victories, in Minnesota and nationwide, were not part of a centrally-orchestrated campaign; this was the sound twenty million newly-minted conservative activists make when they realize that our government is out of control

You are where you are because of us.

You must not seek accomodation with the DFL, or with Governor Dayton.  Politics is about compromise, of course – but unlike GOP caucuses of the past, you must obtain those compromises by squeezing the DFL for their fair share and then some.

We won.  The MNGOP over history has found a million ways to make that phrase ring hollow.  That history must end today.

We didn’t send you to Saint Paul to play kissyface with Lori Sturdevant and Rachel Stassen-Berger.  We didn’t send you there to become popular with Larry “The Stats Masseuse” Jacobs or the Strib Editorial Board.

We sent you there to kick the DFL’s ass.  We sent you there to tell this state’s preening, self-appointed elite that no, we are not “happy to pay and pay and pay for a better Minnesota for the AFSCME and the SEIU.  We sent you there to change Minnesota

Get to work.  We’re watching.  We put you there, and we’ll be more than happy to bring you home.

If last night’s results showed us anything, it’s that any little boy can grow up to outspend his opponent almost 3:1 with family and union money, and run an epochally sleazy campaign based on dodgy context and virtually no fact, with the aid of an in-the-bag media that won’t start asking the tough questions until January, and back into office by a fraction of a point (maybe) while insulting the intelligence of a little over half the electorate, and become governor just in time to sign on to an agenda that just got overwhelmingly repudiated nationwide.

For a term.

That’s one Renoir for every 3,000 votes’ worth of margin.

Congratulations, Governor Hatch.  Er, “Governor Dayton”.  Seriously.  Don’t change a thing.

I”m on the phones here at the Election Integrity Watch center.

 I just got a call from a woman complaining about the posters by polling stations in North Minneapolis, “targeting people of color”.  I pointed out that we’re getting most of our calls from places like Plymouth, Blaine and Golden Valley. 

“Well, you have people in North Minneapolis harrassing people of color!”  I pointed out that all of “our people” are here in the boiler room with me, as I speak (except for two who are out in da hood in Minnetonka investigating a ballot storage issue).  

She quickly changed chanting points; “how do you sleep at night, knowing you’re doing hate speech?”  I said it was our First Amendment right, and our efforts are utterly non-partisain. 

She sounded like she was getting frustrated.  “Congratulations on doing what the Klan can’t anymore!”, she huffed, hanging up.

Jeff Davis notes that that’s a genuine worry, here; the DFL sending sock puppets out pretending to be from Minnesota Majority.

I’m at the Election Integrity Watch headquarters in Roseville. 

Events so far: 

• Plenty of calls about broken scanners: There seems to be an epidemic of election judges claiming the machines are broken, and honest, they’ll store the ballots under the machines ’til later; five counties so far.  This is ludicrous; these machines were supposed to have been tested last night!  If you run into this, make sure that your precinct has a partisan poll-watcher (a GOP as well as a DFL one) to watch the ballots.  There needs to be one from each party!  If you run into a “broken machine” and there are not poll watchers from your party present to safeguard the chain of custody for your ballot, you need to call the Election Integrity Watch hotline: 877-602-9282.
• Apparel: While the regional leftybloggers have  been caterwauling about a federal judge denying a restraining order against denying people with Election Watch buttons and t-shirts from entering the polls, a federal judge in Arizona has apparently granted a nearly identical restraining order.   We have a few reports of people being told to remove or cover up Tea Party or Republican t-shirts; rumor has it there are a few “comparitive tests” going on with people walking in with SEIU/ACORN/Obamaware on, right before people with Tea Party duds.  We’ll see what happens.   One respondent says he walked into a polling station in Maplewood.  No rules were posted.  Two election judges said nothing; a third walked up to him as he was voting and asked him to cover up; “all it takes is one take and we get in trouble”. 
• Sock Puppet: An “Attorney” named Dann Dobson, portraying himself as a Republican activist, talked his way into the Minnesota Majority office.  Now, if you follow Saint Paul ultra-left politics, you know Dann Dobson is no Republican.  The word got around; Dobson was turned away after his rather curious little attempt to infiltrate the call center.
• Pre-marked ballot: We have a report from a voter in the north suburbs saying he got a ballot with Lori Swanson and Tarryl Clark pre-marked for him.  The voter is coming in to swear out an affadavit.  More as the situation warrants.  UPDATE:  This is being forwarded to the Anoka County Sheriff and the Anoka County Attorney.  UPDATE 2: The election judge is claiming that the pre-marked ballot was really a spoiled ballot that was “inadvertently” put back into the pile.  The attorney in the room says “look for a bunch more “spoiled ballots””.  UPDATE 3: It’s 1PM, and the complainant is here, filling out his affadavit.
• Intimidation?: A group of students at Saint Olaf is standing directly outside the polling station pressing people for their voting choices, basically acting like and/or pretending to be exit pollsters.  We’re speculating it’s just a bunch of students on a project, rather than engaged in any foul play – but action is being taken to get them moved.
• Coercion: We are getting multiple reports of buses full of senior citizens being driven to the polls, and being urged or coerced to vote DFL.  More as details emerge.  UPDATE:  It’s one report from Golden Valley, so far.  IT was a bus full of voters from a nursing home.  The investigation is underway. 
• Insecure Storage: We have two allegations, now, of ballots being stored insecurely; the official “overflow” storage is part of the optical scanner, and it holds about thirty ballots.  As the number of ballots backing up due to the broken-down scanners (see above) increases, ballots are being stored in any old kind of cardboard box that is available.   “This is very serious”, says Jeff Davis of the Minnesota Majority.

I”ll be updating this while I”m in the call center.  If you see any election irregularities – any of them – call 877-602-9282.

As I do before every important election, I’m listing the top 100 reasons I’m voting for the top of the ticket.

Of course, I became an Emmer supporter long ago.  The GOP started the campaign early – right around State Fair time in 2009 – with a crop of great candidates and rumored candidates.  Paul Kohls was a sharp guy; I could have easily supported Pat Anderson; Dave Hann is right about everything that matters; most of all, Marty Seifert would have been an excellent standard-bearer.  I would happily have written these 100 reasons about any of them.

But Emmer became my personal front-runner as Ed and I interviewed him at the Fair on September 4, 2009.  Someone asked him a question about some kind of wedge-y social issue or another.  And without skipping a beat, Tom responded “I dont’ care; this election is about jobs and the economy”.  Emmer is the single best stump speaker in Minnesota politics today.  And for all the left and media’s efforts to paint him as some sort of extremist, Tom has not only stuck to that message, but has shown himself superb at explaining that message to people who don’t start out as believers.  Which is the main reason the DFL has had to run such a superlatively slimy, negative campaign against him.

And to be honest, those were the only reasons I really need to support Tom Emmer.  But I came up with 99 more.  Because that’s what I do.

To wit – the 100 main reasons I’m voting for Tom Emmer today.

1. Because the DFL’s plan is a return to the past, in ways that just don’t make sense anymore.
2. Because the DFL’s big-money, big-union, big-service model was based on economy that exploded at a time when America was the only serious economy on earth.
3. And times have changed.
4. And Tom Emmer knows that we have to change our government with those times.
5. And Mark Dayton thinks that if you throw enough obstinacy and rhetoric and taxpayers money at life, the clock will turn itself back to the DFL’s glory days.
6. Not to mention his own glory days.
7. And as that great political commentator said, Glory Days will pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye.
8. Because Emmer’s about providing three things; Jobs
9. Jobs, and
10. Jobs.
11. And Dayton is not.
12. Unless you’re an AFSCME, SEIU, MAPE other state employee.
13. Indeed, we know of many companies that are going to leave Minnesota, sooner or later, if taxes don’t moderate.
14. And we know many, many more that are waiting on the fence to see where their investments are going to go.
15. Because it’s not just about creating jobs.  It’s about creating a climate where companies will create jobs, and new companies will form, and hire people to work for them, and more new companies will form to provide goods and services and wholesaling and distribution and support and markets and suppliers for the companies above.
16. And Mark Dayton’s policies will curb that as effectively as any policy designed to curb business growth on purpose ever could.
17. Because our state government needs to be re-engineered…
18. …and Emmer has the plan to do it…
19. …while Mark Dayton’s entire plan is to just pour more of our money down the rathole.
20. Because of Emmer’s enemies; the SEIU, AFSCME, the Teamsters, and the bureaucracy are the only people who benefit from the current government.
21. Because Tom Emmer is one of us.
22. And I just know that some idiot leftyblogger will go “yeah, he’s a middle class white guy”, which shows you yet another reason Emmer needs to win; the phony “diversity” pimps must not be rewarded.
23. No, Tom Emmer is a Minnesota guy who grew up the child of business people, worked for the business, worked his way through college and law school, worked his way up the hierarchy of his business – just the way most Minnesotans have to, whether they’re white middle class guys…
24. …or Latino working-class gals…
25. …or black single mothers who are fighting to keep their kids’ charter schools afloat…
26. …or Asian immigrants who are working in their uncle’s restaurant while they earn their engineering degree.  It’s all part of a story…
27. …that Mark Dayton never participated in, can not understand…
28. …and has to have interpreted for him  by his advisers from the AFSCME, MFT, MAPE, SEIU, ACORN, CommonCause and MoveOn.
29. Tom Emmer doesn’t have to have anyone explain “the Minnesota Dream” to him.  He’s lived it, and his whole plan is about opening up that dream to everyone.
30. Because Mark Dayton is the wrong guy for the job.
31. He was an unmitigated disaster as a Senator…
32. …and an undistinguished State Auditor….
33. …and a failure as Economic Development commissioner – so bad that his boss’ son wrote an Op-Ed claiming that he bailed on the job before a recession, to salvage his political future.
34. And his only “plan” is to start jacking up taxes.
35. And as much as he caterwauls about “taxing the rich”, the fact is that his proposed “taxes on the rich” won’t even begin to cover the deficit, will slow the state’s economy and sent it into a vicious, revenue-killing spiral…
36. …that will result in the definition of “the rich” being pushed ever downward until pretty much everyone in Minnesota is “rich”…
37. …while, paradoxically, poor.
38. Because his plan will gut charter schools – a racist plan that will destroy the only meaninful “school choice” most inner-city parents of color, and from poor families, and immigrants and Native Americans, have to try to get their children a decent education.
39. (But Dayton needn’t care, because he went to Yale).
40. Dayton’s plan, indeed, is voodoo economics of the most trite, vapid order.
41. And Minnesotans are smarter than that.
42. (Or, after Ventura, McCollum, Ellison and Franken, I guess I should say they can be smarter than that.  Here’s your chance, Minnesota!)
43. Because “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” is, paradoxically, an alliance for a much, much worse Minnesota.
44. Because while I don’t really want big corporations buying my elections, I don’t want Alita Messenger buying them, either.
45. Or Big Unions.  What’s the SEIU done for us lately, besides demand more money and more subsidies?
46. Ditto the Minnesota Federation of Teachers?
47. Or, more tellingly, the entire Dayton family?
48. Because anyone the Twin Cities Media has been working so hard to gundeck this last six months has to be good.
49. Because Pat Doyle smeared Emmer in the Strib…
50. …and I busted Doyle.
51. Because if Tom Emmer wins, maybe the Twin Cities media will examine some of their prejudices, and focus less on electing DFLers and more on…reporting the news?
52. Because if Emmer wins, perhaps people will, once and for all, start treating the Minnesota Poll like “news”, and more like an “in-kind campaign contribution”, which is all it is.
53. Ditto the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute Poll
54. And “Mid-Morning with Keri Miller”.
55. Because while I have no doubt that the Twin Cities media will eventually ask questions about Mark Dayton’s alcoholic relapses and mental health record, it’d be good to settle that before he takes on the most powerful job in Minnesota.
56. Or preferably rather than taking it on.
57. Because it will pound a stake through the heart of the old, RINO Republican party
58. Because Lori Sturdevant seems to have staked out a market at tut-tutting Republicans for not being like the Republicans of the 1970’s – and far be it from me to want to constrict somebody’s market.
59. Because Tom Emmer survived the most epic smear campaign in Minnesota history.
60. And that sort of behavior must not be rewarded.
61. Think about it; if Mark Dayton wins, all of ABM’s lies will be considered justified.
62. Because to the left, the end justifies the means – and since power is their end, this campaign will codify the means; lying, smearing, slandering.
63. And “power”, in this case, means not only the power to tax you back to the stone age, but to scupper the economy of this state for a generation.
64. Which, let us not forget, is yet another end that’d justify their means, if it succeeds. Because a state with lots of DFL dependants is a state with a happy DFL.
65. Because if Tom Emmer beats out this epic smear campaign, perhaps the Minnesota DFL and its lefty allies will learn some f****ng manners.
66. Because I don’t want the definition of “Marriage” decided by a bunch of moron legislators or bobbleheaded, agenda-driven judges.
67. Because if Emmer wins, free speech wins.
68. It was the “Citizens United” Supreme Court case that allowed corporations to contribute to political campaigns.
69. And so a raft of Minnesota companies contributed to “MNForward”, a pro-business PAC.
70. And a legion of howling lefty nutcases lined up to crucify these businesses…
71. …well, no.  They didn’t line up to slander and badger Polaris or Davisco or Securian.  They lined up to attack Target Corporation as “anti-gay”…
72. …even though Target is one of the most pro-equal-rights-for-gays companies in a state full of companies that bend over backwards to prove their “diversity”.   The attack wasnt’ because of anything Target did, but to try to bully and browbeat all Minnesota companies who dared to dissent from the DFL and their various hangers-on.
73. BTW, Tom Emmer is no more “anti-gay” than Barack Obama or, for that matter, Mark Dayton.
74. Because while the “Minnesota Miracle” of Minnesota Media Myth is indeed largely mythical, and would have happened anyway
75. But today, Minnesota needs a real miracle, and we need it now.
76. And real miracles come from the private sector…
77. …and the best thing government can do is stand out of the way – lending the odd helping hand (by, say, providing an educated and competent work force – ooops, sorry about that, Minnesota Federation of Teachers) and letting private enterprise and the market do the hard stuff.
78. Because while Governor Pawlenty has done a helluvva job keeping the wheels on this state, it’s only going to get more difficult as the Obama Depression grinds on.
79. And we have two more years of The One to survive; and electing a responsible, grownup, conservative government is a great first step in telling the rapacious federal regime “not so fast, bitches”.
80. Because it’s a big wave.
81. And if Emmer wins, then so will Michele Bachmann.
82. And Erik Paulsen.
83. And John Kline.
84. And since the Constitutional Officer races usually follow the governor’s race, an Emmer win will bring back Pat Anderson to State Auditor, replacing the fairly useless but boundlessly venal Rebecca Otto.
85. And Dan Severson could win, replacing Mark Ritchie, who was basically put into office to further George Soros’ grand scheme of having fifty in-the-bag secretaries of state.
86. And Chris Barden could become the Attorney General, giving us an AG that will work for Minnesota, rather than for Mike Hatch.
87. And if Emmer wins big, there’s a decent shot that Chip Cravaack will win as well – and Congress desperately needs Jim Oberstar to leave and go into the lobbyling business, where his heart really belongs.
88. And if Emmer wins, the coattails will help Randy Demmer, too; every little bit helps.
89. And of Tom and Chip take it downtown, then Lee Byberg will stand a decent chance of toppling Colin Peterson.
90. And if Tom, Chip, Randy and Lee pull it off, then the heretofore unthinkable – Teresa Collett knocking off Betty “Mission Accomplished” McCollum – is suddenly thinkable.
91. And Joel Demos might just be able to pack his wife and kids up and head off to DC as well.  Because we’re Minnesotans, and we do believe in Miracles.
92. And if that happens, somewhere on the campus of the Blake School, some mirthless harpy’s head is going to explode.
93. And some hard-scrabble Latina will make a few bucks cleaning up the mess, giving her the money to feed her kids and drive them to a good charter school,  where they become good educated citizens, who vote Republican…
94. …and help repeat the cycle…
95. …so that before too terribly long the DFL – the great destroyer of jobs, the albatross on the back of the Minnesota economy, the racist ravager of school choice, the thuggish apparatchik that wants to make sure you do no better than they do, will become a third party.  Like it so richly deserves.
96. Because I want Minnesota to be a good place for my children.
97. I don’t want Minnesota to become a Cold California, a windy Greece, a passive-aggressive Michigan, a “nice” Massachusetts.
98. And DFL rule merely ensures that that is exactly what will happen.
99. And conservative government is not just sane, stable government, it’s the key to a prosperous, sustainable state.  Even the parts that aren’t government.
100. Because it’s something you can do for A Better Minnesota.  All of us. Together.

So let’s make this happen.

Previous “100 Reasons” posts:

• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For Bush, Not Kerry
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting for the 2006 MNGOP slate
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For McCain
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For Eva Ng

And it’s time for the first allegation of election fraud.

On Friday, October 30, 2010, a member of the Minnesota Freedom Council witnessed apparent voter fraud occurring at the Crow Wing County Courthouse in Brainerd, Minnesota. Upwards of 100 residents from a local group home for mentally disadvantaged individuals were brought into the County Courthouse to cast absentee ballots. The witness reported that supervisors were telling voters to cast a straight Democratic ticket. There was even a report of a voter prematurely leaving the voting both and a supervisor casting the ballot for the voter. Essentially, the people in-charge were taking advantage of the mentally disabled in order to bolster the vote for their candidates of choice. These individuals involved can be charged with a felony under Minnesota election laws.

Here’s part I of the video…:

…along with Part II…:

…and Part III.

Only legal voters should have the right to vote.

This deserves an investigation.

If a democracy can’t trust its democratic institutions, is it a democracy at all?

Watch – some nutslap leftyblogger will call that “voter intimidation”.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

Voter fraud is a touchy issue in Minnesota.  The powers that be constantly tell us we have the most incorruptible election system in the country – but not one in 10,000 Minnesotans could explain to you correctly how the 2008 Senate election went from a 200-vote win for Norm Coleman to a 300 vote win for Al Franken.  The Minnesota Majority has found hundreds of ambiguous registrations that led to scads of investigations that have led to dozens of convictions for voter fraud so far, in two of our 87 counties.  And our Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, is a former “community activist” whose 2006 campaign to get elected was bankrolled in part by George Soros’ effort to take SecState offices nationwide.

So yeah, this is serious business.

And let me make sure we give credit where it’s due; the video came from “Election Integrity Watch“.  We need to run down some facts, here – but it deserves investigation.

Betty McCollum thinks Al Quaeda is no longer a threat (from Betty McCollum Needs Change):

“Al Qaeda no longer poses a threat to the United States.”

That’s a fascinating conclusion.

Watch McCollum with her opponent, Teresa Collett, at their Health Care debate.

Watch McCollum trying to defend her role in the Health Care debate (starting around 1:27).  Remember when lefties (wrongly) said Sarah Palin was an intellectual flyweight for writing speaking notes on her hand?  McCollum reads administration chanting points from a piece of paper.

Got concerns about your future, young Minnesotans?  Betty will blow sunshine up your skirt!

The Fourth District deserves better.

The top ten moments of Congressman Oberstar’s peformance from the debate last week with Chip Cravaack

You gotta ask yourself, CD8 – how much contempt for you and your beliefs do you find acceptable?

It’s the second stupid, bigoted attack by the DFL in as many weeks – and it involves my good friend and longtime Northern Alliance colleague King Banaian.

Can you imagine the uproar if a Republican campaign would be stupid enough to drop a campaign piece saying…:

• “Keith Ellison: Too involved in Saudi Arabian politics to bother with Minneapolis”
• “Satveer Chaudhary:  Too Hindi To Bother With New Brighton”

Not only would the DFL descend on the idiot candidate like a biblical plague, but 99% of the GOP would feel obliged to join them.

But the DFL has done it again.

Last week, it was the anti-Catholic attack on Dan Hall in Burnsville, which has gotten national attention.

And over the weekend, perhaps a dumber attack still.

Courtesy of Luke Hellier at MDE, this mailer was sent out in re King Banaian, who’s running for House in District 15B – the east half of the Saint Cloud area.

Images courtesy MDE

King is the former chair of the Economics department at St. Cloud State.  He’s prominent enough an economist to land all sorts of contracting work for governments around the world who are interested in opening up free markets; since I’ve known him, he’s consulted with the Macedonian, Ukranian, Mongolian, Armenian, Kazakh and other governments.

Heaven forbid someone in the Legislature would have earned international respect at economics.

Here’s what the piece says:

King Banaian certainly has a resume – jetting acrosst eh globe to consult the governments of Egypt, Macedonia, Armenia, Ukraine and Indonesia.

But what does all his international travel tell him about the needs of families here in St. Cloud?

Other than the fact that he’s lived there for a couple of decades and become a pillar of the community, you mean?

But worst of all is the photo.  King – that is his real name, and it’s a family thing – is of 100% Armenian descent.  And like most Caucasians from that part of the Caucasus, he’s fairly described as “swarthy”.  Sitting in front of an exotic-looking building, the piece is clearly aimed at some SEIU droog who might be wavering in his DFL loyalty; they’re counting on that droog to look at the picture and go “d-uuu-uuuh, he looks like one of them AY-rabs, g’huck”.

Check out the postcard.  It’s from Saint Paul.  And while I can’t make out the ZIP code from the postmark, I’ll lay 1000-1 odds it’s from the DFL mothership down on Plato.

(On the upside?  At least the DFL bothered to check his biography; had they gone by his name, the piece might have read “Saint Cloud doesn’t need any drunk Irish running things”.  If they went by the photo alone, we might have been favored with some Juan Valdez references. We should perhaps be thankful for small favors).

I asked Banaian for comment earlier.  He’s too busy campaigning to worry about it yet.

The DFL:  they want to win Minnesota one ignorance racist rube at a time

UPDATE: King Banaian says “people here knowmy service as a local economic expert as well as international adviser. Voters care about fiscal accountability, not my passport”.

I suspect he’s right.  But it’s not the people in 15B that I’m worried about.  It’s that wacky bunch down on Plato.

Think back over the past six months of Mark Dayton’s campaign. Think over the ads he’s run.  Think back over the messages.

Why would you vote for Mark Dayton?

Now, make no mistake; the Dayton campaign – and its “third-party” advertising from the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, which is “third party” only on the most technical sense of the term, having been funded largely by the Dayton family – has tried to give you all sorts of reasons to vote against Tom Emmer; two drunk driving arrests 20 and 30 years ago, some grossly out-of-context statements about food server wages and legislative records and some poking and prodding at his conservative voting record.

But why would one vote for Mark Dayton?

Let’s go through his ads and see if we can find a positive, affirmative reason to vote for Mark Dayton, rather than against Tom Emmer.  Let’s run through the Top Five reasons:

5. He wants to tax “the rich”.  Which “rich?”  We’ll come back to that later.

4. He was a high school teacher forty years ago, and will make sure that schools get more money, or something. The message is a little vague.

3. Er…

I got nothing.

The fact is, Mark Dayton’s entire campaign has been run on slime.  Think of the campaign’s salient points, such as they’ve been:

• Emmer favors “Uncertified” Teachers… – …of exactly the type that Mark Dayton himself once was.
• Minnesota Cities need to be able to launder their spending through the state to dodge accountability to their own taxpayers: We pretty well addressed and debunked that here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
• Emmer Got Sued!: The Strib’s Pat Doyle “distinguished” himself with his hit piece on Emmer, which managed to maneuver itself into spreading everything about Emmer’s legal and personal record that could be construed as unfavorable – while carefully excising all exculpatory context.  Someday when they give awards for showing that “journalistic ethics” are merely “a framework by which journalists justify the means toward their ends”, Doyle will be a winner emeritus.
• Emmer Hates Gays – Except even the most remedial degree of reporting shows that the whole claim is based on a fraudulently-overblown and out-of-context claim of support for one Bradlee Dean.  This was blown up into the most contrived astro-turf campaign I have seen in all my years of watching DFL astroturf – a coast-to-coast fabrication of the vapours that generated much heat about Target Corporation’s donation of $150K in cash and services to a pro-business PAC that, nonetheless, did nothing much except show America what a bunch of yapping McCarthyites Minnesota liberals are.
• The Phantom Plan: Until about Labor Day – four solid months – the DFL and its minions caterwauled about Emmer’s lack of a “budget plan“.  Then he released a plan – which balanced the budget – and pointed out the inconvenient truth that Dayton’s first whack at a plan came up $3billion light; his second plan is a little over a billion off the mark.
• Emmer Had Two DUIs, and wanted to lower penalties for drunk driving!: The episodes were twenty and thirty years ago.  And Emmer has been constantly forthcoming about his youthful mistakes, unlike Senator Dayton’s silence on his record of alcoholism, mental illness and other erratic behavior (of which more later).  As to ABM’s giggly claims that Emmer tried to “lower penalties for drunk driving” – it turned to be a gross, craven distortion, the sort of thing that was called a “filthy lie” in a more direct age.

Alliance for a Better Minnesota broke records, not only for spending (nearly unreported by the mainstream media and utterly unchallenged by our state’s so-called “watchdog” organizations), but for the serial falsity of its claims.  The DFL’s bullpen of news-release blogs were only too happy to carry the water.  While the DFL caterwauled about corporate funding, ABM spent nearly four million in funds from public employee unions and…the Dayton Family and candidate Dayton himself.

Mark Dayton has no positive vision for the state of Minnesota.

He waves the flag of “class” envy – really achievement envy – and vague blandishments about school funding…and that’s about it.

Minnesota deserves a better vision than this.

Minnesota deserves better than Mark Dayton.

The DFL starts to work on its damage control from its viciously anti-Catholic attack piece.

Blois Olson – who is not “the DFL”, per se, but has a history of working for DFL candidates – in his “Morning Take”

MN GOP will push to find controversy with a direct mail piece in SD40. GOP operatives are working hard to advance outrage over a mail piece sent by the MN DFL in the race for SD40 where incumbent DFL Sen. John Doll is running against GOPer Dan Hall.

“Find controversy?”

I think the controversy pretty much jumps out and beats you over the head.  Check it out for yourself:

Not a lot of room for interpretation there.

There is no doubt that if they get traction with this it could have some statewide impact on the election, especially if they advance the narrative that the piece is anti-Catholic. While one side of the piece shows a clergy collar with a faux button “Ignore the Poor”. The other takes legitimate pointed criticism at GOPer Dan Hall’s positions related to the MN budget and ties it to his profession as a chaplain.

Which is part of the DFL’s outreach to the region’s – mostly the Metro’s – “social justice-gospel” addled – Catholics; the idea that the state’s budget itself is a sort of Good Work.

That’s no different than finding issue with any other candidates profession and the political positions they take. The piece is hard hitting, but clergy of other faith’s wear a collar, and the word “Catholic” doesn’t appear anywhere on the piece.

Olson goes on to point out that priests of other denominations wear clerical collars.  But the ad’s only context is the current race – where Archbishop Nienstedt has attacked gay marriage, and where Tom Emmer is a very orthodox Catholic.

And neither the Episcopal nor Orthodox hierarchies have taken any key political stances in this election (or have they?  Who would know?) as has the Archdiocese.  If this piece is a swipe at the Anglicans, Greeks or Russians, it’d be a response to an Orthodox or Episcopal stance that nobody’s really aware of; being a highly-qualified pundit, I’m pretty sure Olson knows that’d be a curious misallocation of resources at this point in the campaign.

The ad is a swipe at District 40 Senate candidate Dan Hall, who is a volunteer chaplain with the Burnsville Fire Department.  The DFL’ s line is that Hall is a “Hypocrite” for preaching on the one hand, and supporting Governor Pawlenty on rejecting the big federal Medicaid payment.

The DFL is taking it upon itself to tell us who is or is not a good Christian and Catholic, based on adherence to the DFL’s budget wish list.

Senators Koch and Fishbach gave a statement about an hour ago asking if candidate Dayton stood by his party’s attack.  Dayton is Catholic – or at least he’s given the homily at ultraliberal Saint Joan of Arc in Minneapolis.

I’m gonna suspect he lets this ride without mention…

UPDATE:   MDE has scanned the full postcard.

CORRECTION:  The postcard was sent by the DFL State, not Central, Committee.  It was an inadvertent slip.  Hard to tell all those committees apart.

If you haven’t watched Chris Barden – GOP candidate for Attorney General – and his indictment of Attorney General Swanson and the man who pretty much pulls her strings, Mike Hatch, watch this:

The stuff about using staff to file grandstanding lawsuits that publicized his office but played fast and loose with the law?  We’ve run into this on this blog before; back in 2003, I wrote a five part series on one of these suits, on Hatch’s watch, against “American Bankers”, a Florida company that ran afoul of state regulators.  It was one of Hatch’s sleazier moments – and that of the media, too.

Part 1 – During the closing days of the Ventura Administration, the state Commerce Department, under Jim Bernstein, a former DFLer and radical anti-business commissioner, reaches a settlement as part of a multi-state action.  And then American Bankers backs out.

Part 2 – American Bankers sends a check to the Minnesota GOP – coordinated by a DFL rainmaker with a long, cordial relationship with Hatch – which was illegal at the time.  An automatic “thank you” letter goes out…

Part 3 – …which Hatch uses to ambush Pawlenty’s commerce commissioner, to push for an illegal diversion of settlement money to a Hatch-controlled charity.

Part 4 – Hatch springs one of his pet reporters on the MNGOP, creates a canned controversy.

Part 5 – The lack of media attention to the unravelling of Hatch’s story, back in 2003.

Watch the video.  Read the five part report.

Tell a neighbor; Lori Swanson’s gotta go.

Now.

After decades of control by the ultraliberal DFL and a GOP that was merely center-left until probably fifteen years ago, Minnesota has had business and corporate tax rates that rivalled some of the nation’s worst tax hellholes – New York, California, New Jersey.

Liberals inevitably respond “well, look at all the companies that have their headquarters here!”.  And it’s true – Minnesota has more Fortune 500 companies per capita than any other state in the union.   And if you were the CEO of, say, Best Buy or Ecolab or 3M, I’d bet you’d rather live in Minneapolis than, say, Mississippi.

But a company is more than just CEOs.

The good news; 3M, based in Saint Paul, is creating new jobs!

3M today announced the expansion of its manufacturing facility for its 3M Ultra Barrier Solar Film. As a key component supplier to the solar industry, this expansion will support the growing demand for high efficiency flexible PV modules.

And where are those jobs?

The majority of the facility expansion, located in Columbia, Missouri, is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

Minnesota’s corporations are not creating manufacturing or distribution jobs in Minnesota.  Even their research and engineering work is being farmed out to out-of-state or offshore companies at an accelerating rate.

You can thank the DFL (and the old, pre-Pawlenty-era GOP that the DFL’s sock puppets are always babbling about) for this.

It’s time to lower business tax rates in Minnesota, and for the government programs that depend on them to suck it up and count on the revenues rising when Minnesotans actually start going back to work.

And that pretty much inevitably means voting for Emmer, and your local GOP candidate for the Legislature, next Tuesday.

The Star Tribune‘s “Minnesota Poll” continues to serve its primary function – manipulating voter turnout.

As always with the MNPoll, the marquee numbers are nearly meaningless;

Dayton has strengthened his lead to 41 percent, according to the poll, followed by Emmer at 34 percent. Horner, who has struggled to get out of the teens in all public polls, is at 13 percent. That’s down from a peak of 18 percent last month.

The poll was conducted between Oct. 18 and 21 among 999 likely Minnesotans voters on both land-line and cell phones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

No, it’s the crosstab numbers that matter  It’s buried on the second page of the online report, naturally:

In this poll, the sample of likely voters consisted of 34 percent Democrats, 31 percent independents and 30 percent Republicans.

Four percent overpoll of Democrats?  This year?

The poll is of 999 “likely voters” – and it’s there that the methodology goes from “reporting” to , as David Brauer puts it, the “secret sauce”.

[the poll is] based on 804 land-line and 402 cell phone interviews conducted Oct. 18-21 with a representative sample of Minnesota adults. Of that sample, 999 were deemed to be likely voters, and the poll results are based on those respondents.

And there’s the detail in which the Devil is.  How does Princeton Research (the company that actually does the Strib’s polling) take those 1,200 likely voters and “deem” 1,000 or so of them to be “likely”?

We don’t know.  None of the major pollsters will say.

The article, by Rachel Stassen-Berger, goes on to squeeze in a puff piece for Dayton.

We really know two things:

The Minnesota Poll has, for a generation, always shown Republicans behind the week before the election, sometimes by ludicrious amounts, when they went on to win.

And the Minnesota Poll’s errors immediately before elections inevitably appear designed to drive down Republican turnout in elections that every other pollster in the business shows to be incredibly tightly contested.

It is time for someone to investigate the Strib’s polling operations, both under Princeton Research and, before 2007, under Rob Daves.  If Emmer wins – and I predict he will, by a three point margin – it’ll be further proof that the Minnesota poll is nothing a get out the DFL vote/suppress the GOP vote effort.

The deniablity is plausible – but only just.

The Duluth News-Tribune – a traditionally left-leaning paper in a traditionally left-leaning district – Ou endorses Republican challenger Chip Cravaack over 18-term incumbent DFLer Jim Oberstar.

While giving a nod to Oberstar’s “achievements”, and acknowledging his vote for Clinton’s  “debt reduction” bill in 1993 (that relied on tax hikes more than spending cuts), the DNT notes that these are different times:

But there’s also no escaping the chilling reality of our nation’s economic state. Unemployment hovers around 10 percent, despite stimulus and other efforts to turn the tide. Health-care reform has companies warning employees of the likelihood of increased health-insurance costs. A pair of wars rages. And the national debt stands at a staggering $13.6 trillion and is increasing at an alarming rate of $3.8 billion a day.

The brake pedal of fiscal responsibility is needed in Washington now as much as ever. Although Oberstar voted in 1993 for the biggest debt reduction in post-World War II history, the 17-term incumbent is hardly the embodiment of financial restraint and new direction.

And they figure – as I do – that Chip’s the guy for the times, and the job:

His opponent, on the other hand, Republican Chip Cravaack, represents what Congress, including Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, needs at this critical crossroads in American history. A pro-business, fiscally conservative, former Navy captain, with a master’s degree in education, Cravaack has smarts. He is articulate, reasoned and composed. More critically, he has specific and promising strategies to pull the nation out of its financial funk.

“This is clearly unsustainable,” Cravaack said last week of our nation’s mounting debt and free-spending ways. “The best thing to correct the situation is to create a business-friendly environment where the private sector creates jobs.”

This is huge – justifying a rare Sunday posting from me.

I’m going to be releasing my election predictions tomorrow.  And while I’ve believed for a week that Cravaack was could pull off the upset of the year – nationally! – this is another log on the fire.

From Blois Olson’s “Morning Take“: word has it that the Duluth News Tribune is doing to do the unthinkable:

Sources close to the CD8 campaign of Republican Chip Cravaack are telling people that on Sunday the Duluth News Tribune will endorse his candidacy to replace Democrat Rep. Jim Oberstar.

I’m not going to write “Developing…” at the end of this post – good lord, what kind of hapless dork do you think I am? – but I’ll be following this very, very closely.

I’m starting to feel really optimistic about Cravaack’s shot, here.

Chris Barden, GOP candidate for Attorney General, states his case against Lori Swanson – the latest in a two-generation uninterrupted chain of one-party domination of the AG’s office.

I urge you to watch the whole thing. A few “highlights”:

1:07 – Channel 4 tries to interview Swanson about the irregularities Barden found – and gets turned away.

1:45 – Part of the meat of the story – WCCO reports AG lawyers reporting being pressured to work cases primarily for Swanson’s political gain as well as that of her predecessor, Mike Hatch, especially by filing high-profile cases designed to pressure defendants into cheap fast settlements.  This isn’t completely news, if you’ve been reading Shot In The Dark;

2:30 – WCCO’s ITeam gives vital background on the allegations against the AGO.’

Watch the whole thing.

Tell a neighbor.

Remember it on November 2.

Jim Oberstar’s top ten moments from the debate the other day.

Must be hard to suffer the bitter gun-clinging Jesus freaks – er, I mean the “Flat Earth Society”.

The state deficit is zooming out of control.

Two of the three gubernatorial candidates have no idea how they’re going to fix it; they’re a step or two shy of hosting a contest looking for ideas.

The DFL, which has controlled the legislature for the past four years and dominated it completely for two, has spent the whole time whining about wanting more money to give to public employee unions and all but claiming Tim Pawlenty personally blew up the 35W bridge, and telling you you’re a racist who hates children if you don’t agree.

Minnesota’s health care – which, with its private/public partnership currently insures well over 90% of Minnesotans, including virtually all of them that actually want insurance – is about to get tossed into a vortex of government-controlled mediocrity by Obamacare.

So what do our brilliant DFL hamsters think is the real priority?

Recycling fake outrage over the FBI’s raids on protesters at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul two years ago (in the House and the Senate).

From the Senate bill:

1.1A resolution
1.2memorializing the President of the United States and Congress to review the FBI
1.3raids on Minnesota activists.
1.4WHEREAS, a number of Minnesotans were issued subpoenas to appear before a grand jury
1.5in Chicago in October; and
1.6WHEREAS, these Minnesotans have not been arrested or charged with any crime; and
1.7WHEREAS, four of these Minnesotans are American Federation of State, County and
1.8Municipal Employees members in good standing in the union; and
1.9WHEREAS, FBI spokespersons have stated that the raids were prompted by the activities
1.10of the four union members, and other individuals subject to the same raids; and
1.11WHEREAS, these people are entitled to a presumption of innocence under the United
1.12States Constitution; and
1.13WHEREAS, every American has the constitutional right to advocate and organize for
1.14change of the foreign policy of the United States; and
1.15WHEREAS, the recent report by the Department of Justice Inspector General soundly
1.16criticized the FBI for improperly targeting domestic peace and antiwar groups for investigation;
1.17and
1.18WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials have frequently gone on record in defense of
1.19trade unionists and others to educate, mobilize, and organize for the legitimate goals of peace,
1.20justice, and solidarity with all working people; and
2.1WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials disavow any practices or policies which threaten
2.2the rights or civil liberties of trade unions and nonviolent peace organizations, and oppose both
2.3attacks on traditional constitutional guarantees and the granting of wider powers to the FBI to
2.4infiltrate or intimidate community groups, unions, and activists; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.5BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it expresses grave
2.6concern that the recent FBI raids are reminiscent of the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy
2.7hearings of the 1950s, and the FBI’s harassment of nonviolent civil rights and peace activists of
2.8the 1960s and 1970s, and that these raids may be the beginning of a new and dangerous assault on
2.9the First Amendment rights of union activists and antiwar peace campaigners.
2.10BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, since
2.11no acceptable justification or evidence has been presented for these raids and subpoenas and
2.12there is no reason to believe any are forthcoming, it urges Congress to review these arbitrary
2.13and capricious raids.
2.14BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, in light
2.15of the Inspector General’s recent report on the FBI investigation of certain domestic advocacy
2.16groups, we call upon the President of the United States to order an immediate investigation
2.17into the circumstances, motivation, and propriety of the judicial and FBI intimidation of these
2.18Minnesotans.
2.19BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is
2.20directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States,
2.21the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United
2.22States House of Representatives, and Minnesota’s Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Glad to see they can prioritize.

UPDATE:  Nachman from Loyal Opposition went to the Capitol to protest – one on one, in person.  He notes that the resolution, in support of the “Anti-War Committee”, would seem to be a violation of the DFL’s putative core princples:

The Anti-War Committee believes that:

“The Anti-War Committee is opposed to the U.S. military, political, and economic support for the state of Israel. We see Israel as an illegitimate apartheid state, and we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination. We support the Palestinian right of return, the demand for a dismantling of Israeli settlements, an end the Israeli Occupation, and an end to racist policies in all of the territories. Our work includes protest, education, and solidarity trips to Palestine.” [4]

Aside from being libel, this is their statement of support for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, the Salafi Islamists who call for it’s destruction, and, in turn, for the subsequent annihilation of Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The Anti-War Committee and it’s supporters are public about their support for these ends, as their public statements of their support for the re-establishment of supply lines to and material support for the Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya (Hamas – the Islamic Resistance Movement), a designated terrorist organization. [5] The warrants were issued based upon probable cause and pursuant to an investigation concerning violations of “Providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations”. [6]

As a reminder, here are the core beliefs of the DFL.

“We, the members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in the State Convention assembled, in order to…sustain and advance the principles of liberal democracy, and uphold human rights, civil rights and constitutional government, do establish this Constitution.”

Representatives Clark, Davnie, Hayden, Kahn, and Hausman; Senators Berglin, Pappas, Moua, Dibble (see UPDATE, infra), and Torres Ray have some explaining to do.

I’ll need to follow up to see how that appeal to “core principles” works…

Between the Tea Party and the general distaste for more taxation and government spending, it might be  bad year to be proposing…taxing and spending.

As I noted on Labor Day, Mark Dayton’s tax-hike-based budget plan is very likely dead on arrival at the legislature.  My rationale at the time was that Dayton’s tax hike was ten times the size of the increase that the DFL managed to pass by a single vote (Tarryl Clark’s, as luck would have it), when they had overwhelming control of both chambers of the legislature, at the height of Obama mania in one of the most ostensibly liberal states in the nation.  Will they get ten times the money out of a legislature that is much more conservative, maybe with a flipped chamber, and an electorate that is just not buying more spending?

According to MPR, even some DFLers aren’t buying it:

DFL candidate former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton wants to raise income taxes on upper earners, but you won’t hear about it from some DFL legislative candidates.

You also don’t hear “Democrat” or “DFL” from some of them.  But I digress.

Some are also promising to vote against the proposed income tax increase if Dayton is elected governor.

“I don’t talk about that,” said DFL state Sen. Terri Bonoff of Minnetonka, who spent a recent afternoon knocking on doors in in Plymouth, a mostly Republican area of her suburban district.

Bonoff is a moderate Democrat, and she said her re-election bid depends on the support of independents and some Republicans.

It’s not that Bonoff is against tax hikes, of course:

“I have a lot of respect for Mark Dayton. But I have my views about what we ought to do with regard to taxes, and it’s not about protecting the rich,” she said. “It’s about right now we have too much reliance on the income tax, and as the demographics change in our state and our folks are getting out of the workplace, more and more seniors, they don’t have that kind of income stream.

“If we’re too reliant on the income tax, I think we’re going to find ourselves in this same mess three years from now.”

The DFL opposition seems to be largely coming from districts that should be GOP, but went DFL during the ’06 and ’08 elections, which were terrible for Republicans.  One of those is Kathy Saltzman, who won her seat in largely-Republican Woodbury in 2006:

The concern is similar in the east metro suburbs. Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury, who’s locked in a tough re-election fight, also stresses her independence on tax issues. She’s voted against previous attempts to raise income taxes on upper earners.

Saltzman hasn’t endorsed a candidate for governor, but she’s met with Dayton and Horner. Saltzman said she asked Dayton to be open to other tax ideas, not just taxing the rich.

“I believe that it’s not about targeting one group or one group of services,” she said. “We really should be looking at an overall tax reform policy. That would be the most responsible way to approach this.”

It’s not that they’re deserting the DFL, naturally…:

Saltzman said Republican Tom Emmer’s cuts-alone approach to the budget is unrealistic. She favors a balanced approach that includes some revenue, and is open to a sales tax expansion as part of a broader reform of the tax code.

But Saltzman said she will not support the Dayton tax plan. “It will be very difficult to get it by me. I would say he won’t get it by me. He will note get my vote,” she said.

The Dayton Tax “Plan” will never see the light of day, if Dayton is elected.

Electing Dayton would be a complete waste of time.

In and among the Pioneer Press’ drearily-predictable chain of DFL endorsements (which seem largely to be based on the idea of bringing more state pork to their respective districts) came this news yesterday; they endore Doug Wardlow over DFL incumbent Mike Obermuller in House District 38B.

Doug Wardlow said he wants Minnesota to be a “bulwark against encroachment by the federal government” and to assert its rights as a “sovereign government.” He said Minnesota should join the suit seeking to challenge the new federal health reform law and said he would seek to balance the state’s budget without a statewide tax increase. “We need to figure out how to do more with less,” he said.

Obermueller said legislators cannot go to St. Paul with their “mind made up” on critical issues. He said he tries to listen carefully and be a “bridge” between the two parties. He argues for a “balanced approach” the budget deficit and cautions against anti-government rhetoric.

Two capable and articulate candidates make this a tough call. We give a slight advantage to the challenger, Doug Wardlow, whose impressive resume includes work on international trade issues in Washington. We endorse Doug Wardlow for House District 38B; his conservative voice will be a welcome addition to the diversity of opinion at the Capitol.

We’ve interviewed Doug on the NARN, and I’ve appeared with him at fundraisers for Diane Anderson (who is in her second run for 38A against Sandra Masin, in a race where the PiPress declined to endorse – which has to be a cold, decaying slap in the face for Masin in and of itself).  While this blog does not “endorse”, I concur completely; let’s get Doug into the House!