Chad the Elder at Fraters has one of those statements that both never occurred to me I’d ever hear, and is at the same time completely true:
If I ever use the words “with barbecued whale meat taste in undertone and aftertaste” to describe a beer my days as beer lover will be numbered.
Wendy Davis – “Abortion Barbie”, the lefty pinup girl who shut down the Texas legislature with a screaming mob of ignorant infanticide buffs – will be campaigning for Al Franken on the “War on Womyn” slate.
Wendy Davis. Trophy wife, baby-death advocate, Al Franken supporter.
Her bio – the inevitable “nineteen year old single mother who worked her way through Harvard” – is the sort of “Strong Womyn!” narrative that seems to have been snatched from the Lifetime Network.
Oh, yeah – it’s fudged just a bit:
Davis was 21, not 19, when she was divorced. She lived only a few months in the family mobile home while separated from her husband before moving into an apartment with her daughter.
A single mother working two jobs, she met Jeff Davis, a lawyer 13 years older than her, married him and had a second daughter. He paid for her last two years at Texas Christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston.
Hey, wait! “Trophy Wife” doesn’t fit the narrative! What the…?
When they divorced in 2005, he was granted parental custody, and the girls stayed with him. Wendy Davis was directed to pay child support.
In a state where women can normally win custody after killing someone, that says something. The first husband went on to run for office as a Republican.
Davis apparently gave her second husband the brown helmet the day after she graduated from Harvard.
Anyway – Abortion Barbie will be coming to Minnesota to campaign for Franken…
…unless she made that up, too.
Please, Al Franken campaign. I beg of you. Bring Abortion Barbie to Minnesota. Feature her up at the podium with you.
Wendy Davis is the face of feminism today.
Today, on the official observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday, here’s a reminder of what the fuss is all about:
A few years ago, I heard a report on NPR that noted that among African-Americans, people are actually desensitized to the “I Have A Dream” speech. It’s actually overplayed; people hear it so much, so often, and in so many contexts, that people are more or less numb to it.
And that’s a shame bordering on cultural crime; in an era when public oratory seems a dying art, when the likes of Barack Obama are considered “great public speakers”, listening to one of the greats – Reagan, Thatcher, JFK, Churchill and of course King – is both a thrill and, in a way, almost retro. The idea of being able to move people, not just with words but with rhythm alliteration, repetition for effect, assonance, structure and tone – seems almost a lost art.
It’s a crying shame.
Last Saturday, Brad Carlson and I had the great pleasure of hosting the first ever North Ramsey County Republicans Gubernatorial debate. The event was put on by the three BPOUs in northern Ramsey county – House districts 42A, 42B and 66A.
We had five of the GOP governor candidates on stage with us; Marty Seifert, Jeff Johnson, Rob Farnsworth, Dave Thompson and Scott Honour.
We had about 100 people in the house at Concordia Academy – which, for a first-time GOP event deep in Blue Ramsey County on a day with greasy roads was excellent turnout. A lot of people also tuned in via the live stream and, of course, on AM1280 (the debate was during my show’s regular time slot).
Bill Salisbury of the Pioneer Press was there, and wrote about the event in a piece titled “Debate reveals similar messages from GOP’s five candidates for governor” – which was a perfectly valid first impression of the event. Candidates are being cautious now, playing largely to the party base (for caucus purposes) while trying to woo uncommitted and non-activist Republicans (for the primaries, which look pretty inevitable at this point).
Salisbury:
But the audience of about 100 partisans and students at Concordia Academy wanted to know: Who is the most electable?
That’s the biggest difference between this year’s Republican contest and the party’s 2010 nomination battle.
“No one asked that question four years ago,” former House Minority Leader Marty Seifert said after the 90-minute debate. In 2010, Seifert lost the GOP gubernatorial endorsement to conservative firebrand Tom Emmer, who then was defeated by Democrat Mark Dayton despite a wave that swept Republicans into control of both houses of the Legislature for the first time in four decades.
This year, Seifert said, grassroots Republicans are hungry for a win and less concerned about ideological purity.
It’s a different race than it was four years ago; bidding to replace Mark Dayton is different than trying to follow-up Tim Pawlenty.
The audience questions were sharp and incisive, and I think they accurately reflected the concerns of real Minnesotans pretty clearly; the economy, the disintegration of health insurance under Obamacare and MNSure, and – most poignantly – a lot of high school kids wondering what kind of economy they were going to be graduating into.
From my perspective as a co-moderator? The candidates were pretty similar; all various shades of “conservative enough”. Farnsworth was pragmatic, and a bit of a homespun technocrat, with fairly detailed ideas for solutions to problems raised. Seifert was sharp – like someone who’s spent four years working through the questions, having a brisk, calibrated answer to everything.
m.twincities.com/twincities/db_295955/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=604T07tB
A few months back, we talked about a group – Minnesota Gun Rights (MGR) – which has been trying to make inroads into the Minnesota second amendment market. MGR is run by Chris Dorr, brother of Aaron Dorr, who runs “Iowa Gun Owners” (IGO), and was closely involved in the Ted Sorenson scandal in Iowa. IGO has a reputation of cutting off gun owners’ political noses to spite their faces. They are closely aligned with the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), has an extremely spotty record of accomplishment, and that is very likely being charitable; to say the least, their grasp of Minnesota politics is spotty. Oh, yeah – and the website for both the IGO and MGR are hosted in Iowa.
Today’s installment? Probably not quite as earth-shaking – but worth a look.
It’s a petition to restore “Constitutional Carry” – carry by law-abiding citizens without need for a permit, as in Alaska, Arizona and Vermont – to Minnesota. They say “restore” because until 1974, anyone in Minnesota who had the legal right to own a firearm at all could carry it, concealed, without a permit of any kind.
I forget – was crime lower in Minnesota back in 1973? Or higher?
Anyway – that’s all to the good. It’s also pie in the sky, in a state with a DFL governor and legislature.
But the petition has one other minor, more proximate flaw:
And while it’s just a typo on a petition, we’ve noted in the past the political problems caused by the IGO’s uncompromising push for pie-in-the-sky. The way to get to “Constitutional Carry” is by electing a conservative legislature and governor.
UPDATE: A correspendent sends me another, er, Minnesota Gun Rights emailer:
I love that second paragraph. Would a “true grassroots movement” maybe get it’s state correct?
The State Auditor confirmed what this blog pointed out a year and change ago; Governor Dayton’s use of a state plane to haul campaign staff on junkets that either mixed official and campaign business, or involved no state business whatsoever, violated the law:
At issue were three separate trips Dayton took using a Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) airplane. During the fall of 2012, in the run-up to that year’s election, Dayton flew out of St. Paul for appearances in Willmar, Brainerd and Bemidji. On each trip, Dayton combined official state business with political events; a subsequent flight from Bemidji to International Falls was made for purely political purposes. On that flight, Dayton’s travel companions on the plane included Julie Hottinger, a campaign staffer who is not employed by the state.
Using the plane to transport Dayton and Hottinger for a political event was determined to be a violation of both state statute and MnDOT policy. According to the code of ethics for executive branch employees, state funds, resources or property cannot be deployed for “any … use not in the interest of the state.” The audit report spells out certain exceptions to that law, including security detail personnel, who will travel with the governor regardless of the nature of an event.
In this instance, Dayton’s staff argued that the use of the official plane was a matter of security, telling OLA investigators that the MnDOT aircraft gives the administration staff greater control over equipment and choice of pilots.
The report recommendations find that the state-issued plane should not be used if the governor is traveling only for a political reason, or is bringing political staffers. But, for cases when a governor plans to attend both official and political functions, the current law lacks clarity, and the OLA recommends that the Legislature take up the issue to spell out its legality.
“In the meantime,” the report states, “we recommend that Governor Dayton encourage his office staff and campaign staff to schedule his travel in ways that strictly limit the use of a state airplane to attend political events.”
In an official response penned on behalf of Dayton, chief of staff Tina Smith said the state’s paying for Hottinger’s travel resulted from “an error and will not happen again.” Smith also points out that the Dayton campaign had intended all along to split costs for the trips that combined both public and political activities, and reimbursed the state fully for the trip from Bemidji to International Falls.
As always with the DFL – with the damage long done, Governor Dayton apologized.
How many passes will the DFL get when it comes to cheating on state campaign laws?
Today, the Northern Alliance Radio Network – America’s first grass-roots talk radio show – brings you the best in Minnesota conservatism, as the Twin Cities media’s sole source of honesty!
(All times Central)
So tune in to all six hours of the Northern Alliance Radio Network, the Twin Cities’ media’s sole guardians of honest news. You have so many options:
Join us!
Tomorrow, AM1280 will be joining with the North Ramsey County Republicans in putting on the first really good gubernatorial candidates’ debate of the season!
Brad Carlson and I will host the event, at the Concordia Academy in Roseville (just north of Highway 36 on Dale Street). The debate will start promptly at 1PM, and will be heavily audience-participation focused.
As this is written candidates (in alpabetical order) Rob Farnsworth, Scott Honour, Jeff Johnson, Marty Seifert and Dave Thompson are all on the line-up. This may be the best debate you’ll hear before the caucuses.
It’s a fund-raiser for the North Ramsey County Republicans (House districts 42A, 42B and 66A). Admission is $10 if you register in advance. Refreshments will be provided, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume some of us are going to adjourn to a local watering hole afteward for a post-debate wrapup.
So sign up and come on out! It’s going to be a fun event!
I caught “Lone Survivor” – the film adaptation of former SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s memoir chronicling his surviving a badly-awry mission in Afghanistan in 2005 – a few weeks back, as part of a review audience.
It was, by the way, an amazing movie. Not a perfect retelling of the book – I won’t spoil anything, but one of the battles does get Hollywooded in comparison to the book, just a little.
All of that aside, it’s a great move, and I highly recommend it.
Of course, it bleeds red white and blue – which means Hollywood’s liberal film critic elite have broken out the long knives.
Which brings us to Roger Simon’s review of the reviews (and the movie’s snubbing from this year’s Oscars). Read the whole thing. But the conclusion is the vital part:
As for those of you who are lining up to diss Hollywood again in the comments, remember the late Andrew Breitbart said that politics is downstream of culture. He was a 1000% correct. Diss Hollywood all you want. It deserves it. But save some of your energy for taking it back. That’s a lot harder. And a lot more important.
Winning – no,contesting- the culture war is going to be as hard as Afghanistan. And maybe more vital for this nation’s future.
Myth: The French are unimaginative.
Fact: There’s a great idea here for some Minnesota conservative group.
On the one hand: Minnesota hikes taxes two billion dollars. The “surplus” rises about $200 million over what the Republican majority in 2011-2012 left. The DFL majority is currently arguing not so much over how to spend the “surplus’, but how many times over it shall be spent.
On the not-stupid hand: Wisconsin under Scott Walker cut taxes. Wisconsin’s surplus is pushing a billion dollars. And the only argument in Wisconsin today is “how are the taxpayers going to get the overbilling back?”
“The additional revenue should be returned to taxpayers because it’s their money, and my administration will work with the Legislature to determine the most prudent course of action,” Walker said in a statement.
Walker has been talking with Republican leaders about tax cut proposals he plans to release in his State of the State speech next Wednesday. Walker’s spokeswoman Jocelyn Webster said the governor wants to adjust income tax withholding tables to put more money in taxpayers’ pockets immediately and is also eyeing income and property tax reductions.
It’d sure be nice to have grownups in charge in Minnesota again.
(VIa regular commenter Chuck)
This Saturday, AM1280 will be joining with the North Ramsey County Republicans in putting on the first really good gubernatorial candidates’ debate of the season!
Brad Carlson and I will host the event, at the Concordia Academy in Roseville (just north of Highway 36 on Dale Street). The debate will start promptly at 1PM, and will be heavily audience-participation focused.
As this is written candidates (in alpabetical order) Rob Farnsworth, Scott Honour, Jeff Johnson, Marty Seifert and Dave Thompson are all on the line-up. This may be the best debate you’ll hear before the caucuses.
It’s a fund-raiser for the North Ramsey County Republicans (House districts 42A, 42B and 66A). Admission is $10 if you register in advance. Refreshments will be provided, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume some of us are going to adjourn to a local watering hole afteward for a post-debate wrapup.
So sign up and come on out! It’s going to be a fun event!
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Odd to see Democrats adopting a fundamentalist moralizing tone towards women’s occupational choices. Apparently, being a sex worker is no longer a perfectly acceptable lifestyle.
House Democrats say Global Warming turns women into prostitutes.
Increasing the supply of prostitutes should bring the price down. So is that a bug, or a feature?
Joe Doakes
It’ll be a feature when President Obama institudes the Affordable Sex Act, forcing everyone in the US – married or single, punctilious or libertine, patron or not – to pay for everyone else’s hookers.
The Vikings name Mike Zimmer their new head coach.
Longtime Chicago Cubs manager Don Zimmer
In related news: Good Lord, who cares. It’s only the Vikings.
For years, I’ve been pointing out potemkin gun-grab groups – “Sportsmen for Gun Control” and the like.
As Michelle Malkin notes, this is part of a larger strategy of t creating and/or funding “moderate” groups trying to create an impression of “moderate” “grass-roots” groundswell.
Of course we’ve seen this in Minnesota; in addition to the phony “sportsmens'” groups (not to mention buying instant media), the entire Tom Horner campaign was floated (or, more accurately, funded) by the left to try to sap votes from Tom Emmer.
Lesson: Check every “group’s” pedigree. Odds are they’ll turn out no more substantial than, say, “Protect” MN
Horner
IP
This Saturday, AM1280 will be joining with the North Ramsey County Republicans in putting on the first really good gubernatorial candidates’ debate of the season!
Brad Carlson and I will host the event, at the Concordia Academy in Roseville (just north of Highway 36 on Dale Street). The debate will start promptly at 1PM, and will be heavily audience-participation focused.
As this is written candidates (in alpabetical order) Rob Farnsworth, Scott Honour, Jeff Johnson, Marty Seifert and Dave Thompson are all on the line-up. This may be the best debate you’ll hear before the caucuses.
It’s a fund-raiser for the North Ramsey County Republicans (House districts 42A, 42B and 66A). Admission is $10 if you register in advance. Refreshments will be provided, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume some of us are going to adjourn to a local watering hole afteward for a post-debate wrapup.
So sign up and come on out! It’s going to be a fun event!
The Ventura Trolley has its tenth victim:
Spokesman John Siqveland said the gate arms were down, an alarm was sounding and lights were flashing at the intersection when the accident happened. The sidewalk is adjacent to the gate arms, but is not covered by the gate arms. The southbound train stopped just a few feet beyond the intersection after the accident.
Several passengers were on the train at the time. They were questioned by Metro Transit police and put on a bus to continue their journeys, Siqveland said.
No word yet if Rep. Michael Paymar feels “intimidated” by trying to cross the tracks; the Ventura Trolley is, statistically, infinitely more dangerous than a citizen with a carry permit.
(No, not to make light of the death; my condolences to the victim’s loved ones. This isn’t about mocking the dead; it’s about mocking the priorites of the vacuous hamsters some parts of this state keep sending to office).
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Brilliant quip from Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit:
“K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Lauren Harrington-Cooper and Other Teachers Arrested for Sex Crimes. “Such crimes are far from unusual, as we have frequently observed, and here are just a few recent examples.” And here’s another. Obviously, we need to end mandatory celibacy and let high school teachers marry.”
Joe Doakes
Does that mean the superintendent is doctrinally infallible?
Can you fog a mirror? Then you too can be a lieutenant governor!
As Yvonne Prettner Solon bids farewell to the office of Lieutenant Governor, should Minnesota do so as well?
When it comes to political shockwaves, the announcement that Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon would not seek a second-term as Mark Dayton’s running-mate barely constitutes a ripple in the political waters. And why not? Over the past four years, Prettner Solon joined a long and undistinguished list of Minnesota lieutenant governors who served their time largely under the radar of the media and electorate. Even Prettner Solon’s own webpage touts her “actions” as a small collection of out-of-state/out-of-country travels, with a dash of in-state touring on behalf of federal initiatives (helpfully spelling as a typo as well).
Indeed, the trend-lines for the state’s lieutenant governors have seemingly further minimized an insignificant position. Whereas past lieutenant governors had gone on to serve in higher office, such as Rudy Perpich, Sandy Keith, Karl Rolvaag, C. Elmer Anderson and Edward Thye, the past several decades haven’t even seen lieutenant governors make a post-office political impact. Joanne Benson, Joanell Dyrstad, and Marlene Johnson all made bids for higher office in the 1990s (Governor, U.S. Senate and St. Paul Mayor, respectfully) and lost – badly. None of them even made to the general election.
All of this begs the question – does Minnesota require a Lieutenant Governor?
Seven states forgo the position, with two of those states, Tennessee and West Virginia, having the office of lieutenant governor be only an honorary title on the Speaker or President of the State Senate. The line of succession, often the only value to the office, goes either to the Senate President or the Secretary of State. In Minnesota, about the only other value to the office is as a gender counterweight to the top of the ticket. Lou Wangberg was the last male lieutenant governor of the state – a fact useful only as trivia for political nerds. Otherwise, every winning ticket (and most of the losing tickets) have had a female running-mate since 1982.
Closing the office of lieutenant governor won’t save Minnesota much. The combined office budgets of the Governor and his lieutenant are only $3.3 million. But if Minnesota could willingly end a constitutional office like State Treasurer, which had at least some active management in state affairs, then why not do the same for a office that has strayed far from any meaningful policy or political moorings? Every candidate for governor claims they will reinvent the office of lieutenant governor with their selection. Dayton himself promised that Prettner Solon would become a “strong partner” if elected. If travelling to Canada and opening a Duluth office were parts of Dayton’s idea of partnership, he didn’t say in 2010.
Outside of the endorsement process for both parties, the role of lieutenant governor serves absolutely no purpose. And in an era where it appears both parties are drifting away from placing much value on being the endorsed candidate for governor, whatever justifications remain for the office are quickly disappearing.
ADDENDUM: Even Prettner Solon seems to have expected more out of her office, if her comments at her press conference were accurate:
She has said she and the governor have a distant relationship. She said she anticipated being more involved in more policy initiatives as lieutenant governor, but she carved out a niche of her own working on initiatives for seniors and Minnesotans with disabilities.
This Saturday, AM1280 will be joining with the North Ramsey County Republicans in putting on the first really good gubernatorial candidates’ debate of the season!
Brad Carlson and I will host the event, at the Concordia Academy in Roseville (just north of Highway 36 on Dale Street). The debate will start promptly at 1PM, and will be heavily audience-participation focused.
As this is written candidates (in alpabetical order) Rob Farnsworth, Scott Honour, Jeff Johnson, Marty Seifert and Dave Thompson are all on the line-up. This may be the best debate you’ll hear before the caucuses.
It’s a fund-raiser for the North Ramsey County Republicans (House districts 42A, 42B and 66A). Admission is $10 if you register in advance. Refreshments will be provided, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume some of us are going to adjourn to a local watering hole afteward for a post-debate wrapup.
So sign up and come on out! It’s going to be a fun event!
“Millennials” are rapidly approaching “Baby Boomers” as the most over-doted generation of all time. Since the baby boom is slowly ageing out of the demographic hogpile, I figure “millennials” will soon eclipse the Boom as the most hated generation in history around the time the peak of their demographic bell curve hits 45 or so.
Not that its any more the Millennials’ fault than it was the fault of any individual baby boomer. It’s not that they are individually and severally awful people. It’s just that they had such awful spokespeople.
In the case of the Millennials, the spokesman I refer to is Jesse Myerson, whose piece “Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For” (in the ever more vacuous Rolling Stone, natch) delivers eighty distilled years of “progressive” fever dreams in a few pages of Yale-via-video-game argot.
I was going to respond to the whole noxious mess – I spent a week noodling with the idea as I nursed my flu last week – but Walter Hudson has done it, and done it better.
It’s not what Myerson presents so much as what he takes for granted which deserves rebuttal. His proposals proceed from unspoken assumptions which have been promoted in the popular culture by an organized Left, manipulating the nation’s youth into sacrificing their future. Here are 6 lies millennials must reject to live free.
Hudson’s conclusion:
Like each generation before them, millennials will define their own destiny with the ideas they choose to embrace. The whole of human history reads as a tale of tyranny, of political will trumping individual rights. Whether a pharaoh, an emperor, or a democratic majority, the powers that be tend to crush individuals under a banner of grandeur – an appeal to greatness, national pride, or the common good.
The American experiment stands out as a remarkable deviation from that dark standard, an attempt to recognize individual lives as ends in and of themselves, rather than a means toward the ends of others. What Myerson advocates is not new when viewed in historical context. He prescribes the old. He rallies for the tried and failed. Following his advice will return us to serfdom.
The real revolution, the truly youthful cause, erupts in the pursuit of liberty. A celebration of life and our living of it, liberty unleashes you to be who you are and pursue what you want, demanding only no trespass upon others. That’s the reform millennials–and everyone else–should enthusiastically fight for.
To get the logic that led from the beginning to the conclusion, you need to read the whole thing.
And have it ready, in case any of the “Millennials” in your life try to parrot Myerson.
The gun grab movement in Minnesota is going to try to be a liiiiiiiittle bit more subtle this year.
Look for more carefully-bearded ELCA ministers, and less Jane Kay. Less magazine size, more “responsibility” and “safety”.
With that in mind, “Protect” MN – the astroturf gun group run by Representative Heather The Legislatin’ Lobbyist!” Martens and supported by Joyce Foundation money – is apparently trying a subtle rebrand:
Click for full-sized image. (C) 2014, Liberals With Deep Pockets
It used to just say “Minnesota Gun Violence Prevention”.
They’re trying to be less threatening, I guess…
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
This opening paragraph is all you need to know about why government industrial subsidies rarely work.
Joe Doakes
And how we have to keep learning – or narrowly failing, it’d seem, to learn – the lesson every thirty years or so.
Minnesota’s Film & Television Board faces a legislative re-write.
Like Hollywood, Minnesota’s relationship with the entertainment industry has seen a tumultuous career trajectory. From being the ingenue of Midwestern locations in the 1990s, resulting in a bevy of films such as Fargo, Grumpy Old Men, The Mighty Ducks, to a discarded destination left in favor of Canada, Minnesota’s greatest entertainment legacy seemed to come more from the state’s exports (the Coen brothers; Diablo Cody) than production imports.
Left in Hollywood’s wake, two institutions survived – a small, but dedicated core of film and television technical professionals and the bureaucratic Minnesota Film and Television Board. One group has created jobs; the other has lobbyists and now $10 million in tax incentives:
Six months after receiving a record $10 million to lure films to the state, the Minnesota Film & TV Board is under fire, with some legislators and industry insiders questioning whether it should exist at all.
Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles’ concerns about the board have escalated to a point where he plans to seek a formal examination of it next month, when the legislative session begins. If the evaluation is unfavorable, funding for the program known as “Snowbate,” and even the board’s future, could be in jeopardy….
“In addition to an audit, an evaluation is really needed to address broad policy questions,” Nobles said. “Should the state be involved in supporting the film industry? If yes, what would be the most effective approach, and who should be in charge of that effort?”
The fate of the “Snowbate” and the Film Board itself seems to be a movie stuck on an infinite loop. In the mid 2000s, and as recently as 2010, the necessity and/or effectiveness of the Film Board was constantly being called into question, as few films chose Minnesota as their location – even those scripted as taking place in the state. Leatherheads, New in Town, Juno, Jennifer’s Body, Contagion and Young Adult all take place in Minnesota and with the modest exception of a few scenes of Young Adult, none shot a second of footage in the state. Other films, like Homefront or Gran Torino were rewritten to reflect moving the location to outside Minnesota.
The Film Board has countered that they do create jobs, suggesting numbers as high as 338 full-time positions in return for $3.3 million in subsidies. But film and television work, by its nature, is not “full-time” but merely temporary. And considering the increasingly broad definitions of the Snowbate guidelines to include advertising campaigns and web-based content, it would appear that all the Snowbate is accomplishing is subsidizing temporary Minnesota-based work, not bringing in funds or employment from out of state.
Minnesota isn’t the only state that’s reexamining whether or not film tax credits actually bring in revenue. Indeed, the trend-line seems to be going the other direction:
…It’s hard to get a good handle on the exact impact of an in-state movie production. In most places, the only reports on movie-production revenue and jobs come from the state film office–or the movie industry itself. Objective studies are relatively hard to come by. And even where independent studies of film incentives do exist, the data can easily be interpreted in myriad ways.
Take Massachusetts, which has offered a 25 percent film incentive since 2006 and already has attracted numerous big-name projects and stars, including Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mel Gibson. The Bay State is one of only a couple that require an annual, independent report on how the incentives are performing. When the most recent report was released by the Department of Revenue in July 2009, tax-incentive opponents said it unequivocally showed the credits weren’t working. According to the report, the state paid out $113 million in movie tax credits in 2008, while filming in the state generated $17.5 million in new tax revenue and created about 1,100 full-time-equivalent jobs for state residents.
Lost in the discussion is why so many films were attracted to Minnesota in the first place – the filmmakers were from here. Mighty Ducks‘ director Mark Steven Johnson is a Hastings native. Joe Somebody‘s writer John Scott Shepherd worked in the Twin Cities. Thin Ice‘s director Jill Sprecher is a Wisconsin/Minnesota native. And the list of below-the-line production people from Minnesota in Hollywood – the casting directors, the location scouts – is extensive. Relatively few economic incentives were required (or even existed) in the 1990s to encourage filmmakers. The same appears true today. The limits of the Snowbate didn’t seem to stop the Coen brothers from shooting 2009’s A Serious Man in their hometown of St. Louis Park.
Minnesota isn’t going to win a contest of who can subsidize more Hollywood fare for little (or no) economic return. And if even a navy-blue political state like Massachusetts can realize that film tax credits only result in a state being taken advantage of like a young actress on a casting couch, Minnesota might be able to come to a similar conclusion.
This Saturday, AM1280 will be joining with the North Ramsey County Republicans in putting on the first really good gubernatorial candidates’ debate of the season!
Brad Carlson and I will host the event, at the Concordia Academy in Roseville (just north of Highway 36 on Dale Street). The debate will start promptly at 1PM, and will be heavily audience-participation focused.
As this is written candidates (in alpabetical order) Rob Farnsworth, Scott Honour, Jeff Johnson, Marty Seifert and Dave Thompson are all on the line-up. This may be the best debate you’ll hear before the caucuses.
It’s a fund-raiser for the North Ramsey County Republicans (House districts 42A, 42B and 66A). Admission is $10 if you register in advance. Refreshments will be provided, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume some of us are going to adjourn to a local watering hole afteward for a post-debate wrapup.
So sign up and come on out! It’s going to be a fun event!
You are currently browsing the Shot in the Dark weblog archives for January, 2014.
