Tag: MNGov 2010
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Saturday – Gubernatorial Debate
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…
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The Unions Buy Minnesota
So how much money did Big Labor spend along with Big Lefty Plutocrat to buy the Governor’s Office and the Legislature? If you believe the Strib, it’s “around $3 million. If you believe the Strib is going to tell the truth about DFL perfidy – and especially the big money behind the DFL, I’ve got a 50% stake in the…
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Buying Minnesota With Daddy’s Money, Part II
Yesterday, the Campaign Finance reports for the last Gubernatorial election came out. And the media finally noticed – sort of – what you learned on this blog last July; Mark Dayton outspent Tom Emmer 2:1, and that most of the money came from “outside groups”. MPR had the best report, at least compared to the rest…
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Congratulations, Governor Dayton
As this post appears at 8:30AM, Mark Dayton will be sworn in as Minnesota’s 40th Governor (UPDATE: Oops. I got that off of a state website. It was apparently wrong; the swearing in will apparently be held at noon. Thanks, State of Minnesota!). Time to give the guy his due. He won the election, by…
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From Planet Dinkytown
Jeff at MNPublius aims big. After taking his de rigeur shot at departing Governor Pawlenty (trying to portray one of Minnesota’s most significant governors of the past 100 years as “nothing special)”, Rosenberg reviews a list the Governor released of his major accomplishments, and asks: In eight years, what would we like a similar document…
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Why Did Emmer Lose?
The dust is finally settling. The campaign is over. We have a “governor”-elect. So what went wrong with the Emmer campaign? We’ll come back to that. First, let’s talk about what went right. Emmer ran a campaign he can be proud of, to the extent that he, personally, never stooped to the Dayton campaign’s level…
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Winners And Losers
Now that Tom Emmer has conceded in the governor’s race, it’s time to figure out who the other winners and losers were during this race. Winners Conservatism: Lori Sturdevant may not have gotten the message yet, but the “Independent Republican” of “progressive Republican” politics in Minnesota is dead, dead, dead. And nobody’s going to visit…
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Governor Dayton: “Where’s the $#&@#@% Remote Control?”
A Dayton Governorship is a distant second to an Emmer Governorship as a Minnesotan but for a conservative blogger, a hell of a lot more fun. Four years of job security! (right Mitch? …Mitch?) Dayton is (along with his buck-toothed sister the Star Tribune) going to be awesome blogfodder! Consider this for example: said his…
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Congratulations, Mark Dayton. Welcome To Hell.
So with Emmer’s apparently-upcoming concession, you’re the Governor-elect, now, Mark Dayton. Congratulations. After pouring millions of dollars of your family’ s money into the most toxic, slimy, sleazy campaign in Minnesota gubernaturial history, a campaign noted for its serial, cynical inaccuracy by anyone with the brains to spell the words – a “campaign” based on…
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The Better Man “Loses”
The Strib notes what we’d sensed for most of the past month; the margin, fair or foul, is just too much. Tom Emmer seems likely to concede today. The better man “lost”. A slimy, toxic campaign with only two focuses – “taxing the rich” and tearing down Tom Emmer – “won”, by half a point,…
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You Don’t Take Sides Against The Family
The Minnesota State GOP Central Committee had its big annual meeting over the weekend. The act that’s gotten the most publicity has been its vote to boot over a dozen former MNGOP elected officials from the party for supporting Tom Horner during the gubernatorial campaign just past. By a 58-55 vote, the committee banned…: Arne Carlson…
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How Emmer Wins The Recount
I’m going to depart from my usual impeccably high standards to indulge in a little pure speculation. How could Emmer win the recount? It’s worth asking – largely because the Dayton Campaign and the media keep repeating so long, loud and stridently that it’s not. Dayton ran a purely vaporous campaign of absolutely no substance…
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Chanting Points Memo: Balancing The Books
As we speak, the MNGOP is announcing that it plans to seek “reconciliation” of the state’s vote totals before the recount begins. The DFL is going to spread a lot of, frankly, BS about this process. Here are the facts. For starters…: It’s The Law: The DFL is going to portray this to the uniformed…
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News Conference
Mitch Berg is arriving for his press conference. He takes his place behind the podium. The press bustle forward to get the best spots in front of the podium. Berg waves his hands, and the press gradually quiet down. BERG: OK, for starters; everyone knows Tom Emmer has won the election, and that his inauguration…
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100 Reasons I’m Voting For Tom Emmer
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…
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Top Five Reasons Emmer Should Be Governor – #1: It’s The Hope
I moved to Minnesota 25 years ago. I moved here because my home state, North Dakota, was mired in an epic farm depression – and even in the best of times, the job market for a guy with a BA in English and a drive to be a writer was dodgy. I moved to find…
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Top Five Reasons Emmer Should Be Governor – #3: The Overhaul
Who does government work for? If you said “us”, either you aren’t from Minnesota, or you are hopelessly naive. For the past forty years in Minnesota, the state budget has grown, consistently, vastly faster than inflation. Not just a little faster, but much, much, much, much faster. No matter who was in charge – DFLers…
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Top Five Reasons Dayton Should Not Be Governor – #3: Unexamined
There are so many unanswered questions about Mark Dayton. Now, if we had an institution in our state whose job it was to ask tough questions of those who would tax our earnings and spend our money and run the free association of equals that We The People call our government – say, a big…
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Top Five Reasons Emmer Should Be Governor – #4: Buck The Narrative
There are two duelling narratives at work in the Minnesota gubernatorial election this year. One of them is a huge, national narrative; the immense, perhaps unprecedented in 65-100 years, backlash against the currently-absolutely-ruling party. Conservatism is, by most rational accounts, about to deal a thrashing to liberalism that’ll make the 1994 election look like a…
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Top Five Reasons Dayton Should Not Be Governor – #4: Fool Us Three Times…
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that Americans hate second acts. It’s baloney, of course, Americans love a good comeback story. Our history is crowded with ’em; Grover Cleveland’s second term; William Howard Taft’s service on the Supreme court; Richard Nixon (who perhaps should not have had his second act); Ronald Reagan himself, whose career spanned…
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The HHH And The DFL Get Out The Vote Effort
Another MPR/HHH Poll. Another lopsided sample. Another improbably huge Dayton lead. Another day in a city where the media and academy actively work with the dominant political party to maintain control. According the poll, which has a margin or sampling error between 3.6 percent and 5.5 percent and surveyed 751 likely voters, Dayton had support…
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Lists Everywhere
Over the next five days I’m going to run three lists. The Top Five Reasons Mark Dayton Should Not Be Governor – I’ll be running them one per day between now and Monday. The Top Five Reasons Tom Emme Should Be Governor – One a day til Monday, except I may take Sunday off and…
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Hatch And Swanson: Peas In An Authoritarian Pod
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…
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Chanting Points Memo: Numbers
The DFL’s been trying to make a lot out of the last few polls released on the Minnesota Gubernatorial race. Most of them show Dayton leading Emmer by one margin or another – from the tight to the ludicrous. Ed and I were discussing the polls on our show over the weekend, and we noticed…