{"id":15930,"date":"2010-12-04T11:54:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-04T17:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=15930"},"modified":"2010-12-04T12:09:28","modified_gmt":"2010-12-04T18:09:28","slug":"fifteen-minutes-could-save-you-fifteen-percent-or-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=15930","title":{"rendered":"Fifteen Minutes Could Save You Fifteen Percent or More"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have to believe that many Republicans and possibly even some fiscally-conservative Democrats are quietly hoping to themselves that the gubernatorial recount might actually drag on so long as to allow current governor Tim Pawlenty to preside over a Republican Legislature…if for even fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n

It’s not without risks…<\/p>\n

A lawsuit from Tom Emmer offers one obvious benefit<\/a>. It likely would keep GOP<\/a> Gov. Tim Pawlenty<\/a> in office beyond his appointed term, giving the party more power when the state’s Legislature convenes next month under Republican control for the first time in decades. But some worry that it also risks damaging the party’s image if the lawsuit appears to be nothing more than a stalling maneuver to keep Dayton out.<\/p>\n

Several influential Republicans are warning that unless new information emerges to question the integrity of the election, Emmer should concede soon to avoid hurting the party. It’s not an easy decision, especially in a polarized political environment where both sides had legal teams in place even before the election to prepare for a contested outcome.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…but imagine what could be accomplished.<\/p>\n

And even if Emmer doesn’t prevail, that’s not really the point as long as you care about the integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n

“This egregious disregard for election laws calls into question the integrity of one vote per person<\/a>,” Emmer said, “and is, I believe, an assault on the very principles of the American voting system, diluting every legally cast vote. Again, that’s when you have more ballots, than supposedly you have people that voted in the election.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So I will come right out and say it, I’m all for expediency in the electoral process but let’s take all due care, and maybe a smidgen of undue care to make sure that the final tally reflects each and every voter’s sentiment.<\/p>\n

In the end, even Democrats know full well that in the likely event that Mark Dayton becomes the bona fide winner, the Republican legislature is going to bounce Dayton around like a volleyball, which is to say for lemonade-loving conservatives this is something of a win\/win scenario.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to believe that many Republicans and possibly even some fiscally-conservative Democrats are quietly hoping to themselves that the gubernatorial recount might actually drag on so long as to allow current governor Tim Pawlenty to preside over a Republican Legislature…if for even fifteen minutes. It’s not without risks… A lawsuit from Tom Emmer offers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,2,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-integrity","category-minnesota-politics","category-mngop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15930"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15938,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions\/15938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}