UPDATE: The contest now has a prize.
The winner of this contest gets a $150 gift certificate at the St. Paul Grill. So you can eat – for a night, anyway – like the DFL plutocrats who rule you!
Gift certificate courtesy the sponsorship of…
… Well, I can’t actually say. They want to remain anonymous. I can neither confirm nor deny that it’s the Koch brothers. I can also neither confirm nor deny that is Grover Norquist.
RULES UPDATE: When the prize was nothing but bragging rights, I wasn’t going to fuss too much about duplicate entries.
However, now that there’s an actual prize, I will allow people with duplicate entries to make one change to their submission.
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Now, if you’ve followed Minnesota politics this past four years, you know that Mark Dayton has been “Governor” is the same sense that Danny Bonaduce was the “bassist” for the Partridge Family. He’s been a marionette, a flapping jaw revealing the will of the special interests who installed him in office.
And his health is not at all good.
And once he cut the crap and made it official by bringing Tina Flint Smith on as his running mate (putting Yvonne something or other out to pasture), the plan’s been pretty much common knowledge: “Governor” Dayton is going to resign and turn the office over to Tina “The Butcher” Flint Smith.
The only real question is when.
And that calls for a pool.
The Pool: Pick the date that Mark Dayton resigns from office. Whoever is closest wins, and earns – I dunno, a drink from me when we have another get-together.
Closest – before or after the actual retirement, counted in calendar days – wins.
Leave your predictions in the comment section, in the form of a date and year.
Example: July 1, 2015 (that’s my prediction, BTW). I’ll make sure this thread gets saved for the long haul – not that I (obviously) think we’ll need to save it for that long…
The deadline will be the beginning of the next session.
UPDATE: See current selections and standings here.
Troy read the rules closet date either way wins
April 1, 2015
Such an appropriate date for our Governor.
Technically, Dayton checked out mid-way through his first term, so I’m going with June 18, 2012.
March 13, 2016
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December 25, 2015. He’ll preside over the first budget and he’ll allow “The Butcher” to set the tone against the GOP in the next session. (Ok, the real reason for the date is that he’ll view his retirement as a “gift” to the DFL.)
January 2, 2017. Sorry Redsquirrel – sometime after the holidays and before the legislature starts back up after he loses the MN Senate.
Monday, September 19, 2016.
He’s just waiting until he can perform the opening coin flip at the home opener the day before at the new Taj MaZygi Vikings stadium.
Hey, I claimed April 1 a week ago.
Might as well try and win – get me a good reason to come up to the Great North Midwest – how bout December 3rd, 2015 ??
I was hoping that the big news would be that I had lost this contest, and Dayton had already resigned……bummer.
May 19, 2015.
The first day after the first Monday after the third Saturday in May.
8/15/2015. Late summer would be better but before the state fair. In the dog days and before it could affect an election.
June 17, 2015
11/30/16
Since my date was already picked, I will back up a day and say Nov 8th, election day. Dayton will announce his resignation for health reasons just as the media is calling the senate for the MNGOP.
Nov 12 2017. Bill Gilles
January 10, 2016
March 15, 2017 – he won’t see a “need” to stay in office after he tries to steal media headlines from whenever the Republican presidential nominee visits like he did back in 2004.
This is still a great idea even without the gift certificate. Since my guess is 3+ years out, will it be worth anything? Will the St. Paul Grill still be around? Heck will I still be around? It still would be worth having a beer at the expense of my buddy, Mitch. You should offer to throw in the beer if you get invited to go with!
So I am still going with February 15, 2018. Gov. Dayton still wants to preside over the Superbowl paid for by yours truly.
January 5, 2015.
May 3, 2015
September 29th, 2015
Drag $150 through SITD and I’m amazed who pops up, people we haven’t heard from in ages. I’m concerned, though: neither Dog Gone nor Angry Clown have made an appearance. Considering the election results, the early start on winter and the known risks of depression, is there reason to worry they might have hurt themselves?
Mitch, can you use your secret back-channel contacts to check up on them?
August 12, 2015
It would be a nice birthday present.