North Star Politics

These people honestly do not want us voting. To the conservatives/Republicans who read this blog: is there anything that could make this okay?

Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a great Minnesotan, has died at 89.

UPDATE: Replaced with a NYT link. Previous CNN link here.

A postmortem on the Ford Bell event I mentioned the other day, attended by someone who doesn't have to remain anonymous.

MN Publius has done some fantastic work here. I'm a little embarrassed that I can't keep up with my fellow student bloggers.

I hate it when student types complain about their powerlessness. I believe that if you have half a brain and you're willing to do a little work, you can change the world. That belief is why NSP exists.

My friends over at MN Publius, in reference to my home district, the 1st, say:

Contrary to popular belief, the 1st is a winable[sic] district (Bush only got 51% of the vote in 2004!).

Those of us in southern Minnesota know that it's a very winnable district, especially after a slow, years-long slide to the left. The problem, for the last several election cycles, has been money. Steve Andreasen (2002) and Joe Mayer/Leigh Pomeroy (2004, Mayer dropped out early for health reasons) were ridiculously underfunded with next to no support from the DCCC. As a result, though all were fairly good candidates, none won more than the ~35% that can be expected from the solid Democratic base. I don't have any proof, but I'd bet that none had even half-decent name recognition. They just didn't have the money to get any significant advertising out there. It's great that the DCCC is paying a little attention this year, and while I'm annoyed that they haven't done so in years past, this is the year we're going to take back the 1st. Tim Walz is, judging mostly by what I've heard from knowledgeable others, a top-notch candidate. Icing on the cake is that he's a Fighting Dem. What I'm sure he needs at this point more than anything else is that which will set him apart from his predecessors: money. You can be sure that his opponent, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, will be very well funded. So, if you want to make a difference in what will be one of the most important and exciting races in Minnesota next November, please donate what you can.

Things I wanted to point out in this article:

#1: If Amy Klobuchar wins the DFL nomination for Senate, barring a meltdown of epic proportions, she will win the election in November hands-down. Kennedy would have faced a tough race for re-election, and his job is all the more difficult now that he's running statewide. In a Kennedy vs. Klobuchar race, Klobuchar will win. Klobuchar, a Hennepin County elected official and a U.S. Senate candidate, has an approval rating in the same neighborhood as Laura Bush, a non-political First Lady of the United States. That's astounding.

#2: A fair number of DFL-held legislative seats may be lost in the next election, but the fallout from the special session and shutdown will be worse for the GOP. Many of the DFL House members elected in 2004, especially, will be extremely vulnerable, while many swing districts currently represented by Republicans will probably dump those incumbents. The Senate will almost certainly see some incumbents beaten, but I think that the split will be fairly even.

#3: At this point, Gov. Pawlenty has to be considered endangered. The special session and shutdown were his fault, and his "they did it to embarrass me" line is weak and whiny. Yeah, right, Tim, the DFL did something unprecedented in state history just to embarrass you. He's going to have to answer a lot of questions about his actions over the past four years and his record is going to come back and bite him. He's shown absolutely no leadership on any of the issues that really matter to Minnesotans, and little enough even on the issues that don't.

#4: Most Minnesotans continue to support Roe v. Wade. Period. They're for reasonable restrictions? Great, so are Democrats. We're just not for restrictions that put the most vulnerable women into a corner. When people understand that, the choice debate (pro-choice vs. anti-choice) will have a lot more people on our side.

As of 2:45 A.M. CDT, the RNC's website is, in the lower right-hand corner, showing this:

12.08.05 - Representative Duke Cunningham's Birthday

Isn't that sweet?

(Hat to TPM)

UPDATE: It's been taken down this morning.

Because I'm not above it and someone asked, I'm posting details of a Ford Bell event next to the Kennedy/Bush fundraiser on Friday.

WHO: Ford Bell, U.S. Senate candidate
WHAT: Mr. Bell buying lunch for veterans, though the public is invited
WHERE: Market Bar-B-Que, 1414 Nicollet Ave., next to the hotel at which the Kennedy event is being held
WHEN: This Friday, 12-2

Link to Bell's website and more details here, and if you’re planning on attending, contact clare@fordbell.com or call the campaign at 612-874-1800.

Sen. Becky Lourey has decided she's going all-out for the governor's race, saying that she is serious enough about getting the nomination that she won't run for re-election in the Senate. Sen. Lourey has done great work during her time in office, garnering respect from both sides of the aisle.

A very quick-and-dirty analysis of SD08 leads me to believe that the DFL, should they put up a half-decent candidate, should have little trouble holding the seat. Good.

New Patriot has something to say about the DeLay trial.

This is just the first step to our cleaning up Washington in 2007 and beyond.