Congressman Walz's campaign sent out a release today stating that he has raised 1 million so far for his re-election campaign.
With a $314,000 first quarter and $600,000 Cash on hand, Walz is in a good financial position. But it never hurts to raise more https://services.myngp.com/ngp...
Tim Walz Raises $1,000,000 for Re-election
More than 7,000 people join the effort
Mankato, MN - Today, Tim Walz for US Congress announced the campaign raised more than $1,000,000 for the re-election of Tim Walz. The campaign raised more than $314,000 in the most recent financial quarter and has a significant cash advantage with nearly $600,000 in reserves.
"I am humbled to receive such strong support from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. With over 7,000 folks joining our grassroots movement in southern Minnesota, it is clear they value the effectiveness on behalf of veterans, our small businesses and working families," said Walz.
Today is the 2nd district (MN-02) DFL convention. Dan Powers and Shelley Madore are vying to be the candidate to take on 4-term Republican John Kline. Powers is a small businessman intent on unseating Kline and Madore is a 1-term state legislator.
Powers has agreed to abide by the nomination, but it isn't as cut-and-dried with Madore. Delegates I have talked to have heard different stories, though Steve Quist got a statement from her that she would abide.
The doors have just opened at Chanhassen High School and I'll be here all day with all the gory details, insights, photos and interviews. The candidate speeches will (providing everything is on schedule) start around 11:30AM or so. The first vote should be around 1:00PM.
Wifi is working and I'll be able update this post, but you can also follow me on twitter:
Leanne Kunze aims to beat Rep. Paul Kohls (R-Victoria) in the 34A State House race. She knows she has an uphill battle, but promises to wear out several pairs of shoes doorknocking the district. In 2008, Kohls beat DFLer Marcia Krueger 67% - 32%. In 2006, Kohls beat her 66% - 34%.
When people in the district began urging her to run, they said she's well known enough to beat Kohls. Kunze and Kohls are what she termed "family friends" and they have both been active in their community for many years. She characterized the courtesy call she made as "strange, in that he was really nervous."
"He kept repeating how he was going to win," Kunze said. "I took that as an acknowledgement that he has a real challenger."
"This was a hard decision to make. I had initially thought about running while Rep. Kohl's was traveling around the state on an exploratory run for governor. Paul and [wife] Kelly are family friends and I don't want this to get personal," stated Kunze, in a press release.
"But, we need to make sure Minnesota is on a path where we can protect working families, fight for property tax fairness and ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected. I was extremely disappointed in Paul's recent partisan vote against protecting the most vulnerable in our society, including 8,000 veterans."
"People in our community aren't Democrats and they aren't Republicans. They are moderate, independent thinking people. They want someone that will be consistent with what they think is right for the community." Kunze said she would arrive at the Capitol with a very specific agenda.
"The challenge our state faces requires leadership that is looking to get things done instead of fighting partisan battles. We need to make sure we are investing in education so students can get a world class education, we need to properly fund local governments so property tax increases aren't required in order to maintain local communities and we need to ensure that working families have strong opportunities to make their lives a little better," she stated.
(Brick City Blog)
Kunze is a formidable candidate. She's worked in law enforcement as a child protection advocate, as a social worker and now as an AFSCME organizer. She's a practicing Catholic who believes in the church's mission of social justice. She's been an active member of her community raising two kids in Waconia.
She has a degree in Sociology and in Psychology from the University of St. Catherine's and is finishing her Masters in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Most importantly, she knows how to organize from working for AFSCME.
Today in Rushford, MN (a city hit hard by the floods of August 2007) Senate District 31 DFLers met to elect party officers, endorse a Senate candidate, and endorse House candidates.
Senate District 31 convention endorsed, by acclamation, our sitting State Senator Sharon Erickson Ropes. She will face Republican Jeremy Miller (who was endorsed March 20 by SD31 Republicans) from Winona in this fall's election.
Then, 31A and 31B separated into their House Districts.
On the 31A side, incumbent DFLer Gene Pelowski was facing an endorsement challenge from Winona City Council member Deb White. After the first ballot Deb White chose to concede before the tally was announced. Gene Pelowski received the endorsement of District 31A, and will face off against his 2008 challenger, Rhett Zenke.
On the 31B side (as a citizen, this is where I spent my time), Spring Grove City Council member Steve Kemp was endorsed unanimously by 31B DFLers to run against incumbent Republican Representative Greg Davids.
Ezra Klein has the scoop (apparently), and the AP is picking up on it.
It's a numbers crunch on votes, and on the money to be spent, and the deficit reduced, and it looks like supporters of the bill have another piece of good news to keep the momentum going into the vote (whenever it occurs). The CBO's numbers look good.
Some momentum from Minnesota was added yesterday when Representative Jim Oberstar announced that he is a solid "yes" on voting for the bill. This announcement prompted "Catholics United" to start airing TV ads thanking Rep. Oberstar for his support of the the bill. The ads are part of a "broader national campaign to underscore Catholic support for health care reform," according to a statement released by the Catholic group.
According to a Democratic source, CBO has finished its work and will release the official preliminary score later today. But here are the basic numbers: The bill will cost $940 billion over the first 10 years and reduce the deficit by $130 billion during that period. In the second 10 years -- so, 2020 to 2029 -- it will reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion. The legislation will cover 32 million Americans, or 95 percent of the legal population.
To put this in context, that's more deficit reduction than either the House or Senate bill, and more coverage than the Senate bill.
How they got these numbers, and whether there are important qualifiers, will be easier to say once CBO releases its analysis. But the bottom line is that this is the exact sort of score that Democrats wanted, and is in fact considerably better than some had come to expect they would receive. Coverage is better than the Senate bill, which will reassure liberals, and deficit reduction is better than either bill, which will reassure conservatives.
With the unveiling of the health reform reconciliation compromise set for noon ET, Democrats are beginning to leak results of the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office score of the provisions. They're pretty good.
The deficit over the first ten years drops by $130 billion compared to the baseline. Importantly, especially for wavering Democrats like Brian Baird, it reduces the debt by $1.2 trillion in the second ten years. Apparently, the CBO says that the bill would reduce Medicare expenditures by about 1.4% per year, extending the solvency of the program by nine years. Thirty-two million Americans will be covered -- about 95% of all those eligible. The cost over decade one: $940 billion. The release today will help Speaker Nancy Pelosi fulfill her promise of providing 72 hours to review the bill before the vote, which is on tap for Sunday.
Rep. Gregg Davids (R-Preston) is an example of the Republican who will likely be in trouble because of his GAMC flip flop. Last Friday, he joined 37 other Republicans and voted for the GAMC bill that overwhelmingly passed the House. Yesterday, he cravenly flip-flopped and voted to uphold Gov. Tim Pawlenty's GAMC veto.
What changed over the weekend?
The threat of a primary challenger. Davids is in a swing district and desperately needs his party's help to win in 2010. In Winona and in a mostly rural district like this one, a few disgruntled Teabaggers with a little help from some zealous party hacks in the Twin Cities could easily dislodge Davids from his precarious perch.
In 2006 Davids lost his seat to DFLer Ken Tschumper by 52 votes. He got it back in 2008 by a mere 407 votes.
When voters see the effects of throwing 30,000 Minnesotans off GAMC, they are not going to be happy with Rep. Davids. When voters see the real effects on poor children, veterans, the elderly and the mentally ill, they may consider voting DFL in November. When voters see the effects of Davids actions on people they know, they'll throw him out.
Especially after some organization or another spends a couple hundred thousand dollars telling everyone in his district that he cares more about Tim Pawlenty's presidential ambitions than the poor, elderly and mentally ill.
Rep. Jeremy Kalin (DFL-North Branch) announced today that he will not be seeking a third term today. His dedication and tenacity will be missed and I'm personally bummed as he's also a great guy. He released the following statement:
"Serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives is an incredible honor. I've been lucky enough to earn the trust of my neighbors all across Chisago County for two terms. I'm confident that I would have won their trust for another term, but my name won't be on the ballot in November.
"My wife and I were married during my first year in office. For 2 and a half years, we've managed the very hectic life of a State Representative from Chisago County and an ob-gyn phsyician delivering babies 45 miles away in Minneapolis. We've decided to take a break from campaigns and elected office and enjoy our lives together, while we can still call ourselves 'newlyweds.'
"Public service is in my blood. I am sure that the call to serve our great state will be present throughout my life. For now, I am focused on the task at hand in the legislative session - Minnesota's short- and long-term economic recovery. I cannot say 'Thank You' often enough to the voters of Chisago County for the chance to be their voice in the Minnesota House. It is truly a privilege in every sense of the word."
Tarryl Clark was endorsed by Take Action Minnesota today. Take Action screened Maureen Reed and Clark prior to their annual meeting in Brooklyn Center, MN. Members chose Clark with 89% on the first ballot.
This is significant as Take Action will actively support Clark's campaign. They'll encourage their membership base of activists to volunteer and provide strategic advice and tactical support in Clark's district conventions.
But most importantly, this solidifies Clark's credibility as the progressive candidate in this race.
Conservative tweeps (Twitter users) were abuzz with excitement yesterday. Their hero, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) was going to stage some sort of protest in relation to President Obama's state of the union speech. It got me wondering.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is gearing up for another demonstration at the Capitol building tomorrow, protesting in advance of President Obama's State of the Union address -- and to mark this occasion, she's been rolling out a "Declaration of Health Care Independence."
(Talking Points Memo)
Will she use this as an opportunity to urge her fellow knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers to revolution again? Possibly. We'll be watching for any new conspiracy theories, but she tends to stick to already debunked lies when she has a major spotlight. She usually unveils her latest insane theory when she thinks no "libruls" are listening/watching.
Not only does the national evangelical movement financially support Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), she's also a rising star in the Republican party. In the modern Republican party, saying insane things and blatantly lying garner positive attention. Michele's conspiracy-theory-a-month is paying off: National fundraisers. It's $500 a head for VIP access or $50 to get in the door later.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is a rising GOP star, most recently gaining national attention for her strong opposition to Obamacare. Branded a "right-wing exremist" by the Left and mainstream outlets such as CNN, she is a national security hawk, speaking out against the Administration's policy to try terrorists in American courts. Bachmann narrowly won re-election in 2008, and now Nancy Pelosi's #1 target in November.
Hello? Typo!?! "... and now isNancy Pelosi's #1 target ..." Oi.
So when the Republican accuse a DFLer of raising money outside of Minnesota, just remember that Bachmann's money doesn't come from Minnesota.
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) was the Minority Leader of the MN House at the legislature. The only way to rise to that level of authority in the MN Republican party is to be a far right conservative. However, in his run for the MN-03 seat in '08 he painted himself as a moderate. The Twin Cities' media aided and abetted his subterfuge.
Now that he's in Congress, he's reverting to his far right ways and quite shamelessly. In other words, he's lying. And in this one letter, quite a lot.
A constituent sent him a letter urging him to support real healthcare reform. He responded with lies about the public option's cost, it's effect on the deficit, that it would cut Medicare, increase taxes on everyone and negatively affect small businesses.
The Congressional Budget Office has released it's initial analysis of the Republican's version of Health Care Reform. http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/d...
Ezra Klein today in his Washington Post blog writes some comments about the CBO's analysis.
The meat of the Klein post:
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder.
What's bothersome about the opposition at this point is that not only does it not offer an alternative that covers more people and saves the government money, they are at this point creating an environment by yelling, "Look over there!", that feeds the paranoia of the fringe, and doesn't add to the nature of the debate.
Today they are "storming the halls" of the US Capitol today with a Representative that wanted to "drive liberals crazy" by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but then forgot how it goes.
We all make mistakes, sure, but if you're going to try and make a point, you might want to practice beforehand. Oh, and Rep. Akin, you did succeed at driving me crazy, by omitting the word "indivisible" from the pledge and then sort of bumbling to the end.
One of the leaders of the GOP "house call" today in Washington, D.C. is, of course, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who tends to have a problem with the truth. http://www.politifact.com/trut...
What really bothers me is the fringe's continual equating of the Democratic health care reform plan as one that is similar to Hitler's plan to exterminate the Jewish race, perhaps using "death panels."
Joe and Bill have been talking about "things getting ugly." Things have been rhetorically and intellectually ugly for quite a while. Dishonesty has been rampant throughout the health care debate.
This is just another example of the kind of hateful sideshow that pops up along with the activists that might actually try to have some legitimate points:
We need more people from within to speak loudly and publicly against this hateful rhetoric, to stop the madness, and stop fueling the fire of paranoia. I would hope that someone would've asked the sign bearers to put it away. It adds nothing to policy debate, and it creates a theatrical environment where reality and decency no longer apply.
Plus, if you're going to propose opposing policy, make sure it isn't less viable than the policy you're opposing.
President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 into law in late May of this year. The law prevents credit card companies from arbitrarily jacking up people's rates ... consumer gouging just isn't cool.
The law was to go into effect in February 2009. The credit card companies said they needed the time to update their software. This turned out to be an excuse to engage in a little consumer gouging before the law went into effect.
So Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and a bunch of other Dems got together to do something about it.
"Unfortunately, some credit card companies have abused the time that was given them to convert their computer software to meet the requirements of the law, to make last-minute rate hikes to bilk consumers of as much as they can before the law we passed kicks into gear," Ellison stated.
"This is, plain and simple, consumer gouging on the part of credit card companies at its worst," Ellison stated. "We gave the card companies a good faith grace period before the enacted reforms came into play - and they took the consumers and small businesses to the cleaners."
"The passage of H.R. 3639, the Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act of 2009 puts an end to these practices that take hard-earned money from Minnesota families," the 5th District Congressman said.
(Ellison email press release)
What happens on election night parties after your candidate wins? What else! We all talk about the next election.
A friend called me and told me several people approached him about drafting Martin Sabo to run for Margaret Anderson-Kelliher's seat if she stays in the Governor's race.
This would would interesting. If ... and this is a big if ... Sabo wins he would immediately have enough seniority to be Speaker. For anyone who complains that Minneapolis always gets stiffed at the State Capitol, Sabo would be a heavyweight that would probably do a lot toward bringing DFLers and Republicans together.
Here's the complicating factor, there would probably be plenty of push-back from the activists in 60B as I'm sure a large number of folks are eyeing Margaret's seat if she decides to go all in for Guv.
I took a look at Tarryl Clark's FEC filing and found some interesting things. The 18 PACs who gave only make up $48K of the $308K she raised. That's only 15.5%. It also shows who believes enough in her to donate. Pretty decent list.
Keith Ellison
Jim Oberstar
Collin Peterson
Progressive Patriot's Fund
What's that you say? You don't recognize Progressive Patriot's Fund? That's Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), one of our progressive heroes in the Senate. It's his leadership PAC. Here's what he said about his PAC.
"When we founded the Progressive Patriots Fund, we promised to support candidates and go around the country, playing a key role in the larger effort to build the Democratic Party throughout America," Feingold said. "The strides we made this cycle have been astounding and with the Democratic victories yesterday, we're one step closer to getting our country back on track."
...
"Throughout the country, we saw firsthand that people everywhere want a party that fights for health care for all Americans, works to protect and create jobs, takes the steps necessary to ensure fiscal responsibility, and does everything in their power to fight terrorism while also protecting our freedoms," Feingold said. "We believe in a 50-state strategy and although we came up short in a few races yesterday, we laid the groundwork for Democrats to win in the years to come. While many groups just targeted sure winners, we made sure to help candidates across the board. Some were a long shot but it wasn't that long ago that I was a long shot Senate candidate here in Wisconsin."
Today is the 2nd district (MN-02) DFL convention. Dan Powers and Shelley Madore are vying to be the candidate to take on 4-term Republican John Kline. Powers is a small businessman intent on unseating Kline and Madore is a 1-term state legislator.
Leanne Kunze aims to beat Rep. Paul Kohls (R-Victoria) in the 34A State House race. She knows she has an uphill battle, but promises to wear out several pairs of shoes doorknocking the district. In 2008, Kohls beat DFLer Marcia Krueger 67% - 32%. In 2006, Kohls beat her 66% - 34%.
Rep. Gregg Davids (R-Preston) is an example of the Republican who will likely be in trouble because of his GAMC flip flop. Last Friday, he joined 37 other Republicans and voted for the GAMC bill that overwhelmingly passed the House. Yesterday, he cravenly flip-flopped and voted to uphold Gov. Tim Pawlenty's GAMC veto.
