Over the last few months we've focused a lot, rightfully, on the governor's race. It's the most important thing on the ballot this coming November.
But there's also a big race underway in my home congressional district, currently "represented" by so-called Moderate Republican Erik Paulsen. In the 3rd District we have two DFL candidates vying for the party's endorsement. They've participated in three debates, at nine Senate District conventions so far, and have spent the last few months campaigning hard for every delegate they've earned.
But only one candidate has proven they have what it takes to win. My endorsement to follow after the break.
(Managerial note: we're staying out of the intramural race between Maureen Hackett and Jim Meffert. I got the same email and found it pretty humorous, but MPP will support anyone who ends up with a shot at retiring Erik Paulsen. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
Submitted by TwoPuttTommy on January 28, 2008 - 9:45am.
Folks, you just can't make this up - Erik Paulsen claiming to have, and I quote from his press release: "...years of working in bipartisan fashion, across the aisle, to get results in the business world and in the Minnesota legislature."
ROFLMAO!!!!!
Just who does Erik Paulsen think he's kidding??!?
ERIK PAULSEN, working in a "bipartisan fashion"??!? Those two belong together the same way "George W. Bush" and "articulate" do. Well, more like: "don't."
The whole thing is worth re-reading, as is this one.
So, what reminded me of what I wrote, last cycle? Go below the fold!!!
(It's crunch time for the congressional campaigns -- both the Meffert and Hackett campaigns have posted entries here in the past 24 hours. Hackett's entry can be found here, and it will be promoted at 11:30 today. - promoted by Joe Bodell)
I'm seeing a disheartening trend on the campaign trail. Amid all the political chatter, we may be losing focus on what's most important. Crunching numbers and assessing strategies can be useful, but when the horserace becomes the main focus we are missing the point completely.
The reality is that poverty is growing in the suburbs. Middle class families are struggling to make ends meet. Jobs are scarce. Demand on food shelves is increasing. Use of subsidized school lunches is increasing. The Star Tribune has drawn attention to just how hard the economic crisis is hitting suburban families. This is the reality that our friends and neighbors are facing.
Politics doesn't matter to the mom whose dream is to go to the grocery store rather than the food shelf. Politics doesn't matter to the patient putting off an operation she can't afford. Politics doesn't factor in for the guy who lost his job, then let his health insurance lapse in order to pay the rent. When our discussion drifts away from these realities, our words cease to matter.
Our neighbors are suffering, and Congressman Paulsen and the GOP are more concerned with blocking reform in Washington than offering solutions.
As promised, here are the delegate chase totals from our Delegate Tracker:
MN-03 (I'm missing a couple pledged dels here)
Maureen Hackett: 27
Jim Meffert: 15
MN-06
Tarryl Clark: 53
Maureen Reed: 22
The race in my Third congressional district is witnessing a bit more contention around these delegate totals: the Hackett campaign has crowed about their lead in pledged delegates (their published margin is 30-15) while Team Meffert has -- correctly, in my estimation -- responded that there is a huge number of uncommitted delegates in the race. More than one close observer of the race has told me that Meffert is doing just fine among those delegates, who at this rate will outnumber their pledged counterparts approximately 3:1 at the CD3 convention on April 10th.
In the Sixth, the picture is a bit more clear: Tarryl Clark opened up a big lead in this past weekend's conventions, which appear to have included more subcaucuses named for the congressional candidate than those in CD3 did. But some of the same caveats apply: there's still a large number of uncommitted delegates out there, by virtue of there being a competitive race higher on the ballot than this one.
Here's the full spreadsheet, cut down to include only those subcaucuses that include one of these candidates' names. Trying to break out all the uncommitted subcaucuses by CD would be a disaster, as there are several conventions that cross CD lines had to split up along those lines to complete their business.
With the gubernatorial race at the top of this year's ticket, it's generally pretty easy to see where things stand on the pledged delegate chase for that race.
At the congressional endorsement level, it's a bit different. With so many delegates in Gubernatorial-candidate subcaucuses and so few in Congressional-candidate subcaucuses, there's a lot of room for strong supporters to hide in "uncommitted" subcaucuses and for the campaigns to press the flesh among those delegates that are actually uncommitted in their races.
With all that being said, here's what we have so far, with the same caveats (86% statewide coverage) that apply in the gubernatorial race:
CD2 Shelley Madore: 4
Dan Powers: 0
CD3 Maureen Hackett: 12
Jim Meffert: 9
CD6 Tarryl Clark: 16
Maureen Reed: 11
CD2 is missing numbers and still has a few conventions to go. In the case of CD3, both campaigns are starting to snipe about the delegate totals -- Team Hackett has been making public statements declaring a "clear lead" in the delegate chase while sources close to the Meffert effort have noted that their candidate is picking up greater support from uncommitted delegates.
So who knows.
Clark vs. Reed is an interesting case -- alternately, I've received reports that Clark wrecked Reed at local conventions and that Reed's supporters out-organized Clark's by a big margin. My impression is that Clark is winning, but Reed is not going away quietly.
Fantastic day of result-reporting yesterday -- we are now tracking about 60% of the pledged delegate totals. I'll post the full numbers tomorrow once Wild Weekend is complete, but here's the topline in the gubernatorial race:
Uncommitted is winning, but not by as much as it was last week.
Today's conventions include the following:
Beltrami CU
Faribault CU
Freeborn CU
Mower CU
And we're still looking for results from the following districts:
SD5
SD43
SD46
SD63
Aitkin
Blue Earth
Chisago
Goodhue
Isanti
Kandiyohi
Lac
Qui Parle
Steele
Yellow Medicine
As you'll see when I post the data on Monday, there are still some discrepancies and missing delegates from previously held conventions as well -- if you were in attendance at any of them or know someone who was, let us know.
I can't stress enough how great the MPP community has been on this project -- we're going to be providing some real substantive data on the makeup of the field for all to see before the convention, and I'm pretty sure we're the only ones doing this. We also couldn't do it without you folks out there, so thank you.
Today's local conventions -- where state convention delegates will be elected -- include the following locations:
SD 5 (Hibbing)
SD 16 (Milaca) (CD6)
SD 37 (Rosemount) (CD2)
SD 39 (Mendota Heights)
SD 43 (Plymouth) (CD3)
SD 46 (Brooklyn Center) (CD3)
SD 47 (Coon Rapids) (CD3/CD6)
SD 58 (Minneapolis)
SD 59 (Minneapolis)
SD 60 (Minneapolis)
SD 61 (Minneapolis)
SD 63 (Bloomington) (CD3)
SD 66 (St. Paul)
Atkin CU
Blue Earth CU
Chisago CU
Goodhue CU
Isanti CU
Kandiyohi CU
Lac Qui Parle CU
Steele CU
Waseca CU
Winona CU
Yellow Medicine CU
Along with tomorrow's conventions, more than 300 state convention delegates will be elected -- that's about 25% of the entire elected delegate universe. Obviously, this weekend is a big time for congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.
As previously noted, if you're attending one of these conventions as a delegate or an observer, please try to let us know the full subcaucus names and their delegate totals. We need to know everything about the subcaucuses -- candidate pledges, issues, organizations, etc, and how many delegates each subcaucus gets. Leave the reports in the comments or email us, and we'll track the totals as well as possible.
The following senate district and county unit conventions are taking place this weekend. This group represents a "Wild Weekend" of sorts, with a very large number of delegates getting elected all at once -- the best-organized campaign will have a big advantage in these locations.
Saturday:
SD 5 (Hibbing)
SD 16 (Milaca) (CD6)
SD 37 (Rosemount) (CD2)
SD 39 (Mendota Heights)
SD 43 (Plymouth) (CD3)
SD 46 (Brooklyn Center) (CD3)
SD 47 (Coon Rapids) (CD3/CD6)
SD 58 (Minneapolis)
SD 59 (Minneapolis)
SD 60 (Minneapolis)
SD 61 (Minneapolis)
SD 63 (Bloomington) (CD3)
SD 66 (St. Paul)
Atkin CU
Blue Earth CU
Chisago CU
Goodhue CU
Isanti CU
Kandiyohi CU
Lac Qui Parle CU
Steele CU
Waseca CU
Winona CU
Yellow Medicine CU
Sunday:
Beltrami CU
Faribault CU
Freeborn CU
Mower CU
If you can attend any of these conventions and provide us with the exact subcaucus/delegate totals, let us know!
And even if you're unable to attend, feel free to discuss the upcoming weekend in the comments.
Are you attending a local party convention today? Then make sure you get the exact results from the delegate elections -- exact names of the subcaucuses and how many delegates each one is allotted -- and leave them in the comments.
Also feel free to discuss whatever you're seeing going on at those conventions.
More local party conventions are scheduled for this weekend -- tomorrow we'll post an open thread for results so you folks out there can report them in.
Heading into the weekend, as promised, here are the named-subcaucus delegate totals from last week (subject to slight variations due to small conventions held before last weekend):
It's easier to detail the uncommitteds in the gubernatorial race, because it covers the whole state -- splitting up county units and SDs by Congressional district is more of a task. Reports did come in after last weekend indicating that Margaret Anderson Kelliher picked up a bunch of the uncommitted delegates, but that can't be confirmed conclusively without getting in touch with those delegates (which we're trying to do).
Anyway, those are the numbers as we have them right now -- let the weekend festivities begin!
...and sorry for not getting to these numbers until so late in the week.
As we've noted in a couple of recent posts, tracking delegate elections is anything but an exact science -- subcaucuses can be named for a gubernatorial candidate, or a congressional candidate, or an issue, or an organization, or some bizarre combination of the above, or uncommitted in either a statewide race or a congressional race...yeesh. It's complicated.
So here's where you, the members of the MPP community, comes in.
This weekend saw a few conventions elect delegates -- we could track those a little bit, and I'll post the results we have so far once I confirm a few things. But next weekend, there are a bunch more conventions, and ditto the weekend after that. In short, there's not enough time in the week to cover every local convention between now and April. So when you're at your local convention,
1. Make sure to stick around until the subcaucuses are allotted delegates.
2. Ask the convention chair for the names and delegate totals for each subcaucus.
3. Thank them profusely for their efforts, and go home.
4. Log on to MPP, and you'll find a SD/CU Convention Results Open Thread each weekend between now and the DFL State Convention. Leave the results from your convention (and any others you happen to have) in the comments.
Each week, we'll update the running count in the gubernatorial race and the several congressional races going on (CD2, CD3, CD6) along with some ideas about how the uncommitted delegate base will sort out.
This project will only be as good a resource as our little community makes it -- so let's make it a good one.
I had a real busy day, up early and just home - full report later. Here's the Unofficial Delegate Count from today: Meffert/Education takes 1 named delegate; Uncommitted/reNEWmn takes 2; Uncommitted/Critical Issues takes 1; Rybak/Hackett takes 2. Bottom line? Dr. Hackett took 2 of 3 named delegates.
I took a little trip from the DFL SD49 Convention, to go see what the GOPers were doing at their SD49 Convention. And it was bad-crazy stuff - full report later. When I left the DFL Convention, I wasn't sure where the GOPers were; all I knew was it was a school in Andover off of Hanson Blvd.
First school (elementary) I pulled into didn't have any "nObama" or "Flat Earth Society" bumperstickers on any of the cars, so I figured I wasn't at the "right" school. Next school? I pulled in, and saw a whole bunch of cars illegally parked; figured it HAD to be the "right" place - and it was. Emmer clearly beat Seifert in the outside sign war; first person I saw inside was republiCon Ron - who now, apparently, is Michele Bachmann's campaign manager. And just behind republiCon Ron was Michele! It was a sign of things to come!!! More later, but: the big news is the GOP tossed aside Incumbent GOP State Senator Debbie Johnson and endorsed Michelle Benson!!!
I have to admit, despite the fact that I live in the Third congressional district, it seems like the race is running under the radar a bit.
I've interviewed both Jim Meffert and Maureen Hackett (both of whose websites can be found via the ad banners you see here on the frontpage), but I still don't have a good bead on where this race is headed. Earlier this week, Meffert announced the support of several individuals who will come in handy in an endorsement fight, while Hackett now boasts the support of the DFL Veterans' Caucus and Stonewall DFL. Meffert has great policy experience, while Hackett has a great profile, story, and contrast with Paulsen.
Either will need a lot of help raising the money necessary to mount a credible challenge in November.
So for those of you who are in the Third (and I know there are a few out there), what are you thinking? Who are you supporting?
For Christmas, I was given a copy of The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation. And I didn't think the GOP could do worse. WRONG. Yesterday's SCOTUS Decision will go down in infamy; far outliving the excesses of, say, Jack Abramoff and the myriad of other acts of political vandalism the GOP inflicted upon this nation. The SCOTUS Decision leaves me shocked, and in awe at the audacity and mendacity of today's GreedOverPrinciples Party.
Ten years ago, I was between parties. Not quite ready to embrace the Democratic Party, I was completely sickened by what the GOP had become. Then came the destruction of John McCain, by Boy Blunder And The Plunderers.
For those that don't remember what they did to John McCain, google "John McCain push polls" - the third hit is this
I remain convinced that John McCain would have made a great President; and he should have been the GOP Nominee in 2000. McCain was well on his way to that GOP Nomination, and he got smeared. That's what pushed me to the DFL - and I attended DFL Caucus for the very first time in 2002.
Smears - that is the nasty style of politics the GOP uses today; the election of Michael Brodkorb as State GOP Party Deputy Chair just goes to show that today, the GOP rewards that kind of disgusting and dirty politics.
Do some Democrats play dirty politics? Of course.
The difference is, the Democratic Party, as a party, generally does not. The GOP, as a Party, has institutionalized dirty politcs. It's simply in their nature.
And that's just one reason why I'm no longer a Republican. When another former Republican - Joe Repya - talked about the downward death spiral of the Minnesota GOP, part of it is the dirty politics the party plays, and how those dirty players, like Michael Brodkorb are not only tolerated - they are REWARDED. Like, for instance, how GOPer Nathan Hansen was, when Hansen trashed Repya after Joe split.
Yesterday's SCOTUS Decision, ensured that unlimited corporate money will continue just that - and that decision will go down in infamy.
And that SCOTUS Decision reminded me specifically of one GOPer in particular; one that I sometimes identified as "Erik Paulsen, R=Target." Paulsen was corporate's boy BEFORE the SCOTUS Decision - it's safe to assume he'll be simply "more of the same" AFTER the Scotus Decision. So, I reached into the archives, and reluctantly present again:
Molly Ivins said that a definition of an honest politician in Texas is one that once bought, stays bought. Look no further than John Kline for proof of that, in a Texas politician. And Freshman GOPer Erik Paulsen sure seems to be following John Kline's lead! Let's look!
This week's poll; which competitive race requires the most attention from progressive activists? Which is the most important for us to make sure we win?
