A highly placed source informs me that yesterday's SD-05 DFL Convention in the heart of the Iron Range was a blowout. State Rep. Tom Rukavina took 16 delegates to fellow Iron Ranger Tom Bakk's mere 3. Four delegates were elected as uncommitted.
While Rukavina's win is not surprising, this is a blow to Bakk who needed to do a little better here. Next week's remaining conventions will be very telling. Check out more analysis at my blog, MinnesotaBrown.com.
UPDATE: Reports are swirling on the Range that Rukavina and Bakk will unite forces before the state convention based on who has the most support. That would make this next weekend Bakk's best chance to score remaining Range and Duluth delegates. Stay tuned.
(Now I don't know if a person who still thinks the Vikings are going to win can be trusted with political advice. However, I have been pondering the advantages of Tom Rukavina as a running mate, who manages to make even non-supporters laugh and enjoy his company. - promoted by Grace Kelly)
As I bide time before the start of the Super Bowl I give you this NFL metaphor for the Minnesota DFL gubernatorial candidates as the county conventions and April state convention approach. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, the winner of the Feb. 2 straw vote, and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a very close second in the straw vote, control their own destinies. The only way one of these two are not the DFL endorsed candidate is if both of them flame out at the local conventions or destroy one another. We live in Minnesota, home of the Vikings, and we're talking about Democrats, which means that both of these things are possible.
So Rybak and Kelliher are the front runners. Every other candidate still has a chance but, in football commentator vernacular, they need some help. Matt Entenza has the ability to increase his payroll and marketing to help himself. John Marty, Tom Rukavina and Paul Thissen all need external help to some degree; Tom Bakk and Susan Gaertner need it to a larger degree. In most cases, this means that each of these candidates needs one or more specific other candidates to falter and drop before the first ballot of the state convention. Meantime, Mark Dayton, who's waiting for the primary, represents the metaphorical New Orleans Saints in the NFC championship game. The endorsed candidate could beat him. No really, they could. (Run it, Favre. RUN IT!) Don't read too much into the direct football to candidate parallels. I'm just imagining the "what ifs" for the Vikings this year.
My series of DFL governor candidate posts continues over at MinnesotaBrown. Today, it's Steve Kelley. I talked to former State Sen. Kelley on Friday. The results depend upon your opinion of the 2006 DFL convention. If you think Steve Kelley represented a shining opportunity to win a gubernatorial race that DFLers should have won back then, Kelley in 2010 represents the same such hope. If not, Kelley joins the ranks of many jostling for position in this crowded field.
A highlight from my interview:
"At this point I'm really pleased that many of my supporters from last time, previous delegates, are with me again. That gives me a huge advantage and they are people from all over the state. And the past delegates I'm picking up aren't just my supporters from last time. They include Hatch and Lourey delegates, too."
And my analysis? A taste:
Steve Kelley is the only candidate in the field for whom I can say the following: One tiny twist of fate in the previous election process and we'd be talking about a tough but winnable re-election fight for Governor Steve Kelley. If Steve Kelley had been the endorsed candidate in 2006 he could have won a tough primary and avoided the gaffes the caused Mike Hatch to lose the general to Gov. Tim Pawlenty in a strong DFL year.
But there are arguments against this theory. All that, along with Kelley's policy positions and more over at MinnesotaBrown today.
Previous posts have included (chronologically) Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza, John Marty, Susan Gaertner, Tom Rukavina and Margaret Anderson Kelliher. With St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's departure as an exploratory candidate, the last candidate in the series will be Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Upon completion, the series will be published with additional material as an inexpensive e-book for DFL delegates, political operatives, journalists and voters. Stay tuned.
(Tom Rukavina has not been well covered as a candidate, so I am pleased to promote the good news coverage! - promoted by Grace Kelly)
I have emerged from my book-writing lair to continue my series of 2010 DFL governor candidate interviews. Today I post the seventh in the series, a story and analysis about State Rep. Tom Rukavina, an important one for an Iron Range writer and political operator like me. I hope I've been fair.
Rukavina is a longtime Iron Range lawmaker and something of a political legend in our parts. He's regarded as a great character on Minnesota's political landscape and, as you'll see, he presents himself as a wholly unique option among a sea of DFL candidates. Tom Rukavina is a political figure of Shakespearean magnitude: great strengths and tragic flaws.
I continue the series this week with House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher. I meet with her on Wednesday. That post will be up by week's end or Monday at the latest.
Below is an alphabetical list of the interviews and analysis I've done so far.
I am taking a break from daily blogging but still post my weekly columns and occasional tidbits at MinnesotaBrown.com. My first book, a humorous work of creative nonfiction "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" is out now, available online or in many stores around the state. I working on my first novel through the rest of 2009.
Imagine a job offered where you were payed in company script, not US dollars, that could only buy company housing and could only be spent in company stores. This is the true history of our Minnesota Iron Range. The owners were absentee owners, where the profit went elsewhere, not invested locally. The owners then went bankrupt, abandoning long term health care and pensions to what the government can provide. And in recessions, the employment dries up. I still listen to this story in awe.
Fresh soup tonight. I won't forget to serve it to you hot. Woo.
Dave Mindeman reads Miss Hairdo so you don't have to.
Liberal in the Land of Conservative: Marty Seifert answers questions about the Laura Brod smears.
Aaron Brown has some news about the company trying to build the biggest boondoggle on the Iron Range. They're changing their name. Aaron also has some not helpful news about Tom Bakk helping promote this boondoggle.
The effects of Gov. Pawlenty's decision to use unallotment instead of compromise to solve the state budget deficit will be felt by many, but one example I've been talking about is the potential loss of Hibbing Community College Theater. (Disclosure: I work for HCC as a communication instructor).
HCC has developed a top notch two-year theater program and community theater series. For years it has demonstrated to the blue collar Iron Range the importance and possibility represented by the fine arts. Unfortunately, the program is now on the chopping block. But the community isn't taking this lying down. A deal was struck that if some money could be raised externally the program could continue in some form.
For one night only, a big show will be held that could save a precious community treasure from budget cuts. Yes, that is exactly like the plot of the 1980 musical "The Blues Brothers." Which is why the cast of HCC's 2004 production of the Blues Brothers is reuniting for the show. The HCC Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers band is top notch, as good or better than any of the other revivals you might see touring the country and is predominantly stocked with Minnesotans.
We need to fill this massive, historic hall to save theater at HCC. Consider a road trip to Hibbing to send a message in support of the arts.
HCC Theater Support Gala
7:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 2
Hibbing High School Auditorium
(easily the most impressive high school auditorium in the country, and Dylan played there before he was Dylan)
First, enjoy the promotional video featuring Elwood Blues (Hibbing's Jaime Tintor, an actor in L.A.). This is well worth the click.
Send this out. Tell your friends. Tweet and Retweet. Blog and Share. Every town has something to fight for in this unfortunately political battle, but this one is awfully important to the towns of the Iron Range, knocked down by the economy and in need of the healing power of the arts. Tell the people: "We're getting the band back together."
Follow some hilarious updates all next week at my blog MinnesotaBrown.com
Today over at MinnesotaBrown.com I feature a recent interview with gubernatorial candidate State Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) and my Iron Range-centric analysis of his message and campaign.
I summarize Marty's campaign at this point with the following:
John Marty turned his 1994 defeat into a career as a legislative reformer who angers pols on both sides. His signature issue -- single-payer health care -- remains his alone and that could position him well among the DFL loyalists who determine the party endorsement. He's an unabashed liberal who's fighting to get out of the second division of this large pool of candidates. Beyond that, Marty's chances -- like everyone else's -- remain tied up in the unknown political mood of Autumn, 2010. A Wellstonian surge favors him. A moderate or conservative wave would quickly sink his chances.
Please join me at my blog for the full interview which includes many compelling tidbits and deeper analysis.
I am trying to interview all of the candidates eventually, so if you are one of the scores of political minions combing the blogosphere for someone to listen to your person, hey, dial up the Iron Ranger.
UPDATE: I neglected to include the links to my past interviews. Starting about a year ago I've talked to Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, Mark Dayton and Matt Entenza, and in that order. I am unaffiliated with any campaign and plan to remain neutral as long as I can, possibly until precinct caucuses or the convention. Who knows? This thing is crazy.
(I'd like to thank Aaron for providing us some insight into Tom Bakk's campaign and chances. - promoted by The Big E)
As the Minnesota blogosphere's only daily blogger from the Iron Range, I've been fielding questions about the gubernatorial campaign of State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook). For the record I am close to some members of the Iron Range legislative delegation but I don't know Bakk very well. His corner of the Range is one of the few where I've never lived. I interviewed Bakk when he announced his exploration last summer and wrote an analysis. For the most part everything I said then still stands. Here's my take today:
(Yet another Entenza interview. This time from an Iron Range perspective. - promoted by The Big E)
Last week my series 2010 candidate interviews for Minnesota Governor continued at MinnesotaBrown.com. I met with former State Rep. and progressive policy advocate Matt Entenza. Previous interviews have included Mark Dayton, Paul Thissen and Tom Bakk. I hope to eventually speak with all or most candidates, depending on scheduling availability. I spoke to Entenza Wednesday, April 29, at Hibbing Community College during his first Iron Range tour since announcing his campaign.
Our conversation focused on clean energy, higher education, economic development and transportation policy. As always, I push Iron Range and greater Minnesota issues more than most other blogs. Join me at MinnesotaBrown.com for the interview synopsis and my analysis of his increasingly well organized campaign and the perplexing questions he leaves early DFL activists.
In summary: Entenza is going all in. With him, Dayton, Tom Bakk and maybe more vowing direct entrance to the primary the endorsement process becomes a process to select an alternative, if desired, to these candidates. In other words, this is more like 1998 than anything since ... except for the wrestler winning part (so far).
Over at MinnesotaBrown.com today I've got my official "Iron Range" interview of former Sen. Mark Dayton as he builds his campaign for next year's Minnesota governor's race.
All this and more at MinnesotaBrown.com. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter. I cover the Iron Range, state and nation with a distinct north woods attitude.
This is a cross post from my blog MinnesotaBrown.com, the only blog with global perspective and Iron Range sensibility.
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie headlines a civil liberty conference Wednesday, April 8, at Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids. Ritchie's nonpartisan address about the importance of free and fair elections will come 24 hours after today's court ordered counting of just under 400 more U.S. Senate ballots now deemed admissible. As most of you know by now, Franken expanded his lead in the final count, winning the election by 312 votes.
Ritchie has received widespread bipartisan accolades for the way he handled Minnesota's complicated and frustrating U.S. Senate race between Coleman and Franken. Though the legal process allowed under Minnesota's "be extra, extra sure" election law could yet drag out for some time, the counting and the due process were expertly and fairly observed by Ritchie. Now people have a chance to ask him questions and hear his perspective on how this news story fits into the common American value of free and fair elections. And, for upstaters like me, it's nice to see some of this discussion move to northern Minnesota.
The conference starts at 9 a.m. at ICC and will feature numerous presenters and a forum involving representatives of local political parties explaining their perspective on top civil liberties issues. Ritchie's presentation is at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the college theater. The conference is a nonpartisan event that will explore many aspects of civil liberties, from human rights to personal freedoms. The event is free and open to the public.
Local DFLers are holding a 3:30 p.m. reception for Ritchie at the Itasca County DFL headquarters on Highway 169.
(Disclosure: I am a central committee director for the Itasca County DFL but write this independently).
(I'm a big fan of Aaron Brown's work up der on the Iron Range. If you're free this Wednesday, stop by and hear him read from his book. - promoted by The Big E)
The first time my parents brought us to the Twin Cities they didn't tell my sisters and I where were going until our Oldsmobile station wagon pulled onto I-35. It was a long drive and they didn't want us to melt down in excitement. My first question once we got there: what's behind those concrete walls along the freeways?
I grew up on the Iron Range, specifically on our family's salvage yard where we ate, slept and learned to read in the only metal structure that didn't contain scrap iron, hubcaps or transmissions. So you can imagine the contrast between my world - the junkyard, the Iron Range, and the distant taconite plants on the horizon - and this urban world of freeways, skyscrapers and suburbs.
Those worlds collide once again this week. You might know me from my blog, MinnesotaBrown.com. I am a writer, college communications instructor and political organizer from the Iron Range. My new book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" is a humorous, heartfelt exploration of the past, present and future of the Iron Range and places like it.
The following day, on Thursday, March 12, I'll be doing a signing at the Eagan Barnes and Noble from noon to 1 p.m.
This is my first Twin Cities book event after a long winter of Iron Range and Duluth book events. These occasions have prompted many fascinating conversations, amusing stories and unusual observations from audience members. Why should you attend? Well, we'll be exploring why the Iron Range and place like it will have a vital role in the future of this state and nation. We'll be exploring why there's something out there, a human force more vital than the rat race that drove us into the current economic crisis. And we'll be exploring why "guns," "fire" and "beer" are powerful words - not always wise words, but deeply powerful.
In particular, I'd like to invite the members of Minnesota's online community to the 4 p.m. lecture at the University of Minnesota Bookstore at Coffman Memorial Union on Wednesday, March 11. I'll be back to the Cities in the future, but I'd love to meet as many of you as possible at this exciting new event in the mysterious world of the Twin Cities. Read more at my book page.
This is a cross post from my blog MinnesotaBrown.com: Global Perspective; Iron Range Sensibility.
I am a proud resident of rural Itasca County in the great north woods of Northern Minnesota. My corner of the world stands on the western end of the storied Iron Range which itself rests on the edge of a massive forest that stretches for miles, fading into marshes, rivers, lakes and the Canadian border to the north. We've got more than 1,000 of Minnesota's "10,000" lakes in Itasca County. I live on among the muddiest, least describable of those lakes, blogging into a satellite internet connection that beams up to space and back into whatever it is you read this on. Your phone? It's a miracle, anyway.
The future of this place is often discussed in terms of its declining population. Beginning with the economic collapse of the 1980s through the globalization of the early 2000s, the number of Iron Range mining jobs contracted to less than half the amount of the 1970s. Former Gov. Rudy Perpich was quoted in 1988 (most recently in this worthwhile recent Pioneer Press story about the 1980s recession) saying that the Iron Range "will never be the same. Never, never never." He was right. The population hasn't recovered and might not for a generation or three. But the importance of the area won't necessarily be in the number of people who live here, but how those people handle the resources of the area: minerals, waters and forests.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) secured $1 million in funding to explore turning municipal waste into energy in International Falls. The border town's State Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) had secured early funding last year that allowed the city to do preliminary studies for the concept. Municipal waste burners are not without their controversy, but at least some of the federal stimulus chaff will be headed north. The only good thing for Amy being the lone senator from Minnesota is that she has a free shot to claim sole credit for matters like this. Cold comfort, I suppose.
Klobuchar secured nearly $1 million towards a new plasma gasification facility in Koochiching County that converts municipal solid wastes into energy and other marketable by-products in an environmentally sound manner. The Renewable Energy Clean Air Project would use the funds to conduct a feasibility study to assess technical, economic and environmental matters.
"This is the type of innovation and leadership that we need to achieve energy security," said Klobuchar. "At a time of unstable energy costs it is important that we invest in new technologies and the homegrown energy that will create the new jobs and businesses that will fuel our future."
Addition: Clean energy policy is an interesting topic up here in northern Minnesota. This project and even more complicated, and foolhearty, projects like the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project ("clean coal") show that the green movement is only as green as is politically palatable.
This International Falls project is worth a look, though I'm waiting to see if it's all it's cracked up to be. The clean coal movement on the Range isn't leading anywhere, as the granite shelf underneath our ground prevents the all-important carbon sequestration crucial to "cleanish coal." Any effort to circumvent this fact would lead to huge rate increases.
