Archive for February, 2009
« Previous EntriesMUST READ FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE: “SENATE RECOUNT TRIAL: ‘BALLOT RULING BUOYS COLEMAN’”
Friday, February 27th, 2009“Norm Coleman’s luck improved a bit Thursday, as judges in the U.S. Senate recount trial ordered an inspection of about 1,500 rejected absentee ballot envelopes and changed their minds about letting a Coleman witness testify. The ballot inspection could lead to counting more votes, something Coleman needs, if local officials discover voter registration cards in [...]
DOWNRIGHT APPALLING
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The legislative session is still quite young, but this might take the award for most lunacy at the Capitol thus far. A bill making its way through committee which would keep sexual predators from accessing some computer sites was killed in the House Civil Justice Committee. What could possibly be wrong with a bill that [...]
AP: “JUDGES REVERSE RULING TOSSING MINN. SENATE WITNESS”
Thursday, February 26th, 2009“ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Republican Norm Coleman has caught a break in his Minnesota Senate election trial related to his allegation that some Minneapolis residents got two votes. On Thursday, the three judges in the case have reversed their ruling from a day earlier that excluded a Republican poll worker’s testimony. The woman had [...]
MUST READ FROM THE DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE: “COLEMAN CAMPAIGN CHALLENGES ST. LOUIS COUNTY BALLOTS”
Thursday, February 26th, 2009ST. PAUL — Attorneys for Sen. Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign say they have identified 300 absentee ballots from St. Louis County that were counted on election night but that would be illegal under a recent decision by recount trial judges. Those “illegal†ballots represent more votes than the 225 that separated Democrat Al Franken from [...]
MUST READ FROM THE HILL: “COLEMAN LAWYER: RECOUNT COULD BE ‘FATALLY FLAWED’”
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The Minnesota Senate race would be “fatally flawed†should a court hearing Norm Coleman’s (R) challenge to Democrat Al Franken’s lead exclude some 300 ballots Coleman alleges were illegally cast. At issue are 300 ballots from St. Louis County. Coleman’s campaign argues they fall into “illegal†categories under a decision by the three-judge panel hearing Coleman’s [...]
MUST READ FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE: “HITLER, BIN LADEN CREATE A STIR AT THE STATE CAPITOL”
Thursday, February 26th, 2009The video of the Hitler/Osama images (time stamp of 1:08) being used in a committee hearing has been posted online. ### “A parody of a World War II propaganda ad presented at a State Capitol hearing was meant to be provocative, but a couple of members of the Senate’s transportation policy panel were not amused. [...]
CHANGING STORIES
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009The Pioneer Press had a story yesterday regarding the recount trial. Something in the story has somewhat flown under the radar. A group of voters who filed suit to have their votes counted have now changed their story to the court as to what happened with their ballots. Rachel Stassen-Berger from the Pioneer Press has [...]
MUST READ FROM THE STAR TRIBUNE: “LET SENATE GOP HIRE NEW CHIEF”
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009This is a gem of an article. I spoke with Michael and he told me that the claims by Democrats of a disproportionately large Senate Republican Caucus staff are “without any factual basis and are complete and total fiction.” ### “There’s more symbolism than substance to the dust-up in the state Senate last week over salaries [...]
PRESIDENT ENDORSES RYBAK’S SCARE TACTICS
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Last night in the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress he addressed where some of the stimulus money is going and how it will be spent. There is one line that stuck out to me in particular: “There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this [...]
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? REALLY?
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009“DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — Two Minnesota newspapers will receive a share of state grants normally given to retrain workers in manufacturing and other industries in transition. The Duluth News Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press will work with the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help staff adapt to an [...]
WHITE HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS RYBAK AND STIMULUS MONEY
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009The Star Tribune picked up on something from the official White House blog which highlighted the city of Minneapolis as a beneficiary of some of the stimulus money. “According to the blog post, Rybak “was prepared to swallow hard and make significant cuts to public works and public safety. Thanks to the [American Recovery and [...]
PIONEER PRESS: “ACCIDENTAL SENATOR”
Monday, February 23rd, 2009The Pioneer Press has a great editorial that ran yesterday about the recount and how out of hand it has become. The Pioneer Press calls for a run-off: The U.S. Senate election in Minnesota is a statistical tie. The votecounting machinery cannot accurately measure variances this microscopic — less than one one-hundredth of a percent. [...]
COLEMAN RECOUNT UPDATE: “COLEMAN CAMPAIGN FILES MOTION TO RESOLVE COUNTING OF ILLEGAL ABSENTEE BALLOTS”
Friday, February 20th, 2009ST. PAUL – Ballots identical to ones declared illegal by the three-judge Senate contest court in a February 13 order are included in the current vote totals of the candidates, a situation that must be remedied if there is to be a valid conclusion to the U.S. Senate election, Senator Norm Coleman’s campaign said today. [...]
AL FRANKEN IS STILL LYING ABOUT SUPPORTING THE WAR
Friday, February 20th, 2009Al Franken after all this time just cannot stop misrepresenting his original position on the invasion of Iraq in 2003. From a radio interview on Air America: GREEN: The President this week said that he’s sending another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. Is that something that you would favor? You were an early supporter of the [...]
MINNPOST: “CHRIS COLEMAN’S NEW CAMPAIGN STAFF HINTS AT HIGHER OFFICE”
Friday, February 20th, 2009Beefing up campaign staff for his re-election bid might be a clue that St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has higher ambitions, says the Minnesota Independent. He recently hired John Stiles, DFL communications director, for the campaign team. Coleman easily won election as mayor four years ago, and although there is a fair amount of grumbling [...]
NEW MEANING TO “I HAVE A LOT OF FREE TIME ON MY HANDS”
Thursday, February 19th, 2009There was a very important town hall meeting tonight in Rochester regarding Governor Pawlenty’s budget proposal. Among those in attendance were the Speaker of the House, Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem as well as many other members of the State Legislature. Instead of acting like a professional in the presence of [...]
STAR TRIBUNE: “GOP HEAVYWEIGHTS MAKE A COLEMAN FUNDRAISING PUSH”
Thursday, February 19th, 2009A dozen Republican heavyweights debuted on YouTube this week, pleading for donations to help Norm Coleman pay his legal bills in his fight to regain Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race. The two-minute ad, produced by Coleman’s election campaign, is straightforward about Coleman’s financial needs and emphasizes the importance of holding 42 GOP seats in the Senate. [...]
MN SRC PRESS RELEASE: “HOUSE & SENATE REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS ANNOUNCE PROPOSAL TO CUT PAY OF LEGISLATORS AND CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS; PAY CUT PROPOSAL SHOULD BE DISCUSSED AT BUDGET MEETINGS STARTING TOMORROW”
Thursday, February 19th, 2009FYI This was sent out yesterday afternoon – by me. Will Democrats support the legislation? ### (St. Paul) – Responding to the likelihood that Minnesota budget deficit will be close to $7 billion, Republican members of the Minnesota House and Senate announced a legislative proposal today to cut the pay of legislators and constitutional officers [...]
DFL GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009I wanted to do a follow up to the post on Mayor Coleman regarding the entire field of DFL candidates for their party’s Gubernatorial nomination. In the race: Matt Entenza: Will Democrats forget about his Attorney General campaign from 2006 that was nothing short of a disaster? His political rehabilitation operation: mn2020 is churning out [...]
COLEMAN RECOUNT UPDATE: “COLEMAN FOR SENATE STATEMENT ON TODAY’S COURT DECISION”
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009ST. PAUL – Coleman for Senate legal counsel Ben Ginsberg today made the following statement regarding the election contest panel’s ruling denying our request to file a motion to reconsider. “In denying the request to file a motion to reconsider, the court creates a real problem for itself and the reliability of these proceedings. The [...]
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