HometownSource Blogs

Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, has been selected by the DFL House Caucus as an assistant majority leader — she is one of nine.

Hortman, freshly reelected for a third term, served as an assistant majority leader last session.

She has figured prominently in the transportation finance debate.

It’s in the bag.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie at a press conference on Tuesday (Nov. 18) sounded apologetic about the use of a bag instead of a fish bowl or some other container for the state canvassing board to draw lots.

“I tried desperately to think of something less campy,” said Ritchie.

He told of a story that when Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Alan Page, a former Viking, tried to draw a lot from a fish bowl he got his hand stuck.

Anyway, the brown bag now could become part of the state political folklore, Ritchie suggested.

Board members were drawing lots as part of a random audit process.

The Coleman campaign issued a press release today (Nov 18) declaring that U.S. Senator Norm Coleman’s reelection had been confirmed by the state canvassing board.

“Today, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board officially recognized the results of the 2008 United States Senate election and prevented the Franken Campaign’s efforts to stop the recount.   And, Senator Coleman has, for the third time, been named the winner of the 2008 election,” said Coleman for Senate Campaign Manager Cullen Sheehan.

Actually, the board did not declare Coleman the winner — nor Democrat Al Franken, for that matter — but set the recount of the U.S. Senate race, and several other races, into affect.

As for the Franken’s campaign issue with rejected absentee ballots, the board temporarily set the matter aside.

It’s expected the canvassing board, which recessed today, will take up the dispute over the ballots early next week.

This election cycle, you didn’t have to go far on your backwoods radio dial to hear the fear cheers from Sean Hannity.

And, one of his memorable moments, that continues to live on with his show, is his attack on Obama’s 2007 speech in which he said this in regards to our War on Terror:

“we’ve got to get the job done there (Afghanistan), and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there.”

Also, be sure to watch the short video clip of this speech (somewhat out of context, but how it’s been used by Hannity and others).

Now, I would like to discuss how dead on Obama was with this comment, and how his words are still powerfully important in regards to news reporters over the last few months which have detailed U.S. airstrikes killing innocent civilians. Read more »

Former Minnesota House Speaker Irv Anderson, DFL-International Falls, died today at the age of 85.

One of the last World War II veterans serving in the Minnesota House, Anderson, who had trouble navigating the Capitol corridors during his final years of service, retired following the 2006 legislative session.

He first ran for office in 1964.

Fellow lawmakers were quick to offer tributes.

Read more »

Rosemount’s attempt to win its first state football crown ended one game short on Saturday night as an undefeated Wayzata squad topped the Irish 34-10 at Metrodome. The crowds on both sides were loud, but Rosemount’s fans seemed to be more engaged to the ebbs and flows of the game, starting chants when the team needed that extra nudge or expressing their feeling about a call made by a referee.

A couple things stood out in my mind about the Irish fans:

1. Even though their team was losing badly in the fourth quarter, they still chanted “Rosemount Irish” and “I love Rosemount,” keeping their squad’s emotions high.

2. Between the third and fourth quarters teams will do something to signal the “time to get serious” and make that final push for a win. Rosemount busted out a bag piper to stir up support. It was unique and outstanding because the crowd kept themselves quiet long enough for everyone to hear the piper.
Even in the final minutes, when Wayzata was going to be the clear winner, Rosemount fans continued to chant “Rosemount, Rosemount,” causing the bench to return the favor by bringing the state semifinal trophy to the student section after the game.

It was a cool and fitting way to end what turned out to an impressive 11-2 season with two championship trophies, the Lake Conference and Section 3AAAAAA hardware.

The Minnesota Secretary of State Office plans to send staff members to Morrison, Wright, Scott and several other counties to assist in the U.S. Senate election recount expected to begin next week.

Although details with some counties are still being worked out, a Secretary of State official indicated the counties have fallen into line in working with state officials on the recount.

Theoretically, as it is the state’s recount, counties could wash their hands of it.

Counties are being paid 3 cents a ballot for the recount.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie today (Nov. 14) indicated that the number of recount sites across the state could be fewer than 120, though probably more than 100.

Ritchie also opined that recount watchdog groups — Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota, League of Women Voters Minnesota, and Common Cause Minnesota are working in coalition as observers — will be treated as members of the public and given no greater access to recount sites than the general public.

In another matter, Gary Poser, Director of Elections, has opined that lists of absentee ballots rejected by election judges is public information.

Poser expressed his opinion in emails with county election officials who contacted the Secretary of State Office for guidance.

The Franken, Coleman campaigns and others are intensely scrutinizing ballots across the state.

The State Canvassing Board meets on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and its action will begin the recount process.

All the details of the recount must be finalized before the board meets, according to the Secretary of State.

The Minnesota Senate Republican caucus has unanimously reelected Sen. David Senjem of Rochester Senate Minority Leader — it’s Senjem’s second, two-year term.

Sen. Amy Koch of Buffalo will continue to serve as an assistant leader along with senators Joe Gimse of Willmar and David Hann of Eden Prairie.

Assistant Leader Sen. Chris Gerlach of Apple Valley will rejoin the leadership board after a brief absence.

Senjem appointed senators Geoff Michel of Edina and Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville assistant leaders.

Senjem will select among the six assistant leaders a deputy leader — a second in command.

That position in recent times has been filled by Sen. Betsy Wergin of Princeton, but Wergin is leaving the Senate.

“Our caucus is small and faces many challenges, but we have bright individuals who strongly believe in the ideals of our caucus, including defending Minnesota families and getting the best government services for their tax dollars,” Senjem said in a press release.

The caucus met this week to discuss its priorities.

The single best coverage of the war in Iraq has come from free lance journalist Michael Yon. He was never shy about how bad things were going, and I think was the first person to state openly that Iraq was in a state of civil war. How does he feel now? Here’s what he told Glenn Reynolds:

“The war is over and we won.”

More at the link. Yon is off to Afghanistan where he says things are much more bleak at this time. Meanwhile, Rasmussen is reporting the highest level of optimism about the war on terror yet recorded in this country.

If President-Elect Obama is able to bring the troops home any time soon, it will be with a victory in their pocket and with George W. Bush to thank for it. However, it is unlikely he will use the word victory (he and the left can barely bring themselves to acknowledge the success of the surge, much less the war), and he will acknowledge W’s tenacity and determination when pigs fly.

A retired grocer from Swanville, MN puts out a four-page newsletter weekly. Half contain bits about his small community, the other half is ads for the two grocery stores his children own.

Last week, though, he added a small paragraph on the front page that read:

Attention! All white people are requested to meet at the south end of the cotton field for orientation and instructions on the 2nd Tuesday of next week.

At first, I thought it strange, but didn’t equate it to the national elections. When I made the connection, to say the least, I was appalled!

I had been so happy to think that most of the people in this country weren’t the ignorant bigots I thought they were. We have elected an articulate, savvy African American. The American people should be proud of the leaps we have made during this historic election.

But no, right here in my community, there are factions who just cannot accept the fact that Barack Obama is as qualified, or more, as anyone else to lead the United States of America. And, he was the people’s choice. And it’s just because he is black.

That brings to mind that there are probably other people/ communities, in even my neck of the woods, that also feel the same way.
It makes me ill.

A campaign violation complaint filed by the Coleman for Senate campaign against Democrat Al Franken was dismissed today (Nov. 13) by Minnesota Administrative Law Judge Barbara Neilson.

The Coleman camp had accused Franken of using false political advertising to defeat the senator.

It cited Franken campaign ads that had Coleman ranked the fourth most corrupt senator in Washington by a bipartisan watchdog group — Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

In her analysis, Neilson argued that the Franken ad was substantially accurate.

“After reviewing the Complaint, its attachments, and the additional
evidence and argument offered by the parties at the probable cause hearing, the
Administrative Law Judge concludes that the Complainant has not established probable cause to believe that Respondent violated Minn. Stat. § 211B.06 with respect to the advertisements at issue. The CREW report and website did not rank the members of Congress identified in each category or explicitly rank or
name Senator Coleman the fourth most corrupt Senator. However, CREW’s listing of the twenty ‘most corrupt’ and the ‘four to watch’ did identify, in total, just four senators, with Senator Coleman being one of CREW’s ‘four to watch.’” Neilson wrote.

“Moreover, based on the reference in CREW’s Executive Summary to the ‘list of 24,’ there is an objective basis for the inference drawn in the Franken advertisements that Senator Coleman was the fourth Senator on the overall list of 24,” she wrote.

“As noted above, the statute does not prohibit the making of unfavorable deductions or inferences based on fact. Because the statement made in the Franken advertisements accurately captures the ‘gist’ or ‘sting’ of Senator Coleman’s placement in the CREW listing of the 20  ‘most corrupt’ members of
Congress and ‘four to watch,’  there is not probable cause to believe that a violation of the statute has occurred,” Neilson wrote.

“The statement is substantially accurate, if not literally true in every detail,” she reasoned.

“Hearing that Senator Coleman is the ‘fourth most corrupt Senator’ according to CREW produces essentially the same effect on the mind of an individual seeing or hearing the advertisements as hearing that he is one of only four Senators named in the CREW report on congressional
corruption,” she wrote in part of her response to the complaint.

This weekend (Nov. 16) the Minnesota Sierra Club North Star Chapter will honor the storied “Override Six,” the half-dozen Republican House members who voted last session to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation finance bill.

According to the club, local representatives Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, and Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, two of the “Override Six,” plan to attend the Nicollet Island Pavilion event on Sunday along with fellow “Override” members Ron Erhardt, Bud Heidgerken, and Neil Peterson.

Only two of the six, Abeler and Rep. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, are returning to the Legislature.

Others voluntarily left the House or became political fatalities in recent months.

“Legislators who are willing to risk political reprisal because they put the public interest first are examples of good leadership, and good public service. We are pleased to show our respect for their courage,” said former Senate Majority Leader John Hottinger, Sierra Club Executive Committee member.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to scheduled to address the gathering.

Gay Patriot links to this video of “No on 8″ supporters shouting down an elderly woman and stomping on her cross, and asks:

Why this refusal to understand their opponents? Why this insistence on silencing them? Do such people deserve the privilege of state sanction of their unions?

I never understood this either. Generally when you are trying to accomplish something politically, you court opposition. In the case of gay marriage, the strategy seems to be insult, denigrate, silence and shame opposition into supporting the cause. Why would anyone even consider supporting the cause of a group, a cause based on a call for tolerance and respect, when the movement shows absolutely no tolerance or respect for others.

If this is what we can expect every time a traditional marriage measure passes, we can expect them to pass for a very long time.

Man oh man. Two days in a row of blogs directed toward U of M activities. They’ve just been raking in the coverage lately.

But I just couldn’t help myself when I saw the front page story about the U, or really Minnesota colleges in general, looking at putting a smoking ban on the entire campus. Read more »

Your great American deer hunting experience - how it begins, how it ends, everything you’ll need for your hunt plus stuff you probably forgot or didn’t know you’d need!

Here’s how it goes down - you plan to take the whole week off from work. At least a week before hunting opener you buy about 12 bags of fun-size candy bars and a huge multi-pack of single-serve chips. Packages of cookies fill the pantry, lunchmeats and cheeses are stuffed in the meat tray, pickled herring is bought by the pail full. Bottled water and soda of different flavors is in every available refrigerator. Your eating requirements have been met - you’re ready for the next steps.
Read more »