Legalectric

Funny how it’s all connected…
Funny how it’s all a big game of CHICKEN!!!
… or is it a TURKEY???? … or… oh I’d better shut up…

“Big Ag” Christian Sande v. “IATP” Mark Ritchie

Christian Sande and Mark Ritchie are both vying for the DFL endorsement for Secretary of State. Yeah, we all know that.

Mark Ritchie has been very open and proud of his tenure with IATP.

Yet I don’t hear a “peep” on Christian Sande’s site about his years as a lobbyist for Gold-N Plump and Jennie-O!

Sande was a lobbyist for Jennie-O from 12/23/99 to 9/24/04, and for Gold-N Plump from 12/23/99 to 5/9/05, and announced for Secretary of State the following week. Sande also lobbied for the Minnesota Milk Producers Association in 2001. Nowhere on Sande’s site does it state that he’s spent many years lobbying for Big Ag.

But there’s something for Ritchie to crow about — he won the DFL “straw poll” with 38% to Sande’s 16%.

Here’s Sande’s Campaign Finance Report for 2005.

And here’s Ritchie’s Campaign Finance Report for 2005.

… if I thought Sande could pull ahead, this would bother me — ties to “BIG AG” something I’d sure want to know about a candidate…

Oh, and the IATP site has a good piece headlining about arsenic in chicken — Playing Chicken.

buck-aw, buck, buck, buck, buck… buck-aaaaw

Speaking of Resolutions, just got word that Itasca County passed one opposing Excelsior’s Mesaba project — now that’s a big step!!

Resolutions for Goodhue County DFL Convention

It’s been a “Resolutions” kind of weekend, and it takes so much time… I’m going to submit the Goodhue way of handling Resolutions for inclusion in the DFL’s “How-To” section so that others don’t have to reinvent the wheel, or worse, have Resolutions that aren’t considered — not one peace resolution made it through the fracas of the Rice County Convention to become one of the 28 that went forward — they were all in the “debatable” pile that just sat there unaddressed — eeeeeeeeuw, that’s not conducive to “Peace in the Precincts.”

The Goodhue County DFL Convention is next Saturday at SE MN Technical College. So we’re preparing the Resolutions… all 134 of them. Kudos to Steve Jystad of Zumbrota for doing the heavy lifting — he’s gotten this Resolution business off to a managable start by spending a lot of tedious time entering them into a database so we could sort. The following day, I put in a few hours consolidating and drafting proposed language. Then five of us waded through it all, and got the job done. I was impressed by the breadth of issues raised, everything from my eminent domain and personal property tax issues to specific education issues and single payer health care to apprenticeship rules to the “Personal Protection Act.” This is democracy in action.

It’s simple to do:

1) Put them all into a pile and number them (making sure the forms are filled out right and everything’s there

2) Enter them into the database zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Res.No. Name Precinct Category Resolution

3) Consolidate like ones

4) Synthesize and draft language to be presented for Convention

So that was yesterday, and at the Convention we’re going to use a simple system of giving each delegate 20 stickers (we only get 20 resolutions) and so all they have to do is put the stickers by the number of their 20 Resolutions, which makes for easy tallying. We’ll just count each person’s 20 and the top 20 go forward.

This stuff isn’t rocket science, but it requires a solid day or two of prep to make it managable, otherwise, it’s the chaos of Rice County all over again — you just can’t go into Convention without having done this work.

And did I mention that the Jystad family has the most wonderful pup… an 8 year old Bull Mastiff. He’s “shrinking a bit with age,” down from over 130, but because he’s sleek, he doesn’t look that much bigger than my girls. When his head’s at my knee, his tail was wagging out from under the other side of the big dining room table. Now that’s a big galoot, calm and constantly smiling, he looks like this but bigger:

Rice County – Where’s that party at???

Victor Summa’s letter in Northfield News:

Where is the DFL Party?

To the editor:
The impressive array of candidates deserves more than the disarray in the party.

As the local political climate heats up … I’m wondering, where’s the Northfield DFL … and, where’s the press coverage of this spring’s related political events?

The national and statewide contests notwithstanding, two races this fall that are crucial to Northfield’s future would be the state House races, Districts 25A and 25B, and the state Senate race, District 25. Both of these party struggles are contested. Who will be the DFL candidates facing Republican incumbents? And, why?

The well-known, homegrown candidate, David Bly versus Belle Plain’s Tim Lies vie for House seat 25B. That party struggle will be determined on April 11 in Montgomery.

And, no less than three candidates have tossed their hats into the DFL ring for the Senate District 25 seat, currently held by the Republican incumbent. The DFL opposition includes Jessica Peterson, Ted Ludwig and Tim Siebsen, each hoping to make their mark at the April 11 DFL confab in Montgomery.

Where’s the public discourse, the insightful analysis? Where’s the press coverage? Where’s the local DFL candidate forums?

Are we expected to flip a coin to gain insight into the political strengths of each. Strikes me that this issue … all these candidates present a provocative mix. Isn’t it provocation that sells newspapers? Isn’t “provocative” what grabs voters attention?

A relative “handful” of proclaimed DFL hangers-on, surviving the tedium of the Rice County convention last weekend will or may go to Montgomery on April 11. Until then, there evidently is no plan for the DFL in Northfield, Belle Plain or Montgomery to bring these candidates to the voter’s eyes or ears for appraisal.

The newspaper gets blamed for a lot, but I guess you can’t blame the newspaper for not covering an event that never happened.

The frustrating question for all the Democratic faithful is: How do you hope to take back the White House, when you can’t even organize a fight for the strongest candidates to vie for seats in St. Paul?

I suggest a DFL forum at some conveniently located neutral site — Lonsdale? — where at least the press and the delegates can have a chance to hear from, and more importantly ask biting questions of, these five who might frame our future. Not just an opportunity to hear political pap, but to ask the insightful questions that will separate the candidate. Or perhaps, prove all to be worthy … maybe then, a coin flip’s okay!

Or maybe, the district’s a throwaway … given up to stay “red!” Ya gotta wonder?

Victor Summa
Northfield

They’re dropping like flies these days…

From MPR just now:

Sen. Marko drops bid for Congress
(AP) – State Sen. Sharon Marko, DFL-Cottage Grove, says she’s dropping out of the 2nd District Congressional race.

Marko entered the race less than two months ago. She was seeking the DFL endorsement along with former FBI agend Coleen Rowley. Marko says she got into the race too late and the campaign conflicted with her legislative work once the session started.

“I’m finding it difficult to get away from the Capitol long enough to spend a significant amount of time in the delegate hunt and it’s made it particularly difficult for me to stay here at the Capitol and fulfill my responsibility as an elected official,” she said.

Marko didn’t throw her backing to Rowley, saying she will stay neutral in the race. The DFL nominee will run against U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn. Marko is not running for reelection to her Senate seat and says she hasn’t decided what she will do after the election.

Here’s the STrib:

DFL’s Marko abandons her bid for Congress

And then there’s Backbone’s CD2 – Caught with my pants down

Julie Risser is running for Senate in SD 41, Edina and West Bloomington. Green candidates Risser, Jay Pond (5CD) and Dave Berger (auditor) held a press conference last week at the Capitol. The Green Party Endorsing meeting is this weekend, at which time they’ll be formally endorsed. Here’s her VoteRisser4Senate site!

This race is an important one, against a vulnerable Republican Senator in a district that voted Kerry, and the candidate fielded by the DFL does not speak to issues, and instead seems to be intent on a federal, not state race. Will somebody else please tell him that a state Senate campaign is NOT about Iraq! View image I have… sigh…

Julie is a progressive, bringing content to this campaign, engaging the voters in this winnable district with talk about the issues that have an impact on them — her focus is on energy, because of the pervasive impact of our energy policy. And how ’bout that Edina Golf Dome!!! Julie brings experience and activism to this campaign, from her energy work with the state League of Women Voters, and as board member of Clean Water Action, and was infused with politics in her time at Carleton, she’s a Carleton grad and also taught Art History. She’s currently teaching at St. Thomas.

What will happen if the D’s and R’s actually have to talk about issues! GASP! This is shaping up to be a lively campaign season — we certainly live in “interesting” times!

p.s. Why would the R’s SD41 have contributed to Ray Cox’s campaign way back when??

Here’s one of Julie’s Letters to the Editor in the Northfield News:

Reduce, not promote fuels

To the editor:

The other day I stumbled upon a link to state Rep. Ray Cox’s blog which took me to a description of his visit to Carleton.

Cox dropped in on a class to discuss legislative efforts to reduce mercury. He then engaged in dialog about renewable energy over lunch. While I disagree with many of the votes Cox has cast and am uncomfortable with him promoting his record during class time (especially as we are entering campaign season), Cox’s visit does provide an opportunity for Carleton students and the Northfield community to engage in energy and environmental policy.

As a Carleton alum I feel compelled to raise some points.

For starters people would do well do take a look at Cox’s voting record. He voted in favor the Mesabi Nugget plant. Slatted to be located in Hoyt Lakes, 30 miles north of Duluth, Mesabi Nugget is estimated to emit 75 pounds of mercury annually and discharge metal, mercury, sulfate, and dissolved solids into the Second Creek, water that ultimately flows into the Great Lakes basin. The purported benefits of this project: an estimated 50 to 100 jobs. Of course that doesn’t include future jobs that will be necessary to clean up all of the pollutants. So this estimate is probably off. Maybe that is why it was exempted from environmental review.

Cox was also a co-author of legislation supporting Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba coal gasification plant. Now estimated to cost $1.97 billion the plant may be located on a beautiful 1,000-acre site in northern Minnesota near two lakes. Mesaba may very likely be the largest point source for climate warming carbon dioxide as Excelsior is not pursing any methods for sequestering all of the CO2 emissions. Carleton geology students might try to think about what could be done with all of the CO2 emissions. If Mesaba were to try and force the CO2 back into the ground, what would that do to ground water?

Finally Cox voted against an amendment to the Omnibus Energy bill that would have required 20 percent of the electricity sold to Minnesotans to come from renewable energy. Cox has stated that he voted against the amendment because he disagreed with the manner in which the legislation was brought to a vote. I don’t buy this; Cox had no problem voting for the Women’s Right to Know legislation, which restricts women’s access to abortion; it was slapped onto a bill about allowing circuses to perform when the Minnesota State Fair is happening!

Cox may like renewable energy, but his voting record shows he likes coal too. If we are going to move toward a responsible energy policy we need to reduce high polluting fuels, not promote them.

Julie Risser
Edina

Drat! Kelly Doran, the guy I thought was most electable, the guy with something to say and a record of actions to back it up, has thrown in the towel. He came off very well against the other DFL candidates on MPR a couple weeks ago, but didn’t even register a blip in the “straw poll” at caucus. So now what is next for State Senator Sheila Kiscaden?

Here’s a nice adieu from the St.PPP:

Doran’s respect for the center deserves respect

Kelly Doran, a nontraditional but substantive DFL candidate for governor, has left the field. Trying to inject common sense into high-stakes politics is risky. Some would say impossible.

There’s much to admire about Doran’s effort, though.

â?¢ The notion that leaders must make, not just speak slogans about making, long-term decisions for growth in Minnesota’s human and economic future.

â?¢ Telling the truth about how profoundly the system is stacked against genuine outsider candidates for top offices.

â?¢ The politics of the positive.

â?¢ Respect for the political center, which has been atomized.

Doran, an Eden Prairie businessman, and his running mate, state Sen. Sheila Kiscaden, walked the talk of a decent practical politics that is unafraid to try for something better.

That’s admirable. And instructive as the remaining campaigns for governor go forward.