November 15
My new congressman, Keith Ellison, has made a bit of a splash already. He had a chance to meet the acting president at a reception for freshman congressmen, and instead went to an AFL-CIO reception. He said, "I went to the AFL-CIO reception, because I wanted to meet and greet leaders of labor, and get to know them. Those are the people who I came here to support." The good news is that he appears to be aware of who elected him and who needs more representing. The bad news is that conservatives are gunning for him (just metaphorically, I hope) and this will be spun into something equivalent to the mistakes Paul Wellstone made right after being elected, like having former senator Walter Mondale introduce him on the Senate floor instead of the state's then senior senator, Republican David Durenburger, as is the Senate custom. That's not a hard prediction when you like at the smears at how the conservative blogs are already worked up. This photo was posted on politicalpartypoop.com:
The article that accompanies it repeats the lies and half-truths commonly heard in this district during the election campaign but may be new to the rest of the country, and links to other bloggers doing the same. Readers might look at the number of times my Take the Red Pill Award has been given to Muslims and think I'm not the best defender of Muslims, but I have met Ellison and volunteered for his campaign, and to compare him to whoever was really holding that sign in the photo is like comparing any Christian to Timothy McVeigh or Jim Jones. Of course, if conservatives would judge people as individuals instead of as members of groups they don't like, they would stop being conservatives.
Just so there isn't any confusion, I've heard Ellison speak a number of times, and I've never heard him say anything remotely like the sign he's holding in the photo. It's a spoof, yes, but basically still a lie.
November 12
So how did I do with those predictions the Sunday before election day? Mixed, but to start with the primary prediction, it appears at first blush that the fraud wasn't as bad as expected, but I chalk that up to the Democratic win despite the fraud covering it up. Remember that it took a while for evidence of fraud in prior elections to come out. We still had only anecdotes of black voters in Florida being turned away at this point in 2000, it took weeks for the information about Ohio in 2004 to dribble out, and it was only recently that Robert Kennedy Jr. found a whistleblower for the suspected fraud in Georgia in 2002. So don't assume for a second the limited allegations of fraud doesn't mean more to come, and I suspect the GOP still won some races it shouldn't have. I was correct in predicting the fraud would be focused in a few states. For example, 18,000 votes in what is so far the one contested US House race went missing. Not surprisingly, it's in Florida, and would you believe in Katherine Harris's district? If the Sun-Herald site still isn't working, there's this story from the Miami Herald. The Sarasota County elections supervisor said the missing votes are due to voters feeling disaffected from the congressional race. Oddly, the disaffection didn't affect other counties in the district, but conformed neatly to the county line.
One trick the GOP might not get away with is the fake sample ballots in predominantly black precincts in Maryland. Some Republican group that won't admit its deed hired homeless men from Philadelphia, who wouldn't know they were about to spread lies about the Maryland candidates, to hand out sample ballots marked "official" which identified the GOP candidates for governor and US senator as Democrats, and included made up endorsements from black Maryland Democrats. Not only did the homeless men get berated by angry voters, they weren't even taken back in time to vote themselves. Were any close elections swayed? Are any GOP candidates are operatives going to jail for this? And why is the GOP now considering the senate candidate, Michael Steele, to be chairman of the RNC? Well, let them pick a future perp walk for party chairman. Maybe he'll be forced out at a good time for a special election next year. Maybe the GOP will finally figure out why they can't can gain the trust of black voters. Probably not.
So getting into predictions in races, how did I do?
- Nationally, I predict the Democrats to gain a small majority in the House. It would be big except for the gerrymandering and aforementioned fraud. Confidence: high. Correct
- The Republicans will keep the Senate with a reduced majority, again with some races being disputed. Confidence: low. Wrong
- There has been a dispute between the DCCC and DNC over strategy, with the DCCC wanting to pursue swing districts and the DNC pursuing the 50 state strategy. I predict the unexpectedly close races in safe districts and red states will be seen as vindication for the DNC. Confidence: high. Correct, with the caveat that the DCCC can feel vindicated too.
- Getting to specific races, I predict Amy Klobuchar wins Minnesota's open Senate seat. Confidence: high. Correct
- Mike Hatch wins governor. Confidence: low. Wrong, but I was right it was very close.
- Mary Kiffmeyer holds secretary of state. There have been no polls, but downballot incumbents are very tough to beat. Mark Ritchie is one of those candidates I'm enthusiastically for, so my only consolation for disappointment being high is my confidence in this prediction is low. Wrong. I didn't foresee the strength of the vote for anyone with a "D" by their names on the ballot, which explains the other races.
- Pat Awada holds state auditor. There are no polls here either, but besides incumbency, she's had few controversies and Rebecca Otto has an even tougher matchup than Ritchie. Confidence: high Wrong. It wasn't all that close. My most wrong prediction.
- Lori Swanson takes the open state attorney general job. In finding the link, I discovered that her name with a .com, .org, or .net after it redirects to her opponent's web site. I hope she blows out the cheesy prick. Confidence: high Correct, and she did blow him out.
- The DFL holds the state senate with about the same majority. Confidence: high Correct, except the majority was substantially increased.
- The DFL wins the majority in the state house. Confidence: high Correct
- In the first US House district, with the acknowledgement I'm being hopeful about a candidate I'm enthusiastic about and wish I could vote for, Tim Walz flips a Republican district. Confidence: low. Correct
- In the second district, John Kline beats Coleen Rowley. Confidence: high. Correct
- In the third district, Jim Ramstad beats another DFL candidate who showed a lot in a tough race, Wendy Wilde. Confidence: high, but Wendy please run again. Correct
- In the fourth, it's a walk for Betty McCollum. Confidence: high. Correct
- In my district, the fifth, there have been no polls, so the feeling that the Independence Party candidate has a real shot is based on her extensive advertising and the negative news stories and attacks on DFL candidate Keith Ellison. I'm trying to make the ground game work for him and again acknowledging I want a candidate I'm enthusiastic about to win, I predict this seat stays DFL. Confidence: low. Correct, mostly, because Ellison won big (the one pre-election poll came out the next day and showed his big lead), and Fine edged out Lee, which really surprised me.
- The sixth has drawn the most national attention because it's close, and child safety advocate Patty Wetterling is facing a loopy Republican, Michele Bachmann, who has won both a Take the Red Pill and Dead Polar Bear Award, which is a first. Sanity and Wetterling win. Confidence: low. Wrong, which I expected once the last poll came out after I wrote that.
- The seventh has no real race. Colin Peterson wins. Confidence: high. Correct
- James Oberstar had a serious challenge from Rod Grams. He should be glad it's a Democratic year. In another year, Grams might have flipped a DFL district. Confidence: high. Correct
- Andy Luger wins Hennepin County Attorney in a battle of good candidates who to my knowledge never went negative on each other. The party endorsement means more this year than in past years, which is his edge over Mike Freeman, a good DFLer who has held the post before. No polls that I know of. Confidence: low. Wrong
- Rich Stanek wins Hennepin County Sheriff. There are no polls, but he had a big lead in the primary, more lawn signs and more paid advertising. DFL candidate Juan Lopez has run an impressive campaign and I hope he'll run for something else if my prediction is right. Confidence: high Correct
- The constitutional amendment on transportation funding passes. I've seen no polls, but there's no visible opposition. Confidence: high Correct
- The Minneapolis charter amendment to use Instant Runoff Voting wins. Again there are no polls, but there is also no opposition campaign. Confidence: high. Correct
November 8
We won this election for Paul Wellstone. If it sounds like I'm hearkening back to 2002, it's because I hearkened back during a restless night before election day. Even though I wasn't a candidate or someone whose job depended on the outcome, I found sleep fitful. At one point in a dream or semi-consciousness, I clearly heard Rick Kahn's voice from the Wellstone memorial saying "Win this election for Paul Wellstone!". This is a statement with multiple meanings to Minnesota Democrats. It is simultaneously a "Remember the Alamo!" cry, but also a memory of how utter disaster can strike at the last moment. I refer not just to Wellstone's sudden death right before the election, but how the memorial angered many people and helped turn the 2002 election against the Democrats, including Minnesota's own senate race. That cry also brings up memories never far from the surface of how conservatives twisted something most of them didn't even see to gin up outrage, but also of how I saw it coming as I sat in the audience at the memorial, realized where the eulogy was going, and wished like hell he would just stop, yet it kept getting worse and worse. All of that is distilled into that one plea, "Win this election for Paul Wellstone!" I remembered Wellstone as I did the GOTV doorknocking I signed up for, and then did another shift. I did it for candidates I cared about of course, but it was also for Wellstone, and for the pain and outrage many of us still feel. Certainly the joy I felt along with other Democrats at the victory party had much to do with candidates we strongly supported, the unified effort we achieved, and putting an effective end to the Reagan Revolution and the Bush presidency, but I also hoped, even as someone who thinks the afterlife is unlikely, that somehow Wellstone saw what we did for the ideals of liberty, justice, and equality we shared with him. After a joyous night, getting home and feeling emotionally and physically spent, thinking again about that awful plane crash brought a tear to the eye of someone who doesn't tear up easily. In a way though it was a tear of joy. We won it for you Paul.
November 6
I hadn't planned on blogging tonight since it's late, I'm tired and I have a headache, but please everyone, BEWARE OF PHONE CALLS FROM PEOPLE PROVIDING ODD SOUNDING INFORMATION! I realize those of you reading a blog probably are sophisticated enough to know better but, just in case you aren't, or you run into someone getting a deceptive call, be aware and report it. What sparks me to write this is I just opened my e-mail, and I received messages from the Coleen Rowley and Patty Wetterling campaigns saying they are the targets of campaigns of deception. The Wetterling campaign says robo calls are claiming to be from them but aren't. The Rowley campaign said calls from cell phones on the East Coast are calling older voters, and telling them Rowley voters have to vote in limited hours at specific polls. If you receive or hear of someone receiving these calls, tell the Wetterling campaign at 763-323-1803, the Rowley campaign at (507) 664-3850. Get what information out of the caller that you can. Even false information might provide a clue (or a basis for prosecution?). I know it isn't just Minnesota, because Air America host Thom Hartmann has said listeners have told him of similar incidents in Oregon and New Mexico. If you aren't in Minnesota's sixth or second district, contact the campaign office of a candidate being targeted, or contact your state or local party.
After the election, we must find a way to catch and prosecute these bastards. For now, don't let them get away with it. Get out every voter you can.
November 5
This is likely my last entry before the election since I plan on helping with GOTV efforts Keith Ellison campaign tomorrow and election day. I wrote a lengthy entry a couple weeks ago on why I'm not excited about Democratic prospects (I would now add that the last week before the election was dreadful for Democrats). I'm helping with GOTV to counter one of the minor reasons, the GOP ground game. The primary reason I dread the news Tuesday night and the days following is the touchscreen machines, and the reports I'm expecting of fraud that seems intended to disenfranchise people in Democratic precincts, especially people of a darker complexion than the typical Republican poll challenger. I'm expecting many results to be thrown into doubt with the determining factor being which party runs the elections, and a prolonged fight afterwards. I expect fights over provisional ballots not being counted, exit polls differing from tallies or not being released, non-white ballots being mysteriously much more frequently spoiled, voter ID laws being applied incorrectly and selectively, and unknown numbers of voters leaving the polls because the lines are too long. Based on recent elections, I expect these problems to be concentrated in a few states. I'm glad I'm in Minnesota, where despite the efforts of the secretary of state we still have reliable elections. That's part of why I chose to do GOTV instead of poll watching. That, plus wanting to see GOTV which I haven't done for a long time, and there are candidates I'm enthusiastically for, not just vehemently against. I also urge every Democrat (the rest of you can skip the rest of this sentence) to help with the GOTV effort, or volunteer to watch the polls, or just do something for some worthy candidate. You'll feel better for having tried, especially if you contribute to a win.
As long as I've stated what I expect, I'll break my own guidelines against making predictions and see just how well I've got things figured out. In the paragraph above you have my prediction of serious election problems. I feel safe in that one. I feel less safe in predicting results, mostly because of the machines. Still here goes, with the one caveat that I reserve the right to explain my thinking and make more caveats, including stating my level of confidence in that prediction.
- Nationally, I predict the Democrats to gain a small majority in the House. It would be big except for the gerrymandering and aforementioned fraud. Confidence: high.
- The Republicans will keep the Senate with a reduced majority, again with some races being disputed. Confidence: low.
- There has been a dispute between the DCCC and DNC over strategy, with the DCCC wanting to pursue swing districts and the DNC pursuing the 50 state strategy. I predict the unexpectedly close races in safe districts and red states will be seen as vindication for the DNC. Confidence: high.
- Getting to specific races, I predict Amy Klobuchar wins Minnesota's open Senate seat. Confidence: high.
- Mike Hatch wins governor. Confidence: low.
- Mary Kiffmeyer holds secretary of state. There have been no polls, but downballot incumbents are very tough to beat. Mark Ritchie is one of those candidates I'm enthusiastically for, so my only consolation for disappointment being high is my confidence in this prediction is low.
- Pat Awada holds state auditor. There are no polls here either, but besides incumbency, she's had few controversies and Rebecca Otto has an even tougher matchup than Ritchie. Confidence: high
- Lori Swanson takes the open state attorney general job. In finding the link, I discovered that her name with a .com, .org, or .net after it redirects to her opponent's web site. I hope she blows out the cheesy prick. Confidence: high
- The DFL holds the state senate with about the same majority. Confidence: high
- The DFL wins the majority in the state house. Confidence: high
- In the first US House district, with the acknowledgement I'm being hopeful about a candidate I'm enthusiastic about and wish I could vote for, Tim Walz flips a Republican district. Confidence: low.
- In the second district, John Kline beats Coleen Rowley. Confidence: high.
- In the third district, Jim Ramstad beats another DFL candidate who showed a lot in a tough race, Wendy Wilde. Confidence: high, but Wendy please run again.
- In the fourth, it's a walk for Betty McCollum. Confidence: high.
- In my district, the fifth, there have been no polls, so the feeling that the Independence Party candidate has a real shot is based on her extensive advertising and the negative news stories and attacks on DFL candidate Keith Ellison. I'm trying to make the ground game work for him and again acknowledging I want a candidate I'm enthusiastic about to win, I predict this seat stays DFL. Confidence: low.
- The sixth has drawn the most national attention because it's close, and child safety advocate Patty Wetterling is facing a loopy Republican, Michele Bachmann, who has won both a Take the Red Pill and Dead Polar Bear Award, which is a first. Sanity and Wetterling win. Confidence: low.
- The seventh has no real race. Colin Peterson wins. Confidence: high.
- James Oberstar had a serious challenge from Rod Grams. He should be glad it's a Democratic year. In another year, Grams might have flipped a DFL district. Confidence: high.
- Andy Luger wins Hennepin County Attorney in a battle of good candidates who to my knowledge never went negative on each other. The party endorsement means more this year than in past years, which is his edge over Mike Freeman, a good DFLer who has held the post before. No polls that I know of. Confidence: low.
- Rich Stanek wins Hennepin County Sheriff. There are no polls, but he had a big lead in the primary, more lawn signs and more paid advertising. DFL candidate Juan Lopez has run an impressive campaign and I hope he'll run for something else if my prediction is right. Confidence: high
- The constitutional amendment on transportation funding passes. I've seen no polls, but there's no visible opposition. Confidence: high
- The Minneapolis charter amendment to use Instant Runoff Voting wins. Again there are no polls, but there is also no opposition campaign. Confidence: high.
So if I'm mostly wrong, everyone will forget I said anything, right? Predictions are hazardous anyway. I much prefer saying what I think is going on and what ought to happen. What ought to happen is when you discuss the election, remember to repeat: Republicans can't be trusted with national security. Republican leaders are corrupt, and the majority who aren't corrupt keep picking the corrupt leaders. Republicans have shown by now that they won't change, won't hold anyone accountable, and won't put the public interest before the special interests.
November 4
There was a story on the front page of today's St. Paul Pioneer Press about Mike Hatch with the headline, "Missteps or meltdowns?". So where do they get their headline writers, the Pawlenty campaign? It's that logical fallacy called the false choice. Was it a misstep, a meltdown, or someone rightly peeved? I don't know what the reporters said to him --- and neither do the people criticizing Hatch. Maybe he was out of line, or maybe they were. What I think is more certain is that he stood up for his running mate when it might have been politically expedient to make her a scapegoat. Good for Hatch being willing to defend her, and if he wins, anyone dealing with the lieutenant governor will know the governor is backing her up, which will make her more effective.
And another last minute smear the Republicans came out with in a TV ad today and on the state GOP web site is that Hatch has taken money from ACORN, which engages in voter fraud. If you go past the charge and actually look at their documentation, you see that the charge has to do with a fired employee who turned in duplicate voter registration cards and then failed to turn in a large number of cards. ACORN was the defrauded party, not the perpetrators. One of their activities is voter registration drives, and in 2004 they made the mistake of paying employees hired for the drives for each filled in card. Some employees had friends register multiple times so they would get paid for each card. The registered voters didn't get to vote multiple times. The cards not turned in would have prevented those voters from being on the registration rolls when they got to the polls, but we have registration at the polls in Minnesota, so those individuals had the inconvenience of having to register again, but they got to vote. Nobody was denied their vote nor is there evidence anyone was able to vote more than once because of this, and people willing to try that could have registered without help from ACORN. That's a long way of saying the GOP charge is stupid and deliberately misleading.
Getting back to the main reason the Republicans are in such trouble this year, this story tells a lot. The congressional Republicans sneaked a provision into a defense appropriations bill abolishing the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. They didn't tell anybody so there was no notice or debate. This office has exposed much of the corruption and incompetence in Iraq, so instead of addressing the fraud, the Republicans protected their cronies and contributors by ending the oversight. That's why we need oversight, and I suggest to everyone thinking about voting for a Republican for Congress that the fraud will continue if they retain control, and in fact they'll think that if they got away with it this year, they can get away with it forever. They can steal and coverup without fear of repercussions. Even the Republicans who aren't crooked are letting the crooks run things.
The corruption might seem like just the money story in Iraq, but the failure of reconstruction and economic development is one of the causes of the violence, and thus is killing a lot of people. How many? Remember the Lancet study that indicated 650,000 is the most likely number of deaths since the invasion above the number of deaths that would be expected in peacetime? Today's This American Life, "What's in a Number? 2006 Edition", was about this study and the similar one in 2004. If you suspected there was little reporting in the mainstream media because they feared accusations of liberal bias, you were right. Likewise if you suspected many in the media found the number unbelievable and didn't look too close. TAL went into the methodology, not exciting but important if you want to know why the study is considered valid. They also told the story of how the interviewers went around Iraq conducting their survey, which was nervewracking to harrowing. Something important to understand is they used a standard methodology for studying mortality in a population, and which is used without controversy in other populations.
November 3
One more thing on that documentary I wrote about yesterday, Hacking Democracy. One interviewee, I forget the name, made an analogy that captures what this problem with touchscreen voting is about. Suppose there were no computers, and instead the voter walked into a booth and spoke his choices to someone sitting behind a curtain, but the voter didn't get to see the ballot and had to just trust the votes were written down correctly. Who would accept that system? But that is exactly what paperless voting amounts to.
Republicans are trying to make a major issue out of the DFL candidate for lieutenant governor, Judi Dutcher, not knowing what E85 is (it's fuel that's 15% gasoline and 85% ethanol). Okay, someone running for statewide office in Minnesota should know that, but if that's her biggest failing, I'll take it. It not like she didn't know about E85 after making policy on ethanol. I'd bet if a Governor Hatch assigned her to work on ethanol that she would learn it pretty quick, and that would make her better than the US House Republicans who sit on the intelligence committee but didn't know as of a few months ago what the difference is between Sunnis and Shiites, five years after 911 and three years after invading Iraq. Nor had the acting president even heard the terms until right before invading a country divided between the two sects. Funny how Republicans haven't minded any of this, but not having heard of E85 is a problem.
Don't be under the misapprehension the focus is off Mike Hatch. The GOP is swiftboating him in an appropriate use of the word. A Stronger America-Minnesota has just formed and raised a bunch of money from wealthy businessmen to run attack ads. They share an address in Alexandria, Virginia --- not Minnesota --- with Americans for Job Security. The attorney for Americans for Job Security is Benjamin Ginsburg, who in 2004 simultaneously worked for the Bush campaign and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth --- not that they were illegally coordinating. Thanks to their late formation, they don't have to disclose most donors until after the election. One of the big donors is Stanley Hubbard, who owns Hubbard Broadcasting, which runs the media outlets that filmed and ran the story on Judi Dutcher. KSTP has hosted debates this campaign season and in 2004, and broke the Al Qaqaa story, so they've earned a benefit of the doubt in terms of being accused of bias. It's just that donating to a swift boat group looks bad.
November 2
Tonight was the premier of Hacking Democracy, a documentary about the people at Black Box Voting.org (Black Box Voting.com is a separate organization also working on electronic voting issues) and their investigation of election fraud after the 2004 election. Since I've followed this issue closely I had heard about many of the incidents caught on video, but it was nonetheless impressive to see Bev Harris refusing to be fobbed off with new printouts of optical scanner tapes instead of copies of the originals from Volusia County, Florida. Volusia mysteriously had a vote total of -16,000 (yes, minus) votes for Gore in 2000. After Harris was told the originals were at a warehouse, she arrived to find the tapes in the garbage, and the people with her taped her struggle with employees over the garbage bags. In the bags she found the original tapes signed by the election judges, and they didn't match what she was given.
They also filmed the experiment with Leon County elections supervisor Ion Sancho where a programmer attempted a hack of a Diebold memory card, and the card successfully changed the vote count. They voted on the question of whether the machine could be hacked. Two voted yes and six no. The hack set the yes count at plus five and no at minus five, so although the result was seven yes and one no, the number of votes was right, and the initial test didn't detect the pre-set count. It might sound esoteric, but you have to see the emotional reaction of the people present.
Let me hasten to add that this in no way is a reason to skip the election. No matter how much you suspect the election is fixed, make them work for it. If you don't vote, they have successfully suppressed your vote legally and without trying. Just be aware of what can happen, and report it if anything is wrong. Tell the poll workers, the election supervisors, the newspapers, your local party, and advocacy groups like Black Box Voting. Many of them will have staff and volunteers working specifically on these problems and if they can't address them, they can at least accumulate the evidence. The Republicans got away with it in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Maybe this time we can stop them.
On the subject of voter suppression, also watch out for old-fashioned deception. In yesterday's show, Thom Hartmann read an e-mail from a listener who said while doing GOTV calling in Oregon, where they vote by mail, elderly registered Democrats said they were told by an earlier caller that they had missed the voting deadline and one person was ready to throw out her ballot. Republicans seem utterly shameless about lying to people they think will vote the wrong way. That's the reason why even when the acting president is gone and the issues have changed, I might never again vote Republican. There's just a core difference between Democrats supporting voting rights and Republicans attacking them.
In keeping with concerns about the accuracy of our vote counting and respect for voting rights, I stress again that state secretary of state races are vital, maybe as much as Congress. Certain state secretaries of state bear a huge responsibility for Bush getting into his ill-gotten office. Republicans have made a push in prior years, and used their positions to push for restrictive laws, to engage in selective law enforcement, and to put out misinformation, all of which consistently interferes with the voting of minorities and the poor. A letter to the editor in the Duluth News Tribune lays out the case against Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer. Here's the letter, but this being a blog, I've added links to some of the incidents mentioned. The writer is Bill Hilty, a DFL state representative in district 8A
Here are the Top Ten Reasons Why Kiffmeyer Should Not Have Been Endorsed by the News Tribune ("Keep Kiffmeyer as secretary of state," Oct. 30):10) When she took office, Kiffmeyer replaced virtually all of the nonpartisan civil servant staff with partisan political appointees.
9) In 2002, when Senator Wellstone was killed, Kiffmeyer tried to stop local elections officials from sending replacement absentee ballots to voters who requested them. (Overruled by the Supreme Court).
8) In 2004, Kiffmeyer banned Independence Party candidates from the ballot despite their major party status. (Overruled by the Supreme Court)
7) In 2000, she published informational brochures with the wrong date for the DFL caucuses. Even after the DFL complained, Kiffmeyer continued to spread this misinformation.
6) Kiffmeyer tried to stop Hennepin and Ramsey Counties from distributing federal voter registration forms, the effect of which would have been to thwart voter registration drives. The Department of Justice ruled in the counties' favor and admonished Kiffmeyer.
5) According to the Wall Street Journal, "Minnesota's Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer is tired of hearing her state's 'same day' registration extolled." She has hinted a number of times that she would like to see it abolished.
4) Kiffmeyer has neglected to implement a law, whose passage she opposed, which allows residents of battered women's shelters and group homes to have absentee ballots delivered to them.
3) Kiffmeyer has repeatedly tried to make it hard for Native Americans to vote by fighting to limit the use of ID's issued by tribal governments. She has gone to court twice over the issue and been overruled.
2) Local elections officials overwhelmingly report that Kiffmeyer is autocratic, arbitrary and singularly unhelpful — just ask them.
1) Kiffmeyer said at a "National Day of Prayer" gathering in 2004 that "the five words" that are "probably most destructive" in the nation today are "separation of church and state."
November 1
Like all minor party candidates, candidates for the Independence Party don't like the assertion that a vote for them is wasted because they can't win. Gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson has argued against this idea during debates. Tammy Lee, who might have a serious shot of winning the 5th district (there have been no polls, but it seems to be a common perception), is arguing for this idea however. On her blog, Lee says, "In this district, which leans hard to the left with about 75% of the vote typically going DFL, voting for the Republican is a wasted vote -- because in the last three elections, the Republican candidate has topped out at 26%. So even if the DFL candidate and I split the vote, a republican still statistically cannot win." She's actually telling Republicans to vote for her because their candidate can't win. So would she concede that argument is legitimate against Hutchinson or other candidates of her party? Or does her party switch principle according to how a given race is going? Oh right, she's supposed to be more principled than Ellison. How awkward.
Somebody who has run a good campaign under the media radar is Wendy Wilde, in Minnesota's 3rd district. She handles herself very well in debates, and makes the same argument I've made for tossing incumbents who haven't been personally caught up in scandals, that they keep picking crooked leaders. She has a clever slogan, "Elect Mom", and an active grassroots campaign. There haven't been any polls I know of, but presumably she is a very long shot against Republican incumbent Jim Ramstad. She has about one-tenth the money if I recall correctly, and she's running in a Republican district against a long time incumbent who isn't personally caught up in the scandal. However, I'd wager she gets closer than prior DFL candidates, and I'm impressed enough I'd like to see her run when she has more resources and a better shot.
