MN2010StatewideRaces >> *Top Stories

Taylor Swine Endorses MN Gov. Candidate Tom Emmer

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2839/
Description:

By Craig Stellmacher

At the Michele Bachmann Kill the Bill Rally, I run into Taylor Swine. A vocal Taylor Swine endorses Republican Candidate for Governor Tom Emmer, digging in the ground, Cheerios, Taylor Swift Music and Pepperoni Pizza, but not necessarily in that order. Taylor Swift is for Tom Emmer--because he'll cut the pork.

Anderson Ditches MN Governor Race To Run For Auditor

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2748/
Description:

By Craig Stellmacher

1/12/10 Today at the Capital, GOP Candidate for Governor Pat Anderson withdrew from the race, and at the same time declared she was now instead running for State Auditor. She gave several reasons. She thought the state of the economy meant stronger leadership was needed in the Auditor's office. And she said the shadow of Norm Coleman's undeclared candidacy had a negative effect on fundraising.

DFL Governor Candidates' Debate, Hopkins

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2598/
Description:

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (MN DFL) party 3rd Congressional District (CD3) and 5th Congressional District (CD5) held a public debate and reception featuring all MN DFL candidates for governor at the Hopkins Center for the Arts on Tuesday, November 24, 2009.KSTP-TV's Chief Political Reporter, Tom Hauser moderated. DFL Candidates Tom Bakk, Mark Dayton, Matt Entenza, Susan Gaertner, Steve Kelley, Margaret Anderson-Kelliher, John Marty, Tom Rukavina, R.T. Rybak, Ole Savior and Paul Thissen participated.

Is There A Threat To Unite Us? 8 DFL Governor Candidates Respond.

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2578/
Description:

By Craig Stellmacher

"What is the greatest threat to Minnesota right now, that we can all unite around, and what will be your strategy to solve this problem?"

Eight DFL Candidates for Governor, answer that question on Sunday 11/15 2009. Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher; State Senator Thomas Bakk; Former US Senator Mark Dayton; Former State Senator Steve Kelly, State Senator John Marty, State Representative Tom Rukavina, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and State Representative Paul Thissen, have all come to the Eagle's Club at 2507 E 25 th St in Minneapolis Minnesota to talk to the DFL Senior Caucus Inside. One room had the Vikings game on, and there were 150 DFL'rs in the second room, so we briefly go outside to answer the same question.

For the last several years, I've been looking at Game Theory, also known as Strategy Theory. Note, humans have a tendency to come together when they share the same threat. If the sky was filled with UFO's with purple death rays, we'd unite with Iran and North Korea till they were gone.

I've noted recently, that some politicians actually say there's a group that threatens them. The first example I can think of here in Minnesota is US Representative Michele Bachmann, she states that a group the size of hers, "Liberals", threatens the existence of her group. It will be hard for her to get a majority of the votes, while she accuses half of threatening her, the half she names have no reason to vote for her. I think some politicians master this idea, and I can think of Reagan, Clinton and Obama, who got the American people to unite around a threat or an idea.

I was looking for this uniting, in any of their answers. If a politician states : "we all share the same threat", I think it will be easier for them to get a majority of the people. This uniting strategy, is rather powerful in the long run, but we have many examples in the last few years we can think of either with politicians or with TV pundits that urge us to divide ourselves and say near half--threaten our existence.

Bachmann's strategy works, because she has a base she can appeal to in her district, but she would have trouble getting elected state or nation wide. Those that appeal to all with : "We all should unite, because we all have the same threat"--have a stronger strategy. They can get more votes, and they can get more done once elected. These answers are presented in alphabetical order.

All answers, identify threats, but several really call out uniting around the problem. They point to the current strategy as wrong, and they look to unite to solve this problem. Bakk, Kelly, and Marty really go after our incorrect current divisive strategy in their answer. They strongly want to unite, this could be key in getting elected state wide, and in then solving our problems together once elected.

Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher : Thinks current leadership lacks vision, and she wants to focus on education, and the economic development plan.

State Senator Thomas Bakk : The Budget, is not the biggest problem, it's our entire economy. Then, he suggests uniting different groups to work together, he wants to be a "uniter". He certainly addresses the strategy of uniting around a common problem.

Former US Senator Mark Dayton : 4 issues : Jobs, Education, Fair Share Taxes, and Single Payer Health Care.

Former State Senator Steve Kelly : "We currently feel we can't get things done--working together", he thinks our strategy is the problem and repeatedly he states he will try to bring people together.

State Senator John Marty : "We have to bring our state together". He talks about uniting and strategy specifically, and he uses as an example health care where we should unite and solve the problem together.

State Representative Tom Rukavina : For him, it's the un-allotment and the unconstitutional actions which he thinks are more for the benefit of Governor Tim Pawlenty, than for Minnesota.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak : We have to create jobs, train workers, develop and build, with the proper leadership.

State Representative Paul Thissen : "Our greatest threats could be our greatest opportunity...", problems he wishes to turn around. He sees big changes with the :1) Age Wave 2) Environmental Changes 3) World Economy, Thissen describes complex problems, with complex positive pay-offs if solved.

All identify Minnesota problems, and offer solutions. But Bakk, Kelly and Marty stress uniting to solve them.

Chris Coleman's Advice To Remaining DFL Governor Candidates

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2465/
Description:

The field of candidates for Minnesota Governor narrowed a bit on Thursday when St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced he would not be running for Governor. Coleman had never formally entered the Governor's race, but had been considering a run for the DFL nomination. Here he speaks about his decision with Mike McIntee on "Quick on The UpTake".

Q:This is a decision you apparently just reached recently, correct?

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman: One of the things we have said is we wanted to make a decision before the November elections so that the voters in St. Paul as I was seeking re-election know exactly what my intentions were. So as we came closer to that I weighed the challenges that we faced and the opportunities we have in the city of St. Paul and decided I needed to focus my attention on what's happening in St. Paul.

Q:There's a lot on your plate there.

Coleman:Well we do have some great things going on but still some hurdles to clear. The central corridor light rail line,which is then number one priority for me for a long time, has still some work to do on it and I would hate to think that somehow that project wouldn't move forward because I was out running for Governor. And there was simply no way for me to effectively do both.

Q:Well let me just ask what the reaction you got on the campaign trail when you were testing the waters for running for Governor. What were people telling you?

Coleman:Well, really really positive. And I think that that's been part of the struggle in my decision is because of I as I called through who were regular convention attendees or key members of the labor community or whatever it may be, there was very, very supportive words and encouragement for me to run and almost everyone that I talked to felt that if I wasn't their automatic first choice I was in their top two or three. And that's all I can really ask for at this stage of the game. So, felt I had as good of a shot as I was ever going to have to do that, but I just made a commitment four years ago to the voters of St. Paul and I'm asking them to make a commitment to me again and felt that was more important at this point.

Q:You said this is ... you thought this was the best shot to do something like this. Does this mean that you're not going to be seeking the Governor's office in the future or is that very hard to say at this point?

Coleman: No I don't preclude anything. I didn't expect to be running for Governor in 2005... er I didn't expect to be running for Mayor in 2005, but felt very passionately that the city needed to go in a different direction and so chose to run at that point and so what the future holds I guess we'll... only time will tell.

Q:Well, that all of course begs the question... everything is politics... the DFL is a very political group. There are a lot of people vying for the DFL endorsement for Governor. Have you decided if you are going to back anyone or is that again, too early to say?

Coleman: Well, I'll be backing the endorsed candidate of the DFL party. I think we need to unify around the convention in April and put forth the candidate that can win in the fall. And I think the longer we spend our time shooting at each other, the harder that's going to be. But I think it's very clear that any of the candidates that are running on the DFL side are marked improvements from the Republican side. I didn't know there were nine people in the state of Minnesota that didn't understand the serious nature of climate change and they all seem to be running for Governor.

Q:I think there are more than that who don't understand climate change, but yes the do all seem to be running for Governor. I do have to ask though, you've had a chance to test the waters, you've had a chance to hear the voters, you've talked to the people who would very likely be the delegates to any kind of convention. What do you think they are looking for in a candidate. We said we're not going to name names here. But what qualities do you think they want?

Coleman: Well I think first and foremost they want to win. You have 20 years since the last Democratic Governor was serving in the corner office of the capitol. And so people are very hungry to have someone that can unify the party, unify progressives and labor and put that winning coalition together and win in the fall. But then beyond the victory that's when the work begins. So who can get beyond the rhetoric and partisanship that you sometimes see up at the capitol, who can make some of the tough decisions, who is really going to balance out the fact that got a potential seven billion dollar budget deficit in the city of St. Paul... I mean state of Minnesota. It means some very tough choices are going to need to be made to get out of that. Are people going to have a seat at the table when those decisions are being made? I think that's one of the things we've been very very proud of in St. Paul that we brought our public employees to the table to help us work out some of the challenges. We brought community groups to the table. People demand that process. They want to be a part of that decision making and so they'll be looking for a candidate that understands that.

Q:Well, then let's talk about the issues you're facing in St. Paul. Which is the reason you're not going to run. You got to focus on what's in front of you. Light rail, you said, is one of the bigger issues. I listened to part of the debate the other night where your opponent is saying it's all too expensive... and I think she suggest that we should run things underground which could make it even more expensive. Where do thinks sit here with light rail?

Coleman: First of all after 30 years of discussion we're very, very close to officially moving forward. We've actually begun some of the construction on some key components in downtown. It's very exciting, but there are some hurdles. Some issues that need to be worked out with respect to the mitigation at the University of Minnesota that at this point is probably the largest impediment to getting funding from the federal government. The second piece of it is the challenges of making sure the business community that exists along University Avenue is protected and the steps that we take enhance the quality of the businesses and don't detract from that. And some challenges and some hurdles that need to be overcome, but it's an incredible opportunity. It only gets more expensive the longer you wait. So any suggestion that St. Paul is not ready for a first class transportation network just misses the point.

Q:I have one question about light rail and I think your opponent raised it the other night, which is we a set of rails just to the north of the corridor we're going to be running the light rail on University Avenue. Is anybody seriously looking at that corridor instead of taking University Avenue? If not, why not?

Coleman: Well, there's some 30 years of looking at various options. We looked at in the past Burlington Northern-Pierce Butler line which I think is what the references was to....

Q:Right

Coleman: We've looked at the 94 avenue corridor. And when you mention those decisions there are a couple factors that are critical. First of all, what's the ridership going to be? It doesn't help you to have a line going through a place where no one lives and no one can live. and so the Pierce-Butler or the Burlington Northern corridor really wouldn't serve very many folks. And the 94 corridor really doesn't have the ability to impact economic development and other opportunities like the University Avenue line . So this is really... everyone can second guess. But 30 years of studying and discussion about the alignment of this line have made it very clear that the University alignment is the best way to go.

Q:And one last question here about the Governor's race before we let you go. Do you have any words of advice to the remaining candidates in the DFL race on what they should do?

Coleman: The one thing that I had an opportunity to do is to get to know even better the folks that are running and considering running. I have tremendous respect for them and at the end of the day just got to run hard and they got to give it their all. They got to give 110 percent to this thing because you can't... it doesn't do any good to do it 90 percent of the way, you got to do it 100 percent of the way. And you got to be able to unify folks at the end of the day. So I would hope that people would go and fight hard for the endorsement and at end of the day honor that process. The DFL is ... sometimes we like to get in circular firing squads and I think that would be a tremendous mistake because the state can't afford another four years of the philosophy that's governed for the last eight.

Yup, Margaret Anderson Kelliher Is From The Country

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2409/
Description:

Critics of Minnesota House Speaker and candidate for Governor Margaret Anderson Kelliher have accused her of being "urban". She may live in the metro area now, but she had deep farm roots. At the Anderson family farm in southern Minnesota, she is challenged by The UpTake's Grace Kelly (also a former farm girl) to drive a tractor.

By Grace Kelly

Margaret Anderson Kelliher grew up on a dairy farm near Mankato. The Anderson family farm is now a crop farm, growing corn and soy beans. While waiting to do this video, I hung out in a potluck, meeting the family. I had the fine pleasure of meeting Elaine Anderson, who I did not realize was Margaret's mom until later. We swapped farm stories, in the way that farm folk do. The difficult economics of making farms pay is something every farmer knows, while outsiders rarely understand. On a dairy farm, you cannot lay off the cows when the milk prices fall low. And this is a time of very low dairy prices!

In every farm family I have ever known, both the women and the men do everything. Gender makes no difference when there is work to be done. And on the farm, all kids start doing work as soon as they can walk. When I was young, my male cousins would attempt to show me up as the skinny farm girl. My dad would not let me set the male cousins up with the "easy" cow to milk or such gags. But sometimes, the cousins would take on the challenge of seven guys piling hay bales from one skinny farm girl unloading hay bales. It was an easy challenge for me to win!

Margaret Anderson Kelliher formally announced this week that she is running for Governor of Minnesota from the family farm. The Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton had the audacity to call it a "Mankato makeover". I don't think that Tony Sutton believes that women farm! In fact, the GOP tries to paint House Speaker Margaret Anderson-Kelliher as an "urban liberal", even when Margaret Anderson-Kelliher is in the celebrity milking challenge. The Anderson family farm is still operating and could some extra harvesting help in two weeks. Maybe Tony Sutton would like to volunteer, chuckle.

I am so old that when I grew up, the tractors were small! Margaret Anderson Kelliher and I had fun making this video, right after her announcement.

MN GOP Gubernatorial Candidates' Forum.

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2383/
Description:

Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul MN, Sept 7th 2009.

The Minnesota Republican Party holds a forum for gubernatorial hopefuls seeking the party endorsement. Watch as Rep. Tom Emmer, Rep. Marty Seifert, Rep. Paul Kohls, Sen. Mike Jungbauer, Sen David Hann, Pat Anderson, Leslie Davis, and Phil Herwig share their views on a series of questions posed by MN GOP deputy chair Michael Brodkorb.

Video by Christian Torkelson

Anderson Disses Seifert's Leadership, Effectiveness

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2378/
Description:

Former State Auditor Pat Anderson doesn't think much of Former Minority Leader Marty Seifert's leadership experience. Both are Republican candidates for Minnesota Governor and will be debating with seven other candidates at the State Fair on Monday.

Anderson says Seifert's job as Minority leader was to "just uphold vetos", and work with a small number of legislators. She says that's different that being responsible for results and getting things done. She says her experience of running a state agency makes her more qualified to be Governor.

Anderson spoke with The UpTake at the Minnesota Republican booth at the State Fair on Sunday. You can watch the Republican Governor candidates debate live on Monday starting at 1pm CT at www.theuptake.org

DFLers Debate For Governor -Full Debate Video

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2372/
Description:

Seven of the nine declared candidates for the DFL endorsement for Governor debate at the Minnesota State Fair. Shown sitting from left to right are fromer state Senator Steve Kelley, Representative Paul Thissen, Senator Tom Bakk, former US Senator Mark Dayton, Representative Tom Rukavina, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, former state Representative Matt Entenza. Not present because of scheduling conflicts were Minnesota Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher and state Senator John Marty. The debate was organized by The UpTake and AM 950 KTNF.

Hosts were Mike McIntee and Mark Heaney.

Video by Christian Torkelson and Matt Johnson

Rybak Says He Is "Very Likely" To Run For Governor

Movie: http://UpTake-Editorial.groups.theuptake.org/rss/videogalleryView/id/2297/
Description:

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak told Democrats in Eagan that he is "very likely" to enter the race for Minnesota Governor. Rybak who is also running for reelection as Mayor this fall has often said he is concentrating on his reelection bid, but his actions the last two days indicate he is looking past this fall and to the 2010 Governor's race.

Beyond telling Democrats that he is very likely to run, Rybak sent an email out today that was very critical of Governor Pawlenty. In it Rybak said:

"My job as Mayor of Minneapolis is keeping me pretty busy, as you might imagine. Even with the Bush recession and the Pawlenty budget crisis, we’re making Minneapolis a safe place to call home, with crime at its lowest level in decades; we’re creating jobs and opportunity in every community; we’re building great places to strengthen our quality of life, and we’re planning for our children’s future so the city will be even greater for the next generation.

"But it’s clear that I can’t let Governor Pawlenty’s version of events go unchallenged. I’ll continue speaking out about what his failed priorities have meant for Minnesota, and setting out an alternative, proven vision based on our accomplishments in Minneapolis."

Governor Pawlenty announced earlier this year that he is not running for reelection leading many people in the DFL and the GOP to enter the race. Coincidently, Rybak made his remarks in Pawlenty's home town of Eagan. Pawlenty served as the area's Representative before running for Governor. Last year, the legislative seat he held was recaptured by the DFL.

Technical note: If you wish to embed this video, please obtain the embed code from this page.