In yet another sign that the MN-01 race is hot, the Pioneer Press notes that Laura Bush will be coming to Rochester to woo voters back to Gutknecht. Nothing like showing how close Gil is to the President twice in one day:
First lady Laura Bush will drop in next week to help Republicans
Michele Bachmann and Rep. Gil Gutknecht in Minnesota's hottest
congressional races.
The first lady is the star attraction at an Oct. 25 breakfast
fundraiser for Bachmann, according to an invitation to the event
obtained by The Associated Press.
Later that day, Gutknecht will introduce Bush at a speech at
Rochester's Mayo Civic Center, campaign spokesman Bryan Anderson said
Tuesday.
Tarah Donoghue, a deputy spokeswoman for the first lady, wouldn't
confirm the Minnesota appearances. Neither would Bachmann's campaign
manager, Andy Parrish.
The Bachmann breakfast will take place at the Marriott Minneapolis
Southwest in Minnetonka, according to the invitation. The reception
costs $500 per person; photographs with Bush are going for $2,100 per
person. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and GOP Reps. Gil Gutknecht, John
Kline, Jim Ramstad and Mark Kennedy and their wives are listed as the
hosts.
The White House has been eager to help Bachmann keep the open 6th
District seat in GOP hands. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney,
top adviser Karl Rove and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have all helped
Bachmann, who trails Democrat Patty Wetterling in campaign cash.
In southern Minnesota's 1st District, Gutknecht faces Democrat Tim Walz in another potentially competitive race.
It's another Tuesday morning on the prairie. Looks like more duck hunting weather this afternoon and tomorrow, so grab your decoys and favorite bird dog and head to a favorite marsh. We'll watch the web for low-flying news while you savor the perfume of duckweed, a wet lab and spent gunpowder. Let's see what we've called in so far this morning.
WINONA DAILY NEWS: KEILLOR DRAWS CROWD AT DFL EVENT One good draw among Minnesotans is an evening of music and Garrison Keillor. Last night was no exception, the WDN's Tony Borreson reports:
Carl Erwin cannot vote in
Minnesota, but he came to a Winona County DFL rally Thursday night
anyway.
The
main draw for Erwin and many others at Winona State University’s Somsen
Hall Auditorium was Garrison Keillor, Minnesota-born entertainer and
supporter of the Democratic Party.
Erwin, a Democrat from Alma,
Wis., said he attended the rally partly to help fill the auditorium and
show his support for the party through the $15 admission price, and
partly to hear Keillor’s folksy, yet accessible brand of storytelling.
“He can present people, present a story, present a thought and put it in all terms,” said Erwin.
Erwin got just what he was expecting out of Keillor.
Keillor,
wearing a dark suit with red tennis shoes, told the audience about the
pleasant and friendly Texans, who shake a stranger’s hand and call them
“darling” or “sunshine” before getting to know them.
“How do
these wonderful people elect some of the most regressive politicians,”
he asked the crowd, eliciting a roar of laughter and applause.
Keillor
mused on his youth in Minnesota, where he said, “Nature, two or three
times a year, is going to make a serious attempt to kill us.”
As
Keillor continued his stories of gargantuan icicles and the adventures
of getting to school in the impossibly deep snow, he said, “Life was
struggle. Life was difficult.”
And it still is, he said. “My fellow democrats, do we not know this?”
Moving
away from times past when life had a certain innocence, Keillor spoke
about America’s current culture of fear, a culture in which even the
old wives of soybean farmers have to take off their shoes at an airport
security check.
“For what,” he asked. “For toe bombs?”
America’s current government, with Republicans in the majority, commits atrocities. He wants to see change, Keillor said.
Standing
in front of a row of state and federal candidates that included Sharon
Ropes, Gene Pelowski and Tim Walz, and a sign that read, “Vote
Democratic and everybody wins,” Keillor announced, “I look forward to
the day this will be corrected, and I believe that will be next year.”
AP: REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE TO RUN ADS IN MN-01 It's a good thing DFLers are flocking to fundraisers. Forbes runs an Associated Press article by Jim Kuhnhenn about fundraising and spending in competitive races. In the sunny account of Democratic senate fundraising, we flush out this item, grim as an Armistice Day blizzard:
In the struggle for control of the House, the
Republican campaign committee signaled it intends to begin airing
television commercials in GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht's re-election race in
Minnesota, a campaign not previously viewed as competitive.
Ah yes, that passive voice, "not previously viewed" that provides cover for those who weren't paying attention to the contest.
WINONA DAILY NEWS: STOP CONGRESSIONAL GIVEAWAYS Letter writer William Harris draws a bead on another target: a Republican congress that will not control spending in "Stop Congressional Giveways":
Recent news focuses on the party that has been going on in Washington
and the scandals of lobbyists paying off congressmen and the
congressmen chasing young pages up and down the aisles. But the real
issue for the upcoming election is the spending by those congressmen
with the goal of bankrupting our country.
The
national debt has risen from $5.7 trillion in 2000 to $8.5 trillion at
the present time, and it is rising hourly at an unprecedented rate. The
previous administration had reversed this trend, actually posting
surpluses in 1998 and 1999 ($69 billion and $124 billion respectively).
This was immediately changed by the Bush administration with the
support of Congress, which is now running deficits of $230 billion per
year.
The war and Katrina have been used as excuses, but they
mask the transfer of our nation’s wealth to the richest citizens and
corporations through selective tax cuts and no-bid contracts. The Bush
administration and Congress gave $630 billion in tax cuts to the top
one percent of earners in our country. It gave countless billions to
defense contractors, oil companies and other corporate sponsors who
have record earnings in the process, with no benefit returning to the
citizens of this country.
Harry Truman famously said “war
profiteering is a crime.” This administration has turned it into a
policy and added disaster relief as well. The policy is to bankrupt the
federal government, to leave it at the mercy of large corporations that
hold the debt. Ultraconservatives have long wanted to do away with
Social Security; the increasing national debt can achieve that.
We
need to fight this policy. America’s strength lies in a broad base,
open-market economy, with a strong middle class and small business
base. To achieve this, we need to invest in education, effective social
programs and defense. We need to stop the giveaway of our national
wealth that is the current administration’s policy. Please support
candidates who will do that.
Give to Tim Walz directly or via the ActBlue Netroots Candidate page. Contributions at the latter have topped $27,000. WORTHINGTON DAILY GLOBE: DEMOCRATS NEED SUPPORT ON NOV. 7 This piece in the opinion section of the online version of the Worthington Globe isn't signed, but we think it's an LTE, rather than an editorial. We check back later to see whether an author has been added:
It’s bad enough that we have been in Iraq for several years, that
thousands of our brave soldiers have been wounded, and over 2700 killed.
It’s
bad enough that recent leaked intelligence estimates show that we are
creating terrorists in Iraq at an alarming rate and making ourselves
and the world less safe.
It’s bad enough that we now live in a
country that has embraced warrantless wiretaps, has rejected rights of
habeus corpus and the Geneva Conventions, and has endorsed torture.
It’s bad enough that the Bush/Republican administration lied and misled us into this war.
It’s bad enough that our national debt is skyrocketing under the Bush/Republican leadership.
It’s bad enough that this Republican leadership tried to privatize Social Security.
It’s bad enough that at almost every turn, this Republican leadership has been inept at best and corrupt at worst.
It
is a fact that we have two more years of President Bush. But what if he
still has a Republican Congress and there is no one to hold him in
check? Two more years of a war in Iraq with no exit strategy. A war
with Iran or Syria. Increased anger and distrust of the U.S. all over
the world. Increased debt to hand down to our children and
grandchildren. More assaults on our Constitution. Privatization of
Social Security. Rep. Gil Gutknecht has supported President Bush at
every turn. In the November election it is essential that we vote for
the Democrat, Tim Walz. In fact, vote for all the Democrats. It is our
only hope.
NEW ULM JOURNAL: LET THE BOA FLY The rumpus in New Ulm? Let the editorial board of the Journal frame the issue for you:
Forget the Congressional Page scandals, the wall along the Mexican
border and North Korean nuclear test. The real controversy in New Ulm
this past week seems to be whether to let the statue of Hermann the
German be draped with a red boa for a weekend. [read more]
More news and netroots later as our schedule permits.
It's always hard to tell in politics whether someone's with you until they are under pressure. The candidates I'm watching are progressive under pressure, and include Eric Massa, Jerry McNerney, Larry Kissell, Darcy Burner, Tim Walz, Paul Hodes, Coleen Rowley, Charlie Brown, Chris Carney, Jay Fawcett, Bill Winter, Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy, and John Hall. These are the people who will have the progressive and stubborn streak to push for aggressive change. Why? Because that's what they are doing, today, in their campaigns.
The Pioneer Press reports this morning that Walz once more raised more money in the post-primary period dictated by the FEC:
In Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, meanwhile, Rep. Gil
Gutknecht, a Republican, had $790,000 in the bank and had raised
$208,000 in the last reporting period. Democratic challenger Tim Walz
had $289,000 in the bank, after raising $213,237 in the period.
Gutknecht entered the year with a large cash cushion, but Walz has reduced that advantage considerably. If the incumbent's cash on hand balance troubles you, give to Tim Walz via ActBlue.
Media is a bargain in this district of rural and small metropolitan cities, so every dollar goes a long way to helping get Tim Walz's message out.
OLLIE OX UPDATE: Thanks for the correction, Dr. Hailperin. I have changed both items.
Yesterday, we wrote about a Washington post article in which Gil Gutknecht was cited as taking aim against lobbyists--this time his old House colleague, former DM &E lobbyist and current South Dakota Senator John Thune. We wrote:
There's something about the Washington press corp that likes to give
Gil Gutknecht cover. Witness today's puff piece by the Strib's
Washington Bureau, now this item in Jeffrey Birnbaum's article, "Candidates Taking Aim at Lobbyists:"
In Minnesota, both candidates for a House seat have expressed
queasiness about the lobbying that was done by a railroad to secure
federal loans, including help it received from Sen. John Thune
(R-S.D.). During the two years before his election to the Senate in
2004, Thune was paid $220,000 to lobby for the Dakota, Minnesota &
Eastern Railroad. As a senator, he proudly championed the railroad's
effort to expand a federal program so that it could be eligible for a
record $2.3 billion loan to assist its expansion in Minnesota.
In
the district that includes Rochester, Minn., Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R)
said he is "troubled" by the process that led to the law's change and
intends to negotiate the best deal he can for his constituents. His
Democratic challenger, Tim Walz, said he wants the law rescinded and
has made his opposition a focus of his campaign.
"Lobbyists are
writing the legislation that's going through," he charged. "This is a
breakdown of government in general, and the people are appalled."
Somehow we and Birnbaum both overlooked this coverage in the New Ulm Journal:
First District Congressman Gil Gutknecht promoted federal approval of a
$2.3 billion loan for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and
discussed other issues Friday during a campaign whistlestop at Ruby’s
Heritage House.
Alright then.
We were also astonished yesterday by Kevin Diaz's article in the Strib, especially this passage from Diaz's article:
Political analysts differ as to whether Gutknecht, who ran for
office as "the Minnesota equivalent of Newt Gingrich," has anything to
worry about in a year of Republican angst.
The Rothenberg
Political Report says the race "doesn't look particularly competitive,"
while National Journal's Hotline rates it in the top 50, reflecting a
national shift toward Democrats.
Nowadays, Gutknecht is more
likely to be heard talking about his populist "Teddy Roosevelt
Republican" tendencies than about Gingrich, who suffered a messy fall
from power.
Since Gutknecht brings Gingrich in to fundraise in Rochester, he probably finds it hard to create any distance from the disgraced leader in that area. Looking around yesterday, we discovered an example of Gutknecht's summoning the spirit of TR, in a place far from Rochester.
The audience? Fourth-grade students in Windom, according to the Worthington Daily Globe. Using the power of incumbency, Gutknecht appeared at the dedication of a walking trail at a wetlands center. According to the WDG:
Gutknecht spoke of Teddy Roosevelt and his efforts to preserve nature.
“It is a big part of the inheritance we all share,” he added. “This is one more step on a long path.”
Speaking
directly to the fourth-graders, Gutknecht told them how important it is
for young people to adopt the habit of taking care of nature.
“We need to preserve nature so people can enjoy this for another 10,000 years,” he said.
Unfortunately, Gutknecht's environmental voting record in the House is another matter. As Leigh Pomeroy reported on October 11:
In a just released 2006 National Environmental Scorecard by the League
of Conservation Voters (LCV), Minnesota 1st District Rep. Gil Gutknecht
earned the lowest rating of Minnesota's congressional delegation.
Gutknecht's rating puts him in the same category as other members of
Congress who have earned a zero, including House Majority Leader John
Boehner . . .
Our Sunday morning Bible studies took longer than anticipated, so we're writing up our review of the news and netroots a little late today. There's something about reading Amos that gives a person cause to reflect.
WASHINGTON POST: THUNE DEAL AN ISSUE IN MN-01 There's something about the Washington press corp that likes to give Gil Gutknecht cover. Witness today's puff piece by the Strib's Washington Bureau, now this item in Jeffrey Birnbaum's article, "Candidates Taking Aim at Lobbyists:"
In Minnesota, both candidates for a House seat have expressed
queasiness about the lobbying that was done by a railroad to secure
federal loans, including help it received from Sen. John Thune
(R-S.D.). During the two years before his election to the Senate in
2004, Thune was paid $220,000 to lobby for the Dakota, Minnesota &
Eastern Railroad. As a senator, he proudly championed the railroad's
effort to expand a federal program so that it could be eligible for a
record $2.3 billion loan to assist its expansion in Minnesota.
In
the district that includes Rochester, Minn., Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R)
said he is "troubled" by the process that led to the law's change and
intends to negotiate the best deal he can for his constituents. His
Democratic challenger, Tim Walz, said he wants the law rescinded and
has made his opposition a focus of his campaign.
"Lobbyists are
writing the legislation that's going through," he charged. "This is a
breakdown of government in general, and the people are appalled."
Uh, Jeff? Gutknecht has only recentlychanged his tune on this one. This video--constructed from the Rochester debate--is a fairly good indication of how Gutknecht's passivity on this issues has been received:
MINNESOTA CENTRAL: MONEY MAKES THE MAN Speaking of lobbying et al, McPherson Hall at Minnesota Central does a little digging into elected officials' financial
disclosure forms posted at Open Secrets and turns up some items of
interest for Gil Gutknecht (we've divided the post into more
net-friendly blocks for our readers' comfort:
. . .when I checked Gil Gutknecht’s form, I have some concerns. He does
invest directly in companies. His largest holdings are in BellSouth and
Fastenal. Both of these companies are Fortune 500 companies.
[snip]
BellSouth
is a name that most would know since it was created by the government
break-up of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. With Gutknecht's
stock investment value at over $50,000, this IS a
concern. Historically, investing in telephone companies was considered
a safe investment for retirement, but with today’s everchanging
technologies, that is not the same environment.
Most troubling is that
Gutknecht is the Telecommunications Task Force Co-Chairman. In his June
23, 2006 eline, he trumpeted the House passage of HR 5252 which changes
the rules of how the Internet operates and allows telephone companies
to charge fees and determine what information is made available.
Despiteappeals by such groups as Christian Coalition of America and
Gun Owners of America, Gutknecht listened to the telecommunications
industry and the reaction from the telecommunications industry was
quick. BellSouth immediately announced a change in policy to charge
user fees, even though the bill had not been passed by the Senate.
Reaction from customers was swift and on August 25, it rescinded the
user fee charge … but the point is that BellSouth tried, and who knows
if the Senate had passed the bill, if they would have rescinded the fee
charge.
Additionally, BellSouth Corp through their Political
Action Committee gave Gutknecht $1,000 for his 2006 primary campaign. . . .
ACTBLUE NETROOTS UPDATE So far, 1125 people have contributed $26,601.46 to Tim Walz via the ActBlue Netroots Candidate page. Other Actblue pages bring the total to over $30,000. Contribute if you can via ActBlue or directly to Walz's campaign.
Volunteers are also crucial to GOTV efforts. Sign up here.
THE NEXT DEBATE Since Gil dodged a LWV debate that would be widely televised, those wishing to see the two contenders in the Mankato area should attend Thursday night's debate. The Free Press reports:
And on Thursday, Debate Minnesota will be hosting the
only Mankato debate between Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht of
Rochester and Democratic challenger Tim Walz of Mankato. The 90-minute
debate starts at 7 p.m. in Meyer Hall Auditorium at Bethany Lutheran
College.
The Minnesota Broadcasters Association will tape another debate on October 24, according to the Walz web site. We will provide information as it becomes available.
TERM LIMITS: BROKEN PROMISES The Center for Media and Democracy and severalbloggers look at the Contract with America Class of 1994 who pledged to limit their term to twelve years but are running nonetheless. Trace the thread and most go back to this March 2006 article in CQ Politics, which doesn't include Gil Gutknecht on its list.
Later that month, David Biss at MyDD came up with personal pledge by Gutknecht in 1995. The article is available via Lexis-nexis, so no link. The subscription database notes that the AP article originated from the Rochester Post Bulletin:
U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, who has represented the 1st Congressional District for nearly a decade, is backing away from a pledge to leave office by 2006.
Gutknecht
came to office in 1994 as part of a Republican movement engineered by
then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and featured the Republican
Contract with America, which limited lawmakers to 12 years. The
proposal eventually died in the House.
It was in the immediate wake of that defeat that Gutknecht, who had resisted making a personal term limit pledge during his first campaign, said he would leave office by 2006.
"I will not serve more than 12 years," Gutknecht was quoted in March 1995.
But this week, Gutknecht released a statement suggesting that he was keeping his options open, leaving it to the people to decide his fate.
"I support term limits. But, interest in this reform has waned and probably won't pass. The question is, should I impose term limits
unilaterally? That is a different question than the one asked 10 years
ago, when I believed that they would pass and be universally applied," Gutknecht said in a statement.
"This seat does not belong to me. The voters own the seniority that we have accrued. Imposing term limits unilaterally ultimately hurts the people in their ability to have their voices heard." . . .
We're rather agnostic about term limits ourselves. It's an issue for Gutknecht because he made the promise. The need to erase ready knowledge of the broken pledge was at the heart of his staff's Wikipedia tweaking.
Gutknecht seems to have a prospensity for revising history, as illustrated in the latest Kevin Diaz puff piece. He got "elected as the "Minnesota version of Newt Gingrich" but now distances himself from Gingrich to the reporter---but brings Gingrich in to fundraise for him.
Nice work if you can get it.
NORWEGIANITY: UNGRATEFUL GUTKNECHT SNUBS GINGRICH The Wege points out that Gutknecht not only spins the past in his story-telling sessions with Strib Washington reporter Kevin Diaz, but erases Newt Gingrich from recent snapshots of the campaign:
Sloppy reporting from Kevin Diaz who writes about Gutknecht in the Strib today.
Nowadays, Gutknecht is more likely to be heard talking
about his populist "Teddy Roosevelt Republican" tendencies than about
Gingrich, who suffered a messy fall from power.
Uh, Kevin? Gingrich came to the 1st in September to campaign for Gil.
If Gutknecht's not talking about Gingrich now, that's pretty damned
ungrateful, not to mention how lazy you were to run that spoon-fed
quote without having even looked at Gil's recent campaign schedule.
Stalin-era Pravda would be proud. We wish we had thought of that angle.
INDEPENDENCE PARTY WRITE-IN IN THE 1st? Leigh Pomeroy at Vox Verax/Minnesota Monitor looks at the squib in Saturday's Mankato Free Press about an Independence Party write-in candidate in the First. Pomeroy wonders aloud whether Williams will prove to be a spoiler in the race, and observes:
So far, the most prominent IPer in the 1st CD, Tim Penny, has remained mum on the race. Will he come out and endorse a candidate? It's anyone's guess.
Robert von Sternberg's Tim Walz article in today's Strib provides a sliver of a clue (which matches up to rumors we had heard):
The UAW members were impressed by what they heard. "This guy reminds
me of 1984 and another guy named Tim," said union representative Gary
Muenzhuber, referring to Tim Penny, who held the First District seat
for a decade.
Walz replied: "When Garrison Keillor came to one of
my rallies, he said the only way to describe me is Tim Penny with a
sense of humor." Walz said he has conferred with Penny on his campaign
and got this advice: "You're a master teacher and can see the nuances
of issues. In a campaign, you've got to move away from nuances."
We're not going to pretend that's an endorsement. Should Tim Penny wish to endorse in this race, the former congressman will do so on his own terms.
But Williams a spoiler as a write in? We highly doubt it. Even the Independence Party has yet to post him on its candidates page as we write this Sunday afternoon.
The Brave New Theater project is showing Robert Greenwald's "Iraq for Sale" for free in Austin on Tuesday night. The headline for the event proclaims: "Elect Tim Walz to Congress to halt war profiteers."
Here's the info from the website:
WHAT:Austin, Minnesota screening of Iraq for Sale WHEN:
Tuesday, October 17 2006 07:00 PM
TICKET PRICE: FREE, RSVP required below
Expect a
lively discussion to follow screening and organinzing to turn outrage
about war profiteering into political action over two short weeks
leading to a close election of a war veteran to the US Congress in our
swing district, where every vote really counts!
WHERE:
Austin Public Library Conference Room
323 4th Avenue NE Austin, Minnesota 55912 Map & Driving Directions
DIRECTIONS:
off Main Street, past Paramount, across from Labor Center, parking
leads into entrance, turn left for conference room w/ TV & kitchen
for refreshments
The notice says that the event is hosted by John Kerry. I've emailed one of the contacts to see if those duties are performed through the miracle of technology (likely).
More on Greenwald's movie at the official website. An article about Greenwald's producer and the Brave New Theater project is found at here on Alternet.
The Strib covers the race in the Fighting First in a pair of articles, which continue to ascribe interest in the race to "buzz."
Kevin "Dictaphone" Diaz dutifully records the latest take on the race by America's favorite Wikipedia-tweaking politician. To read Diaz's article, you'd think that Gutknecht never voted over 90% of the time with his party nor brought in GOP leadership to campaign for him.
Political analysts differ as to whether Gutknecht, who ran for
office as "the Minnesota equivalent of Newt Gingrich," has anything to
worry about in a year of Republican angst.
The Rothenberg
Political Report says the race "doesn't look particularly competitive,"
while National Journal's Hotline rates it in the top 50, reflecting a
national shift toward Democrats.
Nowadays, Gutknecht is more
likely to be heard talking about his populist "Teddy Roosevelt
Republican" tendencies than about Gingrich, who suffered a messy fall
from power.
GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht and DFL challenger Tim Walz
brought in a couple of political heavyweights on Sunday in the latest
sign that the U.S. congressional race is shaping up to be a dogfight.
Rep. John Murtha, a 16-term Pennsylvania Democrat and former
Marine, stumped for Walz during a political rally at the home of a
southwest Rochester couple. Meanwhile, former GOP Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich was the main attraction at a Gutknecht fundraiser in the
Radisson Hotel in downtown Rochester.
Their speeches and comments reflected the political divide over the
four-year-old Iraq war and its relationship to the war on terrorism.
They also underscored the issue's prominence in political races across
the country, including Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, where
the 12-year incumbent Gutknecht is fending off a challenge by political
newcomer Walz.
There's a companion article about Tim Walz by Bob von Sternberg. It's slightly longer than Diaz's article on Gutknecht, but that can be attributed to the lead and conclusion being handed over to Walz's daughter Hope. Von Sternberg's article is competent, if scattered. It is haunted by the same "Golly gee, how can this buzz be?" take that characterizes the Strib's coverage of Walz. Some passages:
Despite the advantage enjoyed by any incumbent, Walz, 42, has generated
enough buzz nationally that the race is considered competitive, if
still leaning Republican, by many organizations. A poll released last
week by Constituent Dynamics shows the race as a tossup with Gutknecht
at 48 percent to Walz's 47 percent.
[snip]
In a way, Walz is something of an accidental candidate. A Nebraska
native, he taught geography and coached football at Mankato West High
School for the past decade. He got his political initiation in 2004
when campaign aides for President Bush tried to keep him out of a
campaign event and tossed out two of his students.
"That got me
started," he said. "I called the party and asked what I could do for
Kerry's campaign," he said. "I took over Blue Earth County and the
campaign got me into the mechanics of it and made me think I could do
this. I was incredibly naive."
Chris Gilbert, a political science
professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., said, "By
all rights this race shouldn't be competitive, but it's being watched
nationally. It's more about the condition of the Republicans in general
than Gutknecht in particular. That could give the Democrats their best
chance since the late '90s. There's a glimmer of hope for them."
The
district isn't a deep red one, Gilbert said. "You've got two solid DFL
centers in Austin and Mankato, and Rochester is more DFL than it used
to be."
[snip]
Back at the pig roast on Diane Berge's farm just outside of Kasson,
hundreds of Walz supporters were mostly milling around, not talking
politics, while Walz performed an affable, somewhat self-conscious,
grip-and-grin routine among them.
"When you watch him campaign,
'polish' is not the word that comes to mind," Gilbert said. "But I'm
not sure polish is much of an asset in a year like 2006."
Diane Berge turned her farm over to the candidate after listening to him speak at a house party.
"He's
not a politician, and I like that," she said. "He's not afraid to try
changing things. He had my vote after I listened to him for 10 minutes.
I am fed up with this administration, this Congress, the whole thing in
Washington."
Von Sternberg at least allows Walz to deflate the "strong maverick streak" that Diaz puffs for Gutknecht:
Iraq could prove to be one of Walz's most potent issues, because
Gutknecht created a stir last summer when he said the situation there
was worse than he had believed and called for troop withdrawals.
"I
decided to stay away from that issue at first, to see if he had really
changed his mind," Walz said. "But he ran right back to the president."
Via one of the e-lists we're on, we received news of this event, sponsored by the Winona County DFL:
Czechomor & Garrison Keiller
Monday @ 7 p.m. $15 at door
WSU’s Somsen Auditorium
Winona
Pre-event dinner/reception
Lake Lodge from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.
Several tickets are still available at the DFL office, 685 West 5th Street, Winona.
Breaking
News: The internationally acclaimed band “Czechomor” will join
Garrison Keillor on Monday. Czechomor played to a packed house at
the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts only last weekend! The
performance will start at 7:00 pm sharp, at WSU’s Somsen Auditorium.
Tickets are only $15 and are available at the door.
Not
only will Garrison regale his audience with stories of Lake Wobegon and his
thoughts on the politics of the day, but they'’ll be treated to the
inspiring music of this outstanding group.
The winner of
four Czech Music Academy Awards (the Czech version of the Grammy),
Czechomor’s music is rooted in Moravian village music. The band’s
unique mélange of traditional folk mixed with Ottoman dissonance, Gypsy
czardas, Napoleonic mustering dances and Celtic rhythms have succeeded
in winning over young and old alike, with over 200,000 albums sold.
As ex-president Václav Havel’s favorite
ensemble, Czechomor has entertained celebrity audiences at charity
concerts across the European continent, including the Royal Albert Hall
in London. See www.czechomorustour.com
The
opportunity remains to rub elbows with Garrison Keillor at the
pre-event dinner/reception, Lake Lodge from 5:00 to 6:30 pm. Several
tickets are still available at the DFL office, 685 West 5th Street,
Winona.
MANKATO— The
attack ads are flying in the 1st District congressional race, and both
the Tim Walz and Gil Gutknecht campaigns are complaining.
Gutknecht and COLAs
The
primary complaint from the campaign of Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht
revolves around the assertion — made by a pair of Walz-sponsored ads —
that Gutknecht voted to raise his own pay while opposing an increase in
the minimum wage and a bonus for troops fighting oversees.
A look at the congressional record shows Walz is closer to the truth than Anderson.
When
efforts were made to halt the automatic pay raises in each of the past
two congressional sessions, Gutknecht opposed those efforts, according
to the congressional vote-tracking organization Roll Call. Gutknecht
voted on June 13, 2006, and June 28, 2005, to allow the cost of living
adjustments for members of Congress to take affect when he joined a
majority of other lawmakers in killing the pay-freeze effort.
The
only members of the Minnesota delegation who supported the effort to
block the pay raises each year were Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and
Collin Peterson and Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy. Republican Rep. Jim
Ramstad opposed one and supported the other.
Anderson insists that
voting to stymie efforts to block an automatic pay raise isn’t the same
as a voting for a pay raise, even if the result — bigger paychecks for
members of Congress — is the same.
The most recent increase will put rank-and-file members of the House at an annual salary of $168,500 starting Jan. 1.
The
Walz campaign is alleging that two statements in the latest Gutknecht
attack ad are false. The first involves the statement in the ad “Tim
Walz says increasing border security is a waste of money.”
The Walz
campaign sent out a written response to the ad that states Walz told
Gutknecht at a Rochester debate that he supports border security.
The
Gutknecht campaign ad lists a Pipestone County Star opinion piece Walz
wrote as proof of the accuracy of the characterization. Walz wrote in
that piece that immigration issues need to be addressed with broader
solutions than simple border security, and compared Republican efforts
to the construction of the Great Wall of China.
“Dumping money into
border enforcement is the American equivalent of building a wall,” he
wrote, “and I won’t stand by while taxpayers’ dollars are wasted on a
solution we already know doesn’t work.”
So if Gutknecht’s ad said
“Tim Walz wrote...” instead of “Tim Walz says ...”, it would be an
accurate — although incomplete — summary of what Walz wrote in the
Pipestone newspaper.
The Walz campaign’s
second complaint from the ad involves the accusation “Tim Walz supports
a plan to give amnesty to 11 million illegals already here.” It cites a
July 6 New Ulm Journal story.
“Rep. Gutknecht’s statements about my
position are completely false,” Walz stated in the response to the ad.
“He knows that they are false because he has sat beside me at debates
and heard me advocate for stronger border security and against amnesty.”
The
New Ulm Journal story cited by the Gutknecht ad doesn’t seem to support
the allegation that Walz supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. Walz
is directly quoted in the story saying he would support allowing
illegal immigrants “to get in line for citizenship, but only after
returning to their country of origin.”
Amnesty in the illegal
immigration debate generally involves plans to allow certain
undocumented workers to become legal and work toward citizenship if
they pay back taxes and meet other conditions.
Walz’ approach as
described in the Journal story — forcing them to return to their own
country — doesn’t seem to mesh with the statement in the Gutknecht ad.
The accuracy count? Walz 1 for 1; Gutknecht, minus 1.5 for 2.
