One of the kittehs knocked half a cup of coffee into our ex-keyboard, so posting has been delayed today. As readers can see, Oscar gets a little jumpy sometimes.
The St.Paul Legal Ledger reports the Wellstone legacy lives on in the election of Camp Wellstone graduates like Tim Walz. Rochester area organizers will be recognized for their successes, according to TakeAction Minnesota Announces 2008 Progressive Leadership Awards:
Leaders and organizations from throughout Minnesota will gather on December 6 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul to honor the Transit Partners Coalition and the Progressive Movement of Rochester with the 2008 Progressive Leadership Awards. Sponsored by TakeAction Minnesota, the dinner celebrates the accomplishments of these organizations as well as the collective contributions of the leaders and organizations supporting progressive ideas in Minnesota.
. . .In the last six years, politics in Rochester has been undergoing a sea change. After more than 30 years of Republican dominance, in 2004 Rochester elected State Representatives Tina Liebling and Andy Welti. They expanded the Democratic delegation in 2006 with the election of State Representative Kim Norton, State Senator Ann Lynch and, in a surprise win, Congressman Tim Walz. Expanded margins of victory in 2008 races proved these elections were not a fluke.
These successes are the most visible result of years of organizing work. The city has a longstanding, committed and politically engaged community of peace activists, progressive leadership in the Somali community, a solid history of environmental wins, sustainable development advocates in Livable Rochester, and recent state leadership on a county-based purchasing health care reform initiative. Many individuals and organizations deserve credit for these remarkable achievements, including AFL-CIO Southwest Area Labor Council, AFSCME Council 5, Coalition for Economic Opportunity, ECCO: Earth Community Coalition of Olmstead County, Livable Rochester, Olmsted County Based Purchasing Effort, Olmstead County DFL, SEIU Healthcare MN, South East Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers and UNITE HERE Local 21. Together they have transformed a city that progressives all but deserted just a few years ago.
“Our recent wins come after years of work” said Abdifatah Abdinur, an organizer and leader Rochester’s Somali Community. “People knocked on a lot of doors and organized a lot of meetings to get us where we are today. That people kept pushing, even when the outcome was uncertain, says something about people’s commitment to each other.”
MPR reports that Kids also voted, and they favored Obama, Franken and Tim Walz in mock elections.
The Fairmont Sentinel notes in Counties readying for Senate recount:
Auditors from Martin and Faribault counties don't anticipate the numbers will change much from the original count on Nov. 4, election night.
"There's a chance we might see a little difference because of how people marked them, but I cannot imagine there will be a big difference," said Martin County auditor James Forshee.
The reason the tallies have changed so much since election day - with Coleman's lead narrowing by several hundred - is in part due to absentee votes that were still being counted after Nov. 4 in larger precincts, according to Forshee.
In Martin County, Forshee himself delivered all 970 absentee ballots to the appropriate precincts on election night, and the judges ran them through the voting machines, so they were processed the same day. . . .
. . .This is Thompson's first recount of this magnitude, though he has had to recount ballots for local elections. The same is true of Forshee. The most significant recount prior to this was the one for his own election, back in 2002 when he ran against Jim Hallstrom. Forshee had a 13-vote lead prior to the recount. In the end, he won by five votes.
"Every vote does count," he said.
In Winona, the Daily News says Local election officials on the front lines of recount of 2.9 million votes in Senate race It concludes:
. . .[Winona County Auditor Cherie] MacLennan said her office changed the Winona County vote total on Nov. 5 after discovering four uncounted absentee ballots: two cast for Franken and two for Coleman. Franken topped Coleman by 12,755 votes to 11,316 votes in Winona County, or 46.8 percent to 41.6 percent.
MacLennan said Winona County officials haven’t participated in a recount since 1990, when Democratic state Sen. Steve Morse beat Republican challenger Greg Abnet by 113 votes.
The Jackson County Pilot looks at The War on Ethanol, Part 1. Interesting article, told from the perspective of a small town weekly.
This YouTube excerpt from Renaldo and Clara is dedicated to Oscar:
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