Thoughts about the MN Independence Party

The State Canvassing Board has confirmed the vote totals and the recount officially starts on Monday.

No word yet on whether the Board denied Emmer's request.

Exactly what the Minnesota Supreme Court refused to do.

FROM MPR
Now, attorneys for Republican Tom Emmer are expected to ask the five member State Canvassing Board to do what the Supreme Court didn't -- require local
elections officials to match up the number of ballots cast with the number of voters who signed in on Election Day.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Canvasing Board will decline Mr. Emmer's request as well, call it hunch.

It appears as if the GOP is on a delaying tactic at this moment.

In a very quick decision the Minnesota Supreme Court refused to intervene on Tom Emmer and the GOP behalf on the grounds of "over votes". A full decision will be released at a later date.

From MPR

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled late this afternoon that it would not intervene the likely recount of the votes in the state's still-undecided governor's race. Republican Tom Emmer had asked the court to force county elections officials to reconcile the number of ballots cast on November second with the signatures of people as they signed in to vote. The court heard arguments on the issue earlier this afternoon and issued its decision denying Emmer's petition just a few minutes ago.

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Read the MPR report here



Before the details are released it appears teh GOP is suing to get "excess" ballots removed from precincts where more ballots were cast then people registered.

More Details to follow

Governor 1

You can read the full article here.

I will be adding some comments in a little later after I have had time to digest the entire thing.

Link

For those of you who don't regularly listen to MPR this is a great interview with Tom Horner with really a honest conversation rather than the bigger spin you normally get with candidates. (That doesn't mean there isn't spin but rather a candid discussion).

Multiple News sources are reportingthat the Obama administration is seeking return on Stimulus money "earmarked" for high speed rail project; some of the money could already have been spent.

In some post-election hardball between the Obama administration and
newly-elected Republicans, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is threatening to
take back stimulus funds from states if they do not follow through on proposed
rail projects.

As a supporter of High Speed rail, I chuckled, because if the incoming Republican Governors in Wi and Ohio didn't see this coming.

Add to it that the Obama administration is asking New Jersey for the $300 million it already spent on the ARC Tunnel Project, it looking like this is going to be rough going for the incoming class.

The Pioneer Press and Dispatch posted a story by Steven Thomma about the Conservative and Moderate Democrats being ousted in the Mid-Term Elections.

In Minnesota Politics we saw the same thing; here in Woodbury ousted Moderate Democrats Marsha Swails and Kathy Saltzman typify what was the Republican Game Plan in the elections.

Without these Moderates or Conservative Democrats I have wondered how the Republicans can even imagine working across the aisle, and without the ability to work across the aisle, will this just be a two year blip? Where the Conservative Republicans just elected get ousted in Two Years because they will now be the source of Grid-Lock. If Dayton and Obama look at what Clinton did during his administration and take on his triangulation method. It will be either a very short or long two years for the Republicans.

From the Blog "Old and in the Way" a discussion about throwing away your votes.

Except Tom Emmer. Tom Emmer, in contrast, is a strong and very conservative candidate. Make that very conservative and given the united front that Republicans have in this state, Tom emerged from the party convention with an endorsement and unopposed by any real competition. Tom energized the base, pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and the Bachmann conservatives and really was a guy we Liberals are terrified off. When his endorsement was final, my reaction was “he’s unelectable, he’s an ideologue”. I will admit that Tom Emmer is a much more honest choice than Dayton, he leaves little doubt as to his agenda and his positions, it’s just his positions are way out on the extreme, both on social issues and finances.

It is a pretty good piece.

From Minnesota Public Radio

Republican Tom Emmer will have a hard time finding enough votes to overcome Democrat Mark Dayton's lead in the governor's race, recount attorneys and election law experts said Thursday.

Emmer trails Dayton by 8,774 votes, but there would have to be widespread, systematic errors for Emmer to overcome the deficit either during the certification process or a recount, said Guy Charles, a law professor at Duke University.

Bill Salsbury and Mary Jo Webster of the St. Paul Pioneer Press write about Tom Horner's presence leading to Mark Dayton's presumed victory.

In general, Jacobs said, Emmer got fewer votes than Pawlenty did in 2006 because Horner fared better than his IP predecessor, Peter Hutchinson.

MN Public Radio

Before the GOP gets to far ahead of itself it going to need to wait for the Certified total. Considering those totals and the preliminary totals change by roughly 2 to 3 thousand on average, a net gain of 1450 by Dayton will put the total outside of the .5 % range and require teh GOP to pay for the Recount.

At least we have something to talk about.

There is little question that all soft support has left the Horner campaign as the first results come in.

I have figured Horner would come in with 15 to 18 percent of the vote but it now appears that he will the 10 to 12 percent range.

The question becomes where does the 3 to 8 percent of the vote go since it has left Horner. Without exit polling we may not know exactly where it going, but early results suggest most went to Emmer. it will be interesting to watch the final results tomorrow.

At least in Minnesota.

It will be interesting to hear what the pundants say about voter turnout later in the day.

From what I am hearing and what is being reported else where; Early this morning there was a strong voter turnout in the more conservative areas but it has tappered off before lunch. While voter turnout was light in the Liberal leaning areas however it has been building and continues to be moderate to high in terms of turnout there.

I have heard from several sources about 1/2 hour or longer waits in multiple precints in Hennepin and Ramsey County, yet it is walk up and ghost towns in greater Washington County.

In coresponding with some friends around the country similiar patterns are showing up elese where. However it's early in the day and the easy access to absentee ballots may change many vote outcomes.

Dear Friends,

Let's face it, we cannot afford another four years of spinning our wheels while Democrats and Republicans dig Minnesota deeper and deeper into debt.

Neither Mark Dayton or Tom Emmer have offered balanced, common sense solutions to move this state forward. Their band-aid proposals do nothing to improve the overall problems facing Minnesotans.

It's time to take back our state!

The greatest service you can do for your families and your communities is to get out and vote on Tuesday, November 2! For those who feel their voice no longer counts - I will only remind you of every voter who stood up for REAL change in November 1998, when you decided to do what was right for the State of Minnesota.

No one thought it could be done. Let's do it again.

Join us tonight at Midway Stadium in St. Paul at 9:30 p.m. when the Horner Rally Buses pull back in to St. Paul from a day of gathering with supporters throughout the state. Tom Horner, Jim Mulder, Sen. Dave Durenberger will be on hand with many others to fire up our Party into taking a stand tomorrow.

Spread the word and join us tonight:

Midway Stadium
1771 Energy Park Drive
St. Paul, MN 55108
(gates open at 8:30 p.m. Concessions will be open)

We hope you will join us for this exciting event tonight - but most important, we hope you will help us make history tomorrow. Vote for your Independence Party, vote for Tom Horner for Governor, and for more information our slate of candidates throughout the state, visit: www.mnip.org.

As always, we are grateful for your continued support. Tomorrow is election day. Now, let's get it done.

with best regards,
Executive Committee
Independence Party of Minnesota

Carlos Mariani DFL member of the Minnesota House who is seeking reelection in St. Paul wrote a letter to the Editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune concering losing his AFL-CIO endorsement.

But I did not expect to lose major labor endorsement for trying to serve
children better. I now don't know whether losing labor's support will affect my
chances of chairing the committee again.

Representative Mariani is the chair of the Minnesota House K-12 Policy Committee and has supported annual review of teachers, principals and other staff, alternative licensing, and new ways to train teachers.

I also led efforts to create a new alternative pathway to earning a teaching license that would allow high-quality programs like Teach for America to help Minnesota close the achievement gap. I had hoped for union support; instead they
fought it. Some union officials vigorously criticized us.

I am not a huge fan of the statewide Teacher's Union, Education Minnesota, but that doesn't mean that I am not a supporter of individual teachers. Rather the opposite is true, I have first hand seen what ONE teacher can do. Unfortunately I have seen the other end of the spectrum when a Teacher's Union protects a bad (that's being unkind to the word bad) teacher.

When I have spoken to Union representatives they believe it is a "witchhunt" and tell thier membership that hundreds thousands of jobs are at risk, which is so untrue. This is a means to identify the one or two bad teachers in an entire district and suggest they find employment in another field. So while this number might reach a hundred statewide in its first look it sure isn't going to continue at that level.

I have also suggested that since we have a state wide union maybe we should have a statewide teacher contract and "statewide" school system. But the latter may be too extreme.

Jesse Ventura, former Independence Party Governor is suggesting that we shock the world again.

Here is the story in the Pioneer Press.