Posts by Joe Bodell

Following attorney Mike Ciresi’s departure on Monday from the U.S. Senate race, what happens now?

Ciresi’s withdrawal leaves Al Franken going head-to-head with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who has gotten activists excited with his “most important decade” stump speech. But Nelson-Pallmeyer has run into a buzzsaw of heavy Franken support at conventions around the state.  Though he has [...]

The Minnesota House Republican caucus lost more than a dozen seats in the 2004 elections, then again in 2006, losing the majority to the DFL. Now, in the aftermath of transportation legislation spun by the Republican Party as pork-laden, Republican activists are expressing their dissatisfaction with their incumbents who voted with the DFL to override [...]

Barack Obama raised $55 million in February.

You read that right: The Illinois senator raised $55 million in a 29-day month, crushing all previous records and providing a bit of pushback against what has been a pretty good media week for his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. $45 million of Obama’s total was raised [...]

Sen. Hillary Clinton scored the wins her campaign said she needed to stay in the race for the Democratic nomination last night, but will remain in second place behind Sen. Barack Obama in the total delegate count.

The small states of Vermont and Rhode Island were called early in the night, Vermont for Obama and Rhode [...]

Former Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer announced this weekend that she will run for the Minnesota House seat currently occupied by Mark Olson, who was convicted last summer of domestic assault.

Olson, of Big Lake, was later expelled from the House Republican caucus, and now may run as an independent for re-election.

WCCO cites Kiffmeyer, also of [...]

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has endorsed Jim Hovland’s congressional bid in the Third district. 

Freeman preceded Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the County Attorney’s office before running unsuccessfully for Governor in 1998.  He returned to the office in 2006 by defeating fellow DFLer Andy Luger, with the support of many Republicans and independents in suburban areas [...]

Via Political Wire, Bob Novak is reporting an unsubstantiated rumor that presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain obtained the endorsement of Florida governor Charlie Crist by promising him a spot on the ticket. Of course, the rumor is allegedly coming from supporters of the defeated Mitt Romney…
“Spreading that rumor reflects the anger in the Romney [...]

State Sen. Terri Bonoff and Iraq veteran Ashwin Madia both claimed wins in yesterday’s Senate District 42 DFL convention, which was the first to elect delegates to the CD3 convention in April.

With immense turnout, managing the walking subcaucus process was a task unto itself — 48 subcaucuses were called, and the room’s configuration dictated that [...]

Anyone out there who’s been waiting for a break in the election-season action is going to have to wait a little longer.  2008 is sixty days old, and this cycle isn’t letting up any time soon.

President

Hillary Clinton is pulling out all the stops ahead of her last-ditch efforts in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont [...]

DFL Chairman Brian Melendez and Associate Chair Donna Cassutt have announced their support for Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential nomination race.

In a joint statement sent to party leaders, Melendez and Cassutt outlined their reasons for casting their superdelegate votes for Obama: 
We both have great confidence in, and respect and enthusiasm for, Senator Obama [...]