Campaign Tech

In separate e-mails sent almost simultaneously this evening, Al Franken and former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman offered takes on President Obama’s inauguration as diametrically opposed in style as the Senate contenders are opposed in their rival campaigns. Franken’s is an unadorned, even bland two-paragraph statement about the honor he felt at attending the inauguration and [...]

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak announced today he is running for re-election. The announcement took the form of a mayoral message on Twitter directing people to a video on YouTube, which in turn directed viewers to his new campaign Web site, where surfers can further connect to his Facebook page. Rybak’s only announced rival (aside from perennial candidate Dick Franson) is [...]

The main story so far in Minnesota’s statewide election recount — besides incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s continuing slim lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken and the role of wrongly rejected absentee ballots — has been how the unexpectedly large numbers of ballot challenges from both campaigns have affected the recount’s running vote tally. By questioning election officials on 27 of every 10,000 ballots cast for either man, the campaigns have temporarily removed nearly 6,000 votes from the official recount totals, leaving Coleman in command (for the moment) of a 344-vote advantage. But take one statistic from Monday’s recount action — Coleman challenged 35 more ballots than did Franken — and extrapolate it across eight days of a recount that’s now nine-tenths done, and you can show, on paper at least, how Coleman’s ballot-challenge lead could account for his lead in the running tally of overall votes.

With all Barack Obama’s administration will have to focus on — economy, war, healthcare — it’s remarkable that it honed in on such a tiny detail: it switched the copyright notice on its website to the freest Creative Commons license. As a nod to government transparency, the move seems to be largely symbolic, as commenters [...]

In the last couple weeks, I’ve tried to extract extra political meaning out of all sorts of stuff — Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s growing back his mullet (for a presidential run in 2012?), Al Franken’s traveling to D.C. (to cast a provisional ballot against U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman’s committee chairmanship?), and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s playing with [...]

Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) is making rumblings about “taking appropriate legal action” after its frustrated attempts to have state Rep. Erik Paulsen stop using video from TPT’s “Almanac” program in an ad attacking his 3rd Congressional District Democratic rival, Ashwin Madia. Paulsen’s FEC filings list ad production by Upgrade Films, the same D.C. outfit whose use of Pawlenty campaign video in a state GOP TV ad cost the governor’s 2002 campaign a $100,000 fine.

A reader in Mankato sends a new voicemail left by John McCain’s campaign which shows a sharp departure from the last round: Stumbling over words, the caller claims Barack Obama’s weak on crime:

Hi, I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because Democrats are dangerously weak on crime. Barack Obama voted against tougher penalties for street gangs, drug-related crimes and protecting children from danger. Barack Obama and his liberal allies have a disturbing history of coddling criminals and we can’t trust their judgment to keep our families safe. This call is paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain/Palin 2008 at 866.558.5591. Thank you for listening. You have a wonderful day.

Thank you. You too, McCain caller man!

Listen:

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Two residents of Minnesota’s Third Congressional District have given the Minnesota Independent details about calls they got Tuesday evening that they say started as political surveys but ended as push polls against DFL congressional candidate Ashwin Madia.

The Sunlight Foundation has put together a fascinating animated graph that tracks the political donations from the finance, insurance and real estate sectors and to which party the money has gone. Utilizing Google Motion Chart and 20 years worth of data gathered by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the chart seeks to demonstrate how [...]

The Internet threw its collective weight around and led a public rejection of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s proposed $700 billion blank-check Wall Street bailout.  The online petitions, open sources and incendiary snark came fast and furious from all political corners.