Campaigns

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher is getting her second union endorsement for governor in as many days (and her third so far), this one from the 43,000-member Greater Minnesota American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 65, Minnesota Public Radio’s Polinaut reports.

Burberry, Britain’s once-staid fashion house, can’t help it if Sarah Palin wears their trademark plaid scarves. “[T]he conspicuousness of the pattern also means that the company has little control over how it is seen, or on whom,” the New Yorker magazine observed, in reference to Palin. Minneapolis has the same problem: today the Mill City [...]

State House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s gubernatorial campaign landed another labor union endorsement today, from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49. The “49ers” credit Kelliher with engineering the 2008 override of Gov. Pawlenty’s veto of the transportation bill — giving life to what the union terms “the largest job-creating bill in decades.”

As if Michele Bachmann’s 2010 re-election battle wasn’t already going to be a doozy, it’s begun shaping up as a proxy war between the forces of U.S. Sen. Al Franken and the man he bested in Minnesota’s recount, former Sen. Norm Coleman. “The eyes of the nation — and Michele Bachmann’s right-wing allies — will [...]

The national chapter of the Sierra Club has launched an ad attacking Rep. Michele Bachmann for what the group says are close ties to the oil industry. The ads are in their second week of a two-week run on television stations in Bachmann’s district, according to Sierra Club Action, the political wing of the environmental [...]

As expected, Dr. Maureen Hackett has officially entered the race to challenge Rep. Erik Paulsen in the Third Congressional District. A psychiatrist who served in the Air Force for seven years, Hackett announced her candidacy on her website and in an email to supporters.

Michele Bachmann is the most politically vulnerable member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation in 2010, according to the latest analysis from the Cook Political Report. The beltway publication lists the Sixth Congressional District seat as “leaning Republican.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2012 presidential exploratory tour hits Florida today. There he could face a politically tricky question: Will he back Florida Gov. Charlie Crist or conservative darling Marco Rubio in next year’s U.S. Senate contest?

Senate Democrats are salivating at the prospect of attacking Republicans in 2010 who voted against an anti-rape amendment sponsored by Al Franken, reports Politico. The provision, which was supported by 68 senators, would prevent the Department of Defense from contracting with companies that prohibit employees from suing over workplace disputes — including complaints of sexual [...]

Gubernatorial candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher picked up an endorsement from Minnesota’s largest union of state professional employees today. MAPE — the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees — announced its support for Anderson Kelliher, who is speaker of the state House of Representatives.
MAPE, which has nearly 13,000 members, interviewed each gubernatorial candidate in Roseville on Monday [...]