MnIndy photo collage

An upcoming fundraiser with Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin will cost up to $10,000, according to the event invitation (PDF) obtained by the Minnesota Independent. The April 7 fundraiser will be held in downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton Hotel following a rally at the Minneapolis Convention Center, which is open to anyone who promises to volunteer for the Republican Party of Minnesota.

A private reception and photo opportunity costs $10,000 per couple. For everyone else, a general reception and dinner will cost $500. For each donor, the first $2,400 will go to Bachmann’s pre-primary campaign. The next $2,400 will go to her general election campaign. Proceeds beyond that will go to the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Waldorf slammed his former party telling the Times that “bribery” and “closed-door activities” don’t meet long-held ethical standards for lawmaking.

“They’ve lost their integrity in dealing with legislation,” Waldorf said. “They’ve put their party interests ahead of the public.”

Waldorf was well known at the Minnesota Capitol for his unwillingness to compromise on the issue of abortion. ”People say: ‘Why don’t you get together and compromise?’ You can’t. It’s a matter of life and death,” he said in 1989.

That uncompromising stance cost him his seat in 1992. Current Sen. Ellen Anderson challenged him for the DFL endorsement and, with a high number of reproductive-rights advocates attending his caucus, Waldorf decided to retire rather than face a primary.

Waldorf joins four Republican candidates hoping to oust Peterson: Lee Byberg of Willmar, Karen Nelson of Spicer, Melva Larson of Bagley and Glen Menze of Starbuck.

Clark’s piece follows literature by Dr. Maureen Reed, who is also vying for the DFL endorsement to take on Bachmann this fall.

Clark’s piece touts her experience in the district and attacks Bachmann for not doing enough for constituents. See full-size scans of the literature at OutState Politics.

Bradlee Dean

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, the front group for the punk rock ministry of Bradlee Dean, took his brand of fundamentalist Christianity to a DFL gubernatorial meet-and-greet several weeks ago to confront Sen. John Marty about his support for “sin” and homosexuals. Dean and fellow group frontman Jake McMillian repeatedly asked Marty about sodomy.

“In Minnesota, there is something called the sodomy law. It governed all 50 states for quite some time. As a matter of fact, you can go to prison for the act of sodomy,” said McMillian. “Now we are debating a marriage amendment between homosexual couples, male with male which has never happened in the history of civilization, but yet we are overlooking a statute that is very valid called the sodomy law in Minnesota.”

Minnesota’s sodomy law was struck down as unconstitutional by the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2001, and by the United States Supreme Court in 2003. Repeated requests for comment by the Minnesota Independent to Dean and McMillian on this issue were not returned.

“I travel around to high schools all around the country and kids are often puzzled and confused by shifting standards,” said McMillian. “I see lawmakers and I’ll use you as an example… How can a man legislate that which is a solid foundation? As we travel across the nation, youth are given this perplexity. And now kids are asking ‘why do I have two dads, this makes no sense?’ Rosie O’Donnell is a great example.”

He continued, “It just makes no sense according to laws of nature or revealed law, the bible, or government law.”

Marty gave the group his take on same-sex marriage and equality under the law.

“In terms of changing the law, yeah, that’s what I do at the Capitol. If a same-sex couple wishes to make a life-long commitment, I want to honor that and I want to respect that,” he said. “The constitution that our servicepeople fought for, they didn’t fight to keep all of the laws the same. We have to change as times change in society.”

Marty continued, “If a couple loves each other let them decide. I can’t think of anything more intrusive than a government telling a church you must marry them or you can’t marry them.”

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Photo: hagedornforcongress.com

The rhetoric in Minnesota’s First Congressional District is reaching a fevered pitch as five candidates, Randy Demmer, Jim Engstrand, Jim Hagedorn, Frank McKinzie and Allen Quist, vie for the Republican endorsement to run against DFL Rep. Tim Walz. While Quist made news early in the race when he said that Democrats were more dangerous than terrorists, Hagedorn came out with his own speech to Republican activists warning of liberal “carpet bombing” and calling Walz’s politics a “plague” on America.

Here are a few snippets of Hagedorn’s speech:

“The national liberals are all but carpet bombing the greatness of America – taking dead aim on the United States Constitution, our dynamic Free Enterprise system, and the enduring concepts of personal responsibility, individual opportunity, personal freedom, and traditional cultural values.”

“Tim Walz’s extreme liberalism represents a plague to our American way of life. Instead of listening to you – the moderate-to-conservative voters of southern Minnesota – Tim Walz follows the commands of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the fringe left.”

“Tim Walz is the most liberal Congressman in the history of southern Minnesota, and to reclaim America we must defeat Tim Walz and those like him!”

“Now, if there is a big-spending, big-government, high-tax idea to kill jobs or undermine economic recovery, President Obama-Speaker Pelosi and devoted liberal worshiper Tim Walz will sniff it out.”

“Tim Walz is such a left-winger that he believes we must limit carbon emissions to save the earth from global warming.”

Image: Kevinzhengli

Rasmussen Reports released some of the first polling numbers on Minnesota’s gubernatorial race on Thursday, finding that for the most part Minnesotans are undecided about who they like for governor. And with a diluted field for the DFL, no candidate did well against both of the top Republican candidates, Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert.

Mark Dayton and R.T. Rybak fared the best against Emmer, both beating him 38 percent to 35 percent. None of the DFL candidates bested Marty Seifert, though, but Rybak tied him at 38 percent.

Among Republicans candidates, Emmer had the best net favorable rating — 38 percent favorable and 26 percent unfavorable — but 36 percent said they weren’t sure how they felt about him. Seifert garnered the support of 41 percent polled, but 33 percent found him unfavorable. Twenty-seven percent were undecided.

Among DFLers, only Rybak (49 to 37 percent) and Tom Bakk (27 to 22 percent) had a net positive rating. Mark Dayton had the highest favorable rating with 44 percent, but an even higher unfavorable rating at 45 percent. Of those polled, 39 percent liked Margaret Anderson Kelliher, but 41 percent didn’t. Matt Entenza had similar numbers with 27 percent and 31 percent. Tom Rukavina had an even split with 27 percent approving and the same disapproving.

Photo: TarrylClark.com

The campaign of Tarryl Clark released a web ad Monday that criticizes Rep. Michele Bachmann for her past stance on Social Security privatization and her February comments about wanting to “wean” future generations off the program.

Bachmann’s campaign has disputed the characterization that she supports privatization of Social Security. In an interview with Politifact, for example, Bachmann spokesman David Dziok said, “She’s never once used the word ‘privatize.’”

But Clark’s team backed up its claims with references to Bachmann advocating Social Security privatization in 2005.

Here’s Dziok’s full statement from Politifact:

Via e-mail, Bachmann’s spokesman Dave Dziok told us that he has “no clue where they got the voucher comment from and she’s never once used the word privatize — not in her initial comments in St. Louis, and not in subsequent interviews or statements. Furthermore, she never stated that she wants to eliminate these programs all together, but that younger generations should have other options in the way these programs are administered. While her critics are certainly doing their best to put words in her mouth, I don’t see how they can factually back it up.”

And here’s Clark’s supporting evidence on Bachmann’s 2005 Social Security stance:

Bachmann Advocated Privatizing Social Security. In February 2005, the Pioneer Press wrote, “During her announcement Monday, Bachmann also mentioned national security and a Social Security overhaul, which she later said should include privatization, as key priorities should she win a seat in Congress.” [Pioneer Press, 02/15/05]

Right off the bat, Bachmann offered a refrain often made in her media appearances, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is personally targeting her in the 2010 election (last month she went so far as to say Pelosi “hates” her). It’s a claim that was recently proven misleading by the Star Tribune, and even Bachmann’s handlers say it’s not quite true. She told listeners:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made me her number-one target for defeat politically this November at the ballot box, and trust me, she has all the money and all the volunteer power to make that happen. So, I am in the process of fighting for my political life so that I’m not defeated. She knows it’s vulnerable for me to speak out and take a very strong stand against this leap toward socialism but my opinion is I was sent to DC to do a job, and I’m going to do it.

Bachmann was asked what religious leaders can do to help get conservatives elected. She responded that Congress should repeal the ban that prevents 501(c)3 nonprofits and churches from endorsing candidates. (In Bachmann’s first run for Congress, Living Word Christian Center Pastor Mac Hammond got into hot water for endorsing Bachmann from the pulpit.)

The reason why clergy are afraid to be involved is because of an amendment that former President Lyndon Johnson passed when he was a senator from Texas… that stops 501(3)c [sic] organizations from saying anything political from the pulpit. Now, churches can be political from the pulpit. They can talk about issues all they want. What they can’t do is endorse a candidate from the pulpit. But the ACLU has been all over the backs of churches… Christian and Jews and people of faith are not second class citizens… but these radical leftist organizations have been intimidating Christians for so long and pastors don’t generally now that they do have the right to speak out from the pulpit. Congress should repeal that amendment from Lyndon Johnson… We need to repeal that and give Christians back their first amendment rights to free speech in the church.

Bachmann wrapped the appearance up by saying Tea Partiers need to make even more noise:

That’s why with everything within us we need to literally start banging garbage lids together to create enough noise so that our neighbors and our co-workers realize where the time clock is at this point because the second hand is literally banging up against 11:59 on the clock of freedom when it comes to health care… we cannot rest; we can’t take our marbles and go home.

Reed’s campaign says, “since she’s not a career politician she can’t be attacked for raising taxes,” in a nod to moderates and independents, but she also gave a nod to progressives: “She’s the only candidate who supports a public option that competes with insurance companies and that includes measures to lower costs.”

OutstatePolitics.com has full screen grabs of the mailer.

At a press conference — which preceded the failed attempt to override Pawlenty’s veto of legislation that would continue funding GAMC, which provides healthcare for Minnesota’s poorest — Stevenson had sharp words for Pawlenty (audio):

I’m concerned because they are feeling pressure… from a governor who has a speech to write that he wants to run around the country as he’s being elected president. And I’m not so sure he cares so much anymore about Minnesota and about the people who are here. And I have, actually, a personal request of the governor. Governor, please stop talking to us about God. The governor is going around saying, ‘God is in control.’ We elected you. We elected you to be taking decisions for this state, that will help everyone in this state — things that will lift up the poorest in this state. Don’t pass this off on God. That’s no God we’ve ever heard of. And please stop lecturing us about God. It’s offensive.

Then, as if on cue, Pawlenty took his speech to CBN’s David Brody show, where he repeated the “God’s in charge” rhetoric, then said he’s focusing on 2010 elections before deciding on a presidential run.

Here’s his response when asked if he agrees with Mitt Romney that “history will be kinder” to Bush:

I absolutely agree with those comments. I think President Bush was a leader with strong convictions, and he proposed big changes in entitlement programs and domestic programs. Unfortunately, the Congress — including, for a period of time, the Republican Congress — didn’t adopt those approaches. He’s also going to be defined, of course, by Iraq and the war on terror. I think he’s going to go down as a strong leader in history for that. We could end up with an Iraq that has a democratic government, that is reasonably secure in a very troubled region. If that turns out to be the future, I think he’s going to be remembered very fondly for that. And he also kept us safe. He was very aggressive, as was Vice President Cheney and the rest of the team, on taking it to the terrorists. And that served us well. In eight years since 9-1-1 there were no further attacks. And so I think he should get credit for that.