Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar pushed for a repeal of the military’s ban on openly serving gays and lesbians on Thursday and urged the U.S. Senate to pass a defense authorization bill that contains a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. At the same time, former congressional candidate and military veteran Ashwin Madia is using his new position as head of VoteVets to get a ban passed during the lame duck session.

Madia ran for Congress in 2008 in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. “I’ve seen — first-hand — how keeping this policy in place hurts the military,” Madia said in an email to supporters.

Madia, who made repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell an issue in his 2008 campaign against Rep. Erik Paulsen, has brought the issue to the forefront in his new role as interim chairman of VoteVets. The previous chair, Jon Soltz, is taking a leave to deploy to Iraq, as part of Operation New Dawn.

Franken and Klobuchar held a press conference with 9 of their Democratic Senate colleagues and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman urging the rest to pass a repeal.

“I urge all of my colleagues to stand for equality and common sense, and to stand up for our troops,” said Franken. “The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy has been too costly for too many people. Repealing the provision is simply the right thing to do and it’s a change the country is ready for.”

Klobuchar called for Senators to have the courage to pass a repeal, according to MinnPost:

Klobuchar said President Obama and top military brass like Mullen have shown courage in calling for repeal, and that the troops on the ground showed courage in widely backing repeal as well. Now, she said, it just remains to be seen “whether the people in the U.S. Senate will have the same courage.”

I’ve been humbled by the initial support for our efforts. Thanks to many generous contributions, Freedom First has already been able to help the campaigns of Representatives John Kline, Eric Paulsen, and Michele Bachmann, as well as former Congressman Rob Portman, who is fighting to retain a critical Senate seat for Republicans in Ohio. This support is just scratching the surface — we plan to support many more candidates next year as we work to elect more Republican governors and retake control of Congress.

MPR notes that the message doesn’t mention the PAC’s support for Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who ran against endorsed Republican Dede Scozzafava in a New York State special election to Congress. Judging by the statement, Minnesotans account for three of five recipients of cash from Freedom First so far.

A challenger to Paulsen, the lone first-termer among that GOP trio, is Maureen Hackett, whose campaign unveiled a new radio ad over the weekend. Unlike an earlier email from her campaign, the spot doesn’t make reference to Bachmann, the incumbent in the neighboring Sixth District.

I’m Maureen Hackett. I’m running for Congress in the 3rd District because I want to make sure the opportunities I had are available for my daughter’s generation. My parents didn’t have much money, but I was able to get affordable loans to attend college and earn my medical degree. I served as an Air Force officer then raised a family here in the Twin Cities with my husband, a small business owner. That’s the American Dream and we need to defend and revive it.

Education, jobs, health care and clean, American-made energy. Those are the issues won us the last two elections and they’re the keys to making sure our future is as strong as our past. Now it’s time to make this the decade when America reaches new levels of opportunity. If you’re ready to help lead the way, attend your precinct caucuses on Tuesday, February 2nd. Sign up, become a delegate. By standing together and defending our values, we can make the change we voted for into reality.

PREPARED AND PAID FOR BY HACKETT FOR CONGRESS. WWW.HACKETTFORCONGRESS.ORG.

I’m Maureen Hackett and I approve this message.

Also running for the Third District seat is DFLer Jim Meffert. State Sen. Terri Bonoff, who lost the DFL endorsement to Ashwin Madia in 2008, has said “the door is open” to her entry into the race.

Meffert sent signals he was ready to run six weeks ago. He jumps in two weeks after forensic psychiatrist Maureen Hackett announced her bid for the seat, while another potential DFL rival to Paulsen, state Sen. Terri Bonoff, remains on the fence though she is leaning toward running.

Update: “I’m not in this race and the door is open,” Bonoff told the Minnesota Independent. “The election is a year from now.” By what date would she need to announce were she going to run for Congress? “No comment.”

After a year in office, Paulsen has an enormous financial advantage over any challenger, with nearly $1 million in his campaign coffers.

Still, outside observers and the Republican Party itself have singled out Minnesota’s Third District as a competitive race in 2010. Democrats have selected the district as worthy of attack ads targeting Paulsen on issues and votes.

Politically speaking, a Meffert-Paulsen matchup would offer classic DFL/GOP contrasts. Paulsen has charted a more conservative course than his predecessor, moderate Republican Jim Ramstad. Meffert, chief executive at the nonprofit Minnesota Optometric Association, pledges to use government to fight for “jobs, stronger schools, health reform, [and] a strong economy.”

But demographically — to use a word the Paulsen campaign wielded against DFL opponent Ashwin Madia last year — Meffert and Paulsen make an intriguingly matched pair. Both are graduates of St. Olaf College, where Paulsen delivered the commencement address last spring. (Meffert is two years younger.) And both are suburban fathers: Paulsen has four children to Meffert’s three.

Meffert put his family status front and center in announcing his candidacy, stating in the second sentence of his news release that he “lives in Edina with his wife Karrin and their three young children” and beginning the last paragraph with this: “Being a husband and father of three has shaped Jim’s volunteer efforts.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MINNEAPOLIS: Paid for, done that. Mayor Rybak reneged a long time ago on pledges to reform how he and other city candidates finance their campaigns. [Star Tribune]

ST. PAUL: Governor, Dems break their fast. By the time you read this, Gov. Pawlenty and top DFLers will have shared a morning meal and decided how to unmake the hash that is the state budget. [ECM Publishers]

STATEWIDE: An uncrowded gubernatorial field. Slim pickings so far for the Independence Party. [Minnesota Public Radio]

ST. PAUL: Abe Lincoln in Minnesota. He never was, but a panel explores his legacy here today. [Associated Press]

MAHTOMEDI: Kelley might try primary. DFL Party endorsement is not the be-all, end-all this time around for former state Sen. Steve Kelley in the governor’s race. [Associated Press]

ST. PAUL: Al Franken behind on recount bills. Numbers don’t yet add up for the Harvard math major turned U.S. Senator. [MinnPost]

]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/47556/am-mn-paulsen-bonoff-nelson-meffer/feed 1 http://minnesotaindependent.com/46969/am-mn-bachmann-action-figure-comic-book http://minnesotaindependent.com/46969/am-mn-bachmann-action-figure-comic-book#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:30:20 +0000 Chris Steller http://minnesotaindependent.com/?p=46969 Two ventures that commodify U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann are demonstrating just how demanding the market can be in a down economy. The maker of a Bachmann action figure complains they’re not selling like hotcakes — or even…]]> Two ventures that commodify U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann are demonstrating just how demanding the market can be in a down economy. The maker of a Bachmann action figure complains they’re not selling like hotcakes — or even like Sarah Palins. And the second issue of a Bachmann-themed comic book undergoes an intense review by a critic with a strong preference for cartoon-Bachmann thought-balloons that carry precise quotes, from the horse’s mouth.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

MINNEAPOLIS: Former senators pen op-ed. This time Norm Coleman doesn’t quote the wrong Humphrey, but his column (co-written with Jim Talent) studiously undercuts its thesis statement: “Politics must end at the water’s edge.” [Star Tribune]

THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Erik Paulsen challenger in wings. Could Paulsen say the head of the state PTA can’t relate to suburban parents? [Minnesota Progressive Project]

STATEWIDE: Kissing up is hard to do. Guv candidates put in miles, put on smiles to court delegates. [Pioneer Press]

ST. PAUL: Republicans left downtown pretty vacant. National-convention delegates didn’t lease empty office suites. [Star Tribune]

STATEWIDE: Tax receipts slip. The Cash for Clunkers program wasn’t enough to keep Minnesota’s finances on target. [Associated Press]

COLD SPRING: Marching band faces standstill. Pulltab profits, milkshake sales and activity fees might not be enough to keep the Rocori High School band high-stepping above debt. [St. Cloud Times]

]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/46969/am-mn-bachmann-action-figure-comic-book/feed 6 http://minnesotaindependent.com/42295/bonoff-still-weighing-3rd-cd-challenge http://minnesotaindependent.com/42295/bonoff-still-weighing-3rd-cd-challenge#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:58:24 +0000 Paul Demko http://minnesotaindependent.com/?p=42295

Terri Bonoff Photo: Wikipedia

Terri Bonoff is not running for Congress — yet. But the Democratic state senator, who lost a tough endorsement battle to Ashwin Madia in 2008, is seriously considering a challenge to freshman Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen.

“I’m certainly not being lighthearted about it,” Bonoff tells the Minnesota Independent. “I love public service and I have a lot of work to do, whether it be for this state or at the national level.”

Opinions vary on how vulnerable Paulsen will be in 2010. The 3rd district doesn’t track decisively red or blue. President Obama won it by six percentage points, while Norm Coleman carried it by eight points over Al Franken. Paulsen surprised political observers by handily winning the open seat last year in what was one of the most closely watched (and heavily funded) congressional races in the country. Bonoff, however, still believes it’s winnable.

“It will depend on the environment and the candidate,” she says. “There is no given.”

No other Democratic challenger has emerged to take on Paulsen. Madia has ruled out another run. State Rep. Steve Simon, whose name has also been floated as a possible candidate, is ruling out a run. “Not me,” he says.

Raising sufficient funds to mount a credible challenge to Paulsen will be difficult. With many Democratic incumbents facing tough reelection fights, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other national groups will likely pick their takeover targets sparingly. But Bonoff says she doesn’t feel any pressure to make a decision soon.

“The public doesn’t pay attention until a long time from now,” she says. “People find a way to raise enough money regardless of when they get in. I think that’s a false urgency.”

Photo: house.gov

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to an American Indian jobs center in Minneapolis today carries special (if little-known) resonance with either end of her political career, from the time she arrived in what later became her California congressional district to the recent rightwing taunts she has taken over terrorism.

Pelosi will tour the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center (AIOIC) with Mayor R.T. Rybak and U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (whose benefit event she’ll also attend). The AIOIC is using more than $100,000 in federal economic-stimulus funds for a youth employment program.

The AIOIC was founded by the Minneapolis-based American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1979. The early years after AIM’s own founding in 1968 had been marked by a series of occupations sparked by a 1969 takeover at Alcatraz Island, site of an abandoned prison in San Francisco Bay.

That was the same year Pelosi moved to San Francisco with her husband Paul, a native of the city. His brother, Ronald Pelosi, had just joined the San Francisco Board of Supervisors after presiding over the city’s planning commission.

The city approved a plan for the private redevelopment of Alcatraz, which had stood vacant for five years since the closing of the federal prison. Within weeks, American Indian students began an occupation of the island, demanding a variety of programs from the federal government as payback for broken treaties.

The occupation of Alcatraz lasted 18 months, but its legacy lasted longer. It inspired nearly 75 other occupations, including the Twin Cities Naval Air Station in 1971 and, most famously, Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1973.

Pelosi’s name has been linked to Alcatraz since January, when President Obama pledged to close the United States’ detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Conservatives who opposed the closing of Guantanamo saw an opening to jab the speaker and began proposing that prisoners could be transferred from Guantanamo to Alcatraz. Pelosi countered that Alcatraz is now a national park (ABC video), but the Republican razzing that her resistance to the idea represents NIMBYism continues unabated.

Pelosi made another trip to Minnesota last fall to help the campaign of a man some might call Indian: Ashwin Madia, DFL candidate in the state’s Third Congressional District, whose parents emigrated from India.

The freshman Republican legislator won the open Third Congressional District seat by a surprisingly comfortable margin last year in one of the most closely watched contests in the country. Paulsen garnered 48 percent of the vote, while Democratic challenger Ashwin Madia drew support from 41 percent of voters. Independence Party candidate David Dillon was also a factor in the race with 11 percent of the vote.

The Cook Partisan Voting Index currently gives neither party an advantage in the district, where Republicans historically had an edge. Democrats have made serious inroads in state legislature contests, picking up 10 House seats during the last three election cycles. Most recently state Reps. Jerry Newton and Paul Rosenthal took over seats that had been help by the GOP. And President Obama won the suburban district by a 52-46 percent margin last year.

But his coattails proved non-existent. In addition to Paulsen’s comfortable victory, Norm Coleman outpolled Al Franken there by a 47-39 spread in the U.S. Senate contest.

The Third Congressional District is one of just two 2010 House races political analysts view as competitive in the state. The other is the Sixth Congressional District, where Rep. Michele Bachmann’s high-voltage rhetoric makes her an irresistible (if elusive) target for Democrats. She’s already attracted two DFL challengers in Elwyn Tinklenberg and Maureen Reed.

David Wasserman, House Editor for the Cook Political Report, figures Bachmann is slightly more vulnerable than Paulsen. But he believes Paulsen is among the top ten GOP House incumbents nationwide that Democrats could target in 2010. “That’s not to say he’s extremely vulnerable,” Wasserman notes. “It’s just that Democrats don’t have many options.”

Indeed, widespread gains for Democrats in the last two elections mean that the party will be playing defense in a lot of GOP-friendly districts. In addition, the party that controls both the White House and Congress has historically fared poorly in the first mid-term elections. Those factors likely mean that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other national groups will choose their takeover targets prudently. Whether the Third District attracts significant attention — and money — will probably hinge on how strong a challenger emerges.

So far the race hasn’t drawn any takers. Madia says he doesn’t expect to make another run for the seat. “I felt like I had a good crack at in 2008 and I came up short,” he says. “We should give somebody else a chance.”

The name most often mentioned as a possible contender is state Sen. Terri Bonoff. She was widely viewed as the favorite to earn the DFL endorsement in 2008, but was thwarted by Madia’s upstart candidacy. At present, Bonoff’s not entering the fray.

“I’m not considering it at this time,” she says. “You can only take each day as it comes.”

Other names in the ether: state Rep. Steve Simon and former Edina mayor Jim Hovland. Neither returned a call seeking comment.

Wasserman doesn’t deem the vacant DFL field this early in the election cycle to be a liability necessarily.

“I think most of the candidates who got a very early start in the 2008 cycle fizzled out,” he says. “It’s often the late-breaking candidates who received the necessary buzz.”

Whoever ultimately emerges to challenge Paulsen will undoubtedly face an uphill battle. Bonoff argues that the DFL missed a prime opportunity in 2008.

“The Third District was ripe to elect a Democrat,” she says.

Madia doesn’t disagree. He believes that Paulsen won in part because the Republican did a better job of keeping a fine-tuned message.

“I think that they were very disciplined about their message, which was just taxes, frankly,” he says. “Taxes, taxes, taxes, taxes.”

Democrats in the district insist that they can still win the seat. Marge Hoffa, chair of the Third District DFL, argues that Paulsen is much more socially conservative than his GOP predecessor in the post.

“He’s no Jim Ramstad,” she says. “He’s just not. He’s much more conservative.”

But she acknowledges that the odds of taking over the seat will decrease with each election cycle.

“If we come up with somebody that’s really an outstanding candidate the money will pour in,” she says, “because this is our shot to take Paulsen out.”

paulsenforcongress.com

U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s campaign paid his wife more than $10,000 in the last five months of 2008, according to Federal Election Commission records. (No such revelations about his DFL opponent, a bachelor.)

The payments include seven payroll checks from Aug. 27 to Dec. 11, 2008, that total $9,729, as well as a Nov. 12 reimbursement of $728 on Nov. 12 for travel to Washington, D.C.

Carolyn “Kelly” Paulsen managed the campaign office, Paulsen campaign treasurer Reid LeBeau told Democratic blogger Brian Falldin.

The payments don’t violate the law, Polinaut points out. Attempts at banning the practice have failed in Congress, leaving spousal pay for campaign work legal if sometimes controversial.

Stirring controversy by keeping campaign cash in the family wasn’t a problem for Paulsen’s Third Congressional District Democratic rival: Ashwin Madia is unmarried.

But Paulsen’s campaign tried to make that fact a problem for Madia last fall. Paulsen ally state Sen. Geoff Michel held a Sept. 30 State Capitol press conference to tar Madia as having inadequate “suburban life experience“:

Raising a family in the district. Sending your kids to the public school. Owning a home. Working in the 3rd District. Paying property taxes in the 3rd District. Erik Paulsen has done all these things, and Ashwin Madia has not.

The next day, Michel appeared again before state Capitol microphones (crashing a Madia news conference), this time joined by state Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey, who expanded on the demographic attack:

Erik Paulsen … really fits the 3rd District so well, as one of them. And so people need to understand that there is a sharp contrast between the candidates. …Erik Paulsen is a very good fit from a philosophical standpoint and a lifestyle standpoint … From a demographic standpoint Erik Paulsen fits the district very well.

(Another VoteVets goal this session –  ending the ban on photographs of soldiers’ caskets at Dover Air Force Base — has already been achieved, and the group takes credit for pressuring the Obama administration through an earlier campaign.)

“I’ll help in any way I can,” said Madia, who had the backing of VoteVets in his congressional campaign, in an interview with the Minnesota Independent. “It’s well past time that we allowed [members of the military] to be who they are while they’re in the service.”

According to VoteVets spokesman Eric Schmeltzer, it’s a first for the group to work with Madia this way: “Madia hasn’t been with VoteVets before, because he was a candidate and that’s how we knew him. But now that he’s not, he’s free to help out.”

The e-mail effort appeared to have met with early success, Schmeltzer told MnIndy, inspiring the submission of 700 letters to the editor (via a click-through online form) in the first hours after its release.

Madia, a Minneapolis attorney, spoke out on the issue during his campaign, citing his professional experience successfully defending a closeted gay Marine from disproportionate legal sanctions, as well as his personal experience having a gay family member. (Not to mention possible gay-baiting implicit in GOP criticism of Madia’s own “demographics.”)

What does he expect to happen next with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy? “President Obama talked about [repealing] it during his campaign,” Madia said, but he shrugged off a question about whether executive action is imminent on a dicey issue in turbulent times.

“That’s politics,” he said.

Madia’s political future

But politics is no longer a field in which Madia can lay claim to outsider status. In fact, his bruising 3rd District battle left him eager for more, although he’s ruled out a 2010 re-run for Congress. “My goal is to run for office again,” Madia said. “I want to win.”

Even if unsuccessful, his 2008 run brought Madia a high profile and national attention, amid wide speculation that the seat held by former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad could tip to the Democrats.

“I got a chance to make a lot of good contacts,” Madia acknowledged — among them Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whose favor holds particular promise for a possible Washington, D.C., job offer.

But Madia said any such offer would have to be well above the “deputy-assistant-assistant” level to tempt him to leave Minnesota, where he’s determined to “build roots” looking ahead to that next race.

Meanwhile, Madia’s not beyond the reach of tendrils remaining from his last race. There’s campaign debt to retire and the occasional pesky question from a reporter, like what he plans to do about the $2,3o0 donation from Sir Allen Stanford, whose massive financial swindles only came to light in recent weeks. Politicians left and right have been quick to shed Stanford’s tainted campaign cash.

Madia said he hadn’t heard about the controversy and pled ignorance about his Stanford gift.

“It’s tough when you’re in the midst of the campaign,” he said. “Three million dollars came in. It’s tough to vet it.”

Madia’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” e-mail text

Here is the text of Madia’s VoteVets e-mail message:

Dear VoteVets.org Supporter,

Last week, we asked for your help to overturn the ban on photos at Dover Air Force Base, and you responded! In just a couple of hours, you had sent thousands of letters to the Pentagon, demanding change. And, later in the day, the Pentagon announced that the policy would be reversed! Thanks so much for your help. Now, we need you again.

As the President sends more troops to Afghanistan, and focuses our energies on the danger in the region, we at VoteVets.org are reminded that our military is seriously hamstrung by the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. That policy discharges those in the military who are found to be gay or lesbian. I have dealt with discrimination in the military firsthand: as a judge advocate in the Marine Corps, I successfully defended a gay Marine from discharge based on discriminatory treatment.

CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTERS TO YOUR NEWSPAPER, CALLING FOR A REPEAL OF “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL”

President Obama, during the campaign, said he would overturn the policy, and allow gays and lesbians to openly serve, as they do in a number of militaries around the world – including those who serve side by side with us in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s time that the United States started the process of allowing troops to serve openly. To begin that change, we need your help.

By clicking above, you’ll get to send a Letter to the Editor of your paper, to make the case. To help, we’ll be linking to articles and blogs that will help you learn about the current policy and how it negatively affects America’s military and security. This is just the first step in a long campaign. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be giving you even more to do, as overturning the policy is one of VoteVets.org’s legislative priorities for this session of Congress – and why we signed on in support of a bill offered by Rep. Ellen Tauscher that would do away with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

There’s good reason to reverse this policy. First and foremost, fighting the danger that we are, we cannot afford to dismiss any qualified, honorable, and able members of our military. For instance, military intelligence is constantly short-handed when it comes to translators. And yet, hundreds of translators have been dismissed since the policy was enacted, including many who speak Arabic, Persian, Pashto, and other languages that will help our military intelligence protect our troops and America. Additionally, at a time when our military is so overextended, allowing members of the military to serve openly, without being discharged, will alleviate the strain so many of our service members feel from repeated deployments.

CLICK HERE TO LET PEOPLE KNOW, IT’S TIME TO LET PEOPLE SERVE OPENLY IN OUR ARMED FORCES

Our military is professional and mature. Changing the policy will not affect how service-members do their jobs, or cohesiveness. In fact, it only will make our military stronger. Help us make it a reality, by clicking above.

Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
J. Ashwin Madia
Iraq War Veteran
VoteVets.org

And Jon, Brandon, Brian, Peter and the Entire VoteVets.org Team