Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

DULUTH: Rally rankles council members. A boxing promoter whose own supporter says is ”very, very agitated” led protesters from the City Hall steps to a council meeting room, demanding several city councilors resign or apologize for various alleged transgressions.  [Fox 21 News]

MINNEAPOLIS: …and He threw the money-collectors out. A federal court case will go nowhere after plaintiffs complaining about a collection agency’s use of the phrase “WWJD?” were revealed to be owners of a rival collection agency. [Associated Press]

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS: School sues ACLU back. The embattled TiZA charter school filed a countersuit against the state civil-liberties group, claiming defamation. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

DANUBE: Bigger fish to fry? The police chief and his wife are charged with taking $4,650 from the fire department’s smelt-fry fund, although they put the money back. [West Central Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Fine to laugh. Clubs needed a pricey license to stage stand-up comedy acts — until the city council amended its ways. [City Pages]

RED WING: This boot was made for exhibitin’. Parading four blocks to its new museum home was the world’s largest boot — the one Norm Coleman didn’t quite measure up to. At size 638 D, could it be a reincarnated governor? [Associated Press]

Republican Rep. John Kline was the Club for Growth’s second favorite House member from Minnesota. He voted their way 78 percent of the time last year. Not surprisingly, GOP legislators dominate the top spots on the list, with only four Democrats cracking the top 200. Among the group’s favorite Dems: Reps. Tim Walz (209th) and Colin Peterson (211th). Dead last on the list? Reps. Jim Oberstar and Betty McCollum. Along with 107 of their Democratic colleagues, they voted the wrong way (in the Club for Growth’s estimation) on all 22 bills.

On the Senate side, the anti-tax organization wasn’t particularly fond of either of Minnesota’s senators. Based on 20 votes in 2008, the Club for Growth ranked Norm Coleman 44th, while Amy Klobuchar tied for the 84th spot. She voted with the advocacy group just three percent of the time.

Among the Minnesota legislators who have so far reported first-quarter fundraising figures to the FEC, Bachmann has pulled in the most cash.

Federal legislators have until midnight tonight to file their first-quarter reports. No data is yet available for Rep. Colin Peterson or for Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Fundraising reports for senators generally take longer to post on the FEC’s web site because they are initially filed with the Secretary of the Senate, rather than directly with the agency.

Among those who have filed, Rep. Erik Paulsen was the next most prolific fundraiser in the first three months of 2009. The freshman Republican raised $222,000 and has roughly $190,000 in the bank. Paulsen’s comfortable 2008 victory for an open House seat in a swing district has drawn notice in GOP circles.

Next up is Rep. Jim Oberstar, who brought in nearly $200,000. The powerful chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is currently sitting on a war chest of more than $800,000. Considering he won re-election to an 18th term last year by a better than two-to-one margin, this money is unlikely to be needed.

Rep. Tim Walz, who easily won a second term in 2008, pulled in $157,000 in the first quarter and has $111,000 currently in the bank. He’s followed closely by fourth-term Rep. John Kline, with $142,000 raised and $103,000 currently in the coffers.

Bringing up the rear are Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison, both occupying extremely safe seats. The former took in just over $100,000 in the first three months of 2009 and has roughly the same amount in the bank. Ellison raised just $77,000 and has $54,000 cash on hand.

On the Senate side, rankings are essentially what you’d expect: Out of 100 senators, Democrat Amy Klobuchar ranked 37th most liberal, while former Sen. Norm Coleman is listed as 38th most conservative (59th most liberal).

McCollum can’t be all that liberal; back in January, she was nominated for the supply-side Club for Growth’s spoof big-government award, the “Comrade of the Month,” but lost out to Democratic Rep. Barney Frank, who, tying with Ellison, didn’t even crack the top 10 in National Journal’s report.

Where it all happens. Or most of it, anyway. (WDCpix)

House Republicans are so “elated” and “delighted” that they’re “celebrating” after not a single one of them voted for an economic stimulus package this week that included $1.08 billion for Minnesota over the next two years. In a statement, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann said, “Our economy needs a stimulus proposal that actually creates jobs and reinvigorates the economy. This misguided legislation is not it.”

Rep. Collin Peterson, the 7th District Democrat, joined Bachmann and Republicans in voting against the measure, which heads to the Senate on Monday. “Had this stimulus bill been limited only to programs directly resulting in job creation and infrastructure projects, and for unemployment compensation and food stamps, I might have felt comfortable voting for it,” he said. “However, increasing the price tag on this massive package to include tax giveaways and additional spending on programs that have little or nothing to do with economic development is the wrong way to do this.”

Rep. Erik Paulsen used YouTube to explain his no vote. He says he “absolutely” supports some kind of stimulus package, just not this one. His gripe with this plan is that it was really more of a supplemental spending bill, he says, not a jobs-creation vehicle. (Democratic Reps. Jim Oberstar and Betty McCollum disagree; they see the stimulus bill as a way to both create jobs and save existing ones.) Watch it:

Democrats’ Peterson and Rep. Tim Walz have signed on to the Stop the Congressional Pay Raise Act, which would halt the automatic pay increase for Congress members scheduled for next year. They’re the only Minnesota delegates to agree to the freeze. The 111th Congress started out 2009 with a 2.8 percent raise. Up $4,700 compared to last year, the average congressional salary is now $174,000.

Democrats could be headed for a filibuster-proof majority, according to the AP. If Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire is indeed tapped to be Barack Obama’s Commerce Secretary, it’s likely Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, will name a replacement from his own party. Republicans, who would go down to 40 seats, are fighting mightly to prevent that from happening. If Al Franken beats former Sen. Norm Coleman and a Democrat gets Gregg’s seat, the Dems get their 60-seat majority.

Rep. Keith Ellison will again sit on the House Financial Services Committee, which deals with one issue that deeply affects the North Minneapolis neighborhood that’s home to his district HQ — the mortgage crisis. “If we can keep people in their homes, stop the fall in home prices and by doing so, fix the home mortgage crisis, we begin to put our economy back on track,” he said in a statement.

In a post I meant to link to earlier, Smart Politics finds that Ellison has a pretty strong mandate: He was elected with the second largest margin of victory ever for the 5th Congressional District and bested all first-term incumbents in margin of victory for reelection.

Earlier: Capitol Catchall: Committee appointments, Peterson’s ‘puters, Klobuchar on DTV

On the House side, the partisan lines are even more clearly drawn. Three members of Minnesota’s delegation (Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar) sided with their party on 99 percent of votes. Fellow DFLer Colin Peterson voted with the Democrats 91 percent of the time.

Republicans were only slight more likely to cross the party brass, with Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann backing GOP policies more than 95 percent of the time in 2008. They also sided with the president on roughly three quarters of their votes. Retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad was the most likely Minnesota House member to eschew party doctrine. He voted with the GOP 70 percent of the time, while siding with the Bush on fewer than half his votes.

Now MSNBC presents a GOP memo, reportedly circulated to Senate Republicans Wednesday morning, that shows there might be a political motive behind the votes: Entitled “Action Alert – Auto Bailout,” it characterized the defeat of the industry bailout — which is what the sub-60-vote Senate tally delivered — the “first shot against organized labor.” The memo went out to GOP senators, but perhaps Rep. Bachmann got a copy too. The same day the email was sent, she released a statement on her opposition to the bailout: “Unfortunately,  the Democrat-led Congress has chosen to blindly oblige Big Labor at every  turn, regardless of whether it’s in the best interest of taxpayers.”

From the Michigan Messenger: Big Three bailout spotlight reveals Detroit’s decay

The Minnesota delegation was similarly split on the legislation. Backing the proposal were Democrats Betty McCollum, Jim Oberstar and Keith Ellison, along with Republican John Kline. Aligned with the opposition were GOP legislators Jim Ramstad and Michele Bachmann, joined by Democrats Tim Walz and Colin Peterson.

The Crypt is live blogging developments on Capitol Hill. The Dow is down almost 600 points.

According to his press secretary, Allison Myhre, the Seventh District congressman has not set a deadline for deciding on a choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. “He has said that he is probably not going to make a decision until sometime this summer,” notes Myhre, “probably not until the farm bill process is complete.”

As chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Peterson has been enmeshed in negotiations over the long-stalled, $300-billion legislation. According to this Wall Street Journal story, the latest farm bill sticking point is sugar subsidies.

Nor will Peterson commit to reaching a decision on the presidential nomination by July 1, as urged by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and other party leaders. “I’m not sure,” says Myhre of the deadline. “I doubt it.”

Last month Nancy Larson threw her support to Obama, leaving Peterson as the only uncommitted superdelegate in the state. Right now Obama has the declared support of eight superdelegates, while Clinton has three such endorsements.

Kline, in his third term from Minnesota’s 2nd District, made one trip in January 2006 to the “Conservative Members’ Retreat” in Baltimore, sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation.  Kline did not need airfare for the trip, given the proximity of Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.  But he did receive food and lodging on the trip.

Peterson made a series of agriculture-related trips.  He received air, lodging and food for a Pheasants Forever event in Stuttgart, Ark., in January 2006.  Later that month, he traveled to Long Beach, Calif., at the expense of the American Sugarbeet Growers.  In March, he attended a meeting of the National Farmers Union in Denver, and in August he traveled to Asheville, N.C., at the expense of the American Sugar Alliance.

Oberstar made one trip in June to San Jose, Calif., at the expense of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. 

Disclosures for Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., were not yet available.  No other members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation showed any privately funded travel in 2006.