Minnesota Independent » Democratic National Committee

Pawlenty to Kaine: Not so fast

Paul Demko — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:07:12 +0000

Gov. Tim Pawlenty politely rebuffed Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine’s plea to intervene in the U.S. Senate contest by pressuring Norm Coleman to concede. In a letter to the Virginia governor, Pawlenty argued that it’s too early to declare a winner in the contest.

“As a fellow Governor and attorney, I am sure you can appreciate that such commitment would be premature,” Pawlenty wrote, according to Politico. “The Minnesota Supreme Court might remand the case to the three-judge panel and ask them to consider carious issues that were raised in the election contest.”

Kaine started the pen-pal relationship by calling on Pawlenty to use his powers of persuasion to convince Coleman to step aside. It’s part of an ongoing campaign by Democrats and their allies to build pressure on Pawlenty in anticipation of a ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court. If the state’s top court ratifies the findings of a three-judge panel, which determined that Al Franken won the senate race by 312 votes, then Pawlenty will be forced to decide whether to sign an election certificate.

DNC chair calls on Pawlenty to intervene in U.S. Senate race

Paul Demko — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:58:32 +0000

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine sent a letter to Gov. Tim Pawlenty yesterday urging him to call on Norm Coleman to concede the U.S. Senate contest. “I urge you to use your influence to bring this process to an end by asking Norm Coleman to allow his neighbors and yours their full representation in Congress,” the note, first reported by Politico, reads. “The voters of Minnesota elected Al Franken, and during every step in the legal process that judgment has been confirmed.”

The letter is part of a concerted effort by Democrats and their allies to put pressure on Pawlenty in anticipation of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling on the contest. A three-judge panel determined that the Democrat won the election by 312 votes and the state’s top court is widely expected to ratify that decision. Pawlenty has been cagey about whether he will sign an election certificate at that point, which would clear the way for Franken to be seated.

The Republican leadership in Washington has made it obvious that they’ll do whatever it takes to keep Franken from taking office, and therefore giving President Obama a veto-proof 60-seat majority. The latest evidence: the National Republican Senatorial Committee recently committed $750,000 to cover Coleman’s spiraling legal bills, reports the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza.

Dems keep up multimedia razzing of Coleman with Tedisco-themed video

Chris Steller — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:59:02 +0000

The Democratic National Committee has a new Web ad urging Norm Coleman to concede as his fellow Republican Jim Tedisco did Friday in New York’s special congressional election. It’s the latest example of the Web-based razzing Dems are giving the former U.S. Senator since he appealed his re-election loss to the Minnesota Supreme Court last week.

Here’s the new video (via @polanimal):

Among the other Democratic Party high-tech highjinks:
• the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s online timeline showing how Coleman has “obstructed” the process
• the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota’s GiveItUpNorm.com Web site with added videos

The morning after: Coleman’s legal prospects look grim

Paul Demko — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:05:56 +0000

Yesterday’s ruling by a three-judge panel declaring Al Franken the victor by 312 votes in the U.S. Senate contest leaves Norm Coleman on precarious legal ground. The former senator has vowed to appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and hinted at a federal court contest, but it’s clear that his chances of prevailing are now exceedingly slim.

Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School, lauds the the “careful, unanimous” ruling of the three-judge panel on his blog. “It makes findings of fact and conclusions of law that on first read appear reasonable and conservative,” Hasen writes. “The opinion considers the major arguments made by Coleman and rejects them in a detailed and measured way. It is the kind of opinion that is unlikely to be disturbed on appeal by either the Minnesota Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court.”

Nate Silver, over at FiveThirtyEight, declares that Coleman’s prospects for prevailing have now reached “Calista Flockhart territory.” Silver also comes up with an estimate for how much the former senator might be spending to keep the legal fight going. His (admittedly imprecise) conclusion: $145,000 per week.

While the numbers guru figures Coleman’s odds of prevailing in the courts are incredibly slim, he also doesn’t see too many other options for the Republican politically. “His best bet might be to wait until 2014, when Franken would be up for re-election, but six years is a lifetime in politics,” Silver concludes. “Although Coleman’s chances of prevailing in his legal case are not very strong, they may be better than his next-best alternatives.”

NBC News’ First Read blog is equally dismissive of Coleman’s prospects. “We’ll say it again: The question increasingly is no longer whether Al Franken will be the next U.S. senator from Minnesota; it’s when he’ll be the next senator.”

Not surprisingly, Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called on Coleman to concede.
“Enough is enough,” Kaine said in a statement. “It is time for Norm Coleman to concede and for Al Franken to be sworn in as the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota. The voters of Minnesota months ago elected Al Franken to the Senate — and during every step in the legal process that judgment has been confirmed.”

Slightly less predictable was the reaction of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. “When are the Republicans gonna give up the ghost on this?” Scarborough asked on today’s edition of “Morning Joe.” “Norm, I like you. You lost. Can we seat a senator so Amy [Klobuchar] doesn’t have to do the job of two senators. … It is seriously not fair to constituents in Minnesota to drag this out any longer. It’s over, Norm.”

Here’s the video of Scarborough:

Former DFL official tapped to run ‘Obama 2.0′

Paul Demko — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:50:00 +0000

Mitch Stewart, who ran the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s coordinated campaign during the 2006 election cycle, has been named the director of Organizing for America. The fledgling organization, frequently dubbed “Obama 2.0,” is charged with continuing the grassroots organizing that was a hallmark of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Organizing for America — which can tap into 13 million e-mail addresses, 4 million cellphone numbers, and 2 million active volunteers accumulated during the campaign — will be housed at the Democratic National Committee.

Stewart led a largely successful DFL effort in 2006, winning the U.S. Senate contest by a landslide, but narrowly losing the governor’s race. During the presidential primary campaign he earned plaudits for leading Obama’s organizing effort for the Iowa caucuses. He then went on to head the Democrat’s general-election team in Virginia.

“The message we heard loud and clear from people across the country is that this movement must continue as we actively support President Obama’s agenda and continue to fight for the change our country needs,” Stewart said in a statement released by the DNC. “I’m deeply honored to be a part of this next phase as the volunteers, grassroots leaders and ordinary citizens continue to drive our organization.”

‘More of the Same’ Center: Dems plan RNC counter-offensive

Paul Schmelzer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:13:28 +0000

The Democratic National Committee is coming to the Republican National Convention — or at least, across the street. Hoping to keep a post-DNC bump, the party is setting up a media office across from the Xcel Energy Center to serve as a rapid-response center for countering whatever goes on inside. The “More of the Same” center — to be accessible via justmoreofthesame.com — will host media spokespeople, two dozen fact-checkers (who’ll fisk every GOP speech) and a satellite truck to transit interviews anywhere in the world. And in addition to its already-running bus-shelter postering, the DNC will have a mobile billboard that’ll “stalk” John McCain, the New York Times reports. It’s a strategy similar to the one the Republicans are using in Denver, only closer. The GOP’s response team was housed a mile from the convention venue, but still managed to get Minnesota’s Tim Penny in to bash the candidate of his former party, Barack Obama.

Fast work: McClellan book already a DNC anti-McCain ad

Steve Perry — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:35:16 +0000

Just two days after the news of Scott McClellan’s book broke, the Democratic National Committee has already posted a web ad tying McClellan’s disclosures about the selling of the war to John McCain’s pledge to continue the fight. It concludes with still another montage of McCain and George W. Bush uttering the same words — a device that’s sure to grow even more ubiquitous in ads during the general campaign.

Democratic National Committee, “Propaganda” (1:00)

RNC tries to scuttle DNC’s ’100 years’ McCain/Iraq ad

Steve Perry — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:23:13 +0000

The Republican National Committee is leaning on the TV networks to refuse to air the anti-John McCain spot made by its counterparts at the DNC and released over the weekend. (We posted the :30 ad here.) The RNC is thereby trying to take out of play once and for all McCain’s repeated claims that he would be happy to leave US troops in Iraq for 100 years or more. And the news media are buying in, as these dispatches from AP and USA Today indicate. McCain and the GOP’s plea is that it’s all a question of words ripped out of context and that he was talking about a long-term occupation of Iraq without US casualties. Which is true — and which absolutely deserves more scrutiny, since it’s a perfectly mad little fantasy that a Western power can occupy Iraq without violent resistance. Ask the Brits.

When would McCain leave Iraq if this fantasy never came to pass? Josh Marshall found additional footage of the candidate with his foot in his mouth on the same subject in a TPM-TV post earlier this month, and followed it with a cogent explanation of why occupying Iraq cannot be compared to the bases we established in Japan, Germany and other vanquished states after wars there. Highly recommended. That video is below the jump.

Continued: Click “Read More”TPM-TV: 100 years of quietude, 4/8/08 (4:50)

Video: New DNC ad revisits McCain’s “hundred years in Iraq”

Steve Perry — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:26:09 +0000

The Democratic National Committee released a new anti-McCain spot over the weekend, culled from the January forum where he uttered the best-known — but hardly the only — version of his “100 years in Iraq” fantasy. The Washington Post’s Channel ’08 blog reports that it will run mainly on the cable news channels. (Below the jump, you can see the first DNC ad, “Better Off?”, about the US economy.)

DNC: “100″ (:30)

Continued: Click “Read More”DNC: “Better Off?” (:30)

DNC sues FEC over McCain’s campaign expenditures

Steve Perry — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:09:54 +0000

Hope Yen of the Associated Press writes that the Democratic National Committee is filing a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission today. According to Yen, the litigation “questions the agency’s ability to enforce the law and review McCain’s decision to opt out of the system. The Republican presidential candidate, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary campaign, decided earlier this year to give up that money so he could avoid strict spending limits between now and the GOP’s national convention in September…. DNC officials said the FEC is unable to act because four of its six seats are vacant. They want a judge to either order the FEC to begin an immediate review, or allow the Democratic Party to file a lawsuit against McCain’s campaign challenging his decision.”

Below the jump, more about McCain’s FEC troubles.

Continued: Click “Read More”Backstory:

Washington Post, 2/21/08:
“McCain’s attempts to build up his campaign coffers before a general election contest appeared to be threatened by the stern warning yesterday from Federal Election Commission Chairman David M. Mason, a Republican. Mason notified McCain that the commission had not granted his Feb. 6 request to withdraw from the presidential public financing system.
“The implications of that could be dramatic. Last year, when McCain’s campaign was starved for cash, he applied to join the financing system to gain access to millions of dollars in federal matching money. He was also permitted to use his FEC certification to bypass the time-consuming process of gathering signatures to get his name on the ballot in several states, including Ohio.”

Associated Press, 3/20/08:
“McCain has now spent $58.4 million in his primary bid, surpassing the $50 million limit he would have faced if he participated in the public financing system he had been certified to join. McCain has decided not to accept the public matching funds, but the FEC wants him to assure regulators that he did not use the promise of public money as collateral for a $4 million loan.
“McCain and his lawyers said the loan was secured with other collateral, thus freeing him to spend as much money as he wishes on his primary campaign. The Democratic National Committee has filed a complaint with the FEC arguing McCain cannot withdraw from the public finance system without FEC approval.”