Dfl

The national Democratic Party joined forces with two of its state organizations to tar Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty with a hard-right social “manifesto” — a 1989 master’s-degree thesis by Bob McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor in Virginia. As Pawlenty crossed the Old Dominion on Wednesday campaigning for McDonnell, Democrats held a teleconference with national reporters and Minnesota media.

This plan could backfire: By putting the spotlight on a State Fair vendor — Grandstand Donuts — that’s really an unadvertised fundraiser for DFL candidates, the Minnesota Republican Party could actually boost sales of Democratic donuts.

Five Democrats running for governor have agreed to abide by the party’s nominating process, reports Eric Black at MinnPost, but several others — including some well-funded presumptive front-runners — won’t make such a promise.

Two outside organizations and Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign illegally coordinated advertising that aided Coleman via a political consultant they all shared, the Minnesota DFL Party charged in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
No, they didn’t, the FEC has ruled.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s announced plans to axe state refunds for political contributions of $50 or less has set off an email stampede as candidates urge donors to give before the program dies July 1.

“Rybak won!” It’s a cry that didn’t emanate far beyond the walls of Minneapolis’ Washburn High School, where on Saturday city DFL delegates endorsed the re-election of Mayor R.T. Rybak. But versions of that cry rang across Europe on the same day as the annual Eurovision song contest was won by a young Norwegian fiddler named [...]

“When you win an election by 312 votes, there’s not a lot of effort that goes to waste,” Al Franken told Minneapolis Democrats Saturday. “We ran a very efficient campaign.” Franken nominated R.T. Rybak for endorsement for a third term as mayor at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s city convention.

Even as Democratic Party organizations roll out videos and radio ads urging Norm Coleman to give up his claim on his old U.S. Senate seat, the head of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party made this pronouncement about the Republican’s election-contest appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court: “It’s over.”
Video after the jump.

Bob Miller announced this afternoon that he’s dropping out of the race for Minneapolis mayor — for now. Word that Miller, who heads the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program, would “suspend” his challenge to Mayor R.T. Rybak for the DFL Party endorsement came just hours after Rybak delivered his State of the City address (more [...]

The one Minneapolis City Council seat in the clutches of the Green Party is likely to stay that way, unless a credible DFL candidate comes forward to take the place of Charles Carlson, the newly departed — and truly incredible — challenger to incumbent Cam Gordon. The Green stalwart, who won by 141 votes in 2005 after losing by only 106 votes in 2001, tells the Minnesota Independent he plans to campaign for re-election as usual but won’t be surprised if the DFL decides to endorse no one to oppose him.