During her speech at the Iowa-based Family Leader on Friday, potential presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann made a bold claim before the gathering of social conservatives: Sen. Al Franken, she said, stole the election against Sen. Norm Coleman, and that election is to blame for the passage of the national healthcare reform law.

Bachmann spoke of taking the Triple Crown in 2012 — Republicans taking the House, Senate and White House — and getting to 60 Republican votes in the Senate. (Public Policy Polling, releasing a new survey Thursday [pdf], questioned that possibility, noting “strong movement back toward the Democrats right now” among the public and adding that “it’s entirely possible Democrats could take control of the House back next year.”)

“What do you get when you get to 60 seats in the Senate? You are filibuster-proof. You can pass anything you want,” she said. “That’s why an election was stolen in Minnesota, and yes, I will tell you, it was stolen.”

She continued, “And Al Franken became the 60th Senator to give Barack Obama a filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate and that’s how we got ‘Obamacare.’”

She said, “But for that stolen election, we wouldn’t have ‘Obamacare’ today. That’s how important every vote is.”

Bachmann didn’t elaborate on how she thought the election was stolen.

Election watchers on both sides of the aisle have dismissed claims and conspiracy theories that the election was stolen.

By Thursday evening, 93 percent of ballots had been counted in the Minnesota gubernatorial recount, but the State Canvassing Board will meet on Friday to deal with thousands of frivolous ballot challenges made by the team of Republican Tom Emmer, whose lawyer said the number could reach 8,700 by 2 pm today. Dayton’s team withdrew all its frivolous challenges and in a letter to the canvassing board chastised Emmer.Emmer’s frivolous challenges are included in the recount total unlike legitimate challenges, which are set aside for review by the canvassing board.

Meanwhile, the Dayton team announced on Thursday that it is rescinding all frivolous challenges, 42 in all. And in a letter to the canvassing board by Dayton attorney Marc Elias, the campaign accused the Emmer camp of trying to disrupt the recount process.

“This pattern of frivolous challenges by the Emmer campaign is inconsistent with Minnesota law,” wrote Elias. “It is disrespectful of the process and of thousand of Minnesota voters. I respectfully ask the Board to put an end to this irresponsible conduct, bring the recount to an orderly conclusion, and certify the results of this election.”

But on Thursday the Emmer team ramped up its efforts to frivolously challenge ballots. A reporter asked Emmer lawyer Tony Trimble if the canvassing board should look at a small number of ballots even if they didn’t have the 8,770 is would take to overcome DFLer Mark Dayton’s lead.  Trimble said they would get there. The UpTake has video of Trimble’s statements to the press on Thursday.

“The canvassing board would obviously perform its role,” he said. “There will be a large number of ballots. It’s too early to predict how many there will be, but I’m quite confident we’ll have a significant number of ballots, more than the number to make this a substantive review by the canvassing board.”

A reporter asked, “Did you just predict that the canvassing board would get more than 8,770 challenges?”

Trimble replied, “That would be my prediction, of course. That’s why we’re here.”

Another reporter asked, “That means the pace of challenges is going to have pick up significantly.”

“That could happen,” Trimble replied.

He added that politics play a role in the recount process. “Let’s be frank: This is also a political process. So, there’s going to be some of that gamesmanship around. Just like a campaign is a political process. This is an extension of that. It’s for the seating of a governor. So there will be huge emotions, huge efforts expended on each side. Let’s let it play out fairly, cleanly, above board and then we can make decisions.”

Tony Sutton, chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, told the Star Tribune that the party disagrees with the Dayton letter. “We not doing anything but exercising our right to make sure people are enfranchised, to make sure every vote counts,” Sutton said. “I’m dismayed that Mr. Elias would want to keep every vote from counting. That’s not Minnesota way.”

Elias-Letter –

By the end of the first day of the recount in Minnesota’s gubernatorial race, DFLer Mark Dayton picked up 20 votes while Republican Tom Emmer lost four after less than half of ballots were recounted Monday. The Emmer team launched an aggressive campaign to challenge ballots, although many challenges were rejected as “frivolous” by election officials. The recount was not without humor, though, as some voters made some interesting write-in choices. One voter, for instance, wrote in “Who farted?” for Ramsey County Sheriff — sure to be the recount’s version of the infamous 2008 write-in candidate “Lizard People.”

The Secretary of State‘s current total in the race shows Dayton leading Emmer by 8,794 votes after the 44.65 percent of ballots have been recounted.

Emmer released a statement yesterday praising elections officials, but made no prediction on his prospects after the first day.

“First, we all need to take a moment to thank the thousands of Minnesotans, from both sides of the aisle and the nonpartisan election officials, who have taken time from their busy lives to partake in the ultimate show of civic engagement,” Emmer said. “At the day’s conclusion, Minnesotans should be proud of the open and transparent recount process on display. Minnesota deserves election integrity. We are committed to ensuring the law is followed so voters will never have to question the value of their vote.”

At a Dayton campaign press conference Monday afternoon campaign spokesman Ken Martin said, “We want there to be no doubt that who ever is the next governor of this state is viewed as the legitimate governor. That means that we can’t short-change this process during the next week to two weeks.”

Dayton’s campaign challenged far fewer ballots than Emmer’s:  86 versus 281. Those numbers do not include challenges deemed frivolous by election judges.

“We’re not in the same position as Tom Emmer,” Martin said Monday. “We don’t need to go out and challenge every ballot. What we need to do is sit back and make sure we’re advocates for Mark Dayton, that we respect this process. We don’t need to go out there and make up ground and try to challenge every ballot.”

In Renville County, Emmer challenged 423 ballots, but only one was allowed to go forward. The remaining 422 ballots are included in the recount total but have been put into a separate pile for evaluation by the state canvassing board. If the board rules those challenges to be substantiated, they will be taken out of the recount total.

A moment of levity came when Team Emmer challenged a ballot where a voter wrote in “Who farted?” for Ramsey County Sheriff, an echo of the 2008 recount’s write-in’s for candidates like “Lizard People,” the “Flying Spaghetti Monster,” and “Nickel Bag.”

Some ballots were challenged by Emmer because voters didn’t completely fill in the circle next to a candidate’s name while in other other cases the campaign argued that ballots should be counted when multiple gubernatorial candidates were marked by voters.

The Dayton campaign released several examples of Emmer challenges that were deemed frivolous by election judges on Monday (via TheUptake):

12-Examples-Emmer-Frivolous-Hennepin-11-29-10

Rep. James Oberstar, chair of the powerful House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, had big plans for transportation in the nation, and in Minnesota in particular: a proposed high-speed rail line from St. Paul to Chicago and a high speed rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth, to name but two. But how well will these projects fare after the 18-term congressman’s defeat last week  and a shifting of leadership in Congress? Not well, according to advocates.

“I would say that the change in chairmanship from Congressman Oberstar is a huge loss, not just because he was from Minnesota, but because he had so many years of experience and so much expertise in the area of transportation policy,” said Margaret Donahoe, executive director of the Minnesota Transportation Alliance, a coalition of business, labor and local government groups concerned about surface transportation in the state. “And his colleagues took their cue from him. He was a real leader in developing transportation policy.”

Oberstar had tried to pass a $500 billion transportation bill but was stymied by the Obama administration, which wanted to pass health care and financial reform before tackling transportation. By delaying Oberstar’s bill — which contained $98.8 billion for transit and $50 billion for passenger rail — it will now face a profoundly altered Congress. Back in June 2009, the administration said consideration could come as soon as this January, which has now become a nearly impossible task with a GOP-controlled House.

But, while that bill sat, Oberstar had been working to build the infrastructure for two high-speed rail projects in Minnesota.

The Minneapolis-to-Duluth rail line, called the Northern Lights Express, looks to be on hold. Oberstar had been instrumental in getting that line started having secured $1.1 million in 2008 to study the project.

He also used his position as committee chair to convince the Federal Rail Commission of the economic growth the project would bring to a region that has been struggling with a decrease in mining and high unemployment.

Chip Cravaack, a Republican who beat Oberstar, says he won’t support the Northern Lights Express.

“I love railroads. Railroads are great,” Cravaack told the Duluth News Tribune. “But unless they can pay for themselves, I just don’t see it being practical. … The majority of these types of trains have to be subsidized, and we just cannot afford to subsidize it right now.”

The Northen Lights Express is only one of several projects that Oberstar backed which are likely to be stalled or eliminated, and for those projects for which funds are available, those funds could end up in other states without a transportation leader.

Donahoe says that losing Oberstar’s eye for Minnesota projects puts the state at a disadvantage.

“It’s helpful to have any chairman of a committee from your state,” she said. “That person understands the issues and challenges people in your state face, and transportation needs vary greatly from the densely populated east coast to less populated states to areas with huge congestion problems to parts of the country with more need for freight movement.”

She also said that political support for high-speed rail projects in the Midwest “may not be as
strong in the wake of the election results.”

That’s already begun to play out in terms of the St. Paul-to-Chicago high-speed line which had been picking up momentum.

In Wisconsin, newly elected Republican governor Scott Walker said he wants to kill a high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee that is already under construction, calling it wasteful and threatening to divert the funds to highways instead. The Obama administration threatened to revoke the $810 million in stimulus funds currently slated for the project because they are to be used only for rail projects.

If the Madison-to-Milwaukee project is killed, it would dash hopes for the line that connects to St. Paul and Chicago.

Oberstar had been a strong backer of the Midwest high speed rail plan and pushed for the line to go through Rochester as well.

Now, advocates of transit in Minnesota have fewer members of Congress who are supportive of these plans.

Said Donahoe, “Having the ability to meet with the Chairman and discuss the transportation needs in Minnesota is important.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty rated fifth among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Rasmussen poll released on Thursday. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich placed in the top four, followed by Pawlenty, who has lagged in virtually every professional poll and straw poll over the last year. Pawlenty has said his decision on a presidential run will be made this spring.

In the poll, Romney claimed the top spot with 20 percent; Huckabee and Palin were tied for a close second, at 19 percent. Gingrich got 13 percent and Pawlenty 6 percent. Pawlenty bested two other contenders: Ron Paul earned 5 percent and Mitch Daniels 3 percent.

A McClatchy poll in September found similar results: Pawlenty in fifth place with 6 percent.

And earlier this year, a Public Policy Polling poll of GOP contenders in New Hampshire showed Pawlenty in sixth place with 5 percent. A similar survey in July also had Pawlenty in sixth, but with only 3 percent.

“For eight long years, Minnesota has had a governor focused on his presidential ambitions rather than our students, seniors, and working families,” Kelliher said in a press release for the ad. “As your next governor, I will focus on creating good jobs, great schools, and ensuring we have safe roads and bridges. Because being Governor isn’t about scoring political points – it’s about improving people’s lives and getting Minnesota back to work.”

Kelliher:

Emmer:

Photo: TarrylClark.com

Tarryl Clark, the DFLer challenging U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in November, is headed to Las Vegas on Saturday to attend Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of progressive bloggers and candidates which spun off from YearlyKos, a get-together of DailyKos diarists and fans. She’ll have some Minnesota company: Sen. Al Franken is giving the closing day keynote.

“I’m coming to Netroots Nation 2010, and I’m asking you to be a part of my campaign for Congress,” Clark wrote in a post on DailyKos Friday. “Washington isn’t working for the people of my district, and neither is Michele Bachmann. They deserve better. They deserve a representative to will always be on their side. And that’s exactly where I’ll be.”

She praised the DailyKos community for spotlighting some of Bachmann’s more incendiary statements in recent years.

You’ve kept vigilant watch as Congresswoman Bachmann has gone under the white-hot spotlights of the cable talk show circuit again and again. And you’ve called her out: when she called on a conservative crowd to “slit our wrists” and “become blood brothers” in the efforts to defeat health care reform. When she called net neutrality an Obama plot to censor the Internet. When she said the American people needed to be “weaned off” Social Security and Medicare.

Clark, who attended last year’s Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, will be speaking in a program with Franken at the conference’s closing ceremonies on Saturday.

“With the tips that they get to take home, they are some people earning over $100,000 a year,” Emmer said of servers at the restaurant Monday.

From the column by John Tevlin:

“I don’t want people thinking we have people making $100,000 a year here, because we don’t,” said Kasel, who had to call his 29 employees that morning to prevent a mutiny. “No way, shape or form did I [tell Emmer] anyone made $100,000.”

Kasel said rather he told Emmer that a couple of his employees do well, and that “If all the pieces fell in the right place” they could make $100,000. But not a server, he said.

“But don’t put any numbers in your story,” said Kasel. “I don’t even make that much.”

Though Kasel said Emmer was misquoted, he didn’t disagree with implementing lowered minimum wage.

Tom Horner

Updated: Independence Party candidate Tom Horner told MinnPost on Wednesday that he agreed that a tip credit would be “part of the solution” in the hospitality industry. GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has been taking flack from unions and DFLers for saying that the minimum wage for tip-earners should be lowered — and for professing that some waters and bartenders make “over $100,000 a year.” Horner said he doesn’t agree with Emmer’s tone.

“Rep. Emmer’s insensitivity to the many hospitality workers who are struggling to earn a decent living is how ideological politics are dividing Minnesotans,” Horner told Minnpost’s David Brauer. “Tip credit is part of the solution needed to sustain jobs in the hospitality industry, but it shouldn’t be a rationale to pay less-than-minimum-wages.”

Horner added, “You have to strike a balance between [owners] operating at razor-thin margins and workers operating at the bottom of the pay scale. There’s potentially a middle ground.”

Updated: Horner adds in a new post by Brauer that he wouldn’t lower the minimum wage cap, but simply create a floor at the current minimum wage.

“There likely are other good policy solutions — none of which put me in the camp of wanting to pay less than the state’s minimum wage or ignoring the very real challenges facing hospitality employers operating with razor-thin margins.”

He outlined his thoughts:

- A “go-forward” approach in which a tip credit is applied only to increases in the federal minimum wage ($7.25 an hour, which applies to many hospitality businesses, not Minnesota’s lower standard). Minnesota hospitality workers still would earn no less than the state’s minimum wage, and more with tips.

- A phased in tip credit based on a person’s income. Again, this would guarantee that hospitality workers earn no less than minimum wage.