Governor

Although the new president hasn’t even been sworn in yet, political junkies are looking ahead to 2012. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told Associated Press reporters on Wednesday that he won’t be on presidential ballots in four years. Jindal is being watched as one of the top Republican contenders together with Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and, [...]

The twin stacks of recounted ballots for Al Franken and Norm Coleman, each nearing a million votes in height Tuesday night, are like the mattresses piled high in the fable “The Princess and the Pea.” Franken has 976,187 to Coleman’s 978,751 — only a 0.0011 percent difference out of the total 2,354,080 recounted so far, according to official figures. In Hans Christian Andersen’s story, the princess’s sleeplessness at night and bruises by morning — all from a tiny pea many mattresses below her — are proof of her royalty. In Minnesota’s recount story, neither man rests well, tossing and turning because at the bottom of each pile lies a growing bundle of the other man’s challenged ballots.

We’re supposed to learn Tuesday whether a final batch of 24,000 absentee and contested ballots will bring U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, back from a 1,000-vote deficit to win re-election, despite his recent felony conviction. Should Stevens win election but then get booted from the Senate, Gov. Sarah Palin will be in a situation very roughly akin to Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson’s in 1976 after former U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale was elected vice president. Anderson quit as governor, having arranged for his replacement, Rudy Perpich, to appoint him in Mondale’s place. Voters punished both Anderson and Perpich two years later, denying them re-election. If Stevens is the winner after the last Alaska vote is counted tomorrow, what advice would Anderson have for Palin?

Already by Tuesday, two men had tiptoed onto Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s turf this week. The city’s revitalization chief, Bob Miller, says he’ll run for the mayor’s job next year, the Southwest Journal reports. And on Monday Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a move on the green-jobs territory that Rybak — joined by another guv-wanna-be, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman — has spent years staking out. Meanwhile, as Pawlenty gears up for a potential presidential bid in 2012, a different Minneapolis official threw his hat in the ring for governor: State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL).

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty made an election eve appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday — a rare visit by a conservative on Maddow’s fledgling cable-TV companion to her popular Air America radio program. His key message, with an eye to 2012: “I’m available, I’m available.” Video after the jump, with a transcription of Pawlenty’s comments on McCain and Obama, the Franken-Coleman U.S. Senate race in Minnesota, and whether Gov. Sarah Palin is a drag on the ticket or a future leader of the party.

On today’s Star Tribune cover Patricia Lopez makes a case that Minnesota voters who don’t intend to vote a straight party line at the top of the ballot could play a critical role in the outcome of the state’s U.S. Senate race. If that sounds familiar it’s because the Strib printed essentially the same story two years ago about voters who backed Democrat Amy Klobuchar for U.S. Senate and Republican Tim Pawlenty for governor. The difference is that in 2006 the poll numbers justified the fuss.

Some people on the right are a little overeager to rip apart Mike Hatch’s latest ad (and with the polls going the way they are, I can see why), but their overzealousness may become a source of embarrassment if they’re not a little more careful.  With that thought in mind, let’s take a look at [...]

At tonight’s gubernatorial debate, going on as this is posted, Tim Pawlenty seems to be going a little over the top with his rhetoric!  Check out this response to a question about the status of the Minnesota transportation system:

We have made more progress than any other administration in modern history.

Whoa, big claim there Timmy and [...]

Just as I finished writing the last post about the unscrupulous push polls GOP cohorts are rolling out, I found another story of nasty push polling in my inbox.  The link is to “The Smirking Cynic” where Nicho details his receiving a push poll designed to disparage Mike Hatch.  Unfortunately Nicho didn’t have a pen [...]