Kstp

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.

Community papers can’t catch a break: As the Minneapolis paper formerly known at The Bridge shuts down — even, apparently, online — a paper that stopped publishing two years finds itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Also, to sidestep mayhem at health care forums, local social media experts are trying a more civil exchange online.

Five Minnesota television stations are asking to see all the uncounted absentee ballots in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken contest for U.S. Senate. Four do news, while the fifth shows re-runs (with a new news show weeks off); all are owned by Coleman backer Stanley Hubbard. 

A SurveyUSA/KSTP poll released this week shows a high level of support in Minnesota for the recognition of same-sex couples. Sixty-four percent of respondents said the state should offer same-sex marriage or civil unions. Only 34 percent said same-sex couples should have no legal relationship rights.

The ongoing budget battle at the Capitol is not endearing state legislators to the public, according to a new SurveyUSA poll. Just 26 percent of Minnesota residents expressed approval of the job being performed by the state legislature, according to the poll, commissioned by KSTP (Channel 5), while 64 percent indicated disapproval.

A week after losing his KSTP AM show, Dave Thompson is throwing his hat in the ring to become state GOP chair. Chris Cillizza’s best-state-based blogs list came out at the Washington Post today, and Minnesota has more featured blogs than any other state. And a traffic milestone for MinnPost. All this, plus some naughty humor from Roger Ebert, inside.

A KSTP/SurveyUSA poll conducted last week found that a plurality of Minnesotans want a combination of budget cuts and an increase in taxes to fix the historic $4.8 billion deficit now facing legislators and the governor. What’s more, Minnesotans said they’d like wealthier taxpayers to shoulder the burden.

Another day brings another post-recount poll of Minnesotans about the U.S. Senate contenders, the recount process itself and what should happen next. According to a Daily Kos-Research 2000 survey, 47 percent of voters support seating Al Franken in the Senate (at least provisionally) and oppose former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s legal challenge to the recount. Though conducted only a day or two after a similar poll by Survey USA for KSTP-TV, the Daily Kos results show some intriguing differences.

Now these are some poll results Norm Coleman should sue over. KSTP-TV and other media outlets are reporting that a new Survey USA-KSTP poll shows almost half of Minnesotans want the former senator to concede the state’s ongoing Senate contest to challenger Al Franken. But that’s not quite what the survey results say. When asked directly what they thought should happen next, only 44 percent of respondents said Coleman should concede. And that’s better (for Coleman) than the 55 percent who one month ago objected to the loser challenging the results in court.

More number-crunching and KSTP’s video report after the jump.

In e-mails to the Minnesota Independent this afternoon, KSTP-TV’s Tom Hauser responds to reports that the station gave Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen’s campaign an early heads-up yesterday about the results of the latest 3rd Congressional District poll that Survey USA conducted for KSTP. Hauser also confirms that the latest poll was a re-do of one just two days earlier that left out the name of David Dillon, Independence Party candidate.