Environment

Did KSTP tip Paulsen on results of Survey USA’s new re-do poll?

A new Survey USA poll shows for the first time a spread between the two leading candidates in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District that’s greater than the margin of error. It’s a sudden swing that Survey USA suggests might be due to a TV ad that darkens Democrat Ashwin Madia’s skin. But if so, the effect would seem to arise more from recent news reports about the ad than from the ad itself, which came out a full week before the first of Survey USA’s latest pair of back-to-back polls. Another way Republican Erik Paulsen’s ahead: KSTP gave Paulsen’s campaign an early preview of the poll results, according to Joe Bodell. And David Dillon’s camp says the poll is a re-do because the Survey USA left the Independence Party candidate’s name off last time.

Video: Star Tribune squeamish over reporters asking Coleman about lawsuit in Dem ad

An editor’s note in today’s Star Tribune is the latest sign of the newspaper’s squeamishness about its own reporting of what are now two lawsuits alleging back-channel payoffs to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman:

EDITOR’S NOTE
The Democratic Senate [sic] Campaign Committee is running TV ads featuring a Star Tribune reporter questioning Sen. Norm Coleman about a lawsuit noted in this report. The video in the ad was filmed without the knowledge or consent of the Star Tribune.

The original video shows Strib reporter Paul McEnroe trying to ask Coleman about the first lawsuit filed in Texas this week as Coleman left a St. Cloud cafe Wednesday. (See the video here. See the DSCC’s ad after the jump.)

Chamber of Commerce funnels money to Norm Coleman to protect banks, thwart unionizing

National businesses and banks have been feeding Norm Coleman major sums of cash this last quarter, despite the fact that corporations and, especially the financial sector, are withering in a crippling economy and asking taxpayers for bailouts. According to a story in L.A. Times last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $30 million on lobbying in the third quarter of this year, more than twice as much as it spent for the same purpose in the previous quarter. And a chunk of that change is going to Minnesota senator Norm Coleman.

Science: 2, Sarah Palin: 0

For the past two years, Sarah Palin has proposed the incredible argument that declining beluga populations in Cook Inlet are not, in fact, a bad thing. Not surprisingly, Cook Inlet — located south of Palin’s hometown of Wasilla — happens to be the site for the proposed Knik Arm Bridge (the “other Bridge to [...]

MnIndy liveblog: Madia at the Humphrey Institute

DFL candidate Ashwin Madia spoke Monday over the noon hour at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, in a Charlie Rose-style dialogue with Prof. Larry Jacobs. Tomorrow, Madia’s Republican opponent in the 3rd district congressional race, state Rep. Erik Paulsen, will appear at the same venue. The title of Madia’s presentation today is “Green Fuel, [...]

McCain/Palin people: Mad as hell, not gonna take it anymore

John McCain will be in Lakeville this afternoon for a town-hall meeting. In recent days McCain-Palin rallies have elicited some rather ugly, bloodthirsty displays from the Republican faithful. Riled up by speakers declaring the Democratic presidential candidate a terrorist lover and addressing him as Barack Hussein Obama, audience members have responded by shouting out such [...]

Palin cleared! Palin cleared!

Wow, this is a relief. I was beginning to think the Troopergate Tasergate investigation would wind up with some sort of illegitimate, laughably partisan judgment that discredits the very concept of—
Oh, for the love of–

KTLK host Chris Baker: ‘I’m not that excited about women voting’

Chris Baker desperately wants attention. It’s rather sad and pathetic. So we probably shouldn’t do him the favor. But given that Baker somehow commands four hours of air time each weekday in the Twin Cities market, it’s worth highlighting the KLTK (FM-100.3) host’s latest inane rant. As captured by Media Matters, Baker’s beliefs about voting [...]

Norm Coleman touts lobbyist’s endorsement without telling you he’s a lobbyist

Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign, highly paid Republican bloggers and their lapdogs in the mainstream media are trumpeting the news that former DFL state Sen. Doug Johnson of Cook has endorsed the Republican Coleman for U.S. Senate. What they aren’t telling you is that Johnson is a registered lobbyist for Excelsior Energy, which is trying to build a controversial $2.3 billion “clean coal” energy plant on the Iron Range that has earned Coleman’s enthusiastic support for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants and loan guarantees.

Paulson to Bachmann (R-Fla.?!): ‘Economic Armageddon’ possible with or without bailout

The media keeps getting Rep. Michele Bachmann’s home state wrong. Last week it was New Mexico and today it’s Florida — this time courtesy of Human Events, which reports that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson couldn’t assure Bachmann that his bailout plan would avert (in her words) “economic Armageddon.”