Almanac: At the Capitol

Looking back at the week in politics, the U.S. Senate race was the story.  From Jesse Ventura's announcement with Larry King on CNN that he wasn't running to 7 Independence Party members jumping in from former U.S. Senator Dean Barkley and former IP Chair Jack Uldrich.  Getting less press is the fact there are also 7 DFLers in this race, most notably Priscilla Lord Faris who is challenging Al Franken.  It was a madhouse outside the secretary of state's office for candidate filing.

The other story I'm watching is Pawlenty slipping a bit in the national buzz.  The Washington Post moved him down from #1 in the veepstakes for the first time. But the buzz about his hair continues, MSNBC said the shaving of the mullet means he's serious about being VP.  We documented the disappearing mullet back in May.  MSNBC also says Pawlenty dodged questions about whether he is now being vetted.  But our governor's biggest honor has to be making a hilarious viral hit from Jib Jab (notice him tucked into McCain's Straight Talk Express).

 

 

One of the Independence Party candidates for U.S. Senate, Jack Uldrich, tried to prove he's going to have a different approach to his campaign. He rolled out a YouTube-inspired web commercial. Uldrich is a smart and thoughtful guy, but this ad may be too smart and too complicated for the web. One young person who saw the ad told me it's too long and confusing.
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The media were there in mass to watch the unpredictable last-minute candidate filings at the secretary of state's office. The Independence Party of Minnesota will have quite the spirited primary with more than half a dozen candidates now in the mix.
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U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann is headed to ANWR with fellow Republicans. She just appeared on CNN and said if we drill for oil in Alaska we can have "two-dollar-a-gallon gas again." When asked about the environmental and wildlife impact she said, it's "dark most of year" and there are "no trees" so it's the "perfect area" to drill.
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Here's what Jesse had to say: "This is an agonizing decision...felt like '98...my personal life...my family...my children were attacked by Minnesota media...do I want to put my family on the firing line again...maybe I'm not religious enough...God has never spoken to me...maybe at 5:00 God will send me to file...I came close...my daughter feared....won't put my family through that again...I don't see how Al Franken can win."
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In my Campaign Notebook this week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty watches as Sen. John McCain embraces First Lady Mary Pawlenty. Potential first lady Cindy McCain also got a big hug from Pawlenty. Sources have long told me that the two couples hit it off quite some time ago. Could this be the future first and second couple? McCain praised Pawlenty again visiting Minnesota, but neither gave any indication that they're going to share a ticket.
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Thanks to MDE and MnPublius for hosting a bi-partisan happy hour for bloggers. We were there to work (and alas not participate in happy hour) but it was so refreshing to see active, engaged, partisan and non-partisan people talking, laughing and getting along. The perception is that people on the left and right hate each other. Talking to people face to face makes it much harder to say or maybe even write mean things.
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House Minority Leader Marty Seifert lined up his candidates in front of the Capitol and gender stood out. The GOP is running a record number of women. In a nod to his '70s pop culture upbringing Seifert said he didn't want a "Smurf village where we have one female running around."
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Just a quick note that I'm back from a week off of blogging and away from all forms of electronic communication. A computer free holiday sounded fun, but we found ourselves climbing cliffs to get an internet signal.
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