Franken Out Raises Coleman

Franken raises 1.9 million, very very impressive. Franken enjoys the most name recognition, probably even better that Coleman (the negatives are pretty bad though along with that).

Statistics I like about his fundraising, he only recieved $5,500 from PAC's, $5000 being from Sen. Durbin's PAC and the other $500 was from an Allied Workers Association. Last quarter, Coleman got nearly a third of his money from PAC's meaning he is a tool for big money interests. I really hope Franken never succumbs to recieving PAC money because once the race gets going and it becomes apparent he is a real threat to Coleman, the PAC's may come a spending.

Other notable things is that in Franke's first quarter, he raised 1.3 million. He only was able to raise money for about half of that quarter and as Minnesota Democrats Exposed points, if he were to keep pace, then he should've raised 2.6 million this quarter. But alas, the first quarter was probably dominated by people who knew him as a comedian, not as a real contender for the US Senate so that 1.3 million is inflated with people who donated because he was Al Franken, not because he was running against Norm Coleman.

I'm still not supporting Franken. Raising money is incredibly important, especially if you can outspend your opponent but man, why can't we have a real Minnesotan running that is able to raise this kind of money and have such broad name recognition. I really hope Jack NP officially decides to run, my broke college student self would even consider donating money to him on top of the numerous hours I'll spend campaigning.

Darned Internet

My internet is awful and barely ever works so I'll add some new posts when I have time and when my internet works, something that rarely happens at the same time these days....

Bachmann to Visit Iraq!

"WASHINGTON — Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is part of a six-member congressional delegation that is visiting the Middle East to assess the U.S. military situation in Iraq.

Bachmann's office said the group left Sunday and will meet with military and civilian officials in Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan and will meet with U.S. troops serving in the region.

This is Bachmann's first trip to the Middle East. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November."

(http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1280148.html)


This makes me very happy obviously. I'm sure she'll come back saying how well off the Iraqis are and all sorts of crap that is cleary untrue. God I hope she learns a thing or two about the country, she has been so misguided before, the redistricting plan that she made up, this could be good. It will also probably be one big event she can use for publicity.

Q2 Fundraising

The Startribune started reporting on the numbers.

Ciresi raised $735,000 which is quite respectable. And the article notes that he started fundraising in May, meaning he lost at least a month of this quarter. The Startribune also reported that Ciresi is worth $26.73 million. I am against self-funding, if you can't win the support of Minnesotans financially, then you shouldn't be able to win their support in the election. While this isn't true in reality, I think in principle it should be. However, I find it borderling disgusting that Al Franken has held fundraisers in California and New York so I guess if Ciresi needs to self-fund to keep up with Al, it is not as unethical in my opinion. But, still slightly unethical nonetheless. Oh, and 73% of Ciresi's money came from MN, something Franken won't be able to boast I'm sure.

Coleman raised $1.5 million and has $4 million cash on hand. ::sigh:: He is a great fundraiser. However, about a third of his money comes from PAC's (out of the last $1.5 million he raised, $470,000 was from PACs). The money he is raising is going to make him such a tough opponent. It's a good thing its been proven that money isn't everything you need to win.

Franken has yet to announce his totals, however the Star Tribune reported today that Andy Barr spoke on behalf of the campaign and said he has 30,000 donors. I don't know if that means 30,000 total now or 30,000 from Q2 alone. Either way, that is some serious cash. It'll be interesting to see how many of them are from MN though.

Matthew Shepard Act

The Senate is preparing to start debating the Matthew Shephard Act that would add gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation to the list of hate crimes. The Human Rights Campaign has been campaigning aggressively to get this passed, as it should, it is much needed since hate crimes based on sexual orientation account for one in sex hate crimes . They have produced a fantastic Youtube video which can be found here http://youtube.com/watch?v=GOqlrHgrSgc.

The House has already voted, Minnesota's delegation voted along party lines except Peterson of course joined the bigots Republicans on this issue.

The Senate is about to vote so I of course e-mail Coleman and Klobuchar to urge them to vote yes. I never got a reply from Klobuchar because her constituent services are, well, terrible it seems. (I never get replies from her.)

I did however get a very prompt reply back from Coleman (as always, I know Klobuchar is new but her office should be able to reply back to a simple email by now). And you know what his email said, since Minnesota has such anti-discrimination laws and they work fine, I am "inclined to support this legislation." SINCE WHEN DOES HE SUPPORT GAY RIGHTS! It's one of the reasons he turned Republican I've heard, abortion, gay marriage, and because he didn't think Democrats did enough for education (ha).

I really am quite confused. He refused to sign onto any gay right's issues as mayor because the issues started including transgendered people and this legislation does too. I really am baffled as to why he is inclined. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that he saw the light, well at least partially, but I really just don't get it. Meh, we'll take all the votes we can get I spose. Maybe this will just be another thing to nail him for in his primary.

Minnesota Road Congestion

MNpublius has a great post, yet short, discussing how Minnesota's urban roads have been ranked as the 49th best in country in terms of congestion meaning that only one state in the entire country has more urban congestion than us.

What was one of those bills that Pawlenty vetoed last legislative session, oh yeah a bill to raise the gasoline tax and other fees so that we can properly fund transportation and build more mass transit systems.

Thanks Pawlenty......

MNpublius post can be found at http://www.mnpublius.com/

Coleman and the Immigration Debate

MSNBC has an article talking about the immigration debate and it profiles two Senators, one being our very own Coleman. The article discusses Coleman's amendment to the immigration bill that would make it so that "sanctuary cities" can no longer pass laws and would nullify laws already passed that would require police officers to not question the legality of one's immigration status. So in other words, a police officer can't ask a person if they are here legally whether if the person is arrested or if the person is requiring assistance.

I am iffy on police officers asking if someone is a legal immigrant when they have arrested someone. I don't believe it is their job to deal with illegal immigrants and nor should they care. It's something the Federal Government needs to deal with. Plus it leads to racism, racial profiling and so forth.

When it comes to police asking if someone is an illegal immigrant when they require assistance, absolutely not. Then illegal immigrants won't ask for help when they need it.

There is a great parallel in this, especially since I am a college student, to underage drinking and getting injured. My friend hit her head relatively hard while drunk, when they called the hospital on what should they do, they were told to bring her in. The guy calling for my friend told the hospital that she was underage and was drinking and asked if she would get a minor. The hospital said no, then people who have been injured while underage drinking would not come in and ignoring injuries is a much worse offense than not giving someone a minor.

This goes right along with Coleman's amendment, it is far worse an offense to not call the police when you really need help than to not arrest an illegal immigrant. People could die because of this amendment, people could have their cars stolen, be held at gun point, be robbed, be assaulted, raped even, but they would be afraid to be deported.

Coleman may not vote on this bill then if his amendment isn't passed, which it has already failed once so I see no reason that it will pass this time. I'm kind of surprised by this. Coleman is fairly conservative on many issues but I always figured he wouldn't be such a hardliner on this. This certainly appeases his Republican base, and adds fuel to the fire for us to defeat him.

The article also says "Coleman, elected in 2002 with only 49 percent, faces a tough re-election battle next year, likely against Democrat author-comedian Al Franken." It appears everyone believes it will be Franken but I still think it is entirely possible that it won't be.

The article can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19444984/.