Free Republic

Gay-rights activists in Minnesota thought 2012 would be the year they could finally make a serious push for gay marriage in the state, but a surprise Republican takeover of the Legislature has them back on the defensive instead. Tom Prichard, president of the Minnesota Family Council, said Thursday that his group will push for a statewide vote in 2012 to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Minnesota's Constitution. Previous efforts to do so in 2004, 2005 and 2006 met a firewall in the strongly Democratic state Senate, but that liberal majority crumbled in Tuesday night's election. And despite a...

Chip Cravaack, an ex-Navy pilot, was driving down the road, obeying a call from afar. It was a hot day in August 2009, at the peak of Tea Party fervor. A radio talk show host was railing against the Democrats' health care plan: Visit your congressman -- the talker said -- demand a town hall meeting. "I had my kids in the back of the car," recalls Cravaack, 51, a self-described stay-at-home dad with two boys, ages 8 and 6. "I was going down Highway 14, towards North Branch." It was a trip that would put Cravaack on a course...

With only a half of a percentage point separating DFL candidate Mark Dayton and Republican candidate Tom Emmer, Minnesota Republican leaders say they will pursue the recount until every single vote is counted. "We believe that we owe it not just to the Republican party and Tom Emmer, we owe it to the state to make sure this is done correctly," State Chair Tony Sutton told reporters Wednesday. "What I'd like to make sure is that the votes are counted and that everything is done correctly to make sure people aren't being disenfranchised." Sutton says the party wants assurances that...

Rep. Jim Oberstar, who for 18 terms represented one of the safest Democratic seats in the nation, was swept out of office by Republican Chip Cravaack, a newcomer to politics. Cravaack won 48 percent to 47 percent. Nobody thought it would be this close. Certainly not DFL stalwart Oberstar, a lion of Iron Range politics for the past four decades. Nobody, that is, except Cravaack, a newcomer to politics who seemed to be giving Oberstar the fight of his political life. Oberstar, a powerful transportation committee chairman who has delivered millions of dollars in pork-barrel projects to his northern Minnesota...

For the first time in more than a generation the GOP swept to control of both houses of the Minnesota Legislature. In a stunning victory, Republicans swept into the majority in the Minnesota Senate for the first time in more than a generation and by early Wednesday had followed that by also taking control of the House. The dual victories left many of the state's top DFLers speechless, and erased months of optimistic projections that the party would buck a nationwide trend toward Republicans. Even Republicans, who gained confidence with each passing hour as key races broke their way, said...

The Minnesota governor's race is so close it has come to this: another recount appears almost certain. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, DFLer Mark Dayton leads Republican Tom Emmer by less than one half of 1 percent -- 43.67% to 43.24%. For any race where the margin is less than one half of 1 percent, there is an automatic recount, as happened two years ago in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race. "It looks like it's recount part II: And this time it's personal," said state Republican Party Chair Tony Sutton.

What an upset!!!

A Minnesota congressman nearly untouchable for years may be in for the fight of his life. A new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll shows 8th Congressional District Rep. Jim Oberstar leads Republican challenger Chip Cravaack by only one percentage point - 47 to 46. Oberstar, who was first elected to the House in 1974, has not received less than 59 percent of the vote in 18 elections. Steven Schier of Carleton College says Oberstar's votes on three key issues are hurting him: health care, cap and trade and federal stimulus funding. In the KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Cravaack gets 87 percent of Republicans, while Oberstar...

DFL congressman Jim Oberstar, accustomed to winning with 65% or more of the vote in Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, finds himself running even with Republican challenger Chip Cravaack, heading into the final weekend of the campaign, a new SurveyUSA poll conducted for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis shows. Today, it's 47% Oberstar, 46% Cravaack, a result within the survey's theoretical margin of sampling error.

The Democrats are proud of their generosity to the poor, and owing perhaps due to some unclear thinking aren't aware that charitable acts must be of free will, and there's no merit in being generous with other people's money. Hat tip to Ray at Stella Borealis for this item. But with them it's always the same, high crime and higher and higher taxes. Now there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said: Why was this waste of the ointment made? [5] For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the...

Election day is six months away, but for now it appears Democrats won't have an easy time winning the Minnesota governor's office for the first time in 24 years. Exclusive 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS-SurveyUSA poll results show Republican Tom Emmer as the early front-runner in three hypothetical races. His lead coincides with a surge in Minnesota voters who self-identify themselves as Republicans. Emmer captured the Republican endorsement for governor in convincing fashion. Now, in a hypothetical match-up against DFL-endorsed candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher and the favorite to win the Independence Party nomination, Tom Horner, Emmer has a convincing lead. According to...

A Republican psychologist-lawyer announced today he will challenge Minnesota's Democratic attorney general, Lori Swanson, pledging to work to overturn the national health care law if elected.

The League of Conservation Voters announced Wednesday that it will work to defeat Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) this year. The group named Bachmann to its “Dirty Dozen” list of targets for the 2010 cycle, but with a twist – LCV said she won 60 percent in an online vote LCV hosted to select a “people’s choice” addition to the list. “Representative Bachmann’s landslide win as the ‘People’s Choice’ clearly shows voters are fed up with her over-the-top, anti-science rhetoric in which she continually parrots the talking points of Big Oil and other corporate polluters,” said Tony Massaro, LCV’s senior vice...

More than 100 staff members appointed by three Minnesota congressmen who serve as chairman or ranking member on powerful House committees appear to be exempt from a key requirement in the controversial health care reform bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law. According to a Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) review of the state congressional delegation’s committee assignments, it appears that 115 committee staff of Congressmen James Oberstar, Collin Peterson and John Kline might be able to opt out of the requirement to purchase their health coverage through new state-run insurance exchanges.  “Forcing millions of Americans into...

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has rejected a request from Gov. Tim Pawlenty to sue over the new federal health care law. Instead, Swanson said Monday she will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the federal government in a lawsuit filed by 13 state attorneys general. The Democratic attorney general sent the Republican governor a letter saying a lawsuit isn't warranted because health care fits squarely within the federal government's authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Who's more likely to perform the politically Herculean feat of ousting GOP cable TV darling Michele Bachmann from her Sixth District congressional seat -- DFL insider Tarryl Clark or outsider Maureen Reed? That was the question under earnest discussion by a pair of party veterans March 13 at the Senate District 52 convention, held at Mahtomedi High School. I leaned in to listen. "I'm for Tarryl Clark because she's electable," said Mary Vogel of Marine on St. Croix. "We need someone who knows how to run a winning campaign, because she's done it. She's an experienced legislator, and a leader....

ST. PAUL, Minn.—U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts is the keynote speaker for Minnesota Democrats' annual fundraising dinner in May. The Democratic-Farmer Labor Party announced Frank's May 8 speech in Minneapolis on Monday. Frank heads the House Financial Services Committee.

There's a showdown coming this year over the amount of ethanol that goes into gas tanks across the state; a fight over energy, money, and your safety. Opponents of increasing ethanol use warn of overheating motors and corrosion. Proponents call those claims lies. Minnesota is at the center of the battle because it wants to be the first state to increase the amount of ethanol in unleaded gasoline from 10 percent to 20 percent. A 2005 law led to current regulations that mandate that each gallon of gas in Minnesota is 90 percent unleaded gasoline and 10 percent ethanol--a mix...

On Monday, the Minnesota House held its first ever hearings into legalizing gay marriage in Minnesota. There are three bills that the House is considering but there will be no votes. Still, the hearing for the Civil Justice Committee is stirring up a lot of emotion. The bills would recognize gay marriages in Minnesota and from other states. The bill would eliminate the word marriage in state law and replace it will civil union contract. Gay and lesbian couples told the committee they lead normal lives but opponents called it immoral. "With tippy cups and car seats and visits to...

A new survey of Minnesotans shows that a majority of residents — 56 percent — are embarrassed by Rep. Michele Bachmann. The release of the survey, commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action, follows recent high-profile statements by Bachmann that she believes President Barack Obama wants to “annihilate” conservatives, that the U.S. faces a “curse” – and extinction — if it fails to support Israel, and that government must “wean” Americans off of social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.