Running from the family?

Minnesota’s Republican candidate for governor Tom Emmer has touted his family values on the campaign trail and in television commercials. Democratic candidate Mark Dayton hasn’t been afraid to include his family in the campaign either.

But today on its blog, City Pages (the Twin Cities’ alternative weekly) printed breaking news that may hurt Emmer’s ability to run on his family. The Facebook photos include lewd photos of Tom’s son Tripp (now 20 years old) drinking, carousing and, in one instance, posing next to a passed-out girl with a penis drawn on her face.

As City Pages reports, GOP candidate Emmer, himself, has two DWI arrests (from 1981 and 1991) and has championed the rights of DWI offenders in the State house. The Facebook photos from son Tripp’s account that City Pages acquired were deleted before Representative Emmer announced his campaign for governor.

This breaking story raises the question — among many questions — of whether family ought to be fair game in a political campaign. We’ve compiled a timeline of when the candidates have used their family for political gain:

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Sept. 19, 2009, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the runner-up DFL candidate for governor, drove a tractor and talked about her family’s life on the farm near Mankato, Minn.

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August 1, Republican Party of Minnesota Calls on Mark Dayton to denounce his family’s funding of attack ads against Tom Emmer.

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August 10, Tom Emmer on Primary night, touts his wife Jacquie and their kids.

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August 11, DFL Unity Press Conference, following Mark Dayton’s victory over Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Matt Entenza in the Democratic primary, Dayton mentioned his two sons toward the end of his speech at the State Capitol.

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August 20, posted by the Emmer Campaign. “Tom, Jacquie, and the whole Emmer family sit down to talk about growing jobs and reforming government in Minnesota.”

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August 26, Independent candidate Tom Horner talks about his own family six minutes into the General Mills debate:

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August 30, at the press conference announcing the Minneapolis Police Federation’s endorsement of Dayton, Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Luke Hellier tried to drag Dayton’s divorce from 10 years ago into the campaign (minute eight in the video).

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September 2, City Pages publishes Facebook photos of Tom Emmer’s son Tripp drinking at age 19. Editor Kevin Hoffman defends his decision to publish the piece:

“Obviously, the family of a political candidate is off-limits. But we decided the candidate made it an issue by having his son star in a campaign commercial, [and] the campaign or someone else scrubbing photos from a Facebook page. [Candidate] Emmer’s two DWIs and reform for DWI laws in this state have been an issue in this campaign, and his son is now in the court system, a record freely available on the court’s public website. … If all those stars aligned, we might not have published it.”

According to today’s MinnPost, “the AP wire service’s reporters discovered the younger Emmer’s arrest last month but declined to run a story.”

AP Minnesota news editor Doug Glass explains:

“We ultimately decided it wasn’t a story for us for a few reasons. I don’t see the younger Emmer as a public figure at this point. The arrest was not a DWI arrest; if it had been, we would have been more likely to run it given his father’s history. And the narrative of the arrest, with a citation issued right on the spot, appears to remove any chance that someone exerted influence in the case.”

In the midst of this firestorm, Tom Emmer released the following statement today:

“My son made a serious mistake and has paid the consequences,” the statement said. “It was a mistake which many Minnesota families are all too familiar with. Like all the other challenges in life, our family is dealing with our son in this matter with humility, seriousness, and love.”

Today’s UpTake — Scavenger Hunt at the State Fair

Today at 11 a.m. at the Minnesota State Fair, the DFL Party will launch a scavenger “hunt for Tom Emmer’s plans.” According to a press release yesterday, they’ll “search the fairgrounds looking for any evidence of a plan from the GOP gubernatorial candidate.” And The Uptake will be there to cover the exciting game!

Yesterday’s hot political action in Minnesota included:

• A Mark Dayton press conference in front of Minneapolis City Hall, which featured Twin Cities Mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman who were joined by Chair of the Democratic National Committee, and former Virginia Governor, Tim Kaine — all in support of Dayton’s gubernatorial candidacy. Rybak resisted the urge to lobby Kaine to bring the 2012 Democratic National Convention to his city, and instead waxed poetic about Dayton.

• A near throw down between political bloggers following the Dayton press conference — that is, between progressive blogger Soren Sorenson and former conservative blogger, and current State Republican Deputy Party Chair, Michael Brodkorb. Which guy forgot what it was like to be the little man on the totem poll? And which guy must be sweating in dark colors on a hot September day?

• Minnesota mayors release a budget simulator that allows candidates for governor, and the public, to outline key priorities and show how they would balance the state budget.

• And Republican candidate for Governor Tom Emmer spoke yesterday at the State Capitol with Minnesota representatives of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the leading small business association representing small and independent businesses. NFIB’s praise for Emmer’s candidacy following his pro-business, anti-big government speech came as no big surprise.

Mayors Critical Of Pawlenty’s Federal Fund Rejection, Support Dayton For Governor

At a Mark Dayton press conference in front of Minneapolis City Hall Twin City Mayors R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman joined former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, now Chair of the Democratic National Committee in support of Dayton.

Citing Dayton’s state government experience and his recent endorsements by police and fire unions, they held that Dayton is better qualified and ready to serve the needs of local governments as well as all Minnesotans.

All were critical of Governor Pawlenty’s turning down federal aid to curry right wing favor in Iowa and New Hampshire in his run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Former Blogger Brodkorb Tries To Ignore Blogger’s Questions

State Republican Deputy Party Chair Michael Brodkorb was long-time Republican blogger. As such he was always granted access to DFL conventions and other events even though the Republican conventions were always closed to bloggers identified as possibly unfriendly or liberal.

Now as GOP Deputy State chair he tries to ignore questions posed by bloggers and he gets agitated when the questions are pointed.

Seeing a collection of press, he took to the podium to counteract effect of Dayton press conference with Twin City Mayors Rybak and Coleman and DNC Chair Tim Kaine to focus on state and city cooperation.

Replay-Build Your Own MN State Budget

Mayors Release Budget Simulator That Allows Candidates for Governor, Public To Outline Key Priorities and Show How They Would Balance The Budget. You can find the simulator on this website.

CGMC Senior Policy Analyst Steve Peterson notes that the three candidates for Minnesota Governor have been asked to use the site. They have links to the plans that they have offered so far. Mark Dayton (DFL) has proposed a plan that has about a $600 Million dollar gap. Independence Party candidate Tom Horner has offered a plan that has more than two billion in unspecified cuts and redesign. Tom Emmer (R) has not offered any specifics except to say there would be no new revenue.

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Tom Emmer Meets Business Leaders

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Republican candidate for Governor Tom Emmer spoke today at the State Capitol with Minnesota representatives of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the leading small business association representing small and independent businesses. NFIB’s praise for Emmer’s candidacy following his pro-business, anti-big government speech came as no surprise.

“When the government runs out of money, what do we do?” Emmer told NFIB. “Politicians look right to the hardworking men and women of this state and ask them to pony up more.” Emmer continued: “The problem with government (in contrast with business) is that government doesn’t understand the concept of risk.”

NFIB members spoke of angst for government regulation — in particular the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — and how “government needs to be friendly and come in and say ‘you are doing this right’.”

To which Emmer asked whether we needed both a state and a federal OSHA, “which creates twice the regulation, twice the compliance issues.”

A good question, or a Fact Check alarm sounder?

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Condoms on a Stick at The State Fair

The Minnesota State Fair claims over 50 items on a stick at the 2010 Fair. Most are edible, some are informative and some defy classification.

Pro-Choice Resources distributes a wide range of sexual education material for teens, parents and older partners. Along with the literature, buttons and T-Shirts are bowls of condoms on a stick. Visitors must ask for them, the bowls are not allowed on the front table.

Seniors Benefit From New Health Care Act Say Ellison And McCollum

The Minnesota AFL-CIO hosted a health care forum on Senior Day at the Minnesota State Fair, August 30, 2010. 5th CD Rep Keith Ellison and 4th CD Betty McCollum lead off the discussion. They outlined new benefits for seniors and others in the new Health Care Act.

Franken: Gov. Pawlenty “Misrepresenting” Health Care Reform Law

Senator Al Franken knows a thing or two about the nation’s health care reform law that was passed in March. He helped write some key sections of it. So he was taken aback today by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty’s executive order restricting what the Governor calls “Obamacare” from being implemented in Minnesota.

Franken noted that people thank him for getting health care reform passed.

“Even members of the Pawlenty administration thank me.” said Franken at an AM950 interview at the Minnesota State Fair. “I think it’s very bad that he’s turned down this hundreds of millions of dollars. And I saw the proclamation. I think he very much misrepresents what the health care reform bill is. The fact that it brings, you know… According to the CBO (Congressional Budget Office), that’s all we can go on. It’s what Republicans and Democrats go on in the Congress, they say it will reduce the deficit. And the whole point of health care reform was to address the unsustainability of increasing health care costs.

“And I’m very proud of the medical loss ration amendment that I put in, it’s now part of the law, which says that health insurance companies that have large group insurance policies have to use 85 percent of the premiums in the policies towards actual health care and use 15 percent for administrative, profits, marketing. But they have to use 85 percent for actual health care and 80 percent in small group and and individual policies. And that’s a very important cost containment thing.

“This is about being on the side of people who were previously turned down for health insurance because they had a pre-existing condition. This is about people who go bankrupt because their health care, they’ve reached their caps — their annual cap or their lifelong cap. This is about security for folks. And it’s also about changing the way we do health care, we provide health care to reflect more like what we do with Mayo.

“If we provided health care with an integrated approach like they do at Mayo, we’d save so much money. We actually do health care relatively, in Minnesota, very well, relative to the rest of the country. I remember having a roundtable where a health care economist in Minnesota said to me ‘in Minnesota we get an “A”, but that’s because we grade on a curve.’”

Earlier in the day DFL House and Senate leaders said Pawlenty’s action may be illegal and they plan to hold hearings to investigate.

Seven And A Half Years Later, Iraq Combat Is Over

A subdued President Barack Obama announced an end to Operation: Iraqi Freedom. He acknowledged the ideological differences Americans have had over the war, the returning veterans who were deployed as teenagers, and the over 4,400 vets who won’t be returning at all.

President Obama honored their sacrifice and that of their families. He said wartime expenses totaling almost $1 trillion dollars have stifled growth of the middle class, and that a strong global leader must be strong at home.

“Today, our most urgent task is to restore our economy, and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work.”

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