Political Notebook

Walz crowned 2013 hotdish winner

The third time proved to be the charm for 1st District Rep. Tim Walz who battled fellow members of Minnesota's congressional delegation to win Sen. Al Franken's hotdish competition.

Walz pulled off the victory with his "Hermann the German" hotdish, which features brats, tater tots and Schell's beer. The Mankato Democrats' culinary concocotion beat out seven other dishes in a blind taste test for the top spot.

“I want to thank Sen. Franken and his staff for putting this annual, bipartisan event on. It was great to share our recipes and great to finally win,” said Rep. Walz in a statement. “Today we share our hot dish recipes, tomorrow let’s share our ideas to create jobs, grow our economy, and forge a better future for our children and grandchildren.”

This is the third time Franken has hosted the hotdish competition. Joining Walz and Franken in the competition this year were  Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Reps. Collin Peterson, Betty McCollum, Michele Bachmann, Keith Ellison and Rick Nolan. Former congressmen Vin Weber and Gerry Sikorski served as the taste testers.

Klobuchar scored a respectable second place finish with her "Hormel 'I Can't Believe It's Not SPAM' Pepperoni Pizza Hotdish."

"Our Hormel hotdish may not have the shelf life of SPAM, but the recipe is timeless," said Klobuchar in a statement. "It's great to come together every year with the Minnesota delegation for some home-cooked competition and our dish would not have been complete without the delicious pepperoni from a great Austin company. I think if I had added a little more of it, we could have clinched the win."

The other participants made the following dishes: Franken made Willmar Stew Hotdish; Peterson made Easter Ham and Cheese Hotdish; McCollum made Beef, Beer, & Biscuits Hotdish; Bachmann made Southwest Metro Hotdish; Ellison made Juicy Lucy Hotdish; Nolan made ‘Real Deal’ Ranger Hotdish; and Paulsen made Kelly Paulsen’s Taco Hotdish.

For the recipes, go here. To watch video from the competition, go here.

Plenty of DFL politicos in Rochester today

A number of leaders in the Democratic Party will be stopping in Rochester today to speak to members of the AFL-CIO at their 51st Constitutional Convention at the Mayo Civic Center.

Expected to address the estimated 500 delegates this morning are State Auditor Rebecca Otto, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, House Minority Leader Paul Thissen and state Sen. Ken Kelash, DFL-Minneapolis. Also trying to fire up delegates will be the leaders of groups aimed at defeating proposed constitutional amendment. Scheduled to speak is Luchelle Stevens, campaign manager for Our Vote, Our Future, a group against the voter ID amendment. Also addressing the crowd will be Richard Carlbom, campaign manager for Minnesotans United for All Families, the group opposing the marriage amendment. No Republicans are slated to speak at the conference.

This afternoon, DFL Gov. Mark Dayton will address the crowd and tomorrow morning 1st District Rep. Tim Walz is slated to speak. DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke to the group yesterday evening. It's worth noting that the governor's address comes less than a week after he decided against awarding the civic center any of a more than $47 million in economic development grant money. Local union groups pushed hard for that expansion project, which would create an estimated 400 construction jobs. Dayton does support the project and included it in both of his bonding bill proposal. He said ultimately the civic center project got too low of a score by the Department of Employment and Economic Development to be considered for the grant.

The governor will also be meeting with the Post-Bulletin's editorial board this afternoon.

Bills to campaign in Rochester

Republican senate candidate Kurt Bills will be in town on Saturday meeting with voters. He will be doing a meet and greet at Godfather's Pizza, 1611 16th St. N.W. According to the Republican Party of Olmsted County website, Bills plans to talk about his campaign and answer questions from voters.

Bills is challenging DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who was endorsed this past Saturday in Rochester at the DFL State Convention. In 2006, Klobuchar defeated Republican Mark Kennedy for the seat. The former prosecutor dominated in Olmsted County, winning 53 percent of the vote compared to Kennedy's 42 percent. That was a big year for Democrats both locally and nationally. 

Bills is the Ron Paul-backed candidate who won the GOP endorsement a couple of weeks ago in St. Cloud. He is an economics teacher from Rosemount. He is also expected to participate in Pine Island's Cheese Festival Parade on Sunday.

A dumbing down of Congress?

The Sunlight Foundation released a report today that finds the gradel level of congressional speeches has dropped from a high of 11.5 grade in 2005 to 10.6 grade level. It also analyzes what grade level members of Congress are speaking at when they take to the floor.

The researchers analyzed the complete Congressional Record since 1996 They used the Flesch-Kincaid test to do the analysis, which equates higher-grade levels with longer words and longer sentences.The member of Minnesota's congressional delegation with the lowest score was 5th District DFL Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis with a 9.3 grade level. Taking the top spot was 4th District DFL Rep. Betty McCollum from St. Paul. Below are the scores for the entire Minnesota congressional delegation from lowest to highest.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison: 9.3

GOP. Rep. Michele Bachmann: 9.52

DFL Sen. Al Franken: 9.98

DFL Rep. Tim Walz: 10.06

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar: 10.24

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson: 10.41

GOP Rep. John Kline: 11.09

GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack: 11.17

GOP. Rep. Erik Paulsen: 11.93

DFL Rep. Betty McCollum: 12.71

Klobuchar to visit Rochester, Austin today

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be making several stops in southeast Minnesota today. Her day starts with a stop in Rochester to visit Lincoln K-8 Choice School. She plans to tour the school and discuss the important of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. The school has teamed up with Mayo Clinic to launch a science curriculum called InSciEd Out.

Klobuchar will participate in Mayo Clinic's recognition of National Wear Red Day. This is a national event that encourages people to wear red to help raise awareness about the threat heart disease poses for women.

In the afternoon, Klobuchar will tour the Austin Packaging Company, which processes and packages food products. She will also tour Minnesota Corrugated Box Inc. in Albert Lea. These stops are part of the DFL senator's "Made in America" tour, which aims to highlight successful Minnesota businesses and job creation. Since late October, she has visited  more than 30 businesses across the state.

 

 

Klobuchar talks boots and Bieber in Red Wing

Sen. Amy Klobuchar paid a visit to Red Wing this afternoon as part of a statewide "Made in America" tour. She checked out Red Wing Shoes' new flagship store, which features the world's largest boot. While there she talked about the importance of making sure students are getting the training they need to take advantage of these manufacturing jobs. She said it's crucial to get rid of regulation and red tape that makes it tougher for companies to do business.

"We are not just competing in our country. We are competing against companies in other countries that have our safety regulations that are doing things faster or they are doing things differently, and that is what we need to do as a country," she said.

While Klobuchar was in town I couldn't help but ask her about news that she has apparently drawn the wrath of teen heartthrob Justin Bieber. The Star Tribune reports that Bieber told a Washington-area radio host that he thinks the Minnesota senator should be thrown in jail for a bill she is sponsoring that would make it a felony to profit from streaming unlicensed online content.

"Whoever she is, she needs to know that I’m saying she needs to be locked up, put away in cuffs,” Bieber said.

So what does Klobuchar think about all this?

"He was just simply misled about what was in that bill. That's all the happened," she said.

The senator said her bill is targeted at commercial theft and foreign piracy of things like books, music and movies. She added her bill unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Commission without objection and that it has lots of support from song writers and composer. She added that Bieber's own lawyers have tried to get a cease and desist order against a website using the singer's music because it violates his property rights.

 

 

Franken and Klobuchar both in Med City today

The state's two DFL senators — Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar — are both visiting IBM in Rochester this afternoon. They are hosting a town hall for IBM employees, technical leaders and master inventors.

The discussion is expected to focus on recent passage of the "America Invents Act," which is aimed at improving the patent system. The Post-Bulletin's Jeff Kiger plans to cover the event.

Earlier in the day, Franken will be in Byron where he is expected to talk about efforts to overhaul the "No Child Left Behind" education law. Specifically, he will talk about a provision he supports that would invest in  science, technology. engineering and math education. He will tour Byron's high school and middle school and meet with school officials, teachers and students. His visit also makes good on a promise to visit Byron High School if they were named an Intel School of Distinction. The school was one of six that recently won the award for its math program.

Klobuchar highlights Rochester letters in debt ceiling debate

Sen. Amy Klobuchar highlighted two letters from Rochester voters during Tuesday's debate on the debt ceiling bill, which she and other senators approved.

During her speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Klobuchar highlighted letters from Rochester residents urging Congress to come together and reach a compromise on raising the debt ceiling and prevent businesses and families from suffering the consequences of a default, her office noted in a news release.

She referenced her letters from Rochester on Monday morning during a phone interview with the Post-Bulletin.

Here's more from Klobuchar:

Judy from Rochester said: “As a senior citizen, I understand where our country is compared to where it has been in the last 50 years or so. And I appreciate the sacrifices must be made.” She said: “It is almost too far back to remember when people all pulled together, including Congress to solve our issues. All the American people want is for you to represent us and make the best decisions for us using your best judgment, not prejudice or narrow viewpoints, but the best judgment.”
 
Paul from Rochester writes: “This is not the place for political stubbornness. It is a time for our elected officials to work together for the good of the United States.”

You can open a file to listen on this link.

So just how liberal and conservative are Minnesota's members of Congress?

The National Journal recently released its vote rankings for 2010. Nothing too surprising in this year's results. The most liberal member of the state's House delegation is 5th District Rep. Keith Ellison with a ranking of 14. The most conservative member of the state's House delegation is 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is ranked 19.

A couple of interesting notes : 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz continues to get a centrist score with a ranking of 158. He has slightly moved to the left compared to the 2009 rankings where he was ranked 166. Meanwhile, 2nd District Rep. John Kline has a far less conservative ranking this year compared to last year. In 2010 he is ranked 108 compared to in 2009 when he got a ranking of 32.

In the Senate, Democrat Al Franken had a liberal ranking of 15 while fellow Democrat Amy Klobuchar was ranked 38.

To check out the complete list of rankings, go here.

Klobuchar to visit southern Minnesota tomorrow

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar is scheduled to make several stops in southern Minnesota as part of her "Innovation Tour" to highlight the potential for economic innovation to create future jobs and boost the economy.

Her day kicks off in Rochester at 10 a.m. with a tour of Gauthier Industries, a metal fabrication company. She will then go to Harmony to tour Harmony Enterprises, a company that makes solid waste and recycling equipment. In the afternoon, she plans to head to Austin to meet with Mayor Tom Stiehm. She also has stops planned in Albert Lea, Fairmont and St. James.

Klobuchar has joined with Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts to introduce the "Innovate America Act." The bill is aimed at cutting red tape to help businesses research and develop new products, target successful education programs and promote U.S. exports in new markets.

Klobuchar chairs the Subcommittee on Innovation, Competitiveness and Export Promotion.