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MinnesotaBrown endorsements: Obama, McCain
2008 will be regarded as an historic turning point election in the United States. Someone always says that about every election, but this year we have some evidence. No modern U.S. election has ever featured such wide-open primaries in both parties. No modern presidency has ever left such deep ideological divides in this county as…
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Rukavina’s flag law takes effect
The legislative delegation of the Iron Range is known for great successes and monumental failures over the course of state history. They are also known for quirky stands on random issues. Rangers put their full pressure behind legalizing low-grade fireworks a few years ago. They made a Quixotic stand against the smoking ban last year,…
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Behold 2008’s great bounty
Stop! What’s that sound? That gentle ringing … or it buzzing? Why, it can only be one thing. The future! The rest will have to wait; it’s time to answer the call. Behold, my 2008 predictions for the Iron Range and to a lesser extent … THE WORLD! POLITICSThe political world is shocked to its…
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Minnesota could lose Congressional seat in 2012
For Minnesota political junkies, this is an old assumption. Our slow population growth in Minnesota could cause us to lose a Congressional seat after the 2010 census. This would mean a contentious redistricting battle that puts increased importance on who controls the legislature and governor’s office in coming years, especially after the 2010 election. For…
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MinnesotaBrown endorsements are coming
On Jan. 2, the eve of the Iowa Caucuses, MinnesotaBrown (OK, me) will be endorsing a Democrat and a Republican for their respective party’s nomination. I am doing so for two reasons: 1) to attempt to have some influence on a process that will leave me nothing but the decision to rubber stamp the front-runner…
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City folk find us quaint
My first couple of weeks posting for www.mnblue.com have been interesting. Check out and join the discussion on my latest post, which I published here a couple days ago. MNBlue is a bit Twin Cities-centered, so I feel like a stranger in a strange land sometimes. Related posts: No related posts.
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Hey you, Dow Jones guy
I just watched President Bush’s year-end press conference. I noticed that, with the exception of reporters who have specifically pissed him off in the past (David Gregory), he refers to the reporters by their organization’s assigned seat. “OK, first up, Associated Press guy.” My favorite was this exchange. BUSH: Dow Jones guy. How’s the market?…
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The truth about presidential politics
I am going to tell the truth. There is nothing I can offer here that will bring an sort of understanding to the 2008 presidential nomination races in either party. It’s all up to 80,000 people in Iowa and another 100,000 in New Hampshire. Who’s a flyover state now, Big City? In honor of the…
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How to win the Iron Range
This is the second long post in a series about the political climate on Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. I cross post these kinds of things with www.mnblue.com and my own www.minnesotabrown.blogspot.com. Last week I talked about how Range politics centers on personal relationships. The region blends social conservatism with economic liberalism to create a unique…
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Trade talk could be applied elsewhere
The whole debate got me thinking: What if we could trade away people in politics or the media for prospects? It could solve some problems. Therefore I have decided to propose several non-sports trades for our state and region. The first big trade I suggest is to send Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty to North…
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The Range: Where "poli sci" is some kind of ethnic dish and potica is political
This is the first part of a series of cross-posts about Iron Range political culture for MNBlue.com and the MinnesotaBrown blog. The first thing you have to know about the Iron Range is that you need to cast aside the conventional wisdom on “rural vs. urban” political trends. The Range is often considered to be…
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Hail, Hail, the Iron Range
The following is my first post at www.mnblue.com, a political blog for which I began contributing this week. Have you heard the latest about CD03? Just kidding. “Psych!” as the cool kids used to say. CD03 is another planet to me. I’m aware of it, and thanks to my 1,239 metropolitan blogging friends I know…
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Off we go into the MNBlue yonder
I’ve signed on as a contributor to MNBlue.com, a political blog based in Minneapolis. I’ll republish my posts here on MinnesotaBrown, but just know that I’m sometimes writing in a way that translates common knowledge on the Range into terms understandable to political junkies in 612 country. The little blue state picture will indicate a…
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Duluth’s mayor-elect readies for change
Duluth will have a new mayor and city council this January. This is important to us Iron Rangers, partly because Duluth is an important part of the local economic equation but mostly because we are subjects of the Duluth media market and must sit through stories about Duluth ribbon cuttings and task forces to hear…
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Bill, the Big O and the Big Mo
This is the make or break weekend for the Iowa caucuses. We’re going to find out how big a help or liability Barack Obama’s “celebrity factor” is in winning over voters as Obama’s high-profile supporter Oprah Winfrey stumps for him. On one hand, it’s exciting and potentially groundbreaking political theatre … on the other it…