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Controversy and difficulty: necessary ingredients for our modern budget stew
I’ve become a big fan of Dan Carlin, not only for his “Hardcore History,” the best history podcast in existence, but also for his “Common Sense,” a political podcast aimed at advancing an independent agenda in American politics. My following of Carlin and the blogger Andrew Sullivan are probably the biggest reasons I’ve seen my…
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More MN-08 reading for all you weary warriors
If you’re interested in more reading on the aftermath of the MN-08 electoral stunner from last week take a gander at this post from a blog I just found called Gin and Tacos. It’s a left-leaning affair with its share of snark (if you consider these two descriptions exclusively). I disagree with the characterization of…
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Minnesota’s Fightin’ 8th goes through the changes
Minnesota Public Radio’s Elizabeth Dunbar has an excellent analysis of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District in the wake of last week’s upset win for Republican Chip Cravaack over longtime DFL stalwart Jim Oberstar. The money line: There’s no question that Minnesota’s Iron Range, a longtime DFL stronghold, and the 8th District as a whole have changed…
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GUEST POST: Putting Oberstar’s Pork in Context
This is the latest in a semi-regular series of Iron Range posts from historian Jeff Manuel. News coverage of Representative Jim Oberstar’s loss to Chip Cravaack on Tuesday has emphasized Oberstar’s long record of using earmarks to fund projects in Minnesota’s Eighth District. The Star Tribune called Oberstar “a powerful transportation committee chairman who has…
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Crow: It’s what’s for dinner in MN-08
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I obviously got my final prediction in MN-08 wrong. I had 53-47 Oberstar. However, I was probably the only DFLer predicting a close race, and reviewing the numbers what I see is a remarkable performance by Chip Cravaack throughout the district. He won by crushing margins…
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First in a long time: Iron Range seat falls to GOP
Longtime State Rep. and former Bovey mayor Loren Solberg (DFL-Grand Rapids) has narrowly lost his District 3B race to Carolyn McElfatrick, a Cohasset nurse and GOPer. For the first time in a generation an Iron Range legislative seat will be held by a Republican. Granted, the debate over whether Grand Rapids is part of the…
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Thank you, Jim Oberstar
In 1988 I was a kid whose dad was the site manager for our family-owned junkyard, where we also lived. My dad was a libertarian, my mom a silent liberal, and our family name was both literally and figuratively the color of mud. That year I had an opportunity to go to Washington, D.C., as…
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Two Range races fall to the old guard
Well, my attempt to have Sarah Palin-like influence over local Iron Range races has failed, just like it mostly did for Palin. Lorrie Janatopoulos lost to incumbent Keith Nelson in St. Louis County Commissioner Dist. 6. Liz Kuoppala lost in the Eveleth mayor’s race to former mayor Robert Vlaisavljevich. These are unfortunate losses for the…
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And it happened in the north
There’s so much to dive into on the Cravaack vs. Oberstar race. First, Cravaack did exactly what I expected he would do in the southern Eighth, clean up. But notably he pulled off a surprise in the north, for instance carrying Balsam Township where I live and holding Jim Oberstar under 60 percent in Hibbing…
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LIVE BLOG: Election Night 2010 from the Western Mesabi
This is the live blog for tonight, including information about Iron Range turnout, results and observations sent my way. My email is aaronjbrown@yahoo.com and my Twitter handle is @minnesotabrown if you’ve got something. I’m also listed in the Range Directory should you happen to possess such a fine, thick book of mostly unpronounceable names. 11:05…
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Big gov’mint wants children to learn letters, colors (including RED!)
Sometimes when I talk about politics I say how I am increasingly open to entitlement reform, debt-reduction and other reforms. I’ve become a lot more independent, frankly, in recent years. Liberals look at me cockeyed as though to say, “Hey man, we though you were one of us.” Moderates from the other side say, “Hey…
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A first-in-a-generation political battle brews up north
The sun rises over the treeline along the eastern horizon, highlighting the steam cloud over Keewatin Taconite. This is the first day in a while mist hasn’t billowed off the lake.The water is cold all the time now. Soon enough it will grow dark and gelatinous, freezing hard and staying that way until sometime around…
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The late, late show in St. Louis County
The Star Tribune profiles the old Minnesota election day tradition of waiting for St. Louis County to report its results late at night. The Democratic bastion, which includes Duluth and much of the Iron Range, is the largest geographic county in the state and one of the most remote. The speeds on return time have…
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COLUMN: Scary amount of election cash this All Hallows (Election) Eve
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Scary amount of election cash this All Hallows (Election) EveBy Aaron J. Brown The Washington Post reported last week that candidates will spend more than a combined $2 billion in the nation’s House and Senate races so far…
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Minnesota’s Fightin’ 8th readies for its closeup
We’re entering the final countdown of the 2010 election, a contest that will go down as a very informative historical study on the voting habits of (in no particular order) Americans, Minnesotans and the people of Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District. It’s good that I have been plowing through “The Rise of American Democracy” by Sean…