Results from the St. Paul DFL Straw Poll
Last night the St. Paul DFL held a non-binding straw poll to see where things stand. Here are the results courtesy of Broken Nails:
Governor:
*Steve Kelley: 144
Becky Lourey: 117
Mike Hatch: 67
Kelly Doran: 36
Undecided: 33
Senate:
*Amy Kolbuchar: 264
Ford Bell: 109
Undecided: 34
Secretary of State:
*Mark Ritchie: 175
Christian Sande: 131
Undecided: 95
State Auditor:
*Rebecca Otto: 190
Reggie Edwards: 109
Undecided: 98
Most interesting feature of the night: Mike Hatch did not even bother to show up.
15 Comments:
is it true that Klobuchar bought 100 tickets to the event last night and gave them to her supporters?
i am surprised she only got 65% especially if she stacked the room.
Bell seems to be catching on with his clear message for peace.
There is no proof of that. Someone has been spreading that through MN blogs often in this same "have you heard" format. This is clearly some ones attempt to spread a rumor, and hurt Klobuchar. Maybe Ford Bell would be doing a better job in all the polls if he spent his time spreading his "clear message for peace" (Like the macdems meeting he didn't come to) instead of having his lackeys attempt to spread rumors around the blogs.
Yeah, I've read the "clear message for peace" bit in several places already.
I do not understand why you would attack Ford Bell. I am a peace activist who cares about peace.
Klobuchar has a very fuzzy and misguided position on Iraq; her position is substantively similar to Don Rumsfeld. I have a right to my opinion.
Your attack on Ford Bell is an attempt to negatively smear a good candidate. Please stop.
I guess the only way to confirm the rumor of Klobuchar buying tickets to stack the straw ballot is by contacting the organziers of the event.
While the Klobuchar poll-stuffing question does seem to be a piece of comment-spam, judging by its appearance on various blogs around the web, I would argue that there certainly is a faction within the DFL party that seems determined to will Ford Bell's campaign into nonexistence. It seems that the MacalesterDemocrats are no exception, according to an email I saw calling Amy Klobuchar "Minnesota's next Senator" to her advertise her appearance at an upcoming event. Last I heard, it was the policy of the MacDems to not take sides in contested primaries until the conclusion of the endorsement process. Is this no longer the case? Or does the email represent a childish reaction to a slight by a cancelled appearance by Bell, as JakeLP seems to charge?
Wow there, first, Jakelp’s (that being me) opinions are his, not the macdems. While the macdems do not and are not endorsing any candidate, Amy Klobuchar is the presumptive favorite for the Democrats at this point (no matter what kind of rumors people want to start carelessly throwing around the internet) and yes, we are the macdems so we certainly hope that Minnesota’s next senator is a Democrat. That, coupled with that fact that Amy Klobuchar was the only Democrat who bothered to show up to a meeting in one of the most important precincts for progressives in the state with one of it’s most important organizations in the area, makes me feel like our title was completely justified. Also, just for the record, Klobuchar has been against the Iraq was from the start, but now that we’re in it, she doesn’t think we can just leave the Iraqis high and dry, which is why she supports shifting our forced to peace keepers led by the UN or NATO, her record is not fuzzy or misguided (which, not to beat a dead horse, Ford Bell would know if he came to the meeting). If democrats have any hope of winning in November we all have to stay united at that means not beating each other up with Republican punch lines like “fuzzy and misguided.” Lets question each other, lets debate, that’s what democracy is all about but lets do it right.
Again why are you attacking Bell? Please stop your negative attacks on a good man of conviction.
Murtha a great patriot, veteran of war and long time member of Congress has called for removing our troops by this summer.
Now Murtha knows far more about what are and are not responsible actions to be taken by our military in Iraq. Ms. Klobuchar has decided to agree with the National Democrats who openly distanced themselves in public from Murtha's bold public pronouncement before deciding he was right and embraced his resolution.
If Murtha thinks we can remove the troops entirely by this summer than calling for removal of the troops by this Christmas is very possible. Sadly only Ford Bell has called for total removal by Christmas as a RESPONSIBLE step to end the violence in Iraq.
Klobuchar is supported by the National Democrats like Chuck Schumer who voted to go to war in Iraq and continue to defend staying JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER.
I vote for peace, I vote for Bell.
Speaking as the co-chair of Mac Dems, I would like to clarify for both Jake LP and our Anonymous commentor (who, if he/she holds such strong feelings, should be willing to use his/her real name) the situation surrounding Ford Bell and the meeting.
I made a number of attempts to contact Dr. Bell's campaign. Several of them were ont return, one was returned asking us to change our meeting time to an earlier time for Dr. Bell, and the final one was an "I'll get back to you" note. No one got back to me. Anonymous, you are right--Amy is being treated as the party-endorsed candidate, and for that reason we invited Dr. Bell to give him the chance to speak to a crowd who might be sympathetic to his anti-war sentiments and treat him like a real candidate even thought the DFL party is not.
Amy's campaign treated us like we were real constituents, like we meant something, like our opinions mattered. Not only was she willing to come, but she was willing to come when we normally schedule our meetings--10:00 PM on Thursdays. Ford's campaign did not treat us like real constituents, and for that reason I think Jake has a reason to be mad. The two times I have met Ford, he has sort of shrugged me off as though, again, I was unimportant; Amy has always been respectful to me, even when she had no idea who I was.
As to the e-mail, the wording refering to Amy as the next senator from Minnesota was mine, and it reflected the frustrations which I have articulated above. Anonymous, you are right to object to those words, but I wish you would acknowledge that our frustrations at the Bell campaign were legitimate, and that people who do not treat members of their constituency like important people do not deserve, in my opinion, to represent us. But that is personal opinion and should not have been communicated through the group mouth-piece; my apologies.
On the subject of the war (personally speaking), I don't really care what either candidate has to say about withdrawl plans, staying plans, whatever because niether one has seen any of the documentation pertaining to our presence there. It's great for Dr. Bell to lob the we-should-leave-now bomb from here in MN without understanding the situation, and it's great for Amy to claim that our presence is absolutely necessary, but the reality os that neither has a clue about the situation for sure. Nor do we, for that matter. Neither has any experience in foreign policy or foreign relations of any sort, nor do we. Nor do we. Let's be honest about the limitations of us (us directly and the candidates) having this debate on logistical ground when, in reality, we have no clue about the situation or how to handle it.
Thanks for the wonderful discussion. This is exactly what we were hoping for from this website. If anyone reading (or those people participating) are interested in writing an opinion piece for the blog, please e-mail us at macdems@macalester.edu. Onward,
Mac Dems
I would also like to suggest (getting back to the subject of the post) that it is unreasonable for the St. Paul DFL to try ot make this a fundraiser and charge $10 admission. Thankfully, they waived the charge for us college students (and we appreciated that), but the fee--the mere advertsiement of the fee--kept people away, I'm sure. How can these results be a true representation of our city party's true feelings if the only people who could vote are those who could pay the $10 admission? Seems to me to be contradictory to the principles of our party, doesn't it?
Good clarifications Will, thanks! But, if only to continue this debate a wee bit longer, I’d like to disagree with you on a few things. First, about the war, clearly I have no experience in foreign policy, but Dr. Bell and Mrs. Klobuchar are running for the United States Senate. I got to hope that they are knowledgeable, at least enough for me to be warranted in questioning them. Of course their positions would change if they reached the Senate and were privy to more information about the reality on the ground, but it is important to know where they are starting from.
As for the straw poll, it was nice of them to wave the fee for us. The event was it advertised as a fundraiser and that is what it was. This was not in any way an official poll, nor does it have anymore weight in the system than bloggers like us choose to give it. Certainly, Klobuchar winning the poll doesn’t mean that she gets two extra percentage points when it counts in two weeks. Often in fundraisers they ask for money, as long as they are not actually charging people to vote in a real election, I have little problem with it.
As someone who actually attended the event (ahem, Zimbo), I'd have to say the most interesting feature of the night was not Mike Hatch's non-appearance but Ole Savior's endorsement of Amy Klobuchar, complete with decorated photo. Or possibly the excellent dancer with the "man - legend" shirt.
And on the general straw poll crowd - at least half the people there were campaign people, there is no possible way I would believe Amy Klobuchar had bought the tickets of 100 people there because I doubt there were even 100 non-campaign-people there. Amy had a large contingent of supporters, but not that large. (And it isn't as if there was no Ford Bell presence, because there was.) As for the inaccessibility, it would have been nice for more college students to have known about and taken advantage of the free admission.
Zimbo, ahem, had a previous engagement, which he could not break. As for the Klobuchar bru-ha-ha, I agree with you Stephanie--the idea that she stacked the room is silly. The St. Paul DFL should not be charging $10 to vote, even if it is a non-binding straw poll. Everyone should be allowed to vote--not just us poor college students.
It was a fundraiser for the St. Paul DFL, and a key component of a fundraiser are funds.
Although there was a straw poll, there was also a band, music, food, games, and dancing. The idea that $10 is too much to charge to get in the door and get that is ridiculous, given that movie rental costs 4 bucks and a large pizza is $15. The straw poll was fun, and that's that.
Anonymous, you make a good point--because there was aband, food, games, etc. the $10 is warrented. I guess I would then come back by saying that the voting, then, should have been seperated from the party. The should have done the straw poll--open to anyone in St. Paul who considers him or herself a Democrat--and then proceeded with the party. Yep, $10 is not a lot for us, and it's not a lot considering what was provided, but there is the chance that people might have wanted to vote who did not have the $10. Democrats pride ourselves in the fact that we try to help such people get representation; I cannot see how charging the $10 best serves that goal.