The DCCC Would Never Target NRCC Chair Tom Emmer, But That Isn't Stopping Ian Todd

Minnesota's 6th district hasn't been friendly territory for congressional Democratic candidates in a very long time. Originally white flight suburbs and exurbs north and west of the Twin Cities, the district is the reddest in the state, with an R+12 PVI. It's Michele Bachmann's old stomping grounds and after she was forced to resign from Congress, it's been represented by Tom Emmer, best known for 2 things-- the Financial Services Committee member who took immense bribes from the banksters to lead the charge against Dodd-Frank and as the current head of the NRCC. The district voted against Obama both times he ran and then voted even more strongly against Hillary. In 2016 Trump won the district 58.9% to 33.2%.

Asians and Somalis from Minneapolis have been settling in and around St. Cloud and the district is beginning to change... slowly. Last year progressive Democrat Ian Todd did better than any Democratic candidate since the scandal-burdened Bachmann was nearly defeated in the 50.5% to 49.3% 2012 election that helped persuade her to retire. Last year-- in the midst of the Anoka Catholic dioceses going bankrupt after a series of child molestation scandals, Todd drew 122,332 votes campaigning on a solid working class, Bernie-like platform. That wasn't enough votes to win but I want to point something out about it. The DCCC ignored Todd's race entirely and refused to give him a dime and warned institution Democratic donors they would be wasting their money if they contributed to the progressive. Meanwhile the DCCC poured millions of dollars into conservative corporate Democrats. I want to compare Todd's 122,332 votes to what the DCCC bought for their winning conservative candidates in California:

• Josh Harder- 115,945 ($8,358,405 + $5,351,775 from the DCCC)
• TJ Cox- 57,239 ($2,872,974 + $361,883 from the DCCC)
• Katie Hill- 133,209 ($8,342,521 + $3,541,202 from the DCCC)
• Gil Cisneros- 126,002 ($12,030,393-- $9,252,762 self-funded-- + $5,330,201 from the DCCC)
• Harley Rouda- 157,837 ($7,636,294 + $7,070,891 from the DCCC)

Remember, Todd spent $81,577 and had no outside help and still took 122,332 votes. He made significant headway in 2 of the 3 top counties, Anoka and Stearns. And now he's running again. The Democrats in the district know the difference between a Republican-lite corporate Dem and a real Democrat. In 2016 Bernie slaughtered Hillary 62.4% to 37.6% in MN-06. Todd is an Air Force veteran who worked as an intelligence analyst as part of the drone program before moving to Sauk Rapids. I asked him to introduce himself and explain why the second run-- and as a no-nonsense progressive in this red district is going to move the ball down the field. If you like what you hear, please consider contributing to his campaign here.





It Will Take A Progressive To Win In  Minnesota's 6th District
by Ian Todd

In 2012, our district came within one point of DFL victory; to call this area highly conservative or a lost cause for Democrats is highly misleading, but that doesn’t stop the claim from being repeated ad nauseum. The reality is that this district, like most of Minnesota, could swing either way, and is home to a variety of independent voters that are proud to have no party loyalty. [In 2018 Amy Klobuchar won both Anoka and Stearns counties.]

Perhaps the largest part of that group are the progressives that often see the Democratic Party and the DFL as too centrist and will not vote for DFL candidates running with conservative policies. It’s my belief that rural Minnesotans that are willing to cast their ballot for the DFL aren’t looking for Republican-lite candidates. If they were, they’d probably just vote Republican and never give any Democrat the time of day. In 2012, this district almost flipped blue, and the DFL candidate was a strong supporter for LGBTQ+ rights, specifically the right to marriage. In 2014, the DFL candidate was an outspoken pro-life Democrat, and the gap between GOP and DFL widened by 18 points. That gap has stayed ever since.

I’m not here to cast judgement on those that ran before me, and the fate of an election certainly isn’t contingent on just one point, but I do believe that my district, especially the progressive voters and the youth that have never gone to the polls before, is looking for a candidate that can be a champion for the issues that plague their lives and have caused them to lose faith in politicians and our entire system of government. I’ve traveled all over my district to knock on people’s doors, and everywhere I go I meet country raised folk like me that hold progressive populist ideas. They always seem to think they’re alone, too, so it’s my pleasure to tell them that they have neighbors just as left leaning as them.

I’m running on the same progressive policies I ran on in 2018, and I will continue to fight for these policies until we solve the underlying issues that make them necessary. I fight to end the corruption of money in politics because legalized bribery cannot be part of free and fair elections. I fight for Medicare for All because health is a fundamental human right and any system that lets people fall through the cracks or be locked into crippling debt for the crime of illness or injury is unjust. I fight to solve climate change because the security of our planet is at risk and the desire of a few for more profits cannot justify the damage being done to our world. These issues mean just as much to people that grew up in rural America, small towns, and the suburbs as they do to people that lived their whole lives in a city, and they need a representative that can make sure that when reforms come to pass, the positive change is brought to their neck of the woods, too.

However, as a candidate in a district of many political ideologies, I can’t win without being a unifying voice for more than just folks as progressive as I am. I’m under no illusion, I will have to fight for my beliefs and values in the political arena, but that doesn’t mean I have to use underhanded tactics that have come to dominate political discourse or disparage those that hold other beliefs. This is the way we bring civility back into our politics without sacrificing convictions, and communicating this way is something I’ve had a lifetime to practice.

Throughout my life I’ve dealt with people that don’t agree with my politics. There’s a painful source of strength in standing up for your beliefs when they are consistently questioned, belittled, disrespected, and ultimately discarded by your peers. I often joke that if I never learned to get along with those I don’t agree with, I wouldn’t have had many friends. I suppose it’s good I can laugh about it now; I certainly couldn’t then. However, I learned a fine art of sticking up for myself and others without alienating those whose beliefs I could not square with. It’s perhaps the most important skill I have as I run for office today.

From growing up in northwest Arkansas where there’s a unique blend of poverty and gratuitous wealth thanks to the presence and dominance of Wal-Mart and its home office, to enlisting in the Air Force where dropping bombs on people was celebrated with the ringing of a bell and roaring applause, I have always found myself in positions where I felt compelled to speak up and often alone when I chose to do so. The most amazing this about running for office here in Minnesota is that while I still have to fight for what I believe in every bit as hard as I ever have, I don’t feel alone in doing so anymore.

People still say the 6th congressional district is too conservative. I’ve been called the DFL’s sacrificial lamb. But I know that rural America doesn’t mean Republican America. I know that even the districts like mine can be won and are worth fighting for.


 

Bustos Is Lucky She's Competing With Tom Emmer-- And Emmer Is Lucky His Competition Is Cheri Bustos

Emmer and Bustos-- 2 clueless DC losers attached at the hip

You may have noticed that around DWT, Cheri Bustos and the DCCC aren’t exactly our favorites. In fact, I fear that the opportunity Democrats have to pick up another 50 seats is going to be blown because Bustos is the most ideologically-oriented DCCC chair in history, worse even than Rahm Emanuel, her mentor, and Steve Israel. Bustos, an Illinois Blue Dog, is a rabidly anti-progressive Democrat who— like many right-of-center women— stumbled into the Democratic Party solely because of women’s issues. On non-women’s issues Bustos is basically a conservative and a Republican and the real problem is that she is seeking to replicate herself through DCCC recruitment and support strategies. However, even Bustos and the DCCC have a saving grace, namely Tom Emmer and the NRCC. Yep, the Republicans actually managed to find someone even lamer and apparently less competent than Cheri Bustos… and that is really saying something!

Late last week, Scott Wong reported for The Hill that House Republicans are waking up to what a loser they have running the NRCC. Emmer, who replaced Michele Bachmann when she was forced to retire in 2014. Emmer represents largely white suburbs and exurbs north and west of Minneapolis—from Lino Lakes, Blaine, East Bethel, Otsego and St. Michael’s all the way out past St. Cloud. Emmer made a living as a registered lobbyist and when he ran, unsuccessfully, for governor, Target and Best Buy contributed a total of a quarter million dollars, a blatant bribe. Just to give you an idea about how extreme Emmer is, he introduced legislation to abolish the minimum wage and supported a constitutional amendment in Minnesota to prohibit marriage equality for members of the LGBTQ community. His hateful bigoted proposals were rejected by Minnesota voters. And then the House Republicans decided to elevate him to the position of chairman of the NRCC.

A member of the House Financial Services Committee, Emmer has been aggressive in seeking out bribes from the banks and investment firms the committee oversees. Last cycle, his biggest contributions came from insurance, Wall Street, commercial banks, etc. He took $656,979 in bribes from that sector during the last cycle. That’s largely why the GOP thought he was a good bet for the NRCC job.

Wong explained the intense buyers’ remorse Members are feeling now. “In recent weeks,” he wrote, “a number of top Republicans have aired grievances with the House GOP campaign arm’s approach, with some going as far as questioning if Emmer and his operation are in over their heads.” Emmer's drooling attack dog, Chris Pack, is reported to have told people to ignore the whining since it's all coming from "a bunch of New Yorkers."

“His team is inept. They have no idea what they’re doing, and their strategy is not putting Republicans in a good position to take back the House,” one disgruntled GOP lawmaker told The Hill.

Members have become more vocal in their complaints after a recent squabble between Emmer and GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, with the Wyoming Republican telling him that Republicans raised questions about the NRCC’s strategy during a closed-door meeting last week.

Critics also pointed to an NRCC press release, which was later rescinded, that attacked Democrats for pushing lawmaker pay raises. It came at a time when GOP leaders were privately negotiating with Democratic leadership on a deal to boost congressional salaries.

The NRCC also hit Democrats for allowing lobbyists to attend their chiefs of staff retreat, even though Republicans have done the same thing in previous years.

The group’s aggressive messaging tactics— with the NRCC having taken on President Trump’s style of attacking political opponents by using nicknames like Little Max Rose and Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood— has certain factions of the party expressing a sense of unease with the new approach. Some fear it could hinder them from taking back the 20 seats they need to win back control of the House in 2020.

“I think in the larger conversation, what I see is, is just a lack of strategy, and just a series of trolling,” a former Republican National Committee official said. “And that can be fun to do, but not as fun as winning House races.”

Despite the criticism, the NRCC is standing by its strategy, arguing a bold approach is needed if they want to win. The group also said it has support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

“Leader McCarthy has given us a mandate to be very aggressive this cycle with our approach, so that’s what we’re doing. While it may make some people uncomfortable, we’re not going to win back the majority in just two years by talking about puppy dogs and ice cream,” said NRCC spokesman Chris Pack.

Pack is more the guilty party for the radical approach and many members have been calling on him to be fired. One member told me, on condition of anonymity, that Pack is an embarrassment to the party who “thinks he’s Josef Goebbels” and is going to be responsible for the loss of Republican opportunities in mainstream districts. “This guy should go work for Freedom Works or one of those other radical outfits based in Alexandria... or Arlington. He doesn't seem to know what ‘positive’ means… If he thinks he’s going to win over new voters by screaming ’socialism’ and ‘anti-Semitism’ at Democrats, he never studied political science or American history.” Pack told Wong that the NRCC is having “great success shining a spotlight on the dangerous socialist policies Democrats are proposing, their appetite for anti-Semitism, and enthusiastic support for late-term abortions. Our fundraising is exceeding expectations, we have had recruitment meetings with 178 women, 100 veterans and 83 minorities, and we will continue to put the work in to ensure our candidates are in a position to win.” He said the NRCC is setting the narratives for the 2020 cycle.

Concerns over the optics of NRCC Recruitment Chairwoman Susan Brooks (R-IN) announcing her retirement last week has been the latest in a string of complaints, with some questioning Emmer’s judgment in requesting she take on the role amid rumors she wouldn’t seek another term in the House.

“When Emmer asked Brooks if she would take charge of recruiting new candidates for the House, she told him that she hadn’t decided if she was going to run for reelection herself in 2020, yet she was still named recruitment chair,” one senior Republican said.

“Now she’s officially not seeking reelection, and so it makes this whole recruitment thing a bit awkward. I just think this little anecdote reveals the dysfunction within the NRCC right now. She should have never been named recruitment chair,” the lawmaker added.

Pack said the NRCC is confident Brooks’s decision won’t have a negative impact on recruitment efforts.

“She is staying on in her role as recruitment chair. If anything, it will intensify her recruitment efforts,” Pack said.

With the influx of criticisms, some members said they feel it was a misstep for McCarthy to have pushed for Emmer to take on the role.

“He’s well liked in the conference, but the general feeling is he’s not getting the job done,” one lawmaker said, referring to Emmer. “That is also affecting attitudes toward Kevin, as Tom was his hand-picked guy.”

McCarthy has defended the NRCC’s performance.

“Tom and his team are doing what it takes to win. They’re on offense and not letting Democrats get away with promising their voters action but coming to Washington and conforming to the new Democrat Socialist agenda.” he said in a statement.

Other lawmakers have argued it’s too soon in the cycle for members to cast judgment, noting former chairmen have faced criticism in the past and gone on to win or hold the majority.

“Well, you’ve got to have a philosophy of: Are you going to go on offense or are you going to be on defense? You know, there’s been a change. And the one thing I’ve found no matter what you do as NRCC chair, in the offices, somebody’s not going to be happy,” one member said.

“And what Emmer knows is he’s going to be judged on results— results will matter. He believes this is the right path and he is either going to either sink or swim based on it.”

Republicans, my source told me after reading this story in The Hill told me that many of his colleagues don’t care if Emmer sinks or not, just that “he and his team are taking the party down with them.”

Tom Emmer: The Republican Party's New Super-Villain?

How do you replace Michele Bachmann-- in Minnesota's reddest district? Bachmann's old district (MN-06)-- in St. Cloud and the exurbs north and west of Minneapolis-- has a PVI of R+12. Democrats win the state but Obama lost MN-06 twice and Hillary was crushed there-- with just 33.2% of the vote. When Bachmann was forced into retirement after serious ethics charges, the GOP was determined tp find someone even further right than her. They dug up a guy named Tom Emmer, a crackpot from the state House who had earlier lost a gubernatorial election.

Emmer is best known in Minnesota for deciding the people who don't deserve a living wage are waiters and other people who scrape by on tips. He proposed a change to the law that would count tips toward the minimum wage requirement. "With the tips that they get to take home," he said, "there are some people earning over $100,000 a year. More than the very people providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their families' future." Perfect replacement for Bachmann, right?

Now a member of the House Financial Services Committee, he stinks of corruption, having sucked down $1,318,123 in bribes from the same institutions he's supposed to be overseeing. The GOP loves that and it helped for them to decide a couple of weeks ago to skip over Ann Wagner-- a girl-- to give Emmer the chair of the NRCC.

Earlier today, we mentioned Emmer's woman problem, but he has an even more overwhelming problem. The anti-red wave that swept 40 of his colleagues out of Congress November 6, is still raging and likely to be even stronger this cycle-- his cycle. He says his goal is to rebuild the NRCC. Maybe he could take a trip to Germany and ask how hard it was to rebuild Berlin after 1945.

Or maybe he'll learn how much rebuilding it's going to take by participating in the two special election likely to hit the GOP very soon-- one in NC-09 where their candidate, Mark Harris, paid a known felon to collect and destroy absentee ballots from African-American voters, and one in FL-15, where their candidate, Ross Spano, was found to be illegality funneling large amounts of unreported money into his narrowly successful campaign. Those should be fun races for Emmer. Harris "won" by around 900 votes and is now notorious as a vote cheat. Spano won 53-47% but he's been damaged by his scandal and if the Democrats wind up for a stronger candidate they can win that one too. Welcome to the NRCC, Mr. Emmer.

Trumpanzee and Emmer-- good luck!

The National Journal posits that if the impossible happens and "2020 proves to be a comeback year for House Republicans, the foundation for the successful cycle starts here in the midterm ashes and amid the fog of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into President Trump." That doesn't;'t sound very auspicious. "Emmer, who was just elected to a third term in Minnesota's 6th District, is more upbeat than some of his colleagues. Republicans in the lower chamber have begun a public hand-wringing over the future of the party after an electoral drubbing that handed Democrats dozens of districts in suburban areas that were once Republican strongholds." Yeah, they're smarter than Emmer, who is a fool who no one respects in his own caucus.

The GOP lost 40 seats in all, with casualties from Seattle to San Diego to Miami to Maine, and generally in areas where the president is less popular. [With plenty of room for even more districts to fall.]

“There’s a narrative that people are trying to build out there that somehow there’s been this shift, this political realignment in the suburbs,” Emmer said. “That’s not true. It isn’t there.”

Emmer's analysis of the midterms pins the blame on the Republican Party at large for failing to win over independent voters with a cohesive message on the booming economy. He stressed that the party’s focus on immigration in the final days repelled moderates, but he disputed attempts to fault the president specifically and pushed back on assumptions that Trump would be a liability in 2020.

“You’re definitely impacted, but you don’t rise or fall based on the executive,” he said. “You get to run your own race, but I think this is a customer-service business. You have to have your own independent brand.”

That sentiment isn’t shared across the Republican consultant class. Responding to Emmer’s comments, one pollster said it’s clear that women and suburban voters cast their midterm ballots based on how they felt about the president, and there is little reason to believe that either Trump or those voters will change their behaviors in two years. While it may be fixable, the pollster said, the party at least has to admit the problem.

Others agreed with Emmer that the party’s losses can’t wholly be blamed on a suburban realignment. One media consultant pointed to specific tactical errors by both the NRCC (not spending enough in some places, sinking too many resources elsewhere) and the Congressional Leadership Fund (unmemorable ads) that pushed Democratic gains higher.

As Republicans turn to recruitment, it's unclear whether Trump will hinder the party's efforts to rebuild. Emmer said he would begin enticing ousted members to run again in January. But in interviews with about a dozen of them, few sounded eager to mount comeback bids and some raised issues more deep-seated than the national environment.

Rep. Mike Bishop, a second-term Michigan Republican, said in an interview last month after his defeat that he was most concerned about the party’s appeal to women.

“They were generally dissatisfied and maybe even a little bit repelled by the Republican Party,” he said in an interview. “And we have to now be honest with ourselves and figure out what we need to do. So it’s up to these guys to figure it out.”

Some House Republicans have openly called for a thorough examination into their 2018 losses, but Emmer declined to say if there would be such an autopsy.

There are compelling signs that Trump proved to be a massive drag on Republicans, and that disadvantage could potentially increase as he wages a national reelection campaign, as House Democrats open multiple investigations into his administration, and as Mueller presumably wraps up his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Democrats flipped all but three of the 25 GOP-held seats in districts won by Hillary Clinton, felling battle-tested incumbents such as Carlos Curbelo in South Florida and David Valadao in California's Central Valley.

Emmer said his target list will include many of the 31 Democrats in Trump-won seats. He identified Oklahoma's 5th District, Illinois's 14th District, New York's 11th and 22nd Districts, and Virginia's 2nd and 7th Districts as some obvious offensive opportunities. However, the majority of Trump-district Democrats are in predominantly urban and suburban seats where the president's popularity has tended to sag.

He intends to effect some structural change within the committee to allow for more member input, particularly in fundraising and recruitment. And he described plans to further decentralize NRCC operations through more-robust regional leadership teams that could divide some operations based on rural, suburban, and urban areas in each region.

“We’re regionalizing the NRCC,” he said. “We’re trying to take it closer to the Main Street that it represents, closer to the members themselves.”

He has already involved Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, the incoming minority leader and whip, in putting the NRCC leadership team together, and intends for them to participate heavily in fundraising and recruitment, comparing their roles to that of a board of directors.

“We’re asking them to be incredibly supportive of the program that we’re putting here, so they need to have ownership of it, and we’re trying to make sure that they feel like they have ownership of it,” Emmer said.

Other ideas include replicating the “suburban caucus” that former Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois created in the mid-2000s, and forming NRCC teams to focus on Texas and California, where Republicans lost a combined nine seats.

Republicans in the conference have called for an effort to match the success of ActBlue, the Democrats' online-fundraising platform. An in-house fundraising apparatus or an outside vendor could work, Emmer said, and members are already creating proposals.

They also want a review of the independent expenditure decision-making process. On calls to drum up support for the chairmanship, Emmer said he was inundated with complaints about the $5 million spent on TV ads to help Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in Virginia. It was the committee’s largest expenditure in any district, and Comstock lost by 12 points.

But Emmer has a few messages for his fellow Republicans, too. He said they must work their districts, raise campaign cash, give him a heads-up if they plan to retire, and, despite complaints, pay their NRCC dues for the good of the party’s policy priorities.

“You’re contributing because you want the opportunity to govern, because you believe in our agenda and you believe it will improve people’s lives,” Emmer said. “If you truly believe that, then grab ahold of the rope and pull it with me, because it takes a lot of resources to get that thing moving.”

I think Republican candidates should follow Tom Emmer's advice and just spend all their time and resources talking with independents about Trump and his agenda and personality.

The Republican War Against... Bikes And Against Local Government

Congressman Lieu... real person

I'm sure you remember Michele Bachmann. Confronted with another typical Republican fundraising scandal, she agreed to retire from Congress in return for making the whole ugly mess go away. Her replacement, Tom Emmer, is just as crazy and extreme as she is. Wednesday every single Democrat voted against Emmer's fringy amendment to the 2016 Transportation Bill that would have inserted Big Government into the prerogatives of local communities. Specifically, Emmer doesn't want bike lanes-- or at least doesn't want any federal funds spent on bike lanes.

Even if every Democrat sticks together to oppose these kinds of crackpot Republican proposals, if the House Republicans all stick together they can easily brush the Democrats aside. But they don't always all stick together, and 32 balked at this crazy proposal. It was defeated by two votes-- 212-214. 32 fairly random Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with Pelosi and the Democrats.

Emmer's amendment was worded to prohibit funds from being used to carry out any "enrichment" for any New Start grant request. "Enrichments" are improvements to the transit project that are desired by the project sponsor but are non-integral to the planned functioning of the project, and whose benefits are not captured in whole by the criteria. "Enrichments" are allowable expenses for reimbursement under a future New Starts construction grant.

Ted Lieu (D-CA), a bicycle enthusiast himself, helped rally Democrats against Emmer's amendment. "As a supporter of state and local governments having funding for local transportation projects," he told us, "I voted against the Emmer amendment, which would have negatively impacted local governments’ ability to use federal transit funding for projects such as sidewalks, bicycle access, alternative energy bus vehicles, and other plans desired by local governments."

Which Freshmen Will Wind Up With Ethics Violations? You Can Already Tell By Their Attitudes

New Jersey corruption: Norcross (D), Christie (R)

New Jersey politicians have a reputation. There's a transpartisan/transactional culture of corruption that permeates Garden State politics, exemplified by the cozy relationship between the country's most corrupt Governor, Republican Chris Christie, and the most venal and slimy batch of Democratic Machine bosses anywhere in America, particularly Brian Stack, Joseph DiVincenzo and George Norcross. Norcross just installed his younger brother, Donald, in an open congressional seat. And the sclerotic, out of touch Democratic party leadership in Congress gave Norcross-the-Younger a plumb seat on their caucus' Steering Committee. Aside from being installed as the next Congressman from Camden, Cherry Hill and the Jersey suburbs east of Philly, Donald Norcross is filling in the last days of the unexpired term of Rob Andrews-- who retired as part of a deal to avoid a criminal investigation into campaign finance fraud charges. Though he sits in a D+13 district Obama won with 66% in 2012, Norcross' first vote was to join the Republicans to vote for the Keystone XL Pipeline. IT's going to be a long, ugly tenure.

The Norcross name defines grotesque corruption in South Jersey. Like all the other freshmen, he was required to take an ethics training course as part of his freshmen orientation last week. Fear not; he's immune. And so are most of the Republican freshmen, many of whom went on the record claiming there's no reason to force them into ethics training. Like Norcross, right-wing fanatic Tom Emmer (R-MN) is replacing a scandal-plagued crook, Michele Bachmann, who escaped a serious investigation by prematurely retiring.

“Pay for everything yourself, don’t take any gifts, and-- if you have a question about either of those two rules-- here’s the people you call,” Emmer quipped Tuesday morning, resting up in the basement of the Capitol Hill Club after a chilly photo shoot on the East Front Capitol steps with his fellow freshmen. “It’s that basic.”

Emmer and three other incoming members preparing to replace House lawmakers leaving Washington with open ethics reviews, all seemed to feel confident they were well-equipped to navigate Congress within the bounds of the 675 pages of rules governing the House, after a three-hour ethics briefing on the first day of the second week of orientation.

The session, featuring staff from the House Ethics Committee, the Office of Compliance and the Office of House Employment Counsel was helpful, according to Emmer, but nothing new. With nearly a decade of city council service, six years in the Minnesota House and a career as a lobbyist and lawyer under his belt, the 53-year-old said he is familiar with “conflicts of interest” and ethics policies.

Republican Glenn Grothman told CQ Roll Call, “Wisconsin ethics laws are even stricter than these,” as he exited the briefing. After more than two decades in state-level lawmaking, Grothman will replace retiring Rep. Tom Petri, who asked the House Ethics Committee to review his actions, amid questions about his relationship with defense contractors headquartered in his district that may have benefitted Petri’s financial interests.

The lesson delivered in the Capitol Visitor Center basement could be the only training incoming members receive on what might land them at the center of an ethics probe.

Although all new staffers must receive ethics training within 60 days of their start date, and get refreshed on ethics each year, there is no mandate for House lawmakers to undergo annual ethics training.

Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline and Virginia Republican Scott Rigell, both elected to the House in 2010, are teaming up to request a rule change that would require all lawmakers to undergo an annual class on ethics in the 114th Congress. In an interview, Cicilline described a letter the bipartisan duo will send to leadership to make their case. Cicilline said undergoing annual training is “not only beneficial to members,” but also to the reputation of the institution.

In 2007, the Senate mandated training for all senators and staff. Senior staff must complete an additional hour of ethics training once per Congress. Employees who work on Capitol Hill must attend a live briefing, while district staff based in other cities can fulfill ethics training online.

“My takeaway would be there’s a very complex problem of trying to maintain ethics in Congress,” said Republican Brian Babin, a Texas dentist who replaces GOP firebrand Steve Stockman in January. The congressman and three members of his staff were recently subpoenaed by a federal court in the District of Columbia for what appears to be a grand jury investigation into Stockman’s alleged flouting of campaign finance law.

Babin said that after the general overview, he was sure he would have discussions and questions, probably related to gifts and travel. “If there’s any area where it doesn’t look like it’s cut and dry,” he said he will seek advice. He will also hire a team of veteran Capitol Hill staffers who know how to abide by all the rules.

...Those who want to mandate ethics training claim the rules are not only complicated, but evolve over time. For example, Ciccilline pointed out that the House has “very specific limitations on how your name can be used” in coordination with nonprofit events. There are also complex, perhaps murky rules when it comes to social media. Incoming members might not realize their Facebook pages, or the foreign trips they are planning, could be subject to ethics review.

“New members are obviously developing a whole set of procedures for their offices, building staff, receiving a lot of information,” Cicilline said. He clarified that he’s not “pre-judging” what his new colleagues might do, but believes all members would benefit. A bill he introduced with the same intent has support from 52 Democrats and six Republicans.

None of the freshmen of the 114th Congress expressed explicit support for mandatory House ethics training, though Zeldin indicated he might be open to learning more about the proposal. Emmer is opposed.

“The idea that you would make it mandatory, I mean … if you can read, if you are capable of being here, doing the work to become a representative, I think you’re capable of doing the homework and understanding the rules,” he said.

And what, exactly, does that say about his predecessor? And, by the way, not every politician from New Jersey is part of the Christie/Norcross system of corruption. Former state Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman is a freshman now too. She's an enthusiastic proponent of reform and honesty in government. "I support," she told me this morning, "mandatory ethics training for incoming members, or members who have never received it. And then, I support mandatory training on changes and updates, annually, if there are any."

Election News From Minnesota

Over the weekend Minnesota Democrats had their congressional district nominating conventions. There were two we were watching. One ended badly and one ended well. The one that ended badly was for the open red district (PVI is R+10) that Michele Bachmann is leaving. Joe Perske, a hopeless conservative won the right to challenge whomever wins the GOP primary, in all likelihood, far right sociopath Tom Emmer. Perske narrowly beat the mainstream Democrat, Avon college professor Jim Read, after four rounds of balloting. To point out that Perske, who calls himself a Blue Dog, is from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, is not controversial. He's an anti-Choice fanatic and a shill for the NRA. Progressives won't even bother coming to the polls in November.

There was much better news in the southeastern part of the state, where radical right extremist John Kline finds himself in a swing district (MN-02) with a PVI of R+2. Obama beat McCain there in 2008 and Romney in 2012, albeit narrowly both years. The DCCC didn't support Kline's opponent last year while Obama was winning the district and Kline won 193,586 (54%) to 164,335 (46%). Obama won each of the district's 6 counties but Kline only lost one, tiny Rice County. Saturday's nominating convention went with Mike Obermueller again, who won the nomination on the first ballot against two challengers.

Blue America endorsed Obermueller and you can contribute to his campaign here. After his victory Saturday, he told the media that he would go after Kline on three main issues.

"I think the big issue between us is the difference in how he treats the middle class," Obermueller said. "He's been giving huge tax cuts away to millionaires and pushing that burden back onto seniors and the middle class. I think we ought to grow the middle class because that's the only way to get our economy up and running again."

The second issue, he said, is Social Security and Medicare for seniors. "He wants to privatize it. I want to make sure we're shoring it up," Obermueller said.

Finally, he criticized Kline for failing to support pay equity for women and allowing women to make their own health decisions. "That's a big contrast between us."

That contrast was highlighted Wednesday in a letter Obermueller sent out to voters in the district. The letter shows exactly how progressives should message the affordable Care Act. "John Kline hates Obamacare," Obermueller began. "He’s voted again and again and again to repeal the entire law. Kline voted to repeal protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. He voted to repeal provisions holding the insurance industry accountable. And he voted to repeal laws that stopped insurance companies from charging women more than men. Some Democrats are running away from Obamacare, but I’m not afraid to fight back. In Congress, I’ll make sure we keep Obamacare’s smart reforms like allowing kids to stay on their parents’ health plans, new tax credits for the middle class, and barring insurance companies from dropping patients just because they’re sick... Kline wants to put the insurance industry back in charge. That’s unacceptable. It’s time to fight back."

Don't Minnesota Voters Deserve A Choice? Joe Perske Is NOT A Choice... In Fact, He's Anti-Choice

Hard to imagine, but MN-06 is likely to wind up with someone WORSE than Bachmann!

Drowning in scandal and extremism-- and facing a rematch with Jim Graves, the Democrat who nearly beat her last year-- Bachmann was uncharacteristically wise to announce her retirement from Congress. The Republicans are finding some other lunatic-- probably right-wing lobbyist Tom Emmer-- to represent Minnesota's 6th CD. Although the DCCC ignored Graves last year, they were as stunned by his success as Bachmann was and they promised to help him next year. Not counting outside money, Bachmann spent $11,946,232 on her reelection campaign, an incredible $66.65 for every vote. Graves spent $2,279,384 or $13.03 per vote. She beat him 180,131 to 175,923 and of the 8 counties that make up the district, he beat her in Benton and Stearns and tied her in Anoka and Washington.

Tom Emmer, who was defeated in his run for governor last year, is as extremist in his politics as Bachmann. He espouses the Confederate nullification doctrine, doesn't think corporations should pay any taxes at all, opposes a minimum wage and decided to make his gubernatorial run a jihad against waiters and waitresses. Of course he's a loud homophobic bigot, anti-Choice, actually in favor of school bullying and is a serial drunk driver who keeps trying to make drunk driving a less serious crime. The man is sick-- and that helps explain why he lost his bid for the governorship, despite being heavily financed to the tune of several million dollars by crooked corporations like Best Buy and Target.

Once Bachmann pulled out of the race, the DCCC's interest in helping Graves instantly evaporated and he withdrew as well. Although there's a possibility of an actual Democrat jumping in, it looks like the worst of all options, Sartell's conservative first-term mayor, Joe Perske, will be the Democratic candidate. There's no reason for any progressive to consider voting for him, regardless of how terrible Emmer is.

Perske acknowledged he’s "not an articulate politician" but says that might not be a problem for many 6th District voters.

"I change my own oil. I cut my own coupons. I don’t know how many congressmen do that," Perske said. "I represent the working class of Central Minnesota."

Perske says he considers himself a "Blue Dog," or centrist, Democrat because he says he’s against abortion rights and supports Second Amendment rights. Still, he says he’s not a Republican because they aren’t offering solutions to create livable wage jobs or improve education or health care access.

Perske can't win. You need an actual Democrat to beat a Republican, not an apologetic semi-Republican. Good time to watch this Grayson video about what a real Democrat is:




UPDATE: May 4

It took 4 votes at the convention, but Perske won the DFL endorsement, which means, in effect, the district will stay in Republican hands for at least another two years, probably much longer.

Minnesota GOP finds a guv candidate modeled, not on Virginia's Gov. "Slick Bob" McDonnell, but on AG Ken Cuckoonuts

MN's certified-Tenther GOP guv candidate Tom Emmer

by Ken

Still searching for a link to that Rachel Maddow Show clip with Ira Furman doing his impromptu Mr. Science-style demonstration of the totally counterintuitive basic principle of "lift" that makes flight possible, I was wandering around the Maddow blog looking for the entrance to the attic when I stumbled across a blogpost from this afternoon by Laura Conaway which seems a logical sequel to my post earlier today about Virginia's uneasy wingnut tandem of Gov. "Slick Bob" McDonnell and AG Ken Cuckoonuts:

Minnesota GOP picks really wacky guy for governor -- no federal laws?

By Laura Conaway - Mon May 3, 2010 2:36 PM EDT

Holy smokes -- the Minnesota Republican Party has picked a tenther candidate for governor, State Rep. Tom Emmer, who makes Virginia's Ken Cuccinelli look like Eleanor Roosevelt or something. From TPM:

Emmer was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2004. He is a co-author of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would, to borrow the words of Nigel Tufnel, turn the Tenth Amendment all the way up to 11, with Minnesota preemptively nullifying all federal laws unless a state supermajority consents to them. Here is the key quote from the amendment's text: "A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor. Before voting to approve a federal law, each legislator must individually affirm that the legislator has read the federal law and understands it."

The best part? Emmer got the blessing of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who's aiming at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Here's more from Eric Kleefeld's TPM post (which includes video clips!):

State Rep. Tom Emmer picked up the official Republican endorsement at the party's convention this weekend, and he also walked away with the backing of Pawlenty himself. "We don't have any doubt about what Tom Emmer stands for or what his values are," Pawlenty said at the convention. "He is strong. He is steadfast. He is clear. ... He is going to be the next governor of the state of Minnesota." Emmer also has the support of Sarah Palin, who praised him just before the convention got underway as a "hockey dad" who once played for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks -- a move that may have been a tipping point, according to the Star-Tribune.

Emmer was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2004. Just this past March, he was a co-author of a proposed state constitutional amendment that would, to borrow the words of Nigel Tufnel, turn the Tenth Amendment all the way up to 11, with Minnesota preemptively nullifying all federal laws unless a state supermajority consents to them. Here is the key quote from the amendment's text: "A federal law does not apply in Minnesota unless that law is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of each house of the legislature and is signed by the governor. Before voting to approve a federal law, each legislator must individually affirm that the legislator has read the federal law and understands it."

Last September, Emmer proposed another state constitutional amendment that would prohibit any individual or employer mandate to carry health insurance in the state of Minnesota, if one were to eventually pass at the federal or state level (as it did eventually pass at the federal level).

* * *

"There have been some questions about the Tenth Amendment," Emmer acknowledged, "and we all know that states have the rights to assert their Tenth Amendment powers and affirm those rights in the state constitution." As for the skeptics, Emmer said that his amendment would protect Minnesotans from federal encroachment on health care, in the same way that the First and Second Amendments have protected freedom for the last 220 years."

* * *

In another amusing Emmer moment, a year ago he tore into a Democratic state representative for wanting to copy elements of environmental science and regulations from California and Europe, which the Dem in question felt were superior to the status quo in Washington or Minnesota. To Emmer, this was an example of liberals hating America:

"Oh oh, hey by the way, we also apparently have to look at this country and be extremely critical of the United States of America, and start kissing the rear end of the people on the other side of the Atlantic," Emmer said mockingly. "That's ridiculous, and I'm sick and tired of hearing it. I'm hearing it out of Washington, now I'm hearing it here. This is a great country, Rep. Knuth."

Well done, Minnesota GOP! Looks like you've found a winner! And we can just feel the excitement oozing out of Governor Tim's pores! (That's a joke. As far as I know, nothing has ever been known to ooze out of the governor except his unaccountable personal ambition -- unaccountable in that he's such a total nonentity.)

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