“In
the last analysis, politics is not predictions and politics is not
observations. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by
what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine
-Paul Wellstone
"I am
Steve Sarvi, and I am ready to work side by side
with you not only for victory, but also for the
new path and the brighter future we all want."
CD2 Endorses
Steve Sarvi!
This weekend
CD2 Delegates endorsed Steve Sarvi’s candidacy
for Congress. After one ballot, Peter Idusogie,
who had been challenging Sarvi for the same
endorsement, asked to address the convention
and withdrew his candidacy. Peter then went on
to endorse Steve Sarvi for the second district
congressional office.
With supporters
and family by his side, Sarvi accepted the
endorsement of CD2's activists. Steve Sarvi
said, “This election is about all of us.
It’s about building a better future together."...
“We will make history by taking back our
district. This isn’t a ‘Republican district’ –
it’s a Minnesota district. And in Minnesota,
there are certain things we just don’t do.
“We don’t leave our children a country and a
world that’s in worse shape than when we
inherited it.
Sarvi went on to say “I believe our nation’s
finest days await us, if we will only change
course now and stay that course, not the one
George Bush and John Kline have put us on. We
can stop endless war. We can guarantee that no
child ever suffers again because health
insurance costs too much and covers too little.
We can honor our veterans’ sacrifices now and
for the rest of their days. We can have an
economy that serves our people and preserves our
planet.
“Do you believe what I believe, that our
country’s greatest days and decades lie in front
of us if we just change course right now, on
this day, in this year, for this election?
“Then let’s roll up our sleeves, the way
Minnesotans always do, and get to work. I am
Steve Sarvi, and I am ready to work side by side
with you not only for victory, but also for the
new path and the brighter future we all want.
Please join me, and persuade others to join this
effort. Let’s win this election, stay the right
course, and make history together.”
For more
information on Steve Sarvi, his stand on issues,
and to contact his campaign please go to
www.stevesarvi.org
Display Part of State
Sesquicentennial Celebration
Joined
by Andrea Kajer of the Minnesota Historical
Society and Jane Leonard of the Sesquicentennial
Commission, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie
announced today that a rare, original copy of
the Declaration of Independence will visit
Minnesota this year. The Declaration will be
part of a display at the Minnesota History
Center, May 6-18, coinciding with Minnesota
Statehood Week, which commemorates the 150th
anniversary of Minnesota becoming the 32nd state
of the Union.
The
Declaration of Independence, considered the
nation's birth ceritificate, laid the foundation
for personal freedoms and individual rights in
the United States and around the world. This
copy, known as a "Dunlap Broadisde," is one of
only 25 remaining original copies of the
Declaration printed on the evening of July 4,
1776, at the shop of Philadelphia printer John
Dunlap--and the only one that travels for
exhibition. Another copy was sent to General
George Washington, who read it aloud to his
troops. Still another copy was sent to King
George III of England.
The document is
valued at more than $8 million. The Declaration
comes to Minnesota via a presenting sponsorship
by Dolan Media Company."
The visit of the
Declaration will also serve as the centerpiece
of the Secretary of State's "Democracy Starts
Here" series of exhibits, conferences, and
seminars exploring the history and future of
Minnesota and the Office of the Secretary of
State.
"This is the most
vital document in our living American history,"
Ritchie says. "This visit appropriately
coincides with our celebration of Minnesota's
150th birthday, and occurs in a year when
Minnesotans will go to vote at the polls and
exercise one of their most basic rights."
The Declaration
will be on display for free public viewing at
the Minnesota History Center. Visit
www.mnhs.org
for information on hours and directions.
Send us Your Ideas! Minnesota 2020 thrives on your
participation. Be sure to keep
sending in your
My Minnesota essays. We love hearing from
you.
Every weekday,
Minnesota 2020 explores progressive ideas,
analysis, and news. Visit us at
www.mn2020.org
daily for fresh ideas and commentary on
education, health care, transportation, and
economic development perspectives, for the
issues that really matter.
Explaining Minnesota's Lagging Economic
Performance It's no secret that Minnesota's
economic performance has been sluggish in recent
years. Relative to the national average,
Minnesota's unemployment rate has increased and
household income has fallen. While Minnesota
remains above the national average in most major
economic indicators, the extent to which we are
outperforming other states has declined
significantly.
April 25: The Day School Quality Died
That giant sucking sound across Minnesota
yesterday was the sound of quality being drained
from our schools. State education financing is
so thin that if schools used today's funding to
offer what experts say is the minimum acceptable
education, they would run out of money on April
24. The closure date is earlier in rural
Minnesota: Dassel-Cokato would close March 4;
Sauk Rapids-Rice on March 12; Wabasso on April
1.
Minnesota 2020 Journal: Learning from Comfrey
How do we move forward? I ask while
contemplating Governor Pawlenty's most recent
high-profile staffing change. Reaching beyond
the usual conservative ideologues and hacks,
Pawlenty tapped a career highway engineer and
manager to lead the Minnesota Department of
Transportation.
Levy Limits: A Phony Solution to the Problem of
Rising Property Taxes
Minnesota communities have a revenue problem.
Real per capita county and city revenue in
Minnesota has fallen by more than 11 percent
since Governor Pawlenty came to office. In
fact, the decline in county and city revenue has
been far greater than the decline in state
revenue.
Test Freedom Day: Let the School Bells Ring Today is Test Freedom Day. Forget
about Tax Freedom Day, the day when we are
supposedly done paying taxes for the year. April
brings another, more significant day when we
celebrate the sloughing off of onerous,
heavy-handed government mandates and
regulations.
East Metro Communities Tell the Property Tax
Story It is no secret that homestead property
taxes in the east metro area have increased
rapidly. For example, from 2002 to 2008 the
average homestead property tax increased by 52
percent in Cottage Grove, 90 percent in
Maplewood and 74 percent in Oakdale. What
remains a mystery to many taxpayers is the
reason for this.
Playing Politics with Light Rail a Serious Risk
The last time Tim Pawlenty stood in the way of a
much-needed transit project, the Northstar
commuter rail line was delayed six years and
taxpayers ended up footing a heavier bill for
half a loaf of 21st century mobility. Now the
governor -- reprising his obstructionism as
House majority leader over Northstar service
that should have run from Minneapolis to St.
Cloud in 2003 but now will get only halfway
there next year - has issued his second veto of
state matching funds for the Central Corridor
light-rail project, casting its future into
serious doubt.
Minnesota 2020 Journal: Speaking Truth
A progressive think tank's work, like all the
world's, is hard work. We rise, shoulder our
tools, and labor, moving Minnesota's public
policy agenda forward. Then, we do it again the
next day. Using a baseball analogy, we want to
win the game through singles and doubles, not
home runs. The home run might jazz fans but in
baseball's simple math, teams accumulate points
when runners cross home plate. Home runs are,
statistically, far less likely than base hits.
When It Comes to Health Care, Gov. Pawlenty
Should Lead or Get Out of the Way If nature abhors a vacuum, then it has
to hate what's going on with the governor and
health care. What we're witnessing in St. Paul
is a vacuum of leadership to address arguably
the biggest challenge facing the state today.
With mounting pressure for progressive health
care reform, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's refusal to
engage is becoming the obvious obstacle to
affordable health care.
Busy Highway Construction Season Thanks to New
Investment
Minnesota's first highway construction season
since the enactment of $6.6 billion in new state
transportation revenues over Gov. Tim Pawlenty's
veto will bring acceleration of a few
much-needed road and bridge projects, a step up
in long-neglected maintenance of existing assets
and a glimpse of how much more should be done
In
2006, half as many more Republicans than DFLers
claimed refunds, and the average refund was 50%
higher. Help close the gap and level the playing
field!
Contributions to
the Presidential, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House
races are not eligible. But a contribution to
the DFL Party and CD2, which supports those
candidates, is eligible.
You can claim a
refund only once a year.
Early money works longer! The
sooner you give, the sooner
your contribution
helps our candidates.
Please help us keep
electing Democrats to office in CD2 by donating today! Your
donation is completely refundable (up to $50 per individual
or $100 per family).
Training for Political Unit and Campaign
Treasurers
MN Campaign Finance & Public Disclosure Board
Board staff schedules periodic training
to assist clients in meeting the requirements of Chapter
10A. Classes in the use of the Campaign Finance software
are scheduled in both election and nonelection years.
Training in compliance with Chapter 10A, and in filling
out reports required of candidates, political committees
and party units are scheduled during an election year.
If you wish to participate in this training session,
please call the numbers listed below in advance to make
a reservation. Space is limited, so call early!
When you call for a reservation, please tell us if you
have any special needs.
2008 Training Schedule
Date
Who
Training:
Time
Where
May 6, 2008
(Tuesday)
Principal
Campaign Committee, Political Party Units, and
Political Committees and Funds
Compliance
Training
9:30am - 12:00pm
Rochester Community and Technical College
Heintz Center Room102/119
Directions
Campaign Finance Reporter Session (Basic
understanding of Microsoft Windows is required.) –
provides instruction on the use of campaign finance
software. This training will provide a complete
introduction to Campaign Finance Reporter. Attendees
will leave with enough knowledge to set up their
committees, record all of the usual types of financial
transactions, and to create and file reports with the
Board. There is still time to start using Campaign
Finance Reporter for your 2006 pre-general election
reports, so sign up now.
Compliance Training - provides a review of the
contribution and expenditure limits, and record keeping
requirements, contained in Minnesota Statutes Chapter
10A.
Report Training - provides a page by page review
of the reports that must be filed by candidates,
political committees and funds, and political party
units with the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure
Board.
Two-hour parking meters are available on both sides of
Cedar Street in front of the Centennial Building and on
the Orange Level of the parking ramp behind the
building. You may access the ramp on Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Blvd. All meters use quarters.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel
free to contact us at the numbers listed above.
Through the Minnesota Political Refund
Program you may qualify for a rebate of up to $50 of your
individual contribution (or up to $100 per couple) We'll
provide you with a contribution receipt (EP-3 form) and the
MN Department of Revenue Official Political Contribution
Refund Application. Complete the form and drop it in the
mail. In 4-6 weeks, the MN Dept. of Revenue will send you
back a check. more
Support us
achieve our vision for a better Minnesota!
Any member
of this list can post to it with the above email
address (including campaign representatives paid or
volunteered). This list can generate several emails
a day. To subscribe go to
https://warecorp.com/mailman/listinfo/cd2. All
requests will be vetted.
For
DFL business-only like CD2 calendar and meeting
notices. Normally this list only gets 3-4 emails a
month. To join or list any items on this list and/or
the website sent to
janemmiles@msn.com.
When Andrew Jackson ran for
President in 1828, his opponents tried to label him a
“Jackass” for his populist views
and his slogan, “Let the people rule”. Jackson, however,
picked up on their name calling and turned it to his own
advantage by using the donkey on his campaign posters.
During his presidency, the donkey was used to represent
Jackson’s stubbornness when he vetoed re-chartering the
National Bank.
The first time the donkey
was used in a political cartoon to represent the Democratic
Party was, again, in conjunction with Jackson. Although in
1837 Jackson was retired, he still thought of himself as the
Party’s leader and was shown trying to get the donkey to go
where he wanted it to go. The cartoon was titled “A Modern
Baalim and his Ass”.
Interestingly
enough, the person credited with getting the donkey widely
accepted as the Democratic Party’s symbol probably had no
knowledge of the prior associations. Thomas
Nast, a famous political cartoonist, came to the United
States with his parents in 1840 when he was six. He first
used the donkey in the 1870 Harper’s Weekly cartoon to
represent the “Copperhead Press” kicking a dead lion,
symbolizing Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who
had recently died. Nast intended the donkey to represent an
anti-war faction with whom he disagreed, but the symbol
caught the public’s fancy and the cartoonist continued using
it to indicate some Democratic editors and newspapers.
Later, Nast used the donkey
to portray what he called “Caesarism” showing the alleged
Democratic uneasiness over a possible third term for Ulysses
S. Grant. In conjunction with this issue, Nast helped
associate the elephant with the Republican Party. Although
the elephant had been connected with the Republican Party in
cartoons that appeared in 1872, it was Nast’s Cartoon in
1874 published by Harper’s Weekly that made the pachyderm
stick as the Republican’s symbol.
By 1880 the donkey was
well-established as a mascot for the Democratic Party. A
Cartoon about the Garfield-Hancock campaign in the New York
Daily Graphic showed the Democratic candidate mounted on a
donkey, leading a procession of crusaders.
Over the years, the donkey
and elephant have become the acceptedsymbols of the
Democratic and Republican parties. Although the Democrats
have never officially adopted the donkey as a party symbol,
we have used various donkey designs on publications over the
years. The republicans have actually adopted the elephant as
their official symbol and use the design widely.
Adlai Stevenson provided
one of the most clever descriptions of the Republican’s
symbol when he said, “The elephant has a thick skin, a head
full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade
knows, proceeds best by grasping the tail of its
predecessor”.
UPDATES
Next CD2 Meeting
May 12, 6:30 PM
Burnhaven Library, Burnville
Volunteer to help at CD2's convention! Email Chair
Jeanne Thomas.
The
Declaration of Independence, considered the
nation's birth ceritificate, laid the foundation
for personal freedoms and individual rights in
the United States and around the world. This
copy, known as a "Dunlap Broadisde," is one of
only 25 remaining original copies of the
Declaration printed on the evening of July 4,
1776, at the shop of Philadelphia printer John
Dunlap--and the only one that travels for
exhibition. Another copy was sent to General
George Washington, who read it aloud to his
troops. Still another copy was sent to King
George III of England.
In
2006, half as many more Republicans than DFLers
claimed refunds, and the average refund was 50%
higher. Help close the gap and level the playing
field! 
Interestingly
enough, the person credited with getting the donkey widely
accepted as the Democratic Party’s symbol probably had no
knowledge of the prior associations. 
Although
the elephant had been connected with the Republican Party in
cartoons that appeared in 1872, it was Nast’s Cartoon in
1874 published by Harper’s Weekly that made the pachyderm
stick as the Republican’s symbol.
