November 6, 2010 Lost Lake Tribune Section B: Minnesota
Section B: Minnesota
Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
GOP, DFL gearing up for recount;
Pawlenty says he'll stay on till it's over
As Mark Dayton clings to a narrow lead over Tom Emmer, both parties are preparing strategies for a recount similar to the one in 2008 U.S. Senate race. GOP Chairman Tony Sutton says there were "many discrepancies" in the vote tally.
Here we go again. Two years after Minnesota's politics were convulsed for months by a recount in the U.S. Senate race, another one is looming in the race for governor.
And the uncertainty about the outcome is so great that Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday that he's willing to stay in office until the race is resolved.
He issued a formal statement saying, in part, that he "fully committed and prepared to accomplish the swift and orderly transition to the next governor as soon as a final determination is made. As required by . . . the Minnesota Constitution, I will continue to serve as governor until a new governor takes the oath."
With all but two of the state's 4,136 precincts reporting, Democrat Mark Dayton led Republican Tom Emmer by 8,914 votes, well within the margin of one-half of 1 percentage points that automatically triggers a recount under state law.
That's what occurred two years ago when Sen. Al Franken unseated Norm Coleman after a long, tangled legal battle.
Adding to the day-after political chaos, Pawlenty said he won't resign or otherwise step away from the job he has held for two terms until a successor is known.
Pawlenty says that "any of my personal plans or concerns are secondary" to fulfilling his constitutional obligation to remain governor, an oblique reference to his likely run for the presidency in 2012.
Wednesday's business for both candidates included taking the first steps to plan for the recount. Dayton's campaign staff was planning to hold a morning meeting while state Republican leaders held a morning press conference at which they expressed suspicions about the vote count.
The GOP immediately signaled that the party will be far more aggressive in the recount battle than it was last time around.
Stopping just short of alleging voter fraud on Tuesday, Chairman Tony Sutton flatly predicted: "Once all the votes are properly accounted for, it will show that Tom Emmer was elected governor. "We are concerned about the fact that there were many discrepancies last night."
Sutton noted that Hennepin County made a 400,000-vote mistake, which caused a 60,000-vote swing in governor's race. "The machines that were failing across the state yesterday," Sutton said. "And quite frankly, it's a disgrace that this election process, since 2008, we've had two years, essentially, to fix this election process in Minnesota," Sutton said. "And instead, here we are again today with questions about the process, questions about how the votes are reported last night. We have spent tens of millions of dollars as a state investing in technology in voting machines, investing in these processes. And yet here we stand again today." He added: "Something doesn't smell right when you take control of the state House, you take control of the state Senate, we win Congressional districts, folks, and yet somehow, somehow, we don't win the governor's race." Sutton said the GOP "won't get out-lawyered" in a recount, as many observers said it was in 2008.
Republicans have hired Michael Toner, a Washington, D.C., former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission. Before that, he was chief counsel to the Republican National Committee in 2001 and general counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. He also volunteered to help Pawlenty start his Freedom First Political Action Committee, which Pawlenty set up to explore a run for president.
Tony Trimble, the state party's general counsel, "is helping take the proper steps to ensure the ballots are secured and that we are going to be very, very aggressive in making sure that procedures are followed and it's not just happy talk from bureaucrats at the State Office Building."
Asked directly if he was charging voter fraud, Sutton replied, "I don't know if I am suggesting fraud or incompetence. We don't know yet, and that's what we are going to be pursing very vigorously."
A member of Franken's 2008 recount legal team says lawyers for Minnesota Democrats are already preparing for the recount. Former Minnesota U.S. attorney David Lillehaug says it's too early to talk about Democrats' strategies before the votes are finalized, but that the party will be ready for the possibility.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who won reelection Tuesday and whose office supervised the Franken-Coleman recount, said the recount process "will look very much like it did before."
No recount will start until after the state's Canvassing Board meets on Nov. 23 to examine final vote tallies. After that, if the margin is close enough to merit an automatic recount, election officials across the state will begin counting and examining every ballot cast Tuesday. The process, plus the canvassing board's handling of any challenges that arise from the count, could take weeks.
The members of the canvassing board are Ritchie, Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, Supreme Court Justice David Stras, Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson and Hennepin County Judge Denise Reilly. Anderson, Johnson and Reilly were appointed by Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, Stras was appointed by Pawlenty. Reilly served on the 2008 panel.
"I've done it a number of times before but it will be interesting to see how it all works out this time," said Johnson. "I just I don't look at it from an emotional perspective. I will go in and apply the law and I feel comfortable doing that."
Ritchie said while he "hated" the high emotion that marked the 2008 recount, which resulted him receiving some death threats, he expected the 2010 recount, should it happen, to be fun. He said voters acted "calmly with courtesy, with respect" on Tuesday and he hoped that attitude prevailed through the recount.
Although the difference between Dayton and Emmer is less than that required half-percentage point, it is many times larger than the lead Coleman had the day after Election Day, or the 312-vote lead that Franken secured eight months later.
But while that 2008 recount dragged on, and the U.S. Senate survived with one less member, Minnesota needs a governor to function as the state's chief executive.
Pawlenty's term is set to expire the first week in January. The office could be vacant then, if the many-month span of the 2008 Senate race recount and election trial is any indicator. The lengthy 2008 recount set about a re-reading of the Minnesota constitution to examine what it says about the governor's term. "The term of office for the governor and lieutenant governor is four years and until a successor is chosen and qualified," the constitution says. Attorneys are sure to fight over each word in that sentence, as well as in companion state laws that govern the governor's term.
In the coming days, the vote margin between Dayton and Emmer is sure to change as the last remaining precincts check in and election officials re-check their tallies.
In a press release, Emmer said Wednesday morning: "With [all] precincts reporting, this race is still too close to call. The margin that currently separates Senator Dayton and me is currently within the automatic recount trigger. There is a process in law that will ensure that we arrive at a conclusive result, ensuring that all valid votes are counted and the will of the voters is met."
In the governor's race, Dayton won the most populous counties -- Hennepin and Ramsey -- while Emmer won the key suburban counties and the vast majority of outstate counties. But in the suburban areas, Emmer prevailed by margins below what Gov. Tim Pawlenty had when he barely edged out DFLer Mike Hatch in 2006. Had Emmer matched Pawlenty's performance in the suburbs, he might well have come out the clear winner. As outstate counties dribbled in their results late at night and early this morning, Emmer steadily cut into Dayton's early lead.
Dayton thanked his supporters and apologized for the slow results.
"I wish things were proceeding faster than they are," he said. "At this point, we are about 15,000 votes ahead [which he was at that moment]. I thank you for your patience and for your commitment to being here . . . I am cautiously optimistic."
Emmer appeared in front of supporters for the first time at 1:30 a.m. He called it a "wonderful night across the country and in Minnesota" and said, "the numbers are moving in the right direction. We're not quite done yet. "Keep the faith," he said.
Information Gained from http://www.startribune.com/politics/106619478.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1PQ_BP:_17c3mU
Article prepared and edited by Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
Important Pillsbury Purchase Proposal Narrowly Fails
While the Owatonna school district did see some success on the ballot, the former campus of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College will remain vacant.
The school district posed three questions to voters on Tuesday night, first asking for an extended operating levy, second asking for the authority to implement all day every day kindergarten, and finally, asking for the public’s approval to purchase the Pillsbury campus. The only question to pass was the question concerning the operating levy, which succeeded by less than 500 votes. The second question concerning every day kindergarten failed by 400 votes. The third question concerning Pillsbury failed by less than 300 votes.
For the Owatonna school district, the good news is that operating funds have been extended. The only question garnering the public’s approval asked the school district to revoke the current operating levy. The new levy will take the district through the 2015-16 school year.
Though many in the community have come forward expressing their dissatisfaction with the district’s proposal to begin offering all-day every day kindergarten during difficult economic times, the decision that could have the most impact in the long-term is that regarding the vacant Pillsbury campus.
Pillsbury Baptist Bible College closed its doors in December 2008, after the college struggled to stay financially viable due to declining enrollment. Prior to its closure, the college campus had long served as an educational facility in Owatonna. The first buildings on the grounds were completed in 1877, when the college opened as Minnesota Academy, according to a history by the Steele County Historical Society. The name was changed to Pillsbury Academy in 1887, and the college was converted into Pillsbury Military Academy in 1920. In 1957, the school was reconstituted as a four-year biblical arts college, leading to its recent name.
While the college is now vacant, the history it holds remains. The site is considered an historic district, though none of the buildings appear on the National Registry of Historic Places. While the cannon that sits on the corner of Main Street and Grove Avenue is the property of the Steele County Historical Society, there is no guarantee that the other features on the site will be preserved if another party is to purchase the campus.
Interest has waxed and waned in the former Pillsbury campus since it closed its doors to undergraduate students. Crossroads College of Rochester expressed interest in the campus in December 2008, but the interest depended on the sale of the existing campus in Rochester, a site that sat on the market for some time with no takers.
Lost Lake Tribune Liberal Editor, Marcus Troy, debates the previous issue, he believes that Crossroads had every intention to purchase Pillsbury but the offers were too low for the closed institution. He says that Crossroads had the credit available to borrow some or all of the money needed for the purchase. The sale of Crossroad’s Rochester campus was not necessary for the Pillsbury acquisition to be completed. Sources close to Pillsbury do not agree with Troy. They state that Crossroads had no real money to put up for the campus. They state that Pillsbury viewed Crossroads’ offer as questionable.
On the anniversary of the campus’ closure, in December 2009, a Florida man expressed interest in acquiring the campus and converted it into a private four-year, post-graduate medical school. Though he continued to comment online regarding his interest through January 2010, no purchase was made.
Earlier in the fall, Tom Tapper, the superintendent of the Owatonna school district, said that the school district was the only party vying for the campus. With sentiments echoed by an architectural and design firm, he said the site was falling further into disrepair with each passing day.
With the failure of the bond referendum on Tuesday night, yet another option for the preservation of the Pillsbury campus has closed. If no one comes forward with an interest in the property, the utilities may be shut down in order to avoid further expense to the current owner.
Sources close to Pillsbury said they are disappointed and that there are no current plans to shut off the utilities, at the moment. They would comment no further.
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=122131
Article Prepared and Edited by Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
GOP, DFL gearing up for recount;
Pawlenty says he'll stay on till it's over
As Mark Dayton clings to a narrow lead over Tom Emmer, both parties are preparing strategies for a recount similar to the one in 2008 U.S. Senate race. GOP Chairman Tony Sutton says there were "many discrepancies" in the vote tally.
Here we go again. Two years after Minnesota's politics were convulsed for months by a recount in the U.S. Senate race, another one is looming in the race for governor.
And the uncertainty about the outcome is so great that Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday that he's willing to stay in office until the race is resolved.
He issued a formal statement saying, in part, that he "fully committed and prepared to accomplish the swift and orderly transition to the next governor as soon as a final determination is made. As required by . . . the Minnesota Constitution, I will continue to serve as governor until a new governor takes the oath."
With all but two of the state's 4,136 precincts reporting, Democrat Mark Dayton led Republican Tom Emmer by 8,914 votes, well within the margin of one-half of 1 percentage points that automatically triggers a recount under state law.
That's what occurred two years ago when Sen. Al Franken unseated Norm Coleman after a long, tangled legal battle.
Adding to the day-after political chaos, Pawlenty said he won't resign or otherwise step away from the job he has held for two terms until a successor is known.
Pawlenty says that "any of my personal plans or concerns are secondary" to fulfilling his constitutional obligation to remain governor, an oblique reference to his likely run for the presidency in 2012.
Wednesday's business for both candidates included taking the first steps to plan for the recount. Dayton's campaign staff was planning to hold a morning meeting while state Republican leaders held a morning press conference at which they expressed suspicions about the vote count.
The GOP immediately signaled that the party will be far more aggressive in the recount battle than it was last time around.
Stopping just short of alleging voter fraud on Tuesday, Chairman Tony Sutton flatly predicted: "Once all the votes are properly accounted for, it will show that Tom Emmer was elected governor. "We are concerned about the fact that there were many discrepancies last night."
Sutton noted that Hennepin County made a 400,000-vote mistake, which caused a 60,000-vote swing in governor's race. "The machines that were failing across the state yesterday," Sutton said. "And quite frankly, it's a disgrace that this election process, since 2008, we've had two years, essentially, to fix this election process in Minnesota," Sutton said. "And instead, here we are again today with questions about the process, questions about how the votes are reported last night. We have spent tens of millions of dollars as a state investing in technology in voting machines, investing in these processes. And yet here we stand again today." He added: "Something doesn't smell right when you take control of the state House, you take control of the state Senate, we win Congressional districts, folks, and yet somehow, somehow, we don't win the governor's race." Sutton said the GOP "won't get out-lawyered" in a recount, as many observers said it was in 2008.
Republicans have hired Michael Toner, a Washington, D.C., former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission. Before that, he was chief counsel to the Republican National Committee in 2001 and general counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. He also volunteered to help Pawlenty start his Freedom First Political Action Committee, which Pawlenty set up to explore a run for president.
Tony Trimble, the state party's general counsel, "is helping take the proper steps to ensure the ballots are secured and that we are going to be very, very aggressive in making sure that procedures are followed and it's not just happy talk from bureaucrats at the State Office Building."
Asked directly if he was charging voter fraud, Sutton replied, "I don't know if I am suggesting fraud or incompetence. We don't know yet, and that's what we are going to be pursing very vigorously."
A member of Franken's 2008 recount legal team says lawyers for Minnesota Democrats are already preparing for the recount. Former Minnesota U.S. attorney David Lillehaug says it's too early to talk about Democrats' strategies before the votes are finalized, but that the party will be ready for the possibility.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who won reelection Tuesday and whose office supervised the Franken-Coleman recount, said the recount process "will look very much like it did before."
No recount will start until after the state's Canvassing Board meets on Nov. 23 to examine final vote tallies. After that, if the margin is close enough to merit an automatic recount, election officials across the state will begin counting and examining every ballot cast Tuesday. The process, plus the canvassing board's handling of any challenges that arise from the count, could take weeks.
The members of the canvassing board are Ritchie, Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, Supreme Court Justice David Stras, Ramsey County District Judge Gregg Johnson and Hennepin County Judge Denise Reilly. Anderson, Johnson and Reilly were appointed by Republican Gov. Arne Carlson, Stras was appointed by Pawlenty. Reilly served on the 2008 panel.
"I've done it a number of times before but it will be interesting to see how it all works out this time," said Johnson. "I just I don't look at it from an emotional perspective. I will go in and apply the law and I feel comfortable doing that."
Ritchie said while he "hated" the high emotion that marked the 2008 recount, which resulted him receiving some death threats, he expected the 2010 recount, should it happen, to be fun. He said voters acted "calmly with courtesy, with respect" on Tuesday and he hoped that attitude prevailed through the recount.
Although the difference between Dayton and Emmer is less than that required half-percentage point, it is many times larger than the lead Coleman had the day after Election Day, or the 312-vote lead that Franken secured eight months later.
But while that 2008 recount dragged on, and the U.S. Senate survived with one less member, Minnesota needs a governor to function as the state's chief executive.
Pawlenty's term is set to expire the first week in January. The office could be vacant then, if the many-month span of the 2008 Senate race recount and election trial is any indicator. The lengthy 2008 recount set about a re-reading of the Minnesota constitution to examine what it says about the governor's term. "The term of office for the governor and lieutenant governor is four years and until a successor is chosen and qualified," the constitution says. Attorneys are sure to fight over each word in that sentence, as well as in companion state laws that govern the governor's term.
In the coming days, the vote margin between Dayton and Emmer is sure to change as the last remaining precincts check in and election officials re-check their tallies.
In a press release, Emmer said Wednesday morning: "With [all] precincts reporting, this race is still too close to call. The margin that currently separates Senator Dayton and me is currently within the automatic recount trigger. There is a process in law that will ensure that we arrive at a conclusive result, ensuring that all valid votes are counted and the will of the voters is met."
In the governor's race, Dayton won the most populous counties -- Hennepin and Ramsey -- while Emmer won the key suburban counties and the vast majority of outstate counties. But in the suburban areas, Emmer prevailed by margins below what Gov. Tim Pawlenty had when he barely edged out DFLer Mike Hatch in 2006. Had Emmer matched Pawlenty's performance in the suburbs, he might well have come out the clear winner. As outstate counties dribbled in their results late at night and early this morning, Emmer steadily cut into Dayton's early lead.
Dayton thanked his supporters and apologized for the slow results.
"I wish things were proceeding faster than they are," he said. "At this point, we are about 15,000 votes ahead [which he was at that moment]. I thank you for your patience and for your commitment to being here . . . I am cautiously optimistic."
Emmer appeared in front of supporters for the first time at 1:30 a.m. He called it a "wonderful night across the country and in Minnesota" and said, "the numbers are moving in the right direction. We're not quite done yet. "Keep the faith," he said.
Information Gained from http://www.startribune.com/politics/106619478.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1PQ_BP:_17c3mU
Article prepared and edited by Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
Important Pillsbury Purchase Proposal Narrowly Fails
While the Owatonna school district did see some success on the ballot, the former campus of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College will remain vacant.
The school district posed three questions to voters on Tuesday night, first asking for an extended operating levy, second asking for the authority to implement all day every day kindergarten, and finally, asking for the public’s approval to purchase the Pillsbury campus. The only question to pass was the question concerning the operating levy, which succeeded by less than 500 votes. The second question concerning every day kindergarten failed by 400 votes. The third question concerning Pillsbury failed by less than 300 votes.
For the Owatonna school district, the good news is that operating funds have been extended. The only question garnering the public’s approval asked the school district to revoke the current operating levy. The new levy will take the district through the 2015-16 school year.
Though many in the community have come forward expressing their dissatisfaction with the district’s proposal to begin offering all-day every day kindergarten during difficult economic times, the decision that could have the most impact in the long-term is that regarding the vacant Pillsbury campus.
Pillsbury Baptist Bible College closed its doors in December 2008, after the college struggled to stay financially viable due to declining enrollment. Prior to its closure, the college campus had long served as an educational facility in Owatonna. The first buildings on the grounds were completed in 1877, when the college opened as Minnesota Academy, according to a history by the Steele County Historical Society. The name was changed to Pillsbury Academy in 1887, and the college was converted into Pillsbury Military Academy in 1920. In 1957, the school was reconstituted as a four-year biblical arts college, leading to its recent name.
While the college is now vacant, the history it holds remains. The site is considered an historic district, though none of the buildings appear on the National Registry of Historic Places. While the cannon that sits on the corner of Main Street and Grove Avenue is the property of the Steele County Historical Society, there is no guarantee that the other features on the site will be preserved if another party is to purchase the campus.
Interest has waxed and waned in the former Pillsbury campus since it closed its doors to undergraduate students. Crossroads College of Rochester expressed interest in the campus in December 2008, but the interest depended on the sale of the existing campus in Rochester, a site that sat on the market for some time with no takers.
Lost Lake Tribune Liberal Editor, Marcus Troy, debates the previous issue, he believes that Crossroads had every intention to purchase Pillsbury but the offers were too low for the closed institution. He says that Crossroads had the credit available to borrow some or all of the money needed for the purchase. The sale of Crossroad’s Rochester campus was not necessary for the Pillsbury acquisition to be completed. Sources close to Pillsbury do not agree with Troy. They state that Crossroads had no real money to put up for the campus. They state that Pillsbury viewed Crossroads’ offer as questionable.
On the anniversary of the campus’ closure, in December 2009, a Florida man expressed interest in acquiring the campus and converted it into a private four-year, post-graduate medical school. Though he continued to comment online regarding his interest through January 2010, no purchase was made.
Earlier in the fall, Tom Tapper, the superintendent of the Owatonna school district, said that the school district was the only party vying for the campus. With sentiments echoed by an architectural and design firm, he said the site was falling further into disrepair with each passing day.
With the failure of the bond referendum on Tuesday night, yet another option for the preservation of the Pillsbury campus has closed. If no one comes forward with an interest in the property, the utilities may be shut down in order to avoid further expense to the current owner.
Sources close to Pillsbury said they are disappointed and that there are no current plans to shut off the utilities, at the moment. They would comment no further.
Information Gained from http://www.owatonna.com/news.php?viewStory=122131
Article Prepared and Edited by Senior Editor, Ben Fugate
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