Archive for July 2009
South Dakota Sets Historic 76 Percent Yearly Increase in Unemployment Mark in June
The South Dakota Department of Labor released new unemployment numbers Wednesday for the month of June – numbers which solidify the past twelve months as the worst stretch in modern history for the Mount Rushmore State’s job market, according to…
Read MoreSoS Ritchie and Rep. Emmer Share Thoughts on Minnesota Election Reform
Last Friday four of Minnesota’s prominent leaders on election reform convened at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs to discuss what work needs to be done for the Gopher State to improve on its nationally renowned election system. Moderated by…
Read MoreHow Do Politicians Use Twitter? A Case Study of Rep. Laura Brod
Minnesota politicians (and the news media) increasingly used Twitter to communicate to their respective audiences during the 2009 legislative session in St. Paul. Some news outlets, such as Politics in Minnesota, tweeted thousands of policy updates and commentaries on the…
Read MoreWhat Goes Up, Goes Down Slowly: A Long Road to Recovering Job Losses in Minnesota
With new unemployment numbers set to be released on Thursday, Minnesotans are bracing for news as to whether the state will continue to follow the leveling-off pattern of job losses from the last 3 months, or whether unemployment will rise…
Read MoreWhat Will Be the ‘Obama Effect’ on the 2010 Minnesota Gubernatorial Race?
The recent news of Barack Obama’s sliding approval ratings across key battleground states (e.g. Ohio, Virginia) as well as the nation (e.g. Gallup, Rasmussen) has raised the question as to what effect a potentially less popular (if not unpopular) President…
Read MoreBachmann Voting Record Is 2nd Least Supportive of Obama in U.S. House
Last month a Smart Politics analysis of the most conservative members of the U.S. House (as determined by National Journal’s annual rankings) found Representative Michele Bachmann to have received the smallest margin of victory of the 44 most conservative Republicans…
Read MoreSen. Rest and Rep. Emmer to Speak on U.S. Senate Recount and MN Election Reform
Two leaders from the State Capitol will be speaking at a forum hosted by the Humphrey Institute on Friday morning to pinpoint reforms that could be made in the Minnesota election system to avoid recount pitfalls in the future. DFL…
Read MoreHow Blue Are the Blue Dog Democrats?
Congressional Quarterly’s vote study for the first half of 2009 is in the books, and finds that House Democrats overall supported Barack Obama 91.1 percent of the time in which the President stated his clear policy preference on legislation that…
Read MoreMinnesota’s ‘Youthful’ U.S. House Delegation
A recent article at CQ Politics profiled the potential competitiveness of Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District race in 2010. That district’s Representative, freshman GOPer Erik Paulsen, is one of several dozen new faces elected to D.C. during the past two election…
Read MoreMinnesota Delegation Has 2nd Lowest Collective Seniority Ranking in U.S. Senate
The soon-to-be seated DFL U.S. Senator Al Franken will now be able to assist Senior Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar with the state’s constituency caseload, but will not enhance the state’s collective seniority ranking in Capitol Hill’s upper chamber. Minnesota has…
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