As John Gilmore weeps (www.startribune.com).
by Tony Petrangelo
May 19, 2012, 8:00 PM

The Weekly Wrap 5-19

♣ Kurt Bills won the GOP endorsement for the US Senate race against Amy Klobuchar on Friday with 64% on the second ballot. Both Pete Hegseth and Doc Severson have previously said that they will be very dude, and abide.

♣ Minnesota’s DFL heavy hitters are all coming out in support of Rick Nolan it seems. On Wednesday the entire DFL state delegation and Collin Peterson (I kid!) attended a fundraiser for the former congressman in Washington DC.

The fundraiser was hosted by the former occupant of the seat Nolan is now running for, Jim Oberstar, as well Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.

♣ The Chamber of Commerce went on the air with ads supporting Chip Cravaack. I know they are not allowed to coordinate, but you’d think they could hire a photog to get a decent picture of the guy, no?

[Tony is absolutely right about this; when I first saw it — not paying much attention, of course — I thought it was an attack ad on Cravaak. I thought to myself, “That Tarryl Clark has got money to burn!”  Steve]

The Chamber is not telling how much money they’re putting behind the ads, but we’ve heard reports of them out in the wild, in the Twin Cities market.

Some of you might be wondering why the Chamber would advertise for Cravaack in the Twin Cities rather then Duluth, where, you know, all his constituents live. The reason is that Cravaack’s whole re-election strategy centers around simply ignoring the existence of Duluth.

The ad itself is pretty standard fare, the government hates small business and want’s them to fail, but ol’ Chip Cravaack won’t stand for it and will do… well, do something to stop it. Like repealing Obamacare.

Anyway, watch the ad below:

[youtube id=7tbu1Dhd8zY]

♣ The three intervenors in the redistricting lawsuit the concluded in February with the release by the Special Redistricting panel of new maps, are now asking the court to cover their legal fees.

I know there is likely to be a great deal of consternation at the thought of forking over $625,000 in legal fees to attorneys for drawing maps, but the state paying these fees is the right thing to do.

I’m not defending the actual redistricting process that took place, but if that’s the process that’s going to happen, the parties involved need to know that they will get reimbursed for their legal efforts.

The flip side, where the state didn’t pick up the tab for court costs, is that the side with the most resources would be able to flood the zone, so to speak.

Redistricting is a process that happens only once every ten years, so its worth it to make sure all sides have proper representation during the process. Less than a million dollars every ten years doesn’t seem like that much to maintain a fair process.

♣ On Tuesday Common Cause filed two complaints against ALEC, otherwise known as the American Legislative Exchange Council, or Corporate Legislation-R-Us.

One is with the Attorney General of Minnesota, Lori Swanson, and alleges that contrary to their tax filings as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the group is not in fact a charity.

That complaint can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/93591786/Ag-Ltr-Final

The other complaint is with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board and accuses ALEC of failing to register as a lobbyist within the state.

That complaint can be found here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/93591674/ALEC-Complaint-FINAL

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