by Tony Petrangelo

Jun 10, 2012, 8:00 AM

The Weekly Wrap 6-10

♣ Representative Roger Crawford announced his retirement on Monday citing health issues, specifically:

Late on the Friday before Memorial Day, I was admitted to United Hospital in St. Paul with a mild heart attack requiring two stents to open blockages in my heart. I was released from the hospital on Thursday and returned home. Since last July, I’ve had two mild heart attacks and now five stents in my heart. Needless to say, this has my family and me concerned.

We wish Rep. Crawford well.

♣ On Tuesday Senator Ray Vandeveer announced his retirement also citing health issues.

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2000 and my thought at that time was that I would serve until it started impacting my ability to represent my constituents. In the wake of a grueling session I decided that the time has come.

We wish Sen. Vandeveer well.

♣ The filing deadline was on Tuesday for the state legislature, as well as a number of other offices. I posted on Thursday about the primary match-ups in the House and Senate, there are 44 in total.

♣ PPP, as is their style, released their Minnesota poll results in three installments (so far at least). The first wave included numbers on the two constitutional amendments, Mark Dayton and the state legislature.

The second wave included numbers on President Obama and Mitt Romney and various permutations of Romney Vice Presidential nominees. Namely, Norm Coleman, Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann. Pawlenty actually helped Romney improve four points to -11, while Coleman resulted in no difference and Bachmann caused Romney to lose support (surprise!).

The third wave got released yesterday and concerned the US Senate race which, if you’ve been watching the polls you already know, is a yawner. So much so in fact, this is how the race was described by Public Policy Polling’s Tom Jensen:

The 2012 Minnesota Senate race may be up there for the most boring one we’ve polled on this cycle. Amy Klobuchar’s one of the most popular Senators in the country, her opponents are all no names, and the main suspense from poll to poll is whether her leads over the GOP field will be closer to 20 points or 30.

This is the first time though that Senator Klobuchar has been matched up against her now likely GOP opponent Kurt Bills, so it’s interesting from that perspective, although as you can tell from the above paragraph, Bills doesn’t fare any better than anyone else.

Also in this poll, numbers on a few perspective 2014 Senate races and more fun stuff like city favorables (pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve seen that in a Minnesota poll) and even some questions about the Minnesota Twins.

♣ News broke on Wednesday that the Minnesota Supreme Court has set a date of July 17th to hear oral arguments on a petition to remove the Photo ID amendment from the November ballot.

The reason, or at least the main one? The ballot language doesn’t match what the amendment actually does. What do you think?

Here’s the language that will actually be amended to the constitution:

All voters voting in person must present valid government-issued photographic identification before receiving a ballot. The state must issue photographic identification at no charge to an eligible voter who does not have a form of identification meeting the requirements of this section. A voter unable to present government-issued photographic identification must be permitted to submit a provisional ballot. A provisional ballot must only be counted if the voter certifies the provisional ballot in the manner provided by law.

All voters, including those not voting in person, must be subject to substantially
equivalent identity and eligibility verification prior to a ballot being cast or counted.

Here’s the question that will be on the ballot:

Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to require all voters to present valid photo identification to vote and to require the state to provide free identification to eligible voters, effective July 1, 2013?

So yea, I think they’ve got a decent case.

♣ The news in this regard continued breaking, on Friday it was learned that the Dark Overlord of Voter Disenfranchisement, Representative Mary Kiffmeyer, along with her henchman in the senate, Scott Newman, were trying to get themselves added to the case as respondents. The linked article says that Minnesota Majority will also attempt to join the suit.

Their fear is that Champion of Minnesota Voter Enfranchisement, Mark Ritchie, wouldn’t sufficiently represent their interests in court. My hope is that a) they’re right, and b) they get denied in their request.

♣ If the previous two items peak your interest than be sure to tune in today at 2pm on AM950 for the debut of our new radio show the LeftMN Radio Hour (basically Not Almanac on the radio). We will post a podcast of the show here after it airs.