3rd Congressional District Fundraising

The Oct-Dec 07 fundraising numbers are in, and two DFL candidates posted very strong fundraising. State Sen. Terri Bonoff and Attorney Ashwin Madia both raised in excess of $100,000.

No reports are yet available from the other two known candidates, DFLer Jim Hovland and the GOP's Erik Paulsen.

This confirms that there will be no shortage of Democratic money making its way into this race. It also confirms that the Republicans can't wait too long before a candidate or candidates become visible, or Congressman Ramstad officially changes his mind and gets back into the race.

This blog maintains its belief that a strong Independent candidate, particularly one who could be partially self-financed, could have a real chance in this district. This is especially true if the party bases decide to nominate candidates who are off-center on the issues. We hope more people come forward to get into this race, as it would be good for the voters for this race to open up even more.

MinnPost -- worth a read

For those of you news junkies who are looking for additional sources of local and national information, I'd recommend checking out MinnPost at http://www.minnpost.com/. MinnPost is a nonprofit news source whose mission is to "provide high quality journalism for news-intense people who care about Minnesota."

I had checked out the website a while back when they first kicked off, and was mildly intruiged and reminded myself to keep checking back. Over time I've seen the content become very thought-provoking and have been impressed with their news coverage. Definately worth a bookmark in your web browser.

Greenwood to limit house sizes

The small village of Greenwood has decided to limit the size of homes being built in their city. The move, which isn't uncommon these days, would create several formulas for determining how large a home could be relative to the lot size. Some likely criteria include building height and footprint.

http://www.mnsun.com/articles/2007/08/30/news/ex30gree.txt

The fact that building restrictions will be put in place isn't huge news. Municipalities have been doing that for years, and I would guess that Greenwood is in the minority by not having stricter codes today. However, what magnitude of restrictions they put in place is worth watching. Will they restrict house sizes so they keep the "cottage" character of original Greenwood? Or will they recognize that an area like Greenwood, being so close to the lake, attracts people who like to build dream homes -- even if they are "not-so-big" dream homes.

South Lake's Political Landscape: Are we Democrat, Republican, or in the Midst of a Change?

The 2008 election season is here, and it started about four months ago. Turn on a cable news channel any weeknight, and you are sure to see talking heads speculating if Barack Obama is "black enough" to be the Democratic candidate in 2008, or if Rudy Guliani can ever attract the Republican base with this moderate/liberal leanings on social issues.

Fortunately for us and our local public servants, the spotlight for regional races shouldn't begin shining until the summer of 2008. Heavy primary campaigning for the District 33b House seat didn't begin last year until the August timeframe, just a couple months after Barb Sykora announced her retirement. So we have a good year before we will see much action locally.

An interesting "offseason" activity (if you are a political buff) is to look at local election trends and try to understand any changing dynamics that exist. When looking at local election returns over the past 10 years, one thing jumps out: South Lake tends to not vote as Red as it used to.

As recently as eight years ago, the Republican State Senate candidate was winning with 73% of the vote, and the Republican House candidate was unopposed. In 2006, however, the Republican District 33 Senate candidate won with "just" 59%, and the Repub House candidate won with an uncomfortable 55% margin. Perhaps 2006 was an anomaly of a year, the lowest possible point for Republicans as they saw many seats turnover at the federal and state levels. Maybe the Democrats fielded exceptional candidates in the 2006 local races. Regardless, the area Republicans have to be asking themselves if the margins they saw in 2006 are as low as they can go, or if there are more moderate independents out there who could tip the scales to the other side given a "perfect storm".

The past three elections on the Senate side have seen Gen Olson win handily, but with decreasing margins. In 1998, 2002, and 2006, her respective margins were 73%, 65%, and 59%. Not a good trend for an office in which you would expect the election margins get more secure over time. On the District 33B house side, the recent history has seen Barb Sykora unopposed in 2000 and 2002, then win with 62% of the vote in 2004, and her successor John Berns win with 55% percent of the vote in 2006. What is interesting here isn't the smallish 55% share that Berns received in 2006 (after all, he was a relative unknown running in a wide-open race), but that the district went from being perennially uncontested to being within fathomable Democratic striking distance in such a short period of time.

One has to think that a strong Democratic candidate, coupled with another Republican bloodbath in 2008, could create some uncertainty for this and other seats that have been viewed as Republican safe seats for quite some time.

The next post later this week will focus on the micro trends: In which precincts is the political tide changing the most?

Should Excelsior be home to fewer charter boats?

An article in today's West Metro section of the Strib discussed a suggestion that Excelsior convert one existing charter boat dock into a combination residential and transient dock. In case you haven't been following, Excelsior is considering adding a 4th dock. They have been directed by the Lake Minnetonka governing board to ensure it is at least partially transient, so as to not simply add more boats to the lake. This proposal, to convert an existing charter dock instead of build a new dock, is interesting and probably deserves consideration.

The article pointed out that while the city does quite well from the revenue of residential docks, they actually subsidize (lose money) on the charter docks. This is because while charter boats pay a fee to use the docks, they also require services that exceed that fee.

It seems like the question central to this issue is: Do the charter boats attract business that is good for Excelsior? Or do they simply attract people who use the charter boats? If it is the former, that people who wouldn't otherwise go to Excelsior patronize the gas stations, the restaurants, the Pubs, the ice-cream shops and so on, then you can make the case that the boats are a boon for the city. However, if the people who use the charter boats tend to drive to Excelsior, park in the free lots, consume their liquor and food on the boats and then go home, I can see how there is a case for converting the docks to residential or combination.

The fact is that there are relatively few locations that work as well as downtown Excelsior for the charter boats. It is close to ample, free parking. It requires that people who live in Minneapolis take a relatively fast highway (7) for most of the drive to the boat. It is a heck of a lot closer for most Twin Cities residents than most other options. And it has a Commons area and downtown for people to hang around in before and after the cruise.

Perhaps Excelsior is perfect for the charter boats.... but are the charter boats perfect for Excelsior? Would Excelsior be better or worse off without the charters? I'm interested in your thoughts.