Oooh! Gutknecht may fail to make the ballot!

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/local/local_story_227005842.html

If this is the case, this seat goes from "Long shot but possible D gain" to "almost certain D gain". There is another candidate in the primary, but he's the guy who ran for the Green Party in 2002 and for the Indpendence Party in 2004, aka just a guy who likes to have his name on the ballot apparentely.

It would be really nice to see me have a decent congressman.

[MarkWarner08]

Will '06 be remembered as the year of bonehead candidates?

[zorkpolitics]

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, also a Republican, said Monday that Gutknecht should remain on the ballot because he met the requirements for major party candidates when he filed on July 5.

"There's no limitation on the time of collecting signatures for petitions in lieu of filing fees," Kiffmeyer said.

Kiffmeyer maintained that the time limitation applies only to independent and minor party candidates who must file nominating petitions to get on the ballot. She said petitions for major party candidates may be signed at any time.

"I believe this complaint should be dismissed," she said.

[Sam Spade]

Interesting.  We'll see what happens.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This has the potential to be highly amusing...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, also a Republican, said Monday that Gutknecht should remain on the ballot because he met the requirements for major party candidates when he filed on July 5.

"There's no limitation on the time of collecting signatures for petitions in lieu of filing fees," Kiffmeyer said.

Kiffmeyer maintained that the time limitation applies only to independent and minor party candidates who must file nominating petitions to get on the ballot. She said petitions for major party candidates may be signed at any time.

"I believe this complaint should be dismissed," she said.

Kiffmeyer is a very partisan Republican who always behaves like one (and will probably lose this election as a result)

Anyway, it'll be decided in court.

[MarkWarner08]

Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, also a Republican, said Monday that Gutknecht should remain on the ballot because he met the requirements for major party candidates when he filed on July 5.

"There's no limitation on the time of collecting signatures for petitions in lieu of filing fees," Kiffmeyer said.

Kiffmeyer maintained that the time limitation applies only to independent and minor party candidates who must file nominating petitions to get on the ballot. She said petitions for major party candidates may be signed at any time.

"I believe this complaint should be dismissed," she said.

Kiffmeyer is a very partisan Republican who always behaves like one (and will probably lose this election as a result)

Anyway, it'll be decided in court.

Does anybody find it funny that "Kiffmeyer will be represented by the Office of the Attorney General, headed by Democrat Mike Hatch, who is the DFL’s endorsed candidate for governor?"

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's Hatch's job. He doesn't really have a choice. Still you can bet he won't spend too much time on his "defense". In 2004 he had to defend another partisan Kiffmeyer decision, did so half-assedly, and it was overturned.

[minionofmidas]

Will '06 be remembered as the year of bonehead candidates?

Will the USA be remembered as the country of bonehead candidates?

[Nym90]

Has anyone else noticed there seems to be a higher than normal occurence of otherwise credible candidates failing to qualify for the ballot because they didn't get enough signatures? Are the requirements too stringent, or have campaigns just gotten lazy?

[Akno21]

Has anyone else noticed there seems to be a higher than normal occurence of otherwise credible candidates failing to qualify for the ballot because they didn't get enough signatures? Are the requirements too stringent, or have campaigns just gotten lazy?

Perhaps the requirements are just being enforced better now than they used to be.

[Sam Spade]

Just wanted to put an end to our thread here by opebo from minnesota:

MN Supreme Court rules in Gutknecht's favor:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=132713

[Bandit3 the Worker]

I read about this elsewhere, and Kiffmeyer and the Supreme Court (probably stacked by Pawlenty cronies) are just plain wrong.

If the window applies to minor parties, then it has to also apply to major parties. Otherwise it's political discrimination.

Gutknecht is basically being a jerk by crying about the lawsuit being "frivolous."

[Sam Spade]

I read about this elsewhere, and Kiffmeyer and the Supreme Court (probably stacked by Pawlenty cronies) are just plain wrong.

If the window applies to minor parties, then it has to also apply to major parties. Otherwise it's political discrimination.

Gutknecht is basically being a jerk by crying about the lawsuit being "frivolous."

Uh, Minnesota judges (the Supreme Court included) are elected through a non-partisan election.

http://www.ajs.org/js/MN_methods.htm

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Uh, Minnesota judges (the Supreme Court included) are elected through a non-partisan election.

That could be just as bad. If people are willing to elect conservatives like Poolenty and Kiffmeyer than they'll probably elect conservative judges too.

[Sam Spade]

Uh, Minnesota judges (the Supreme Court included) are elected through a non-partisan election.

That could be just as bad. If people are willing to elect conservatives like Poolenty and Kiffmeyer than they'll probably elect conservative judges too.

You mean that Diebold would steal the elections for these conservative judges, right?  Because they certainly wouldn't be elected by the people, would they?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

You mean that Diebold would steal the elections for these conservative judges, right?

Either Diebold or whoever's in charge of things up there.

Then again, "democracy" in the U.S. has fallen into the wrong hands in the past 4 or 5 years.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Diebold doesn't play a role here. We use optical scan ballots, and a handful of precincts are randomly selected for a manual hand recount to see if there is any errors in the machine count in which case there is a full hand recount and I don't know of any time that happened recently. Kiffmeyer sucks, but she will most likely lose this election.

I don't like the decision even though I was expecting it, but the MN Supreme Court is hardly conservative, in fact we had a bit of a scandal awhile back that the Senate Majority Leader was too closely tied to them and was receiving notification on how they'd rule on certain issues.

Whatever the case, beating Gutknecht is still possible even if a long shot, but at least Walz is well funded. I saw something that made me happy a few days ago, a house with a lawn sign for Piepho (Republican State Senate candidate) and Davis (Republican State House candidate in that district), but also a Walz lawn sign. He's getting crossover appeal, so at least he's more than a sacrificial lamb.