Republican-owned KSTP runs push poll against Al Franken

I couldn't agree with you more about the lame noise from the right-wing slime machine.

And I couldn't agree with you more that Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer would be a far better senator than Franken and Coleman combined.

But I have a slight correction to make. I spoke with Franken on Saturday in Duluth and I made the same suggestion: that he would be eventually getting more money back because he had paid taxes owed in low-tax states to higher-taxes states by mistake. He said that wasn't true. He gave the example of paying taxes for a speech in Missouri at, say, 5%. Only he pays them in New York at 9%. It turns out that, after paying the taxes in Missouri, New York still wants the difference of 4% if Franken is a resident there.

Your main point still holds true, that Franken paid his taxes, that he paid them to the wrong place, but that it is nonsense to claim that he is a tax evader in any way.

Just to add a postscript, I was talking with Franni Franken over at the May Day parade this afternoon. I told her that I was sincerely sorry that they had been getting so much undeserved crap last week, but that she looked really good. And she did.

She knows, of course, that I am still a 100% supporter of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. I was wearing a Jack t-shirt at the time. But, as I told her, "Fair is fair." We both said the sentence at the same time. And smiled about it.

Nobody benefits when slime gets thrown around. Not even Republicans. I still want Jack to be my Senator. But I just can't go along with this irrelevant mud-throwing.

For a fair question, the question should be able to be asked for any candidate, so try the test of substituting Norm Coleman's name in the statement:

Norm Coleman the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate said he will pay about $70,000 in back income taxes to 17 states for incorrectly filing his tax returns over a five-year period. He also paid a fine to the state of New York for not paying for workers compensation insurance for workers he employed there. Knowing this, would you be more likely to vote for Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate? Less likely? Or would it not make a difference?

Do you think Norm Coleman should remain in the race for US Senate? Or do you think Coleman should withdraw from the race?

Obviously, this was not a question that could be asked of any candidate. To be truly an effective push poll, the news item should have some vague resemblance to a news story that the listener has heard like:

Norm Coleman the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate said he will pay about $70,000 in back income taxes to 17 states for incorrectly filing his tax returns over a five-year period. He also paid a fine to the state of New York for not paying for workers compensation insurance for workers he employed there. Knowing this, would you be more likely to vote for Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate? Less likely? Or would it not make a difference?

Do you think Norm Coleman should remain in the race for US Senate? Or do you think Coleman should withdraw from the race?

Very obviously, the intent here was not to gather information, rather the intent was to sell an idea. Basically, I think we should file a complaint that KSTP is directly campaigning for a candidate.

First of all, I do not have access to any details inside campaigns. So I am not giving you anything official.

Basically, it is obvious that Jack's campaign received more funding recently. The Jack campaign is very good on spending money frugally, effectively using many volunteers. Jack people are long run committed and very happy with their candidate. Jack people are also issue people, working for what they believe in.

The Franken campaign has the advantage of money and buying great talent. Although most of us are surprised that all of the information was not vetted, fixed and presented last year. A good well financed campaign should have been able to do this. The Franken campaign has a high money burn rate. The people for Franken are not as enthusiastic, less willing to talk about him. I think many people in Franken shirts are being paid. I don't see as many people who I recognize to be just volunteers. I do not see the "fired up" volunteers.

So while Franken seems to have slightly more support, it seems to be very luke warm support. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer has more happy "fired up" support.

Basically we all expect huge donations to come to the endorsed candidate. This race is targeted by many groups. I think that people thought automatically "Franken" would be the the candidates, so he received the early money that would gone to any candidate opposing Norm Coleman.

Early probes by Ciresi showed how vulnerable Franken was to attacks. The book quotes alone could produce attack ads. Generally, we have seen that negative/negative campaigns go in favor of Republicans. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer has also written books about peace, diplomacy and religion. If the Republicans go there, Jack wins because he really loves this content, really knows his area (he is a professor) and that shows. Generally, Jack gets his audience very excited. The least effective presentation has been slightly boring. On the other hand, Franken has not had the same ability to effectively respond.

On the last Almanac interview, the reporters tried to get Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer on taxes. They asked twice, a very long question about ever not paying taxes because of opposing the war. Jack said simply "No", then went on to talk how our taxes are not being spent well. The second time, the question was asked more pointedly suggested that Jack might also have tax problems, he said "No", like most middle class Americans, my taxes are simple." and then he again described more about what we could be better doing with taxes. The point is that Jack was not baited into the wrong conversation, he always went back to why we should be voting for Jack.

On the same night, the only quotes from Franken were about Franken taxes - no content about why to vote for Franken.

Basically, most people seemed to have lukewarm support Franken because he was nice (not great), had great funding and an very active campaign from that funding. Overall, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was not as well known as early as Franken. As people got to know Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, they though he was a better speaker, better on MPR interviews, better on video and better handling questions and direct attacks. Most people like the values and content of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer has always been winning the MPR issue survey.

So in the endorsement process, we elect delegates who represent us, to fully vet the candidates. New information and the candidates response to that information has become available. So, basically each delegate has to decide if based on this new information, who is now the best candidate? Since I have always thought that the Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is the best candidate, now I am even more sure. Now however, I am also more worried about Franken being successful if he does get the endorsement.

I am wondering what you told people at your caucus when you were elected as a Franken delegate. Did you tell them that you might change your mind?

For what its worth, Franken has raised over $9 million dollars. Pallmeyer has raised about $500,000. Franken has been even or trailing by single digits in his polling against Coleman. In the the only Coleman-Pallmeyer poll, Pallmeyer was behind by 29 points and Coleman got his highest numbers ever.

Alec, my heart goes out to you, truly.

If I hear you correctly, you have two big levels of concern. One has been a head versus heart problem. I hear that your heart has been with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and that he reflects your concerns much better than Franken. You also believe that we absolutely, positively need to get rid of Norm Coleman, and your head has been telling you that perhaps Franken was more "electable" in terms of doing this. What I hear behind your anguish is that your head is now wondering if Franken is electable after all, so maybe you should go with your heart.

Actually, if that were your only concern, I would give you a boatload of arguments about why Franken is totally unelectable and why Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is actually has a much better shot at defeating Coleman. And I think I could make that argument quite reasonably and not lie even a bit. It won't be easy, of course, and we will need a lot more money to reach out. And we will need some very rapid growth in the JNP campaign after Jack gets the endorsement. But it can be done, and I could argue quite easily that Jack has a long-term better chance of being Senator than Franken.

Sadly, that is not the end of your problem. You describe yourself as a Franken delegate. If you merely mean that you have responded to various telephone callers by saying that you prefer Franken, than you are completely free to change your mind. And, in fact, you have an obligation to do so if new evidence raises serious doubts.

But if you consider that you have made a more formal promise to support Franken with your vote, if you sub-caucused with a Franken group in order to be elected as convention delegate for example, then you have yet another moral quandary. I might phrase the choice this way: Which obligation is greater, the obligation as delegate to pick the best candidate according to the information you have, or the obligation to keep your promise.

I absolutely love Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer as a human being because of his amazing integrity. So there is no way that I am going to blithely suggest that you break your promise in order to support the candidate I favor. You have a moral choice, which I cannot make for you. I honor the difficult situation you are in.

Two other thoughts:

There are always situations that can properly release us from our promises. If you promise to be married to someone until you die and you later discover that that person prefers the sexual company of others, then few would fault you for ending the marriage. (Just an example, mind you.) So sometimes an action comes along that is so outrageous that it makes our previous promise moot.

I also would never claim that a pledged delegate is pledged to that candidate forever. So even if you feel an obligation to vote for one candidate on the first ballot, that obligation should not last forever. I would say that to a Jack delegate as well, of course. Think about it, what sense would the convention make and what sense would there be to several ballots if nobody got to change their minds. We have a convention. We have several ballots. Hopefully, we come to an underlying unity over the course of the ballots. And therefore defeat Norm Coleman. Most people advising on that loyalty would suggest that you become more of a free agent after a ballot or two.

Good luck with your decision, Alec. I appreciate your depth in considering it.

...to basically say: "criticism of the poll is merited, but exaggerated."

Then again, Eric did point out that not all info in that biased poll was bad news; what my take on what Eric said is that Franken is essentially polling where he was in March despite the Swiftboating done unto Franken.

Here's the link, to
Eric Black's post

"I never thought I'd see the day I'd miss Richard Nixon."