At The State Fair

We're at the Minnesota State fair this week talking to voters and politicians (and eating things on a stick). So our podcast schedule is a bit off. We don’t have a regular podcast today.
However, this Friday we’re interviewing a Minneapolis Mayoral candidate you may have heard of recently. Her name is Farheem Hakeem and she’s the Green party candidate. She made waves at a debate last week when she upstaged the two DFL mayoral candidates Peter McLaughlin and R. T. Rybak.

I think you’ll be very interested to hear what she has to say. Look for our podcast this weekend.

Clear DFL Front Runner in U.S. Senate Race

Poll of DFL Delegates Shows Klobuchar With Commanding Lead
Has probable lock on U.S. Senate nomination
Click here to download or listen to analysis of poll

If a poll of DFL delegates is any indication, Amy Klobuchar should have no trouble locking up the DFL endorsement. “Inside Minnesota Politics With Peter Idusogie” surveyed the delegates and alternates to the last DFL convention and found 66.2% of them think Klobuchar is the candidate with the best chance to beat probable Republican nominee Mark Kennedy.

Patty Wetterling pulled 15% of the vote. Kelly Doran and Ford Bell finished in the single digits.

When the poll includes responses from other party activists, Klobuchar’s lead shrinks by 6.7 percentage points.

Listen to our analysis of the poll. While the poll is not scientific, it is significant because of the Klobuchar’s large margin and who was polled.

More than 200 party activists responded to the invitation-only poll. Of those, 133 had been delegates or alternates to last year’s DFL convention. While the delegates to next year’s endorsing convention won’t be picked until after the March caucuses, history shows most of last year’s delegates are likely to be next year’s delegates

The survey sample included about the same number of delegates/alternates from each of Minnesota’s eight Congressional Districts, with the exception of an under-representation from the 6th Congressional District. If the survey results are adjusted to compensate for the under sampling, Klobuchar still maintains a 38 percentage point lead over Wetterling.

NOTE: This poll was conducted by Inside Minnesota Politics and was not paid for, nor done in coordination with any candidate or political party.

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Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download it.

Breaking News-Rowley Interview From "Peace Mom" Camp

Interview from "Camp Casey"
Minnesota Second Congressional District Candidate Coleen Rowley explains why she and Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey are visting "Camp Casey" just outside President Bush's ranch. Until last night, Cindy Sheehan the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq had been holding vigil outside the Bush ranch. Sheehan wanted to talk to the President about the war. Sheehan left last night when her mother suffered a stroke.

Rowley says there is a "fear induced silence" in our country because of fear they will be "ridiculed and treated as a traitor for merely questioning" why we are in Iraq.

Rowley says the group that is gathered at Camp Casey is made up of military familes and other "mainstream Americans", not leftist radicals.

The interview runs about 15 minutes. Listen to it here.

Ford Bell - Terrorism And Health Care

Bell Wants To Cure The Expensive Private Payer Health Care Bureaucracy
Also says U.S. invasion of Iraq has created "training ground" for terrorists.
Click here to download or listen to show

Ford Bell says a single payer health plan is the best possible system. Right now 31 cents of every medical dollar goes to administration and overhead. But Medicare only spends 3 and 1/2 cents of every dollar for admin and overhead. Bell says that private payer health care bureaucracy is preventing us from giving health care to everyone who needs it.

In an exclusive interview with Peter Idusogie, Bell talks about why he is running for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat. He displays a deep knowledge of issues both foriegn and domestic. Listen as he explains how the $350 Billion spent on the Iraq war could have been better spent to reduce the real threat of terrorism against the U.S.

If you want to hear Bell talk about about how the Democratic Party has made a mistake on abortion, listen to our previous podcast.

So who, if anyone, can defeat Mark Kennedy for the U.S. Senate? We invite you to listen to our interviews with Ford Bell, Amy Klobuchar, Patty Wetterling and Kelly Doran and then decide. We are doing a special "invitation only" poll of our listeners. To vote you must register with your email. The form is on the right hand side of this page. Deadline to vote is 5pm Tuesday August 23rd. Results on our next podcast.

You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes with just one click.

Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download it.

Ford Bell-Ready to Defeat Mark Kennedy

Wants to seek "common ground for common good" on wedge social issues
Democratic party "has made a mistake" on abortion.

Click here to download or listen to show

Ford Bell says he is a 100% pro-choice candidate. But he says the Democratic Party is making a mistake by not taking the next step and working with moderate pro-lifers on reducing the number of abortions. By not doing so, Democrats end up looking like they are "pro-abortion" -- which they are not. Listen as Ford Bell talks about how the debate should be reframed.

Will a crowded DFL field of candidates be a help or hindrance to electing a Democrat? Ford Bell has some interesting answers to Peter's pointed questions.

So who, if anyone, can defeat Mark Kennedy for the U.S. Senate? We invite you to listen to our interviews with Ford Bell, Amy Klobuchar, Patty Wetterling and Kelly Doran and then decide. We are doing a special "invitation only" poll of our listeners. To participate, you need to be on our email list, which you can sign up for on the right hand side of this page. Our poll invitations will be going out soon, so sign up now!

Watch for a special BONUS edition of our podcast this Friday as Ford Bell talks about the war in Iraq and the need for a single payer health care system.

You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes with just one click.

Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download it.

Kelly Doran On U.S. Senate Race Politics

Doran undecided about participating in
DFL endorsement process
Says primary is "a good thing for our state"

Click here to download or listen to show

Kelly Doran believes the fight for the DFL U.S. Senate slot will go all the way to the primary, but he's not ready to say if he will participate in the DFL endorsement process that will start six months from now. Doran is one of four (and possibly more) Democrats running for the seat being vacated by Democrat Senator Mark Dayton.

In an exclusive interview with Peter Idusogie, Doran appraises the other three Democrats running -- Patty Wetterling, Amy Klobuchar and Ford Bell. You might be surprised by what he has to say.

Should politics and religion mix? Doran offers his opinion.

So far, Doran's campaign has been largely self-financed. Senator Mark Dayton also largely self-financed his own campaign, but then decided not to run again because he had not built up a base of donors and thought fundraising would take too much time. Find out why Doran thinks he won't be in the same predicament Senator Dayton was.

Listen to our previous podcast to hear Peter and Doran talk about the Iraq, Social Security, the deficit, healthcare and other issues.

You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes with just one click.

Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download it.

Kelly Doran On Issues

Wealthy U.S. Senate Candidate Says
Bush Catering Only To Rich.
Message to those under 35 "You're going to get screwed".

Click here to download or listen to show

Kelly Doran says he is not a politician. He's a businessman, and a rather successful one. He says America is "borrowing prosperity from the future" under the current Bush administration policies. The ballooning deficit, proposed social security cuts and bankruptcy reform that focuses only on consumers and not corporations is very bad news for our kids.

Listen as Doran tells Peter why it is impossible to "cut our way out" of our budget deficit.

In business, Doran says you need to ask the "hard questions" before you make big investment. He says our President failed to ask those hard questions before invading Iraq and now we're all going to pay for it.

Watch for our "Bonus" podcast later this week. Peter and Doran discuss the politics of the U.S. Senate race, including "are you skipping the DFL endorsement process?"

You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes with just one click.

Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download it.

"Inside Minnesota Politics" makes top 100 podcasts list

Podfeed.net lists the top 100 most subscribed to "feedburner" podcasts.
We couldn't do it without you, our listener.
We invite you to visit podfeed.net and rate our podcast and push us on to the "highest rated podcast" list as well.

Doran Targets Kennedy; Move On Targets Kline

Democrat vs. Republican ads airing 14 months before general election.
Move On.org hires staffers in Kline's District.

Click here to download or listen to show

Forget the DFL endorsement process. Kelly Doran has skipped right to the general election. A radio ad is the latest evidence Doran plans to run in the primary. Hear the ad and Peter's analysis of what this means for the other DFL candidates.

MoveOn.org wants Rep. John Kline out. Hear what that means to the 2nd Congressional District race.

Republican generated rumors say Patty Wetterling will drop out of the Senate race to run in the 6th Congressional District. We separate fact from fiction.

Has President Bush delivered on being a "compassionate conservative" as he promised? You might be surprised at the assessment we get from a prominent Republican.

You can subscribe to our podcast in iTunes with just one click.

Comments or questions please call our hotline 206-33-TALKS or email us at insidemnpolitcs@mac.com.

Click here to stream podcast if you can't download.it