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Wednesday, 5-1-2002  

Lt Gov Rumors Confirmed

Dear Political Diary,

My one loyal reader has been shaming me into writing more entries. Well here goes.

I've been finding other writing much more interesting than my diary entries lately. I spent much of yesterday finishing up this week's column for the Reader. This time I tweak the nose of the Duluth New Tribune. I'll have alienated everybody by the time the campaign season rolls around.

This afternoon I made up for my forgetfulness yesterday.  I forgot my invitation to meet Dave for lunch at Bulldogs. I had it marked on the wrong calendar square. When I got his "where were you" email I was taken completely unawares. Fortunately he didn't mind meeting me the next day - today.

He had sent me a challenging email after receiving my blanket email to all the UMD College Republicans. I had announced my intention to bring the party back to the political center and Dave thought I was backing off of good old Republican principles. I invited to meet him for lunch.and then I forgot to meet him - DUH!

Dave was a hoot. He's a sophomore from St. Paul and half the kids he attended high school with were Hmong. He worked in Ventura's office and likes the Governor for his plain speaking and outlandishness. Dave was pretty moderate sounding to me on social issues and I enjoyed giving him some grief. He's also a fan of  Rush Limbaugh. I told him to read lots of history. We him Rush was a lousy historian. We had a good time and he ended up offering to help me. 

In the afternoon I responded to several emails. Mel wanted some figures on last year's excess levy referendum. I emailed him 10 Trib articles from last fall and he was grateful. Were getting together for lunch in a week. I'll look forward to seeing his letter in the Trib especially since he concludes it with a thank you to me for helping with his research.

I wrestled with my new computer equipment all afternoon. It seems my scanner is going to have to be retired. Its always something.

Perhaps the most interesting item today was the confirmation of a rumor I'd heard a month ago. I'll let today's series of emails on the subject speak for themselves.

My Crony:  Harry, oh sage of politics.  Who will the DFLers nominate for governor, this weekend?

Me:   Moe. If they nominate Lourey they're even crazier than I could possibly imagine.  If they nominate Dutcher it will be a confession of their irrelevance, a former Republican, Goodness! They aren't used to getting refugee Republicans like the Republicans are used to taking in refugee Democrats. I don't think they would know what to do with Judy.

I think they'll nominate Moe and cross their fingers that he doesn't follow in Skip's footsteps. Its just a hunch because I don't follow the Twin Cities media.

Crony:  Your comments about Dutcher are interesting, vis-a-vis a recent article in the Duluth News Tribune that indicated that Tom and Gail Huntley are supporting Dutcher.  I would have speculated that Tom and Gail are too hard-core DFL, to do something like that.

Me:  I heard an interesting rumor a few weeks back that if Dutcher gets the nomination she'll name Huntley as her running mate. I can't believe it could possibly be true because that would leave me with an open seat and I've never been that lucky in politics before.

My Crony: Link to today's Minneapolis Trib Story (confirming the rumor)

Me: I can honestly say I wish Judy the very best of luck with the endorsement.