Tag: CD3

Dean Phillips to Moderate Climate Change and Clean Water Issue Forum

Free educational forum to be held on Wednesday, September 26 in Wayzata

Excelsior, MN – Dean Phillips will moderate a free and open-to-the-public panel discussion focused on climate change and clean water on Wednesday, September 26. The solutions-focused educational forum will feature a variety of leading voices on the environment.

Event details:

“Everyone’s Invited! Issue Forum” – Climate Change and Clean Water

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Location: Wayzata High School
Doors Open: 5:15 PM
Event Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Special Guests

  • Greg Page, CEO of Cargill
  • Kate Knuth, former MN State Representative and member of the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board
  • Della Schall Young, clean water professional and founder of Young Environmental Consulting LLC
  • Lia Harel, Hopkins High School student and Earth Club president

Phillips has been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and Clean Water Action.

Reality Check: Phillips Ad Finds Bigfoot Looking For Rep. Paulsen

NOTE: For those who’ve tried to participate in the tele-townhalls, we know that it’s like calling in to a radio program.  There’s a screener who decides which questioners will be allowed to speak (it’s rarely been anyone who doesn’t parrot GOP positions).  And, any request for follow ups to questions aren’t fulfilled.  Those who have gotten one-on-one time with Rep. Paulsen have found that what he says in those meetings a lot of the time aren’t what he does on the floor of the U.S. House.  And, what can we say about those “Congress on Your Corner”?  They were never announced to the public in more than hours in advance.  By the time people found out about them, Rep. Paulsen had usually left the location.  

 

Paulsen, super PAC teamed up to tear Phillips down with lies

To the Editor:

Here we are, about two months away from midterm election day and the voters of Minnesota’s Third District are on the edge of their seats. We are paying attention to our candidates and determining who will be the best representatives of our interests. But instead of seeing incumbent Erik Paulsen put his best foot forward, we see attack advertisements, special interest money and smear politics.

This has to end. The Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC and Erik Paulsen have teamed up to try to tear down Dean Phillips’ reputation with lies. Is that how campaigns should run? It’s incredibly misleading and quite honestly annoying. I don’t want our candidates filling the voters’ minds with falsehoods. Let’s provide facts only, please.

Here are some facts: Dean Phillips is a business owner who is passionate about getting money out of politics, saving the environment, making health care accessible to all and much more. He is being attacked for not providing health care to his employees at Penny’s, but he does, in fact, provide for all full-time employees. Continue reading “Paulsen, super PAC teamed up to tear Phillips down with lies”

Join Dean Phillips’ movement

To the Editor:

I’m incredibly proud of the progress Dean Phillips has made in our communities here in Minnesota’s Third District. He decided to run because he was disappointed in the state our government is in and he’s come so close to the election.

I can feel the excitement coursing through the Phillips campaign. Every one of the six parades my boys (2 and 4) and I have marched in has been fun, exciting, and inspiring. This campaign is like no other. ‘Change is coming’ they say, and I truly believe it. Dean Phillips is a passionate citizen, successful business owner, eco-friendly, candidate who has my full support.

Volunteering with this campaign creates friendships, conversation, and camaraderie. Most importantly, it creates community. By creating this community, we learn how representation should really work. We learn how important our actions as voters are. From phone-banking, parades, door-knocking, etc. there’s a place for everyone to help. If I can get my two boys to go door knocking with me and have fun doing it, you can too! Continue reading “Join Dean Phillips’ movement”

Republicans hoped voters would forget they tried to kill Obamacare. They bet wrong.

Credit: Joe Raedle, Getty

Earlier this month, over a year after Republicans tried multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I asked people in the Twittersphere if their representatives in Congress had voted for repeal and, if so, if they held a town hall to explain their vote and put forward a better vision for health care. Within 24 hours, over 500 people had tweeted back their experiences.

The responses reflected not just people who disagreed with their member of Congress, but people who felt ignored by them. The list of those who chose to vote and disappear in 2017 is long, including many who now find themselves in highly contested races — among them Republicans Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters of California, Peter Roskam and Mike Bost of Illinois, Steve Chabot and Steve Stivers of Ohio, and Bruce Poliquin of Maine.

Sensitive to criticism for avoiding their constituents, some lawmakers have taken to holding a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” style of constituent meetings. They often label them town halls, but in reality they are either paid events or telephone calls with limited capacity where only “random” questions are accepted. Few sound satisfied with these interactions. It’s certainly not representative democracy at its finest.

View the complete September 21 article by Andy Slavitt on the Courier-Express website here.

Advertising totals reveal parties’ positioning in battle for House

Republicans and Democrats are taking starkly different approaches to advertising as they race to win control of the U.S. House, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Many Republicans are looking to outside money to lift them in the airtime wars, and the House GOP’s allied super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, has been this cycle’s dominant spender on television and radio, the documents show.

House Democrats are following a more traditional route. Their campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is outpacing both its allied super PAC, the House Majority PAC, and its rival, the National Republican Congressional Committee — but lags behind the cash-flush GOP super PAC.

View the complete September 16 article by Robert Costa on the Washington Post website here.

Two major political handicappers find Minnesota’s Third District slipping out of Erik Paulsen’s grasp

© Greg Nash

Heading into the 2018 midterms, it was clear 3rd District Rep. Erik Paulsen was in for the fight of his political life: Although the Republican congressman has easily won five terms in this moderate, west metro district, opposition to President Donald Trump runs high here, and national Democrats have put it high on their target list as they go all-in on a campaign to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

With less than 50 days to go until the election, though, Paulsen may be in for more than just a tough fight: Two major election forecasters said this week that it’s more likely than not that the congressman will be out of a job next January.

The Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics are two of the most prominent outlets that assess the competitiveness of U.S. House, Senate, and governor’s races. To this point, they had rated the contest between Paulsen and Democratic challenger Dean Phillips as a “toss-up,” along with about two dozen other House races around the country.

View the complete September 20 article by Sam Brodey on the MinnPost website here.

Paulsen Ad Quotes WCCO’s Pat Kessler Out Of Context

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A new campaign ad from Republican Congressman Erik Paulsen is generating a lot of comments from WCCO’s viewers, and questions about whether the ad is legal.

That’s because WCCO-TV’s own Pat Kessler is actually featured in the ad, edited in a way that makes it seem as though he’s endorsing Paulsen’s attacks on Democratic candidate Dean Phillips.

Kessler reported that it is a “wildly out-of-context ad,” which took what he actually said and edited it to make it sound like he said something different.

View the complete September 20 article by Pat Kessler on the WCCO.com website here.

Don’t be Fooled: The Truth About the Alphabet Soup at the End of Those Attack Ads

We’re sure you’ve been been seeing the mudslinging ads attacking Dean Phillips by massively distorting the fact and using quotes out of context.  There’s always “legalese” at the end of those ads.  Most people don’t know what those organizations are.

Here are the Facts

These ads are coming from people who are doing everything they can to protect Erik Paulsen’s seat in Congress.  They’re doing that to make certain they control what happens in Congress after the election be it another tax cut for the rich, attack on our health care, moving to dismantle Social Security and Medicare “because the deficit is out of hand”* and so much more.

Rep. Erik Paulsen — We find it interesting that after holding his seat since the 2008 election, Erik Paulsen has nothing positive to say about what he’s done for his constituents, which only leaves him the option of parroting the falsehoods of the PACs supporting his re-election.

CLR (Congressional Leadership Fund) — This Super PAC is the dishonest organization that released the CIA confidential security clearance application of a DFL candidate in Virginia to use for political purposes.  It was formed in 2011 and is closely aligned to House Speaker Paul Ryan.  Their purpose is to elect Republicans and do what they can to oppose the election of Democrats.

NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) — This is an organization that supports the election of Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. Its leadership is made up of Republican Representatives..

Open Secrets’ Report of 2018 Expenditures:  https://www.opensecrets.org/races/election?id=MN

Washington Post post of media money reserving spots:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2018/09/16/National-Politics/Graphics/tracking912_18.pdf?tid=a_inl_manual

MPR News:  Who is Spending in Your District? (Updated daily):  https://features.mprnews.org/2018/campaign-spending/#

Open Secrets Listing of Paulsen Independent Expenditures this Cycle:  https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/other-data?cid=N00029391&cycle=2018#ind

*  There are theories out there that this tax cut (it wasn’t a rework of the tax code and benefits for average Americans go away in 5 years) has cut the income coming into the Treasury and exploding the debt. That will allow a Republican majority in Congress to do away with social service programs because they can’t be paid for — because they cut the taxes of the richest American and corporations.

 

Kroll violates federal law at Paulsen campaign event

Erik Paulsen and Bob Kroll have made it all too clear that they’ll go to extreme lengths to further their own personal political agendas, even if it means violating federal law’

Today, Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police member Bob Kroll appeared in his official capacity as a Minneapolis Police Officer to endorse Erik Paulsen at an event in Wayzata. Kroll’s appearance and endorsement directly violates the Hatch Act, which prohibits State and Local officers from using their “official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election or a nomination for office.”

“Erik Paulsen and Bob Kroll have made it all too clear that they’ll go to extreme lengths to further their own personal political agendas, even if it means violating federal law. We’ve come to expect this kind of misbehavior by Kroll, but it’s disturbing that Erik Paulsen would go along with these antics. Minnesotans in the Third District deserve a Representative in Congress who will put their interests above his own, something Erik Paulsen has shown no interest in doing.”

Kroll’s appearance today is not the first time he’s flouted Federal Law. In 2016, then-Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau ordered him to stop wearing his official uniform when partaking in political activities. But just last month, he appeared on a campaign mailer for Republican Tim Pawlenty in his MPD uniform.