Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009

TTT OCT 28: MplsCandidates09

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OCT 28: ELECTIONS 2009 #3: Minneapolis #2- Candidates in Review

In this, our last of three programs covering Twin Cities elections, journalists from around Minneapolis come together to talk about that city's Mayoral, Ward, Park Board, and Board of Estimate and Taxation contests, which are the hottest, the most obscure, and who may or may not deserve much more scrutiny that local media are giving them two weeks away from the November 3rd election. Questions: • Does Mayor RT Rybak face any serious competition. • How will Ranked Choice Voting affect the races? • Will this new voting system increase or decrease voter turnout? • Or will the lack of any serious competition and thorough media coverage of this year's elections affect turnout more than the system? • What role is the ballot proposal to eliminate the Board of Estimate and Taxation playing in city contests for Mayor, the Councilhttp://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/, Park Board and Board of Estimate itself? Some observers say plenty!

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN will kick it around with our colleagues on which issues are fodder for which races and why incumbents are under fire by several candidates in this first year of Ranked Choice Voting as the tool for electing Minneapolis leaders. And we'll hear snippets of campaign speeches, candidate forums and interviews from key races around the city.

GUESTS:

• AHNDI FRIDELL - Director, KFAI News

• CHARLES HALLMAN - Minnesota Spokesman Recorder

• PAUL DEMKO - Staff Reporter, Minnesota Independent

• CHRISTOF TRAUDES - Staff Reporter, Southwest/Downtown Journal

• CHRIS STELLER - Staff Reporter, Minnesota Independent

• STEVE BRANDT - Staff Reporter, StarTribune City Hall Beat

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Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009

TTT October 21: CITY ELECTIONS 2009 #2: St. Paul Decides on Instant Runoff Voting

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Like Minneapolis in 2006, enough Saint Paul residents signed petitions to place a Charter amendment on the General Election ballot asking voters to approve a new Instant Runoff Voting (Ranked Choice Voting) system for city elections. Unlike Minneapolis, St. Paul's City Council, armed with a City Attorney's opinion allowing it to deny access to the ballot until the question of the system's constitutionality was settled, initially refused to follow the will of the signatories while they waited for the outcome of a court case challenging the Minneapolis system. The district court, finally affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, upheld the system's constitutionality - and the St. Paul Council was then forced by law to place the question on this year's General Election ballot. In Minneapolis, the City Council supports the idea; in St. Paul, a majority of its councilmembers does not.

Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, Minneapolis had no need for a primary election this year; across the river while St. Paul's September primary drew less than 5% of eligible voters, a turnout figure cited by RCV/IRV supporters as one of the reasons to conflate city elections into one general election and allow all candidates to compete on a single ballot.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL queries advocates on both sides of St. Paul's campaign to determine if St. Paul voters should or should not go the way of Minneapolis and approve its Ranked Choice Voting system.

GUESTS:

• KATHY LANTRY-President, St. Paul's City Council

• JOHN HOTTINGER-former State Senate Majority Leader (supporter of IRV/RCV)

• JEANNE MASSEY-Executive Director, FairVote Minnesota - parent of Better Ballot St. Paul

• CHUCK REPKE-Co-chair, No Bad Ballots Committee - a Saint Paul group opposing IRV.

• RACHEL SMITH - Program Director, Excellence in Election Administration in the Humphrey Institute's Center for the Study of Politics and Governance

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Wednesday, Oct 14, 2009

TTT OCT 14: CITY ELECTIONS 2009:Minneapolis#1

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CITY ELECTIONS 2009: Minneapolis RCV/IRV Primer and BET Ballot Question

2009 is the year of Minnesota municipal elections, and among the most interesting of them are those in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This week and October 28th, we talk about Minneapolis election processes, candidates and the two ballot issues. We will talk about St. Paul's election issues October 21st.

Part One: Minneapolis implements its new system called Ranked Choice Voting (AKA Instant Run-off Voting), passed by voters two years ago and eliminating the primary election in the process. How will this work? How about multiple seat boards and commissions? How to make sure you get your vote counted? Our guests explain it all.

(Wonder where you vote? Find your PRECINCT.)

SAMPLE BALLOT (Ward 2 in this example)

PART ONE GUESTS:

• PAT O'CONNOR - Interim Minneapolis City Elections Director

• ONA KELLER - Minneapolis RCV Outreach Coordinator

Part Two: Minneapolis voters will decide whether or not to retain its unique Board of Estimate and Taxation. The Question: "Should the City of MInneapolis adopt a change in its charter to the composition of the Board of Estimate and Taxation so that the Board's membership consists of the members of the City Council, with the actions of the Board subject to the powers and duties of the Mayor?”

PART TWO GUESTS:

• DON FRASER - former Mayor of Minneapolis, former US Representative (*against BET abolition)

• JOAN NIEMIEC - former Minneapolis City Councilmember; Chair, Minneapolis League of Women Voters City Governance Study Committee; Access League Reports and Positions on City Governance Issues HERE (for BET abolition)

• _AND YOU!_ CALL 612-341-0980 and Talk to Us! Can't get us on the radio? Stream us LIVE and LATER

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Wednesday, Oct 07, 2009

TTT OCT 7: MediaTalk

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WEDS. OCT 7- 11AM: MINNESOTA MEDIA: Mainstream No More?

Minnesota's media landscape continues to shift-and not so glacially as generationally. Aging boomers cling to the printed word, some news and talk sources and the 10 o'clock news as younger consumers increasingly get their news and information from their computers and cell phones - when they care to find it at all. The Twin Cities dailies slipped away from reliably family-owned newspapers to never-satisfied Wall-Street controlled profit centers. Meanwhile, alternative outlets, some broadcast, some online are filling the vacuum in local and regional news coverages and blogs have replaced print columnists as opinion-makers.

TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN toss around past, present and future upheavals in Twin Cities and Minnesota media with four seasoned writers and producers in local and national journalism, themselves having been tossed about by the volatile industry they and their readers relied on for a stable sources of news and information we all need to govern ourselves. Now what?

GUESTS:

• NICK COLEMAN - StarTribune Sunday Op-Ex columnist and now free-lancing

• JUDITH YATES BORGER - retired Pioneer Press reporter, now novelist; author of _Where's Billie?_http://tinyurl.com/WheresBillie

• KATE STANLEY - former columnist and editorial writer, StarTribune; now free-lance writer/consultant

• JIM LEINFELDER - free-lance television producer; field producer for CNN, ABC, NBC, others

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Friday, Oct 02, 2009

TTT SEPT 30: RalphNader LIVE

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SEPT 30: LIVE: RALPH NADER: His work; his influence; his races; his advocacy; his first work of fiction: Only the Superrich Can Save Us.

Ralph Nader was in Minneapolis September 30 to speak and talk about his new, first work of fiction that envisions seventeen of the nation's most prominent and wealthy, if aging, men (and one woman) colluding to return the United States to its original premises and its original promise – absent corporate personhood, and corruption of the fundamental concepts embodies in the Constitution and the social contract. The controversial founder of the US consumer movement and a force in establishing safety standards in the production and sale of everything from automobiles to appliances to toys also stepped into the political arena in 2000 as a candidate for president and the reverberations have never ceased - for good or ill.

RALPH NADER was our only studio guest this week. TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN query Mr. Nader about his life, his work, his politics-and, yes, his first work of fiction (using real people - like Warren Buffett, Phil Donahue, George Soros, Yoko Ono).

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