Almanac: At the Capitol

House Minority Leader Marty Seifert lined up his candidates in front of the Capitol and gender stood out. The GOP is running a record number of women. In a nod to his '70s pop culture upbringing Seifert said he didn't want a "Smurf village where we have one female running around." There's about 5 people of color running for House seats on the Republican side as well. Seifert said he put extra effort into trying to make the caucus look "demographically in the 21st century."

The House DFL sent out a press release saying "As Republican leaders travel the state listing the Legislature's accomplishments, one big item will be missing. Transportation funding. That's because Republican leadership did not support it, actively fought against it and even punished fellow GOPers who voted for safe roads and bridges." Several Republicans who voted for the transportation bill override did not get endorsed and thus weren't part of today's press event.

Seifert vowed to keep the campaign positive and promised to take back the majority in the House. He said "we lost it in one election cycle and we can win it back in one cycle." Seifert thinks 33 seats are in play and he'd have to pick up 19 seats to win speaker. Speaking of the speaker, Seifert said he'd like to "compliment Margaret Kelliher, she'll be a tremendous minority leader next session."

Majority Leader Tony Sertich thinks 20-30 seats will be competitive. On the issue of gender he said, "Republicans are catching up with us on getting a more diverse group of candidates." He added that Democrats have "walked the talk" by electing women to powerful posts like speaker and tax chair. Sertich admitted there's one woman that he's really focusing on right now, the one he is set to marry this weekend. Right now he's distracted with "tapered candles."

Just a day before John McCain's visit to Minnesota most Minnesotans know little about the presidential candidate's visit because the campaign wouldn't release any information. After a press conference responding to Democrats' press conference, McCain's local campaign coordinator Ben Golnik got chewed out by the local press for the lack of advance work. The national campaign is organizing the visit so the local guy gets to hear us complain.

Press cannot write preview stories without information. We cannot plan and book crews to cover events we know nothing about. It does not send a strong signal of an organized campaign. Obama's campaign gave several days notice and many details about his visit here a couple of weeks ago.

When the information finally arrived, it mentions the "previously scheduled town hall meeting" in Eagan has been canceled. Since the press never knew it was scheduled, it's funny to cancel it. The Eagan location had insiders wondering since that's where Gov. Tim Pawlenty lives. But the pre-ticketed town hall meeting will be Thursday at 7pm in St. Paul's Landmark Center.

What McCain can boast about is beating Obama to the punch in opening a campaign office. Today DFL officials said they expect an announcement in few weeks about Obama opening a local office. McCain's people also feel good about the recent poll showing the presidential race a toss up in Minnesota.

Democrats held a press conference criticizing McCain's gas tax holiday. DFL's Donna Cassutt and Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury) said it would cost the state more than $113 million and 4,000 jobs. McCain's office said the money would be replaced by federal the federal general fund. Saltzman reminded reporters of the 35W bridge collapse and said "Minnesotans have seen the reality when we delay needed projects." When asked about what Obama's or the Democrat's plan is to lower gas prices Democrats didn't have many answers. Saltzman said they would "not address" that but we need to look to greater energy efficiency.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't have much interest in local press questions about his political future today. We chased him after his big announcement with U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on Minnesota becoming the first state to get federal dough under that Urban Partnership Agreement. What it means is more money and less congestion along 35W. But I was working on another story about potential candidates for governor (we monitored who was working the convention floor this past weekend).

So when I asked about his timeframe for announcing his re-election plans he reminded me that he'll decide in 2009. When I followed up to see if those plans had changed at all he tersely stated again, "I think I've always said it will be decided in 2009." With that his communications director tried to end the questioning. But surely the governor couldn't shoot down the always playful and artfully worded questions of Eric Eskola? EE has a knack of getting great quotes out of governors. He's wonderful at not offending but still probing. When Eric asked if there was anything new on the VP front, Pawlenty said "no" that's it, just "no." When I tried again to salvage something out of our quickly crumbling Q & A with "Anything about McCain's visit next week?" I got the increasingly popular response "no." A finally volley was my desperate "Will you be there?" Pawlenty responded with "of course" as he walked away.

Maybe we're not as skillful as the national press who get him to amiably talk at length about national politics. I know he was at a state event and doesn't like to mix state business with campaign business, but since we were off site we thought we'd get some leeway. Gov. Pawlenty generally pleases the state press corps with his availability. We appreciate when he'll stay late taking a bevy of unrelated questions at press conferences. It's been one of his skills as a communicator because then the press has his comments on nearly every issue they're writing about. It seems Pawlenty’s political future is still not something he wants us writing about in his home state.

The love was everywhere. The love was bi-partisan. The love was coming from the governor to lawmakers, even DFL lawmakers. House Tax Chair Ann Lenczewski got an enormous amount of praise for helping making the whole end of session deal happen. Bonding Chairs Langseth and Hausman got humorous props too. Hausman who originally had her key project Central Corridor axed by the gov in the first bonding bill today said "we are celebrating and joyous." Of course the bonding bill creates the first new state park in 30 years, builds a new veterans home and starts a new transit line between the Twin Cities. Pawlenty noted that the "path was a little bumpy" on the bonding bill, but his strategy of line-item vetoes worked and many call it the turning point of the session.

Healthcare Chairs Huntley and Berglin (who could not attend) were also congratulated on a package that creates better affordability, quality and accessibility. Huntley said it was the most important bill in almost decades. The governor said it could create $7 billion in savings. It insures 12,000 more Minnesotans.

A couple of other notes from a fun and long news conference: Pawlenty joked that his vocal cords still had not fully recovered from his hockey injury. That could be an issue as he continues to stump for his friend John McCain, but his self-deprecating humor goes over well as always. He says he will likely veto the mortgage foreclosure bill that is sitting on his desk because it would make Minnesota "an island" and "drive up credit costs for the 89% of Minnesotans not in foreclosure." He will also line item money for California car standards from the budget bill because that policy language did not pass.