How the author spent the July 4th holiday
Tony Petrangelo
by Tony Petrangelo
Jul 13, 2013, 10:00 AM

The Weekly Wrap 7-13

The Wrap™ took the week off last week, but elections news doesn’t stop, even in the middle of the summer of an off year, and so the Wrap is back in action.

♣ United States Senator Al Franken announced raising almost $2 million dollars for his re-election bid in the second quarter of 2013. That brings his total cash-on-hand (CoH) to a healthy $3 million.

♣ On the topic of the 2014 Senate race is this from Blois:

via various sources, state Sen. Julianne Ortmann will announce a challenge to Sen. Al Franken in the coming days. Ortmann is working closely with fmr. Bachmann Chief of Staff Andy Parrish.

And this tweet from RSB:

The really shocking thing about this isn’t that Ortman would run, that much has been rumored for months. No, the real surprise is that people are still hiring Andy Parrish for political work.

♣ Also from morning take:

Fmr. GOP House Spkr. Marty Seifert is close to making an announcement that he’ll be a candidate for Governor in 2014.

All the way back in November, after the elections, I noted that:

After a whole timeline of sporadic tweeting, Marty Seifert has been quite active over the past few days.

This has only continued, as Seifert has remained active on Twitter. A few tweets from the last week:

Those certainly sound like the tweets of someone interested in running again.

Seifert is facing a much different situation this time around than he did last time around. In 2009 Seifert was the clear favorite to win the nomination, but that was also the beginning of the rise of the Tea Party, when Republican favorites all over the country were pushed aside for “true conservatives” like Tom Emmer.

There already seems to be a backlash against 2010 (and 2012) developing this cycle, as numerous Republicans have openly opined about ignoring the endorsing convention and instead running to the primary. The upside for Seifert is that he’s not facing a singular candidate backed by a hot new political movement with tons of momentum. He’s facing a fractured field and a party scrambling to remain relevant in Minnesota.

♣ A second DFLer has joined the race to unseat Minnesota’s second district Republican John Kline.

Democratic candidate Thomas Craft filed paperwork and launched a campaign site this week for a run at Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, making him the second candidate who wants to take on incumbent Republican congressman John Kline next fall.

Craft joins 2012 DFL nominee Mike Obermueller in seeking the DFL nomination.

♣ Speaking of Rep. John Kline, Public Policy Polling conducted a survey of seven congressional districts held by Republicans to see how the people of those districts feel about the immigration bill currently being considered.

Unfortunately the poll contains no job approvals or horserace match-ups.

♣ And one more Kline item, he raised $480k in Q2, giving him just over $1 million CoH.

♣ Former Rep. Jeremy Kalin announced he is running to replace the retiring Mark Ritchie as Minnesota’s Secretary of State.

♣ Related, current state Senator Roger Reinert has decided not to run for Secretary of State.

♣ I include this only because I can’t help myself. Fellow LeftMNer Steve Timmer tipped me off to this amazing tweet by former Minnesota Senate Majority leader David Senjem:

The tweet has a certain quality to it, an almost otherworldly quality. This was my reply to Steve, via email, upon reading the tweet:

That tweet really makes you think.

I mean, one doesn’t lose their boat in the same fashion that one loses their car, for instance.

So what does this mean? I might have to drop acid tonight and contemplate this.

I’m still not sure what to make of it. Beyond the absurdity of not being able to find ones boat, this tweet contains so much more that needs contemplation.

For instance, why is mid-July time to get the boat out? Or is that not what he’s saying? Is mid-July the context, and Senjem is remarking within that context. He does say “time to get the boat out,” though as if mid-July is the right time for this sort of endeavor. But why?

And again, how do you not know where your boat is? That’s the part I doubt I’ll ever fully understand.

The only reasonable conclusion is that Senjem was locked deep within the grips of a particularly acute Ayahuasca trip when this tweet was sent. Nothing else makes much sense.

This has been a brief edition of #senjemtweets

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