As goes Minnesota's 1st, so goes the nation?
Harkin questions DM&E coal trains. And are Arab petrodollars funding ethanol plants?
I have not been a great follower of other bloggers. Too much of what they write about is trivial; too much is laced with (sometimes vindictive) personal opinion. However, a relatively new blog covering the 1st Congressional District in Minnesota, A Bluestem Prairie, has done an excellent job so far in digging up political news from many of the various sources in the farflung district.
Why is the 1st so important? For one thing, in many ways it mirrors the Midwest and perhaps the nation as a whole. While it lacks a large urban area, it features a very significant middle-sized city, Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic, and two of the top micropolitan cities in the country, Mankato (rated 16th) and Owatonna (28th), according to bizjournals.com. Plus, while heavily dependent upon agriculture for its economic base, many of its dollars are generated by health care (the Mayo Clinic and the associated Mayo Health System) and education, including Minnesota State University, Mankato and Winona State University, many community and technical college campuses, and several private colleges.
Most profoundly, its voters are an inherently conservative lot who pride themselves on their independence. Many voters will split their tickets, which is why incumbent Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht, who this year is running for a 7th term, gained nearly 62% of the vote in 2002, while Democratic State Attorney General Mike Hatch, who this year is running for governor, earned over half the votes in the district in the same election.
A Bluestem Prairie has uncovered two stories this morning that relate to a much broader area than the 1st Congressional District. One is that respected Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has sent a letter to the Surface Transportation Board questioning the DM&E coal train expansion. The second is that apparently Mideast petrodollars are funding the rapid development of ethanol plants in the Midwest.
Stay tuned.
I have not been a great follower of other bloggers. Too much of what they write about is trivial; too much is laced with (sometimes vindictive) personal opinion. However, a relatively new blog covering the 1st Congressional District in Minnesota, A Bluestem Prairie, has done an excellent job so far in digging up political news from many of the various sources in the farflung district.
Why is the 1st so important? For one thing, in many ways it mirrors the Midwest and perhaps the nation as a whole. While it lacks a large urban area, it features a very significant middle-sized city, Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic, and two of the top micropolitan cities in the country, Mankato (rated 16th) and Owatonna (28th), according to bizjournals.com. Plus, while heavily dependent upon agriculture for its economic base, many of its dollars are generated by health care (the Mayo Clinic and the associated Mayo Health System) and education, including Minnesota State University, Mankato and Winona State University, many community and technical college campuses, and several private colleges.
Most profoundly, its voters are an inherently conservative lot who pride themselves on their independence. Many voters will split their tickets, which is why incumbent Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht, who this year is running for a 7th term, gained nearly 62% of the vote in 2002, while Democratic State Attorney General Mike Hatch, who this year is running for governor, earned over half the votes in the district in the same election.
A Bluestem Prairie has uncovered two stories this morning that relate to a much broader area than the 1st Congressional District. One is that respected Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has sent a letter to the Surface Transportation Board questioning the DM&E coal train expansion. The second is that apparently Mideast petrodollars are funding the rapid development of ethanol plants in the Midwest.
Stay tuned.
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