MORNING EDITION

Our Cyndy Brucato reports that Tom Emmer himself has paid off the state GOP’s bills to counties for work in last fall’s recount: “When Emmer heard that around 20 counties were still waiting for the state Republican Party to reimburse them, he contacted the county auditors directly and sent them checks from the balance in the Tom Emmer for Governor campaign fund — about $20,000 to $25,000, he estimated. ‘This is not my responsibility, but I feel it's my obligation,’ he said. Emmer said he was startled to learn that the counties were still waiting for reimbursements almost six months after the recount was finalized.” Really? “Startled”? As in he just heard about this?  

MPR’s Matt Sepic wanders out into the 6th District for a hint of what constituents are thinking about Michele Bachmann. On the “pro-Our Favorite Congresswoman” side: “Right in the middle is the town of Elk River, where Brad and Nancy Bjorkman live. [They] raised their four children in the district and during that time, the Bjorkmans watched Michele Bachmann rise from school board candidate to state senator to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives with a national following. Brad Bjorkman said Bachmann strongly represents their beliefs.  ‘Regarding the social issues, she is for defining marriage as between one man and one woman, something she championed when she was in the Minnesota Senate,’ Brad Bjorkman said. ‘She's strongly pro-life, is strongly for reduced taxes, and these are all values we share. And I think this country could use a bit more, a lot more of that right now.' " ... On the “con”: "Retired teacher NormaJeanne Ellis of Andover, a lifelong Democrat, said she'd welcome someone new in the 6th District. ‘I'd really like someone a little more moderate, a little more center of the line and be accepting of all people, all religions,’ Ellis said. ‘Because we're a varied area. The world is varied, and l'd like to see someone who could recognize that.’ As for the presidential bid, Ellis said it's nothing more than a publicity stunt. ‘I don't think she has a shot. But I think she likes the attention,’ she said.”

Politico’s David Catanese has a story quoting Minnesota GOP Chair Tony Sutton: “Does [Bachmann's presidential candidacy] mean that she won’t seek reelection to the St. Cloud-area seat she’s held for three terms? Not exactly. Bachmann has until June 2012 to file for reelection — leaving her with plenty of time to contest the GOP nomination and then run for a fourth term, if she wanted. In fact, Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Tony Sutton said the party would leave the field clear for Bachmann and would only seek out other candidates if she made it clear she had no intention to file for reelection. ‘I think we’ll know who the presumptive nominee of the party is by [June 2012],’ said Sutton. ‘If she wants to run for reelection, she can.’ In the meantime, Sutton said the party was preparing itself for the possibility that Bachmann wouldn’t be running again and mentioned several potential replacement candidates including former gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer, state Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, and state Senate President Michelle Fischbach.” Wait a minute ... where’s the “Draft Tom Hackbarth” shout-out?

Kevin Diaz of the Strib reports on advice Mike Huckabee is giving T-Paw,  after his less-than-titillating debate performance: “Huckabee watched Tim Pawlenty’s disappointing debate performance Monday night and had some advice for the Minnesota Republican: Ixnay the advisers. ‘He’s over-coached, over-consulted,’ the Fox News host said on Laura Ingraham’s radio show . ‘Get rid of them.’ Huckabee is not the first to wonder how Pawlenty and/or his advisers could have been so unprepared to take a direct question on his ‘Obamneycare’ quip linking Mitt Romney to President Obama’s health care overhaul.” But what if instead of being “over-coached,” he’s under-"spined”?

On the topic of T-Paw’s performance on CNN, Power Line’s Scott Johnson quotes “a reader” who says: “The real problem for Pawlenty on Monday was the outstanding performance of Michele Bachmann. Her performance helped confirm the sense that Bachmann may do to Pawlenty in Iowa what Mike Huckabee did to Romney there in 2008. To be sure, Pawlenty has advantages Romney lacked — he's from a neighboring state and is a more authentic social conservative. But Bachmann may be stronger in Iowa than Huckabee was. She has Iowa roots, and is a much better-rounded conservative. Pawlenty isn't the only candidate who should be worried about Bachmann. If Bachmann were to win in Iowa and run well in New Hampshire, she would emerge as a credible challenger to Romney (assuming he's still the front-runner), particularly with the South Carolina primary looming. And Bachmann could do well in New Hampshire. Consider the 2010 Republican Senate primary in that state. Ovide Lamontagne, the Tea Party candidate, came within approximately 1,600 votes of capturing the nomination despite spending only around $500,000. If Bachmann continues to shine, she might reasonably expect a significant portion of Lamontagne's 51,000 plus votes (37 percent of the total).” You don’t have to swallow that “better rounded” business to acknowledge that is a credible scenario.

Mark Sommerhauser of the St. Cloud Times files a short piece on nonprofits girding for a state shutdown: “A state shutdown would force many nonprofits that receive state funds to make a wrenching choice, according to the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Nonprofits Assistance Fund. They hosted a discussion with St. Cloud-area nonprofits at Great River Regional Library this afternoon, to examine the impact of a state shutdown. The choice is this: With state funds in jeopardy, nonprofits may opt to cut off services to people in need, or choose to continue providing those services in the short term — if they can afford to — without assurance that the state will reimburse them.”

Six Minnesota companies are being added to the Russell 3000 Index of large cap stocks. Wendy Lee of the Strib writes: “The new Minnesota additions are: St. Paul-based Cardiovascular Systems, Minnetonka-based Communications Systems, Mankato-based Hickory Tech Corp., St. Paul-based Medtox Scientific Inc., Minnetonka-based Uroplasty and Eden Prairie-based ValueVision Media Inc. The companies were among 186 businesses that are expected to be added to the index. A little over 100 companies are expected to be deleted from the list, including Stewartville-based Rochester Medical and Hutchinson Technology, which announced layoffs earlier this year, according to the Russell 3000’s website.”
                                   
Almost 5,000 Minnesota high school students still have to pass tests to get their diploma. Norman Draper of the Strib says: “[S]everal thousand high school seniors in the Minnesota Class of 2011 face the prospect of not graduating because they haven't passed the state reading and writing tests. Minnesota Department of Education figures, released to the Star Tribune on Wednesday, showed that 4,873 of the state's seniors have yet to pass either one or both of those tests. Those seniors account for about 8 percent of the total tested. This is the second year that passing both tests has been a graduation requirement. The figures are similar to the ones reported last year for the Class of 2010.”

U of M engineering prof Jason Hill writes a commentary for the Strib arguing for a real “cash for clunkers” program: “[I]imagine that, instead of giving these tax credits to the ethanol and petroleum industries, we used these funds to accelerate the adoption of more fuel-efficient vehicles. Such a program encouraging rapid vehicle turnover is not without precedent. Back in 2009, the 'Cash for Clunkers' program paid out $3 billion to replace around 700,000 gas-guzzlers (average miles per gallon: 16) with newer models (average mpg: 25). However, because it targeted vehicles that would have been scrapped in 2.5 years on average anyway, only about 400 million gallons of gasoline were saved. Speeding up the adoption of higher fuel efficiency in new vehicles — beyond current standards — would be much more effective. Say if, instead of giving $10 billion in tax credits to the ethanol and petroleum industries each year, we were to offer this same amount to people who purchase more-efficient vehicles.” Great idea. But I want a Prius that can go from 0 to 60 in less than five seconds.

Democrats … not arch-conservatives … are refusing to cooperate with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s popular PolitiFact feature, a franchisee of the St. Petersburg Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning truth-assessing idea. Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Magazine, writes: “[L]eaders of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin say they will no longer respond to inquiries from the fact-checking operation’s reporters. ‘Thanks, but no thanks. We’re moving on,’ is how the DPW’s communications director, Graeme Zielinski, summarizes the party’s position toward PolitiFact, which he made public on Monday. The party leadership acted after a series of PolitiFact stories they considered unfair, as well as an overall assessment that in its judgments about what to cover as well as its assessments of truth and falsity, ‘it just seems consistently weighted to one side,’ Zielinski says. ... Complaints about PolitiFact have dogged the feature ... virtually since its inception in Wisconsin a little less than a year ago. Here the criticism has been most vocal among political activists on the left. Just this week, bloggers Jay Bullock and Bill Christofferson took issue with recent PolitiFact articles, one on Wisconsin’s new voter ID law and the other on coverage of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce ads promoting legislation that would clear the way for a new mine near Ashland. (See the voter ID article here, Bullock’s response here; the WMC mining story here and Christofferson’s reaction here.) By contrast, the national PolitiFact operation appears to get more criticism from conservatives.”