State Fair political offerings: Lots of pitches and shticks
08/25/2006
In a big election year, the State Fair offers a panoply of political displays.
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
Last update: August 24, 2006 – 10:19 PM
A storm was threatening Thursday morning as State Auditor Pat Anderson warily eyed the 9-foot inflatable bulldog with a spiked collar atop her reelection campaign booth on the State Fairgrounds.
“He’s tied down pretty good,” she said. “But we don’t need this kind of weather.”
The hip-hop hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?” was playing on a boom box, and Anderson was handing out the first of 30,000 blue “Minnesota Taxpayers’ Watchdog” hand fans to passersby. Anderson was upbeat, calling her spot at Dan Patch Avenue and Cooper Street “the best corner.” She said people love her bulldog, which symbolizes her efforts to “make sure that local government money is spent wisely.”
Anderson’s bulldog wins this political journalist’s award for Best State Fair Iconography by an Election Candidate. It edges Mark Kennedy’s rustic bait shop and Amy Klobuchar’s blue-clapboard front porch, the two U.S. Senate rivals’ outposts a half-block from each other on Judson Avenue.
Here are more highlights of a election-year tour of the fair’s political booths and happenings—from the new Eco Experience pavilion, where Gov. Tim Pawlenty gave a grand opening speech, to the Minnesota Transportation Amendment Vote Yes booth, where a replica NASCAR racer lures fairgoers to pick the state’s worst road (early leader: the Crosstown-35W Commons freeway bottleneck).
Most interactive
The DFL Party pavilion at Dan Patch and Cooper Street. Visitors can vote with blue bottle caps for “what issue concerns you the most,” or stick Post-It notes on the wall to explain “why I’m voting Democrat this November.” (Sample response: “It’s a no-brainer (like the president!!)”
Best architecture
The Republican Party’s handsome Greek Revival pavilion on Carnes Avenue, which features a quiet patio in back with tables and chairs ideal for alfresco dining.
Not so grand
Nearby is Pawlenty’s bare-bones vinyl-awning booth, distinguished by 14-foot kite-like banners with full-length color portraits of the smiling governor. Even more modest is GOP attorney general candidate Jeff Johnson’s unpainted plywood booth on Underwood Street. “We’re going to finish it tonight,” Johnson said. After the fair, he added, it will be sold to another exhibitor for a fish house.
Shtick on a stick
Pawlenty’s campaign has produced 35,000 red governor-on-a-stick fans touting his accomplishments growing jobs, fighting crime and balancing the state budget. The DFL is handing out “debt on a stick,” calling for a rollback in state college tuition that it says has left Minnesota students “crushed by an average of $19,468 in debt.”
Full-court press
Eight years ago, Jesse Ventura cranked up his longshot campaign for governor with almost-daily appearances at his fair booth that never failed to draw crowds. Now his Independence Party descendents are hoping to multiply that success with no fewer than five booths—one each for the party and its four constitutional office campaigns. Candidates are scheduled to be present nearly continuously.
Sweet science
The IP booths feature hands-on toy boxing games where a “Red Rocker” Republican squares off with a “Blue Bomber” Democrat. Pawlenty himself “knocked out the Democrats” in the brief stop at the Peter Hutchinson for governor booth, said IP field director Jason Isaacson. “He’s not ready for the Bison, though,” Isaacson added, refering to the IP’s bovid mascot.