Quick Hits

The State Senate is debating a law making failure to wear a seatbelt while riding in a car a primary offense. Right now, you can be pulled over for many things, but not the failure to wear a seatbelt. Transportation Chair Sen. Steve Murphy is the author of the legislation, and it is drawing support from both sides of the aisle, though it is causing a slight division amongst the DFL caucus. In particular, Sen. Tomassoni has spoken in opposition to the bill. This is an interesting topic, and I encourage water cooler talk around this. (While writing the rest of this post, the bill passed the senate.)

Good news on the Florida front. Incumbent Ben Nelson has a solid 56%, but the more significant statistic is that only 27% support Harris. This leaves another 17% up in the air-how well this bodes.

Just a reminder to keep checking the right sidebar. It's updated almost every day, and last night I did a fairly large overhaul of the beast, so be sure to check it out. Newer features include: dates of each DFL Congressional District convention, a 2008 Democrat Presidential candidate list, and a list of political web sites recommended by the executive board. And be sure to keep checking on "The List" of young delegates to the state convention. (We represent about 2% of the entire convention delegation!) Also, I added a countdown to the 2006 elections at the top of the page. Let me know if this is annoying; I'll take it off.

The world of political films is ALWAYS fun (some of the best including Bob Roberts, The War Room, The Candidate, Primary Colors, Wag the Dog). Having said this, you should add Our Brand Is Crisis to your list of political films to see. It is a fascinating look at the world of Washington pollsters and consultants, and their political dealings abroad. OBIC tackles the 2002 Bolivian election. The film raises many questions, and doesn't provide the answers. The results of the election, however, are very concrete. (It is playing two final shows tonight at the Bell Auditorium on the U of M campus.)

While on the subject of films, there are a couple of movies that are showing at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival over the next few weeks that look like the deserve a shot. These include:

• Al Franken: God Spoke
• Conventioneers
• Street Fight

Things to remember for the group:

• Softball on Saturday! 6:00pm @ Bierman Field 5. It's a double header, so be sure to put aside a couple hours (hopefully we'll be done in time for the West Wing!).
• Elections for next year's officers are next week.
• Finally, our two finalists for the "Adopt-a-House-District" were John Goetz and John Benson. John Goetz has dropped out of his race, so our support will go to John Benson. The candidate sent me a nice e-mail, and I will share it at the next meeting.

--Max