A superficial — and less superficial — look at the candidates for Minnesota governor
Setting aside the issues and personal party affiliations for a moment, which candidate for Minnesota Governor has the best website in terms of appearance and functionality?
Farheen Hakeem (Green)
Tom Horner (Independence)
Tom Emmer (Republican)
Mark Dayton (Democratic Farmer Labor)
Ken Pentel (Ecology Democracy)
Linda S. Eno (Resource)
Chris Wright (Grassroots)
As for substance, all the candidates seem to like to provide an “issues” section with a few paragraphs of philosophy about a handful of topics. So far, I’ve only seen two somewhat detailed position papers on the state budget:
Minnesota Works: Horner-Mulder Budget Outline
Mark Dayton’s Deficit Solution
I’d have to say Linda Eno pretty clearly has the worst site, since she technically doesn’t seem to have one. And her party website, which serves as our default for this exercise, ain’t so hot.
While Chris Wright gets points for prominently using a marijuana leaf on his home page, I’m having trouble picking a winner.
I’d have to give Emmer #1 for site design. Maybe. Actually, I’m not so sure about that. Horner is a close second. “Horner’s Corner.” Heh heh. That’s good writin’.
Dayton wins for worst first impression. The photo of him makes it look like he can’t poop.
Horner wins for creepiest special effects in a TV ad.
Of the big three I’d rank the designs 1-Horner, 2-Emmer, 3-Dayton. The rest are far below spectacular. Now on substance…that’s different
Chris Wright is the absolute last person that should be representing his “cause.” I have both witnessed more than a few of his stump “speeches” and can honestly say that pot and booze fueled interruptions of perfectly good music make for a very unimpressive and irritating experience.
I looked over these sites. Most of them do not even show the candidate up front and personal. Like how many kids does Emmer have … can’t even find him in the photos. Where is Eno? The only one who has a straight on photo is Wright, followed by Dayton. Wright’s site at least is designed with white space. What a mess the others are. I am not interested in attempting to read a thing from any of them, really. Go Hemp, or whatever Wright is saying at least got my attention.
I think Ken Pentel has been running for governor on minor party tickets since my daughter (who just got her driver’s license) was born–first on Green Party ticket, now he seems to have formed his own party, the Ecology Democracy Party.
I agree with Dayton — looks like he could use a good dose of senna tea, and the Horner spot wins for creepiest special effects — what blow to the head made that actors eyes able to do that?
I vote for Farheen Hakeem’s site. It was easy to find a high-res photo of her, and for my job, that’s one of the main reasons I’ll go to candidate websites. It always strikes me as a big oversight if there isn’t a photo available.
Here are the websites for the local candidates I know of/could find.
I would rate several of these above all the governors sites just on aesthetic and ease of use.
DFL candidates:
Roger Reinert
Frank Jewell
Kerry Gauthier
James Oberstar
Republicans:
I couldn’t find one for Rilla Oplet (running against Reinert)
I couldn’t find one for Dennis Fink (running against Jewell)
Carinda Horton
Chip Cravaack
So this is what it’s come to? We’re more concerned about how flashy their website is? C’mon!
Emmer vs. Dayton, what an awful choice. At least as bad as Coleman vs. Humphrey vs. Ventura. These guys make Pawlenty look like JFK.
A note on Tom’s comment:
County Commissioner races are non-partisan. Although Democrats may identify well with Frank Jewell and Republicans with Dennis Fink, their party affiliations (if they have them) are not noted on the ballot.
Also, here are more candidate websites for local races:
Dennis Fink
Melanie Ford
Mark Rubin
Tim Olson
Richard “George” Burton
Mike Cuzzo
I think they all need to have a swimsuit competition.
In all honesty, I think we need to go with a Greek-style democracy and have the candidates be chosen by a lottery, and if that don’t work. A three-legged sack race.
Ken Pentel quote: “The people who mobilize and vote for Erin and I should know that when elected, our three mandates will form the basis of how we will govern….”
Pentel already fails on grammar.
Tim is half Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish.
Two interesting developments today:
1) Tom Emmer finally released his budget plan.
Tom Emmer’s FY 2012-13 Budget Proposal
2) The Minnesota Department of Revenue analyzed Mark Dayton’s plan to boost taxes on Minnesota’s top earners and determined it won’t bring in quite as much money as Dayton thinks.
Minnesota Department of Revenue Analysis of Dayton Plan