More Horserace Coverage

The horserace coverage continues with today's article titled "Voters opt for taxing top earners." The Article highlighted another Minnesota Poll on the governor's race. The article once again shows how DFL candidate Mark Dayton will most likely have the majority of the vote.

"DFL governor candidate Mark Dayton's proposal to reduce the state's deficit by taxing the wealthy has wide support among likely voters this fall- far ahead of the two other candidates' budget plans, according to a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll."

The issue of the state deficit is on the top of many voters lists of concerns for the next governor. This article about the poll results showing support of each candidate's proposals to reduce the state's deficit is very critical to the election.

Voters will definitely see the article with the poll results on the front page of the Star Tribune today. It has already caught a lot of attention online, with over 500 comments already posted on the article.

Click here to view complete article.

Horserace Coverage

According to Ridout and smith, horserace coverage informs voters "which candidate is gaining ground and which candidate is losing."

With only five weeks left until the election, the Star Tribune figured it was time to do that. An article in Sunday's paper informed readers which candidate is ahead in the race for Minnesota governor.

"DFL candidate Mark Dayton leads GOP rival Tom Emmer among likely voters, with Independence Party candidate gaining ground, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found. In the three-way race, Dayton leads Emmer 39 to 30 percent, nearly unchanged from a July Minnesota Poll. Horner is at 18 percent, up from 13 percent in July."

The article ended with great quotes from three voters with very different views.

"Brad Greenway, 40, said Dayton relates to the concerns of average Minnesotans.

'I think he has a better handle on what regular Minnesotans are going through right now,' said Greenway, who is unemployed and lives in Beltrami County south of Bemidji. 'Emmer seems much more out of touch, especially with the problems we have up here. He and Horner just don't connect.'

But St. Paul real estate agent Don Peterson said emmer is the one looking out for Minnesotans.

'I'm pretty much a Tea Party conservative and we've got to cut both spending and taxes,' said Peterson, 58. 'Emmer's the most business friendly of the three, and I'm looking for the most conservative candidate on the ballot.'

Elizabeth Hustad, 18, a University of Minnesota student who lives in Minneapolis, backs Horner for taking a middle road.

'I'm conservative, but I don't like how far Emmer's going, and he seems a little too concerned with social issues instead of focusing on our economic problems,' she said."

Click to view complete article.

Social Issues vs. Economic Issues

According to Kahn's academic journal, "social issues and social programs receive more attention in gubernatorial campaigns...receiving twice as much coverage in races for governor and than in races for senator. These differencces are likely to influence the issue priorities of voters."

In a recent article, Emmer was quoted saying, "This election is not about [social] issues." Although the candidates for governor seem to be avoiding discussion of social issues, advocacy groups are letting voters know their positions on such issues.

"Among voters who see social issues as a top voting priority, candidates will have trouble hiding their views.

Leaders of social issue groups say they can reach tens of thousands of members through mailers, online resources, and other methods."

According to Squire and Fastnow's academic journal "Gubernatorial and Senatorial Elections," voters hold governors more responsible for the performance of the state economy. This explains why the candidates for governor, as well as most voters, are more concerned with the economy, especially in it's poor state.

"Still, [social] issues have been mostly dormant during the campaign as voters focus on the economy, job losses and a projected $6 billion state budget deficit over the next two years. Bill Morris, a pollster and former chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said he estimates that fewer than 10 percent of voters will cast a ballot based on a social issue this fall--about half what it has been in past races. 'Right now it's being totally dominated by the state economy,' Morris said."

Click here to view complete article.

Correct Placement and Catchy Headlines Capture Attention

After reading the article in today’s paper, I was a bit confused. The article was titled “Casino, tax hike in Dayton’s new plan,” but had very little information about a casino. Apparently, the headline was just to capture the reader’s attention. Although slightly misleading, the headline was very successful because I, like many others, read the entire article thinking there would be more information about the casino.

The placement (left column of the front page) and headline of the article were both used to draw in more readers. The article was fairly long and continued onto A7 with more information about Dayton’s new plan to close the budget deficit.

“He acknowledged that his new plan − ­which counts on $300 million from a new Mall of America casino and $2.8 billion in new tax collections − comes up nearly $1 billion short.”

With the article, there was also a facts box containing “Highlights of new state revenue he’s proposing” and “Highlights of the cuts he proposed.” The article was put together well and allowed the reader to get the information quickly from the facts box or to get the more detailed version in the article itself. 

(Click here for the complete article)

Governor's Race Gets New Home in Star Tribune

In Kahn's academic journal she dicusses how significant issue coverage is in governor elections. "While issues receive the bulk of campaign coverage in both Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, the absolute amount of issue coverage is substantially greater in races for governor."

For the past few days, the Star Tribune has focused on such coverage in the governor’s race, which has found a new home, not on the cover, but in the twin cities plus region section of the paper.

Thursday’s paper contained two articles about the MN governor’s election. The first article titled “Candidates talk state’s finances” on the front page of the twin cities plus region section was concerning a debate between the three candidates that took place on Wednesday night. The article covered all important areas of the debate including questions addressing candidates’ vulnerabilities and questions and answers about the economy and budget plans.

The article included plenty of direct quotes from the candidates during the debate and ended with a quote from State Economist Tom Stinson, who got to ask a question in the debate.

“I just want to see somebody who demonstrates that they understand how severe the problem is and are prepared to make some honest decisions about fixing it.”

(Click for the complete article)

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The other article in Thurday’s paper was title “Emmer calls for broad changes in education system” and was found deeper into the paper. The article was rather short with little quotes. It focused on Emmer’s plan to reevaluate teachers based on their students’ success.

“Emmer, in an address at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, said teachers should be evaluated based on their students’ progress and paid accordingly. ‘Rewards should be real tangible and, yes, unequal,’ he told the audience of about 60 people who attended the candidate forum.”

The importance of articles and information was definitely evident with the placement in Thursday’s paper.

(Click for the complete article)

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Today, the Independence Party candidate Tom Horner was the focus of the Governor’s Race article. The fairly lengthy article seems a bit confused, which makes Horner seem a bit confused.

After listing several areas where he plans to spend millions and where he plans to cut tax, the article ends with a quote from the candidate himself: “Exactly how we get to the specific components, I don’t know.”

The organizing and placement of an article within the paper reflect the views of the writer, whether it be subtle or obvious, the articles are not one hundred percent unbiased.

(Click for the complete article)

Front and Center Horserace Coverage

Today, the candidates for Minnesota governor, specifically Mark Dayton, got an article front and center in the Star Tribune. The article titled "Interest Groups Spending Big" filled the center column on the front page of the Star Tribune on September 14, 2010. The article included one large photograph of Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal and two smaller photographs of Mark Dayton and Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson. With the continued article on A4, there was a graphic illustrating media spending for the governor's race.

According to Kim Kahn's Characteristics of Press Coverage in Senate and Gubernatorial Elections: Information Available to Voters: "The substance of political campaigns can be divided into three categories: issue coverage, horserace coverage, and coverage of personality traits. Each of these three topics is potentially important for voters as they develop overall evaluations of candidates for governor and senator." This article falls under horse race coverage because it's main focus is how much money has been spent promoting each campaign.


The beginning of the article revealed that interest groups including: Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Minnesota's Future, and MN Forward have become the most powerful players in political ads.

"The Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a liberal coalition, has saturated the airwaves with more than $1 million in post-primary ads that go after GOP candidate Tom Emmer. Business-backed Minnesota Future and MN Forward have each spent more than $300,000 on ads that either promote Emmer or take off on his DFL opponent, Mark Dayton. That's nearly $1.8 million in the last month.

By comparison, ad buys by the candidates have been relatively paltry -- just $430,000 among Emmer, Dayton and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner in the Twin Cities market."

The rest of the article focused mainly on campaign funding and very little on policies.

But voters want to know who is ahead in the race, and horse race articles like this allows the readers to follow the election standings. Kahn says there is an average of 67 paragraphs of horserace coverage during gubernatorial campaigns. This article alone has 23 paragraphs of horserace coverage.


For more coverage on the 2010 Governor's Election, visit http://www.startribune.com
or click here for the full article.

"Top Dems Ready To Stump For Dayton"

After a few articles focusing on Republican candidate Tom Emmer, I was starting to wonder if the Star Tribune was only interested in sharing one side of the story. But, the Governor's Race article on Wednesday, "Top Dems Ready to Stump for Dayton," was dedicated to the democratic candidate Mark Dayton. Rather than focusing on policies, the article focused on Dayton's campaign strategy. A key factor in his campaign strategy right now is getting support from important well-known democrats including Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama, who all plan to visit MN in the coming weeks.

"'I think the three of them spaced out over the next few weeks will really help ignite excitement for this race among activists,' Dayton said." (Star Tribune, Sept. 8, 2010)

Although Democrats hope these visits will strengthen their campaign, Republicans think Democrats will lose votes because of President Obama's low approval rating right now.

For more information read the full article:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/102433799.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU