Tim Penny

Jun 6, 2014

Jesse’s party in shambles? IP state director quits

“I cannot keep my name as a leader of a party that I do not believe is the best option for the voters of this state,” wrote IP state director Kyle Lewis.

Jun 26, 2012

Mondale, Carlson will lead anti-voter ID campaign

Former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Gov. Arne Carlson will lead the effort to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. They'll be joined by former congressman Tim Penny and veteran civil rights activist Josie Johnson as co-chairs of Our Vote Our Future.

Sep 30, 2011

DFLers join redistricting tussle

Democrats in Minnesota have been slow to rise to the redistricting fight this time around. During session, DFL caucuses in the Minnesota House and Senate passed on the chance to produce maps to counter a GOP majority proposal that pitted 26 incumbents against one another, the vast majority of them DFLers.

Jul 20, 2011

IP eyes legislative races for 2012

Mark Jenkins knows how hard it is to win a legislative election as an Independence Party candidate: He ran last fall in Senate District 55 against DFL incumbent Sen. Chuck Wiger, earning just a little over 7 percent of the total votes in the North St. Paul and Maplewood district.

Jan 19, 2011

Redistricting: Here we go again

With Minnesota's Census numbers expected to arrive as early as the middle of next month, state lawmakers are already laying plans to redraw Minnesota legislative districts and the state's eight congressional districts. But the partisan divide between Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican majorities in the Legislature portend a round of redistricting that is likely to fall apart - just as it has done[...]

Dec 17, 2010

Teachers union may get schooled

A ferocious pushback by Education Minnesota cast the 70,000-member statewide teacher's union in the role of session bogeyman. The union and its head, Tom Dooher, fought the bill to a standstill in the end; it lost by a tight 68-65 margin in the House, and did not reach the floor in the Senate.

Dec 8, 2010

Horner ponders his future

Tom Horner took a bigger risk than most when he embarked on his run for governor of Minnesota. The former Republican pundit and strategist turned Independence Party candidate alienated many of his old political allies when he switched party affiliation to challenge to GOP candidate Tom Emmer and DFLer Mark Dayton.

Sep 22, 2010

Horner’s campaign has gained momentum, but can he keep it going?

At a Catholic Charities gathering last fall, Tom Horner and Stephen Imholte began chatting about the looming 2010 governor's race. They knew each other casually from years spent working on Republican campaigns and causes. But as they talked, it also became clear that they shared a growing frustration with the increasingly rightward tilt of the GOP in recent years. Both believed that there was an o[...]

Sep 15, 2010