Thursday, July 13, 2006

The bulldog and the weasel

It’s early and it’s entirely possible that when November finally arrives, the whole thing will be forgotten. But it was highly, hugely entertaining. No, I’m not talking about Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m talking about the entertaining spat between the two men who will likely head the DFL ticket in the fall. Let’s set the stage:

In this corner, we have the bulldog, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch. Hatch has decided to give up the AG position and is running for governor this year. Hatch has been a fixture on the Minnesota political scene for over 20 years now. He’s intensely partisan and not afraid of anyone. In many ways, he is more of an old-school DFLer than many of the folks in that party now – he grew up in the Duluth area and brings an Iron Range mentality to his job. Hatch does have a propensity for grandstanding, but it’s pretty clear that his heart is in the right place, even though as a DFLer he regularly proposes poor policy choices. On the political continuum, he’s center-left. He’s someone I can respect, despite my disagreement with what he says and does. While I strongly prefer Tim Pawlenty, I could live with a Governor Hatch.

In the far corner, we have the weasel, Matt Entenza. Immediately, the thoughtful reader objects to the term weasel, thinking it pejorative. Damned right it is pejorative, but accurate, I think. Entenza has risen through the ranks of backbenchers to become the leader of the DFL in the Minnesota House and he is running for Attorney General, Hatch’s current perch. Entenza is an attorney who derives most of his political muscle because of money. Entenza is a prototypical “limousine liberal” and used his great wealth to make huge contributions to specific House candidates in 2004; in some cases this spending may have tipped the balance in some tight elections. He also has become a fixture of news coverage in Minnesota, with his eat-your-spinach visage and his droning denunciations always available for a video camera. He is, in my view, a sneaky, opportunistic and sometimes vicious adversary.

Entenza has money galore because his wife, Lois Quam, is a senior executive at United Health Group, a gigantic and often controversial health care management concern based in the western suburbs. UHG has recently received a lot of scrutiny for the executive compensation package that former CEO William McGuire has received; he will leave UHG within shouting distance of being a billionaire. While there’s no evidence that Quam has done anything unethical, she has benefited substantially from the executive pay structure at UHG. UHG and its corporate conduct will likely be subjects for the Attorney General’s purview in the coming years; needless to say, if Entenza sits in that chair, he will a pretty substantial conflict of interest.

As for the battle itself, last year Entenza hired an oppo group out of Chicago to investigate Hatch. The group began asking Hatch questions about his office finances, what he was spending money on, etc. Hatch figured out what was going on, traced the matter to Entenza and then confronted Entenza about it. While both sides officially claim things have been patched up, there’s plenty of reason to believe this is not the case. Hatch has gone as far as asking other prominent DFLers to consider a primary challenge to Entenza, including such figures as former congressman Bill Luther and former U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug. Both Luther and Lillehaug would bring significant credentials to the battle, but at this point neither seems inclined to run.

We’ll be watching this matter closely.

No comments: