Good afternoon,
Nearly 180 of you cast ballots to determine the best orator in the Minnesota Legislature, and today I'm pleased to bring you the winners — seasoned with a little dash of scandal.
As a refresher on the rules : based on 36 nominated lawmakers, you could use approval voting to vote for as many lawmakers as you thought were exceptional orators. The Democrat and Republican with the most votes are the winners.
And here are the (unscientific) results: | |
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Congratulations to Sen. Erin Murphy and Sen. Zach Duckworth, the 2021 Best Minnesota Legislative Orators. Sadly, there are no trophies.
Except I'm a data guy, so we've got to linger on some peculiarities with the results here. You might notice that the shape of the DFL and GOP graphs are a little different. Murphy just narrowly edged out runner-up Rep. Ryan Winkler, who was just ahead of third-place Rep. Cedrick Frazier, and so on. But Duckworth lapped Rep. Barb Haley by a 2:1 margin.
So I spent some time diving into the results. And it turns out that there's a very specific reason why Duckworth won, and won so handily. Alone of all the lawmakers here, Duckworth (or a close supporter) seems to have organized an effort to win. And that meant strategic voting.
Duckworth won with 42 total votes. Of those 42 votes, a full 38 cast their vote for only Duckworth.
Let's contrast that with Erin Murphy, the DFL winner and overall second-highest vote-getter. She got 39 votes. Only three of those 39 votes listed just Murphy.
Here's what that looks like. The below graph shows every nominated lawmaker, with the total number of votes they got on the X axis, and the average size of ballots listing them on the Y axis. (Remember, no shame for the lawmakers who just got a few votes — it's an honor to be nominated!) | |
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So each of the two people who voted for Rep. Brian Johnson voted for an average of around 12 other lawmakers. Most lawmakers tended to be listed on ballots with four to eight names. Duckworth's backers weren't the only ones to vote for just him, but his 38 one-lawmaker votes were just under half of all such votes; no other candidate had more than five.
Looking at the email addresses people voted with and the times that votes were cast, it's also pretty clear this was not coincidental — almost all of Duckworth's votes came in a rush starting around 11 p.m. last night, and then trickling in this morning.
None of this, to be clear, violated any rules! There's no evidence anyone was stuffing the ballots by voting repeatedly with multiple emails, or anything like that. (I did check — a number of ballots naming multiple candidates came from the same IP address, but usually two emails from the same address, suggestive of two spouses or coworkers voting.)
No, it's just that Duckworth, uniquely, played to win — and won! Congratulations to him, and to Murphy.
For everyone else, this was enough of a success that I think we'll try this next year, but with more forethought. Perhaps there'll even be a seeded bracket...
Anyway, onto the news, very briefly:
Rep. John Thompson's case shows how easy it is for lawmakers to keep their address private, generally relying on the honor system to prove lawmakers live in their district as required. [Read more from the Minnesota Reformer's Deena Winter]
Metro Transit is hiring more police officers and community service officers, among other efforts to try to assuage rider concerns about safety. The updated security is expected to cost $4 million per year, on top of an existing $26 million budget for the Metro Transit Police. [Read more from Peter Cox]
As COVID-19 vaccinations become increasingly politicized, many people who had been hesitant about vaccination are hardening those positions into outright vaccine hostility. [Read more from the Washington Post's Dan Diamond, Hannah Knowles and Tyler Pager]
Canada will be finally opening up its borders next month to allow fully vaccinated Americans in — something that will be a huge relief to Minnesotans living near the northern border. [ Read more from The Associated Press' Rob Gillies]
Something completely different: There's a common belief that the reason women's dress shirts button up on the opposite side from men's is that women's clothes were designed to be put on with the help of a servant. But fashion historian Cassidy Percoco says there's just not any real evidence for that theory. Nor, I should add, for any alternative — we just don't know. [Read more]
Listen: At a conservative conference in Iowa today, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem led the crowd in a rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," saying it was her favorite song. Now, whether you like Noem or not, I think she's right about one thing — the Battle Hymn of the Republic rules! [ Watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir]
One more thing: Not everyone loves the Battle Hymn, with its intertwining of militaristic patriotism and religion, but it's proved an enduringly popular song across the political spectrum. [Read more from Dominic Tierney in The Atlantic] | |
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