As it turned out, the Mankato area got shut out. There are no delegates from Blue Earth County or Nicollet, Le Sueur, Sibley, Watonwan, Faribault and Waseca counties. The nearest delegates are from New Prague (state Rep. Laura Brod) and Fairmont.

Volunteers needed

Opportunities to be in the Twin Cities for the convention festivities continue to be available for Minnesotans — more opportunities than convention organizers would like. The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul have scheduled a press conference for Monday to try to drum up interest in volunteering at the convention, scheduled for the first four days of September.

Organizers are looking for 10,000 volunteers and remain several thousand short of the goal.

Those interested can fill out an on-line application at www.msp2008.com.

Mating outdoors/arts

The old cliché about politics making strange bedfellows looks to be especially true with the constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot on Nov. 4 asking whether Minnesotans want to raise the state sales tax by three-eighths of a percent.

Among the backers of the amendment are the Loft Literary Center and the Minnesota Sharp-tailed Grouse Society, two groups that probably don’t hold a lot of joint meetings. But the amendment would dedicate proceeds of the sales tax to hunting habitat, clean water and the arts.

Another example? Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson and former DFL Gov. Wendell Anderson teamed up to rally support for the “vote yes” campaign. More information about the effort to pass the amendment is available at www.yesforMN.org.

DCCC notices Sarvi

Steve Sarvi — running for Congress in the 2nd District, which includes Le Sueur County — has been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of “emerging races.”

The classification creates a list of potential qualifiers for the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program that targets money and other support to campaigns where the national party leaders think a Republican incumbent can be knocked off.

That means Sarvi, an Iraq war veteran, is still deep down the list of candidates that top Dems are excited about. A total of 37 Democrats are already in the Red to Blue program and 20 more are in the “emerging races” category.

The Sarvi campaign was excited to get the national party’s attention, however, and can take some solace in knowing that Walz didn’t reach the “emerging races” status until September on his way to knocking off Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht in 2006.

Kline clobbers clays