Dave Kamper

@dskamper

Avuncular unionist, uxorious husband, labor historian, cat guy. "Who's Got the Power?: The Resurgence of American Unions" available now. Lives in Minnesota. Posts are personal. The cat in the profile pic is Laverne, aka Peanut.

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Dave Kamper@dskamper· 18d

Yeah, we know this never happened. If only.

Snippet from piece: “In one example, Vega says she was asked to include a comment by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey in which he purportedly asked city Police Chief Brian O’Hara to order his officers to confront and fight ICE agents. But Vega said she and her production team scoured ‘every frame’ of Frey’s news conference and found no evidence of that statement.”

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jul 9

Ned Flanders pulled over by Chief Wiggins, telling him, “I’m not hopped up on goofballs.”

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jul 7

Laverne update: cruelly denied treats because she is starting to resemble a cute little furry bowling ball.

An adorable little peanut of a tabby/torbie cat gazes mournfully into the camera. It's difficult to avoid noticing that while she is still a little peanut, her midsection is really getting kinda big.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jul 5

Shirley update: snoozing in the sun

A cute tabby cat with big saucer eyes and a white face is sitting in a cat basket in a bay window, soaking up sunlight. She is mid-yawn which adds to her cuteness.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jul 5

Inspector Waffles update: judging our efforts to clean the room.

Close up of a tabby cat with huge ears and a very judgemental facial expression.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jul 4

Celebrating America's semiquincentennial in the most suburban middle-aged way possible.

Photo of a lawnmower. It's an electric, of course, because this is the Minnesota suburbs.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jun 25

Fellow Minnesotans! Are you being deluged with social media ads by an outfit called "North Star Dawn PAC"? Of the $530,000 it has reported in contributions to the FEC, more than half - $300,000 - comes from billionaire Stephen Mandel, a longtime backer of moderate Dems, who lives in Connecticut.

Screenshot of a Facebook ad supporting Angie Craig for Senate, sponsored by "North Star Dawn PAC"

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jun 24

Simon Sparklepants update: sunny afternoon

Orange cat all curled up on a back porch, lots of sun pouring in on him.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jun 16

Rest of the poll is as expected, but this finding is huge. For *every other* question in the poll, there's a 10-ish point gap between college grads and non-college grads, which is in line with national trends going back years. But on immigration there is NO EDUCATION GAP IN MINNESOTA. WOW.

Screenshot of a poll question from the article. The question is "Which of the following statements comes closest to your point of view? Undocumented immigrants should be:" and the options are "Deported", "Allowed to stay in order to work but not become citizens", "Allowed to stay and become citizens if they meet certain requirements over time", and "not sure."

The screenshot has all the various breakdowns, but one is circled. For "no college degree" respondents, the numbers for the various options are 26, 7, 65, and 3. For "college graduate" respondents, the numbers are 24, 5, 66, and 5.

That is to say, they are virtually identical.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jun 9

Laverne has been hanging in the office with me for months as she works out her issues with her brother, but this is the first time she fell asleep in my lap. Stayed there a contented ninety minutes and it was delightful.

A very sleepy cute little peanut of a tabby cat sits on a lap, her head cradled in an arm. In the background you can see the lower half of a very handsome bearded face.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Jun 5

In lieu of the thing at the White House, I urge you to watch this bout between two seasoned middleweights, Shirley and Inspector Waffles.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· May 20

Laverne is very happy

A very happy torbie cat snoozing on a lap

Dave Kamper@dskamper· May 12

Simon Sparklepants feels differently.

An orange cat who is clearly a huge jerk sits on a blanket

Dave Kamper@dskamper· May 12

Inspector Waffles and Shirley are still here.

Two cat next to each other on a bed. The one in back has ginormous ears and looks like he produces a ton of drool. The one in front has big saucer eyes and not a lot going on upstairs.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· May 1

Inspector Waffles update: stair ghost

A tabby cat with ginormous ears and copious amounts of drool is on a lap, alert looking up and to the left.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· May 1

Simon Sparklepants update

An orange cat is zoned the heck out on a lap. Like down for the COUNT.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 28

They’re all pale imitations of Rollie Fingers. MLB should have retired mustaches when he left the game.

Picture of baseball great Rollie Fingers in an Oakland A’s outfit, wearing a mustache so whirly it puts Snidely Whiplash to shame.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 13

Happy Monday morning from Laverne.

A cutie little peanut of a torbie cat sits in my lap, close to camera, her eyes wide with excitement for the adventure ahead.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

2016 - 2022, the GOP poured outside money into CD2, meeting or surpassing the outside money on Craig's side, a sign the race was a party priority. In 2024, the most expensive election in history, they… didn't. Poor Joe Teirab was left dangling. No backup from the national party. 13/

Table of figures labeled "Outside Spending in the CD2 race". The columns are labeled "Year", "Republican Outside Spending", "Democratic outside spending" and "Ratio of GOP to Dem outside spending.

The rows are 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024.

In 2016, the GOP spent $3,604,560 in outside spending. The Dems spent $2,468,745, for a 1.46 to 1 ratio.
In 2018 it was $4,658,390 and $4,082386, for a ratio of 1.14 to 1.
In 2020 (where I'm guessing COVID brought down the total spending) it was $499,247 and $194,974 for a ratio of 2.57 to 1.
In 2022 it was $9,281,843 to $9,741,648 for a ratio of 0.95 to 1.
In 2024 it was $700,266 to $1,604,444 for a ratio of 0.43 to 1.

There is a footnote indicator next to the table title, and while the footnote is not visible in the image, it says that the data comes from opensecrets.org

The table is in a fun magenta/electric pink color.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

Now, turn to 2024, the election that seems to provide the most evidence of Craig's electoral magic. She ran well ahead of the Harris/Walz presidential ticket (55.5% to 51.7%), and did better than every DFL House candidate in her district. 11/

Chart like the others, for 2024, with Angie Craig doing better in every House district compared to the DFL House candidate.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

So, Craig didn't really run ahead of other Dems in her district. But maybe SHE was the reason. Maybe her coattails brought everyone up. Nah. In outer-ring suburbs outside of CD2, the average swing to the DFL from 2016 to 2018 was over 8%! 9/

Table of figures labeled "Outer suburban districts OUTSIDE CD2" It lists 17 Minnesota House District by district number, with columns for general location (a city or county or two), the 2016 DFL vote, the 2018 DFL vote, and the change from 2016 to 2018. In that last column, the shift to the DFL ranged from 5.86% to 12.96%, except in District 37B (which is in Blaine) where the DFL vote share went down 0.05%. That racist jerk Nolan West went racist on Muslim candidate Amir Mailk and held on to his votes. Dude, Blaine. Not a good look.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

In 2022, as a two-time incumbent, in an election environment likely close to what 2026 will be, she ran behind 8 or 12 House candidates and behind the Senate candidate in 7 of 12 districts. That's… not great. 8/

Chart like the previous ones, for 2022. Craig is running well ahead in a few districts, but is behind in the majority of them.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

In 2020, Craig had a strong 3rd party marijuana candidate taking votes, so this is her two-party share of the vote along House and Senate candidates who mostly did not have to deal with 3rd parties. Some good results, but running behind the Senate candidate as often as ahead. 7/

Chart very similar to the 2016 one, with both Senate and House districts, for 2020. Craig doing better than 2016 or 2018 in this chart, though not by massive amounts.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

In 2018, she did better compared to House candidates, but it's important to note she ran behind two of three DFL incumbents and basically tied the third. She ran best compared to first-time candidates. 6/

Chart very similar to the previous one, labeled 2018. This time there is only one bar per district, because the Senate wasn't up in 2018. Craig is running higher than most but not all districts.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

In her first election, she ran behind 2/3 of state legislative candidates. Not great, but also, to be fair, not surprising for a first-time candidate. 5/

Chart labeled "Craig vote share minus DFL leg candidate vote share, 2016"

It's a bar chart. The Y axis is the percentage Craig got above or below the House candidate. The X axis is the district number, and there are two bars for each district: the Angie Craig minus House candidate vote, and the Angie Craig minus Senate candidate vote.

It shows more bars below 0% than above 0%, showing most of those candidates ran ahead of Craig.

No one would describe this as a brilliantly-styled chart.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

When you take only the two-party share of the vote, Craig runs behind both DFL presidential tickets, Smith and Klobuchar, and the Walz/Flanagan ticket every time. This includes elections when she also had 3rd parties siphoning votes. Hardly overwhelming. 3/

Table of figures in blue labeled "Statewide/federal results: two-party share of the vote only"

Rows are Year, Angie Craig Vote, Democratic Presidential Ticket, Tina Smith, Amy Klobuchar, and Walz/Flanagan. The years, again, are 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022.

In 2016, Craig gets 49.0% and the Dem ticket gets 49.3%.
In 2018 Craig gets 52.7%. Smith gets 52.9%. Klobuchar gets 61%, and Walz/Flanagan gets 53.6%.
In 2020 Craig gets 51.2%, Dem prez ticket gets 53.5% and Smith gets 51.8%.
In 2022 Craig gets 52.7% and Walz/Flanagn get 54.1%

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Apr 11

Compared to other statewide DFLers in her district from 2016 to 2022 (results just show performance within the district, we'll get to 2024 later) she seems to run a bit better than most. However, this is because many of the other candidates had strong-ish third parties siphoning votes. 2/

Table of figures in a delightful green color labeled "Share of the vote for Dem statewide/federal candidates in CD2 and Craig"

The rows are labeled "Year", "Angie Craig", "Democratic Presidential Ticket", "Tina Smith", "Amy Klobuchar", "Walz/Flanagan", "Steve Simon", "Keith Ellison", and "Julie Blaha". Columns are labeled 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022.

In 2016 Craig gets 45.2% and the Dem prez ticket gets 44.9%.
In 2018 Craig gets 52.7%. Smith gets 50.5%. Klobuchar 59.5%. Walz/Flanagan 51.5%. Steve Simon 49.7%. Keith Ellison 46.0% and Julie Blaha 47.0%.
In 2020 Craig gets 48.2%, Dem prez 52.5%, and Tina Smith 47.9%
In 2022 Craig gets 50.9%, Walz/Flanagn 52.6%, Simon 54.5%, Ellison 49.7%, and Blaha 47.3%

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Mar 25

The NBC story is reminding me that the @pixelatedboat.bsky.social "Gorilla Channel" bit was not satire; it was prophecy. www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...

Snippet from the article: "The daily montage [that Trump gets each day on the Iran War] typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer, the officials said. One described each daily video as a series of clips of “stuff blowing up.”"

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Mar 24

Shirley and Inspector Waffles update

An adorable tabby cat with huge saucer eyes and a white face is snuggled on a bed with another tabby cat with ginormous mitts and ears, and copious amounts of drool.

Dave Kamper@dskamper· Mar 20

@jayapal.house.gov’s post highlights a real problem for the Left - giving equal weight to symbol and substance. Chicago City Council enacts nonbinding resolution on issue, while the day before they rolled back the tipped minimum wage. Only one of those actions has real world consequences.