Hutch Hands Out Gube Debate DVD

Minnesota Independence Party candidate for governor Peter Hutchinson announced today that he and his Bison-logo'd Team Minnesota ticket will be handing out unedited DVDs of his September 27 debate with incumbent Tim Pawlenty and fellow challenger Mike Hatch at campaign stops around the state.

The gambit is a smart one, for a number of reasons. First, it calls attention to Hutchinson's frustration over the lack of debates agreed to by his opponents, without making him seem like an ineffectual whiner. Second, it polishes Hutchinson's image as a good government type who believes he benefits from an informed electorate. As he said today, "This is one of the best ways we can think of to use the dollars the public has contributed to our campaign."

Third, the September 27 "Debate Minnesota" event on the U of M campus happens to be literally Hutchinson's finest hour on the campaign trail thus far. Even those predisposed toward his two opponents would be hard-pressed to deny that he seemed both the smartest and the clearest-thinking candidate among the trio that night. You'll notice that Hutch isn't dishing out copies of the more recent gubernatorial talkfest, held in Rochester last week, when Hatch, if not Pawlenty, raised his game while Hutchinson fixated on his "job interview" analogy of debates like a broken record of a jabbering parrot.