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November 03, 2004

Best of All Worlds?

The good guys lost by 3.5% in Minnesota.

No - this is a good thing.

We have a Republican governor, a Republican state house, a Democrat state senate that is largely an embarassment, an upcoming race with a US Senator that makes "embarassing" seem pretty good in comparison, and a president we can live with.

And, if we take Bin Laden at his word, we're safe from attack.

(Downside: A slim majority of Minnesotans seem to take Bin Laden, Michael Moore and Al Franken at their words...)

Posted by Mitch at November 3, 2004 09:48 AM | TrackBack
Comments

When will the MN GOP stop being a handmaiden to the DFL in its targeted campaign against conservatives?

Posted by: Susan F. at November 3, 2004 10:05 AM

The MNGOP is going to have to work A LOT harder to GOTV in the Cities. We can't write off the entire urban core and expect to carry the state.

Posted by: Mark at November 3, 2004 10:30 AM

I thought Bush would do slightly better in Minnesota; I pegged his odds of winning at no worse than 50%. I really had hoped that the MN GOP would find a way to deliver for Bush, regardless of whether Bush needed it to win. Such an outcome would have made Pawlenty a contender for national office in 2008, and that would have been fun to see.

Posted by: Will Allen at November 3, 2004 11:53 AM

You need to torture the data a bit further to find the silver lining:

In 2000 it was Gore 47.9%, Bush 45.5%, and Nader 5.2%, Gore by 2.4%. In 2000 all the way left liberals figured MN was a gimme for Gore, and decided to vote for Nader.

In 2004 it was Kerry 51.2%, Bush 47.6%, and Nader 0.7%, Kerry by 3.5%. So all those way left liberals got scared that Bush could actually win MN, and voted for the democrat instead of Nader.

Looking more closely, the Bush vote is UP 2.1% over 2000, and the left leaning vote (Democrat + Nader) is down by 1.3% from 2000. Some of Bush's "extra" votes undoubtedly came from 2000's Libertarians & Constitution voters. So it is perhaps most important that the Liberal vote is down by 1.3%. Minnesota IS getting more conservative -- just not as fast as we hoped.

Posted by: gitchigumi at November 4, 2004 03:02 PM
hi