Conservatives watched, amused, yesterday as the DFL played a long, comical game of musical chairs with their candidacies.
And it’s going to continue until the filing deadline of 5PM today.
Keith Ellison jumped into the race for Attorney General – evidence he wants to run for Governor someday. In turn, Ilhan Omar filed to run for Ellison’s slot in Congress. Phyllis Kahn promptly filed to run for that seat, which she had held for roughly 200 years. But wait! Deb Hillstrom jumped in to the AG race, and Mike Freeman was making noises about jumping in as well.
In the meantime, Lori Swanson, along with retiring (again) congressman Rick Nolan, filed for governor.
And the day ended with rumors of a Franken filing. The questions – which race (Probably CD5, said the rumor mill) and which Franken (the rumors mentioned both Al and Franni).
GOP pundits greeted the news with a little glee:
And some of it is justifiable. The DFL has given up all pretense, at least among itself, of being anything but a Metro party.
And the idea of a primary with Lori Swanson and Tim Walz squaring off against Erin Murphy, splitting the Greater Minnesota vote, was certainly tantalizing (especially given the prospect of the Dem vote fraud machine being turned against the DFL).
I’m urging a little restraint, here.
It’s pretty clear the DFL is sliding toward Metro-only status. If they lose CD8 and possibly CD1 this year (both are more possible than at any time in years), and with the knowledge that Colin Peterson’s potemkin seat in CD7 will never be replaced by a Democrat again when he retires), it’ll really be official, even if they someday flip CD3.
So the good news is, the DFL is becoming a Metro-only party.
The bad news is, they’re ‘the Metro party.
Hennepin County is a vote machine; a DFL super-de-duper majority that’s only getting worse. And if – if – the MNGO manages to flip enough swing voters statewide to counter that crushing mass of government employees and government clients, the DFL can always create more; there are a zillion refugees in the world, and the DFL, working through its non-profit clients, can always import more just-add-water DFL voters.
And if that doesn’t work? Minneapolis’ cemeteries are full of potential DFL voters.
Call me a cynic, but I don’t know if the DFL can screw up enough to lose this state, sometimes.
Yeah, who cares about those Farmers and Laborers.
Keith Ellison jumped into the race for Attorney General – evidence he wants to run for Governor someday. In turn, Ilhan Omar filed to run for Ellison’s slot in Congress. Phyllis Kahn promptly filed to run for that seat, which she had held for roughly 200 years.
Those are all rumors, and the SOS website still show Ellison running in CD5 and Omar seeking reelection in 60B. Also, Ms. Kahn came out via Twitter today saying specifically she is NOT seeking her old MN House seat.
Mike Hatch has come out of mothballs to see if he can’t get his old seat – which had to be reupholstered after his last time as AG.
It may be way too optimistic on my part but remembering Clinton winning the POTUS election by only 1.5% over Trump and the Dims pushing farther and farther toward socialism everyday the GOP may have a chance of upsets in any number of races. Looking at this map gives me some hope that the outer suburbs and outstate counties may offer some hope to overcoming the metro progs.
https://www.sos.state.mn.us/media/2818/us-president-results-map-margin-by-county.pdf
OK, as of 1:08 pm today, Ellison has filed to run for MN Atty General. Wow! Since there are now no DFLers in CD5, Ilhan Omar better get to the State Office Bldg posthaste.
Now Margaret Anderson Kelliher filing to run in CD5???? In all sincerity, the 5th could do orders of magnitude worse.
Jeepers over 63yrs of DFL control of State AG! Lord, Mondale, Mattson, Spannaus, Humphrey (Skippy), Hatch, Swanson, and now the possibility of Hakim X. If that comes to pass it may well be time to pull up stakes!
from MPR:
“The biggest political shake-up came around noon when DFL U.S. House Rep. Keith Ellison came to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office to file to run for Minnesota attorney general, throwing a wild card into that race and opening the floodgates to congressional candidates for Ellison’s seat.
Within three hours of Ellison’s filing, state Rep. Ilhan Omar, DFL-Minneapolis, signed up to run for his 5th District congressional seat. Elected to the Minnesota House in 2016, Omar became the nation’s first Somali-American legislator, so her run for Congress is potentially historic.
She’ll contend with several other prominent DFLers who filed papers for Ellison’s seat, including former Minnesota Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher DFL (centrist), state Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, DFL-Minneapolis(think La Raza), state Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis (?) and former Minneapolis City Council member Natalie Johnson Lee (Bernie Socialist).”
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The way I figure the DFL 5th CD cast of characters running for the seat are liken to a “B” horror movie, and that’s being generous on my part. The only question is how low will the voters there go?
I agree with using restraint. First of all, on my social media feeds, between the Dems being over joyful about the Erin/Erin campaign and the GOP being also giddy at the prospect of this weak ticket, I had difficulty actually finding any information about who the MNGOP actually endorsed. Ww need to be a little more excited about our candidates, not theirs.
Secondly, I am most nervous because of our recent Presidential election. Yes, Clinton barely won this state, but most people (Dems and Republicans) thought Trump couldn’t win, that he was the weak candidate- Dems for sure were mostly joyful that he was the candidate.
These days, it is the more extreme the better, the more it rallies the base. Can’t bet on anything. I don’t necessarily like it that way. I do like Jeff Johnson and I liked him last time around. I am slightly excited by the possibility that the Dems go with this very weak ticket, because I am optimistic that it will make it easier for a Republican to win. But, I am mostly cautiously optimistic and working on talking with people about Johnson rather than berating the other side’s candidates.
Deviants, Financier and Lawyer party!
That isn’t an earthquake you are feeling in South Minneapolis, it’s Hubert Humphrey doing 6,000 RPM in his wooden overcoat.
Ellison must be back to focusing on MN because as deputy chair of the DNC he must see no signs of a blue wave in the polls and doesnt want to struggle by being such a minority in Congress
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