I wouldn’t say there was much in the way of “surprises“ in the primaries last night. Mostly confirmation of existing hunches, and a brief stab of hope followed by waves and waves of confirmation that Minneapolis is not only screwed, but seems hell-bent on participating in its own screwing.
The marquee race, Don Samuels tackling Ilhan Omar, ended up a lot closer than I, or anyone, I suspect, figured it might.
That is painfully close. A few hundred people who kvetch about crime turning out? A few hundred Republicans crossing over? An errand thunderstorm? All could’ve affected the results enough to retire Omar.
I have to expect the results surprised congresswoman Omar as well; she ran almost no television, and a fairly languid campaign up until the frenzied (and occasionally tone deaf) tour with The Squad this past week. Primaries usually draw the party’s loyalists to the polls – the hard-core who also go to caucuses and the next layer outward. In Minneapolis. that generally means white, upper-middle-class progressives, and public union employees. I haven’t looked at the precinct results yet, but I have to suspect Samuels started getting people to the polls who normally wait ’til November, if at all, to vote.
Omar pulled it off by two points. If she doesn’t focus on crime, and Minneapolis continues to deteriorate, someone else – Samuels, or some new law and order DFLer – might have a shot.
Which is probably the closest thing we can find to a silver lining on the next two races.
In Hennepin County races, the top two finishers in the primary go onto the general election. and if the choices of the county voters gave themselves last night are any indication, there is going to be a big opportunity for a “law and order“ candidate in two years.
It’s hard to come up with an adjective phrase even softer than “soft on crime” to describe the choices that will move to the November ballot. Mary Moriarty and Martha Holton Dimick will be the “options“ this fall for Hennepin county attorney. Mori
And for sheriff, committed progressive Dawanna Witt will square off against Joseph “Who?” Banks. When Witt wins, she will make Dave Hutchinson look like Ted Nugent.
Last night – at least as re the CD5 DFL primary – was a little spasm of common sense and protest voting in the highest profile race in the city, the results are fairly clear; the people who come out of the primaries are fine with Minneapolis’s status quo.
On the other hand, the DFL finally cut itself loose from its biggest public relations boondoggle of 2020; John Thompson got pummeled, with a level of voting that suggests orders went out from party HQ:
And in house district 52 a – the area around my radio station – the reliably moderate, center left Sandy Mason got pummeled…
by…
Liz Reyer.
Liz who?
I don’t know who she is, but she pulled off the exceptionally difficult combination of “ELCA hair“ and pink. Not just literally, but figuratively and morally:
So Eagan has moved from center left to “Alandra Cano“ territory.
On the GOP side: Jim Schultz beat back a challenge from Doug Wardlow, to advance to run against Keith Ellison for Attorney General this fall.
Every time I see these, I have to ask – who are the 12 freaking percent of people who vote for Sharon Anderson?
I’ve got nothing against Wardlow; I’ve emceed or spoken at five of his fundraisers over the years. but I’m having a bigger and bigger problem with people defying the party endorsement. Especially after saying they would honor it.
Speaking of honoring endorsements: in the new 33B, endorsed candidate Mark Bischofsky prevailed over Tina Riehle, a candidate supported by most of the GOP brass (including Kurt Daudt and Karin Housley, who took a break from opining for the sanctity of the endorsement to float Riehle against the endorsed candidate, for reasons I am just not advanced enough an intelligence to figure out)
Here’s hoping the GOP can pull it together enough to get behind the primary winner, and flip that very winnable seat.
Speaking of honoring endorsements
Party endorsements mean jack when people are fed up with the uniparty. The ONLY endorsement that matters is that of 192-11 Trump.
Here’s hoping the GOP can pull it together enough to get behind the primary winner, and flip that very winnable seat.
Thank you Neville Berg. Enjoy your tasty African food.
Didn’t I predict this? Despite out of control crime, there is no moderating force in the DFL.
Back in the 90s, a few big cities elected law and order Democrat mayors and prosecutors. The base of the DFL, and the donor class, made damn sure that would never happen again. The “law and order Democrats” have gone the way of Bill Clinton’s DLC.
The law and order democrats have gone the way of the pro-life democrats.
UMMP, and Dan Rather are on the same page. What we need is more “law and order”.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/dan-rather-trump-fbi-raid-represents-spotlight-justice-perilous-time
Re: Republicans hold Minnesota House seat as Finstad wins special election
Missing the real story here. The Republican won by a 51-47% margin in a district where Trump beat Biden 54-44% in 2020. If (as in NE-1 at the end of June) Republican House candidates are running behind the Trump 2020 vote and Democrats are running ahead of the Biden vote, that is a sign of something very very different than any kind of “red wave.”
John Thompson was the most honest DemocRat ever to set foot in the Capital.
What you see is what you get. He also represented his district in all respects.
He had to go.
Primaries don’t normally bring out a lot of voters, especially in August. If there is one bright spot, lying dumb ass Ryan Winkler didn’t get the nod. That said, I’ve heard people that are more astute on this battle than I, state that he would have been better than Moriarty in the end.
Emery,
It’s a Special Election on Primary Day. It’s easy for a small contingent of a district”s minority party members to skew the results compared to the average. That’s why Special Election results are meaningless as bellwethers.
My wife and I both thought that CD 5 would be close. My predictions for the precinct results are;
Samuels carried areas like North Minneapolis and Lake Street.
Ohmar won the areas with those precious, ELCA Haired, white rich liberals that are paying for extra patrols from off duty police officers.
The results I want to see is how did Ohmar do in the heavily Somali areas.
Emery’s ability to predict the future is no less powerful than Emery’s ability to read minds.
SmithStCrx.
As I have mentioned before, I have a couple of Somali owned businesses as customers and prospects. I know this is hear say, which is iron clad evidence in Emery’s world, but these guys despise Ilhan. She’s a liar, an adulteress, a bigamist (their definition-not mine) and she doesn’t live in the district anymore. They tell me that her BLM affiliated daughter, is moving to VA where Ilhan lives.
^^ Minneapolis residents have spoken. They prefer an anti-American defund the police type to Don Samuels. Well the city deserves whatever it gets with the increase in crime, lower property values and lack of respect from most Minnesotans and Americans.
According to David Brauer, apparently my predictions were all wrong. Samuels lost the Northside but won the wealthiest districts in the city. He didn’t post the results for Little Somalia, and I haven’t looked those up yet.
Like Charlie Brown kicking the football, I always have some hope somewhere that is unlikely to be fulfilled. This time, I’m hopeful for May Lor Xiong. I like her message. I hope she can get out and meet the people. If she can make herself known enough, she might have a chance- I don’t think McCollum is all that energetic anymore to get out and introduce herself.
mjb003;
I agree. I don’t live in St. Paul, but I donated to her campaign.
I voted. With my feet. Arrived in NC yesterday for a new home. Not sad for the most part to see Minnesota in my rear view mirror.
golfdoc50.
Congrats bro! North Carolina is a great state. In fact, my company’s US operations are based there and I have a couple of friends living there.
Keep vigilant though! They tell me that lots of east coast DemoCommies are moving there and bringing their political stupidity with them.
doc, and beware crossing into South Carolistan. Keep your hand on your wallet and watch out for crazy TDS-afflicted libs.
The odd colored hair on women is virtue signaling. Basically it means “LGBQT+ friendly.”
ELCALGBQT+ hair.
I appreciate the good wishes and warnings. Raleigh is Blue from the academics and big corporations, but I’m beyond the suburbs. Every house I can see on my street flies an American flag. At night my wife and I sit on the porch watching the sunset and listening to cicadas (or something like them) singing in the trees.
Welcome to the Carolinas, doc. We worry about our neighbors up there; they can use the help keeping NY, NJ and CA degenerates at bey.
Just stay clear of that nasty vinegar BBQ sauce; can’t tell you what in thee hell they were thinking.