Post Primary Ponderings

A surprise, a disappointment, and a flurry of no-brainers is how the evening went.

Both gubernatorial candidates held of challenges from within, but neither contender came close to bumping the endorsee. TPaw and Hatch are now officially paired to battle it out. The way the polls have been trending it is still anyones game, however I still would be somewhat surprised if Gov. Tim is knocked off. It is his to lose.

In the AG race, Lori Swanson shocks many by holding off endorsed candidate Steve Kelley in what was thought to be smooth sailing for him. Luther's stealth candidacy, relying on Congressional name recognition and out state radio ads was enough to give him a respectable vote count, but not enough to be in the mix. When all the analysis and breakdown is done on this, I wonder if Bill's run was designed more to siphon votes of Kelley with his name recognition, allowing Swanson to run a well organized, independent campaign. There is no doubt she won the sign wars leading up to the primary. That in itself may have been enough to get her out there. An aggressive campaign by the former congressman, including seeking the DFL endorsement, would have made him a more formidable contender.

Kelley, on the other hand, may have relied too much on party support and thought his endorsement would be enough to carry the day. I did receive a few 'pretty' mailings, but that was it. No signage, no ads, no effort to get out there in the mainstream. Those of us political junkies knew all that was going on, but when it came down to main street mom and pop voters, the person on their mind was Swanson, and the vote count shows it.

I'm disappointed my candidate didn't win, but I will have no problem supporting Lori Swanson in the General.

But the disappointment I have is not that my AG candidate lost, but the shortsightedness of the 5th district voters. That deserves its own post, which may go up later today. It will be my only post on the race since because of those results, the DFL now has their work cut out for them all the way up the ticket.

Flash