It was a fabulous night for Democrats as Barack Obama took back the White House and expanded the map beyond what many thought was possible. Although the House and Senate gains were less than we had hoped, it was a very ambitious strategy and the reality is that you cannot win them all.The one disappointment of the evening is that for all of the money and campaigning that took place across Minnesota to send more Democrats to Congress, the numbers look to remain unchanged with Erik Paulsen defeating Ashwin Madia and Michele Bachmann defeating Elwyn Tinklenberg.
Locally, my good friend Larry Haws will remain one of my favorite legislators and continue to annoy my right wing nemesis, Gary Gross. While we were unable to bring Joanne Dorsher, Rob Jacobs, and Steve Andrews into the fold the reality is that these are very difficult districts for the DFL to compete in. Regardless of all that they put up valiant efforts and should be commended.
There were a couple rays of hope for the DFL here in conservative country and they took place in the heart of the empire, Senate District 16. Gail Kulick-Jackson was able to eak past a former public educator who has turned out to be one of the most vocal anti-public education legislators. By a bare bones 89 vote margin, Gail was finally able to take down Sondra Erickson turning the northern half of SD 16 blue. The other ray of hope has much to do with the deranged mission of one Mark Olson. He and his supporters deserve a big thank you for taking a principled stand in favor of domestic violence which shaved off an almost certain Krueger win into a squeeker win for Lisa Fobbe. I would encourage Mark to continue his crusade against the Republican Party in Senate District 16 by running against Mary Kiffmeyer next time around! With his help, we can turn the entire area blue...
4 responses to "Election 2008 Wrap Up..."
We did it. Well ND didn't. Here is the article from the FM Forum about how the region broke out red or blue.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=220978§ion=news
Muse: Did you hear that Buhl "forgot" to call in their vote count?:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MN_VOTE_TALLY_DELAY_MNOL-?SITE=MNCLO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-06-11-14-37
Are you kidding me?! How does that happen? If not on purpose.
Larry representing me is annoying but I can console myself that it won't be for much longer.
Larry is a likeable fellow but he's an idiot on economic issues. As Josh's name recognition increases, people will move towards him.
Larry was helped, too, by the Obama surge. He won't have that same benefit in 2010.
Frankly, Rob Jacobs was the only candidate at the debates who was less qualified than Larry.
BTW, shouldn't it matter more to put the right policies in place? Since when is herding illegal immigrants to St. Cloud Technical College doing the right thing? I'd think that obeying the law would be important for lawmakers. It's apparent that that isn't important with the DFL.