According to Aaron Brown of Minnesota Brown, the premier blog covering northeastern Minnesota, there was a straw poll held in Itasca County on Thursday, October 8. Given that we have two range candidates on the DFL side, you would think that one or the other would come away as the winner. You'd be wrong...
I was speaking in a different corner of the Range yesterday but heard this morning that the straw poll yielded an interesting result:
Matt Entenza won. Iron Range legislators Tom Rukavina and Tom Bakk finished second and third, respectively. Other candidates there included Susan Gaertner, Steve Kelley, Mark Dayton and Paul Thissen (though I don't know how the rest finished in the poll).
Brown adds a caveat...
Now this result is fascinating to me, but should also include an asterisk. The candidates who weren't there: Margaret Anderson Kelliher, John Marty and R.T. Rybak are all people I predict will carry some level of support in Itasca County and greater Minnesota in general (particularly Kelliher, with her farm roots, and Marty, with his support from progressive groups). Their absence affected the outcome.
While I would not necessarily disagree with Brown, it seems equally as likely that those candidates not there would have taken more votes from the other candidates and the Entenza victory would still have happened. Regardless, the support for Matt is out there. All he has to do is continue building...
