Liberal in the Land of Conservative: Entenza Wins Ranger Straw Poll...

Entenza Wins Ranger Straw Poll...

5:47 PM | Posted in Election 2010, Governor, Matt Entenza

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...

Category: Election 2010, Governor, Matt Entenza

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Holly Cairns · 807 weeks ago

Wow, that is significant. Rukavina, second to Entenza?

I am glad for all of the good candidates, and I see there were a lot who made it to Itasca. Thanks DFLer candidates. We love you. Chin up.

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Political_Muse 35p · 807 weeks ago

I agree, Holly. I think we have some really good candidates.

I met Rukavina at the State Fair and thought he was a great guy. Also like Kelliher, Thissen, and Kelley...

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eric z. · 807 weeks ago

I think it such an astounding result that somebody should hire a private investigator to check out the details, where Entenza parked while up there, things like that - or at least where an auto registered to him might have been sighted or perhaps ticketed overnight. Probably it should be some other DFL office seeker ostensibly in a different race that should take that step, rather than a Republican opposition person. I agree the bunch in general seems good but I question one whose family fortune has come from UnitedHealth Group roots at a time when that operation is so hell-bent to deny us all decent healthcare coverage, and to go so far as wanting to stifle any even insubstantial option to enriching their coffers. I like my Dems to be like Conyers, Ellison, McDermott - of the single payer ilk.

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