Kennedy Gets Company

Technically, Rep. Mark Kennedy already had competition for the Senate seat being opened up by Sen. Mark Dayton. Technically. Now, however, serious candidates are stepping forward. Child-safety advocate Patty Wetterling and Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar took steps toward entering the race. Both have natural constituencies from their legal and child-safety backrounds and both come from the left wing of the Democratic Party. Wetterling ran a strong but losing campaign against Rep. Kennedy for his House seat this past election in a district that leans Republican. Now that she has experience running for federal office, she'll be able to hone her campaign skills, the Minnesota race could become very competitive. Klobuchar is not to be overlooked, as anti-crime Democrats are hard to come by. (Yes, I do mean that the way it sounds.) Kennedy is the strongest candidate, but the state is very close, and with pro-life candidates likely to be the Democrats' nominees in other hot races, namely Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the money is sure to pour in for a hard left woman candidate, whichever of the two it may be.

Gary Miller is thrilled that Wetterling is in the race, but surely recognizes that her experience will lend to a better campaign. If Klobuchar beats her in the primary, it'll be a sure sign that she's a state-wide force to be reckoned with. More on this race to come as the new entries are discussed in the media, but in the meantime, I'm sure Gary will have plenty on all candidates.

With the Democrats finally getting these two lowA-list/high B-list candidates, this race now becomes much more competitive. Even so, Kennedy's experience at the federal level, both in government and in campaigns, gives him an edge. Miller has also reported on the difficulty of getting people who agree with Republicans to vote that way. This summer, Kennedy has the chance to blow this race to pieces. In mid to late April, Republicans are expected to pull the trigger on the constitutional option to resolve the constitutional crisis created by Democrats filibustering the President's nominees. For two years, Democrats have filibustered nominees precisely because of their conservative values, values that many Minnesotans share. To date, nothing has crystalized the values debate as this issue will once it is in the media spotlight. When conservative Dems see Mark Dayton, Ted Kennedy, and the junior Senator from New York filibustering judges just because they are pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-religious freedom, the bonds that have lasted longer in Minnesota than in most other places can finally be broken if, if, Kennedy can get the state to focus on this blatantly anti-Christian agenda.