The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The birds are singing. It's a perfect day here in Minnesota. Well, perhaps not perfect but for a long time Republican who has fought and usually ended up on the losing end of political battles against an entrenched liberal Democrat mindset that has gripped the state for years it really doesn't get much better than this.
Norm Coleman has beaten the venerable Walter Mondale for the Senate.
John Kline has finally defeated the despicable Bill Luther after his third attempt to take the US House seat from him.
Tim Pawlenty has trounced both DFLer Roger Moe and Independent Tim Penny in the governor's race and has won 45% of the vote in what was thought to be a close three way race.
In the Minnesota state house the Republicans have solidified their majority by adding eleven seats to their side of the aisle and although the DFL still controls the state senate the GOP picked up six seats there and is close to challenging the Democratic majority.
Mary Kiffmeyer has won reelection as Secretary of State and Pat Anderson Awada is the new State Auditor.
Going forward Minnesota will now have a split Congressional delegation with one Republican senator, Coleman, and one Democratic senator, Mark Dayton. In the US House the eight seats are divided right down the middle with each party holding four.
On the state level the GOP has the governorship and the state house as well as two of the three other state wide offices(Democrat Mike Hatch won reelection as the Attorney General).
In a state widely know for it's liberal past this is a remarkable achievement. Remember we voted for McGovern in 72' and Mondale in 84' in both cases choosing the Democratic loser in historic Republican landslides. Minnesota used to be a state that the Dems could always count on. No more.
The big question today is how and why were the Republicans able to whoop up on the Democrats in a traditional Democratic stronghold like Minnesota. A couple of theories:
This Time Stupid Was Right
Despite the best efforts by the Democrats and the main stream media the economy was not a big factor. Sure people are worried about the declining value of their 401ks and their jobs might not be as secure as they were a couple of years ago. But I think that most folks are smart enough to realize the there will be ebbs and flows in the stock market and that in the long haul their investments will be okay. And the average person isn't really feeling a lot of personal pain because of the slow economy. Unemployment is 5.6% nationwide (less in Minnesota), inflation is low, and with low interest rates it's still relatively easy for most people to purchase homes, cars, etc.
And unless I missed it, I can't name a single Democratic proposal that would "get the economy moving again". If you're going to point out a problem you might want to have a solution to it. This is not to say that the Republicans have any answers on the economy either but at least they don't continually harp on how awful it is.
9/11 Did Change Things
For some reason the fact that this was the first national election since the terrorist attacks of September 11th was downplayed in the run up to yesterday's vote. In 1998 Minnesotans elected Jesse Ventura as governor and part of the reason for his victory was that people thought it would "fun" to have Ventura in office. After 9/11 it became clear that it times of danger government was not a joke and a serious approach was required to protect and defend the country and the state. Republicans are perceived as being much more effective in this regard and Tim Pawlenty's promise to pass a law designed to track the expiration date of visas through state drivers licenses scored big points from the voting public. As Sideshow Bob put it: "Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king." In this case it would be brutalize Al Qaeda and no one does it better than GW and the GOP.
Sharp Faces Going Places
Some Democrats here are blaming yesterday's debacle on the lack of a consistent Democratic message. I think the messengers might have been the bigger problem. Roger Moe and Walter Mondale represented the old guard in Minnesota politics both figuratively and literally and their opponents were both younger, good looking guys, who could articulate some kind of vision of the future however vague they might have been. A clarion moment in Monday's senate debate was when Mondale was asked about how he would bring high technology to rural Minnesota and he answered in a manner that indicated that his idea of high speed access meant a new roadway for those fancy motorized carriages that all the kids are talking about these days.
Get Your Base On
Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty were both viewed with a skeptical eye by the more conservative factions of the Minnesota GOP. While they were obviously much better than their Democratic alternatives neither did much to excite the passions of these conservatives. But the Wellstone memorial turned rally was just the thing to get this group fired up and Bush's visit on Sunday was like pouring gasoline on the fire. They became interested and they got involved. I did some campaign phone calls Monday night and spoke to some of these folks and they were pumped up. One fellow mentioned that he had been down to Coleman's headquarters that day and after waiting in line to volunteer was turned away because they had too many volunteers already. That is not a normal occurrence in campaigns. Another gentlemen told me that between the New Jersey Supreme Court decision on Lautenberg and the Wellstone rally he had seen enough would do all he could to ensure a Republican victory. The Wellstone debacle united the Minnesota Republicans like few things have in the past and the President's appearance on Sunday gave them added direction and purpose.
Can you smell the flowers? It's a great day to be a Republican in Minnesota. And believe me you don't hear that very often around here.
No comments:
Post a Comment