Dayton is expected to name Lt. Gov. Tina Smith as Franken’s replacement.
Handing the election to Republican’ts in 2018, unless she plans to run in 2018. Then it will be a far tougher race than if he had appointed somebody more well-known…
Here’s hoping Al can do some ‘coaching from the penalty box’ or something like it. Would it make sense or even be possible for him to run again in 2020?
Intrigued, you’re in the fine State of Minnesota, who would you prefer-suggest?
Someone the other day floated that appointing the State’s AG, Lori Swanson, to the seat would be a much better move on all counts.
Wonder how the Alabama election result could affect the chances of a RePube grabbing the Minnesota seat in 2018?
This whole thing shouldn’t have been done in the first place. Franken apologized and volunteered to have an ethics investigation, but he had to get thrown out because Dems in the Senate wanted the issue to go away if they thought they didn’t need to worry about who’d replace him. Now Dems are going to have spend money on another MN Senate seat this election when we’re already defending 2/3 of the senate seats available in 2018. And MN was EXTREMELY close to voting for Trump in 2016 despite the fact the state is usually pretty liberal since Hillary only won that state by 44K votes.
The two at the top of my list are as follows:
Rebecca Otto - State Auditor. Won statewide election three times, winning more counties than Gov. Dayton in 2014. At the end of the 2016 legislative session the Republican’t-controlled legislature slipped a provision into the must-pass state government funding bill, literally at the last second, that removed the provision from law that state sub units of government must be audited by the State Auditor’s office, instead allowing sub units of government to hire outside, for-profit auditors, greatly diminishing the power and scope of the office. Currently a candidate for Governor in 2018.
Lori Swanson - Attorney General. Another Democrat who has won statewide elections three times. She has been mentioned as a candidate for Governor, but hasn’t officially entered the race.
They’ll demagogue if for all it’s worth, and get an influx of some of that sweet, sweet Koch Brother cash…
I feel pretty confident that even though MN was close last year, it’ll stay firmly in the D column. I just hope this person isn’t a placeholder who won’t seek election next year. I want a fighter.
As Franken has pointed out many of the Minnesota Trump voters were also Franken voters in 2008 and 2014.
I’m sure many of those Trump voters have soured on him and would move back to the Democratic column.
I want to know why only former Republican Gov Arne Carlson is bringing up the following events concerning a supposedly traumatized Tweeden.
Now reports are surfacing that Leeann Tweeden, Franken’s prime accuser, may have been coached by Roger Stone, a major Trump operator. Since there was no vetting, we heard only her story. But there has been no explanation as to why she attended a USO event in 2009 honoring Franken and was captured on tape joking around with him. This is three years after she claimed to be traumatized by Franken.
She continued in 2011 with a tweet containing a photo of her and Franken together.
He wrote a commentary in the Star Tribune yesterday:
I’m from Minnesota and I doubt we would vote in a Republican unless Democrats have a very lame candidate running. We had about 75% turnout last election and that was pretty much normal turnout. We vote!
I guess Dayton wants the Democratic party to field a candidate in 2018 via the normal process. I have a feeling Smith is just a placeholder. I believe whoever wins will have to run again in 2020 when Franken’s term would’ve ended. So whoever wins in 2018, will have to run again in 2020.
Agreed. And I would not be surprised if many of the people who stayed home or voted third party because they live in a blue state and didn’t want to compromise their principles probably now realize what a huge mistake they made. In fact, I bet we’re going to be seeing a lot of that all over the country. Also, there’s Bob Mueller and his investigation. It should be concluded by then, and Republicans are likely to do nothing. I think that’ll get a lot of people off their asses and into a voting booth.
So she’s well know enough to win Lt. Gov. but not a senate seat?
Not being up on MN politics or more than tangentially aware of any of your political figures other than Al, can you tell me / us why Smith would be a disaster? You’ve listed two others that seem to have sound credentials, so why would the Gov choose Smith?
Just curious, and unable to find and digest all the information that I hope you can easily provide in a short period.
Until Trump is investigated, Al should stay.
That’s very good, at least by U.S. standards.
Turnout in Alabama today is predicted to be somewhere around 25%. Granted, it’s a special election – but with all the attention the race has received, if only a quarter of the state’s registered voters show up, that’s still just pathetic.
If our democracy dies in darkness, its epitaph will be “We Just Couldn’t Be Bothered.”
The real question is why that column about Tweeden isn’t in the headlines of every newspaper and news channel in the country with the same fervor with which they promoted her claims.
- She was elected on a joint ticket with Dayton, not as a stand alone candidate.
https://ballotpedia.org/Lieutenant_Governor_(state_executive_office)
- She doesn’t appear to want to run for the seat in '18, but to merely hold it as a placeholder.
Nobody actively votes for Lt. Governor. You vote for the Governor and Lt. Governor as a ticket, not as individuals.
It’s a culmination of a 50-year long strategy, which started the minute after Barry Goldwater conceded defeat to LBJ in 1964, to convince Americans that politics is boring and stupid, both Parties are the same, voting is a waste of time, and if you do vote it won’t count anyway. And, frankly, with the rise of the Neoliberals in 1992, both Parties were down with it, because it allowed them to do lots of things to benefit their corporate and Wall Street paymasters without have to face too much wrath from voters, as only the most partisan Party members tend to vote any more. So it’s not really a question of if our Democracy dies. It already died, as demonstrated by this study:
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/civil-rights/214857-who-rules-america