Yesterday at the Minnesota DFL Congressional District 3 Convention in Edina, Delegates selected Brian Barnes on the very first ballot. Going into the Convention, I had been predicting Barnes in two, maybe three ballots. I think what pushed the few undecided Delegates over to Barnes were the introduction speech by Randi & Phil Reitan and then Barnes' speech - which had almost everyone in the auditorium standing and yelling and clapping!
I'm tellin' ya - it was a Barnes-Burner!!!
What was pleasantly surprising, and demonstrates the unity of the opposition to career politician Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann, is Sharon Sund's gracious concession speech calling for just that - unity. This unity was demonstrated by how many of her supporters stayed to the very end of the concession - LONG after their candidate had lost.
Why such unity? A - both sides ran good - and clean! - campaigns; B - both sides understand the horrible representation in the 3rd CD by career politician Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann. Indeed, one thing Sharon Sund repeated often: "Erik Paulsen may say he's a moderate - but he votes like Michele Bachmann."
And indeed Paulsen does - let's look!
OK, the key statistic in that screen shot is "Bachmann votes with party: 91%; Paulsen votes with party 93%'
Yes, Gentle Readers - Paulsen toes the party line even more than Bachmann!
And how closely do those two vote alike? Again, let's look!
Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen have voted together 2723 times on roll call votes since January, 2007 in votes where neither abstained, representing a voting similarity of 92%
(source: OpenCongress.org)
So when someone asks"Well, how did Paulsen vote on that issue?" - clearly, an accurate response is: "Hey - just check Bachmann's voting record!!!"
The .gif to the right (and with Paulsen, it's apropos it's WAY to the right) is courtesy of the amazing Tild - and as the above demonstrates, it's entirely accurate. This election is about a far-right career politician - Erik Paulsen - and the not only far-right but far-WRONG Republican Party that represents the Top 1%, and a Progressive Candidate - Brian Barnes - that will represent The 99%.
Link here to contribute $$$ to Brain Barnes - every buck counts when the object of the mission is to retire a corporate-controlled, career-politician like Erik Paulsen, R=Bachmann.