Is this guy really a Democrat?
1. "[The candidate] campaigned with a fiery populism that [ ] belied his soft-spoken personality. He called for a restoration of the Democratic Party to its blue-collar roots. . . Railing often against 'insiders' and 'big interests,' [the candidate] said that Democrats must not 'break faith' with the working class, the poor, the elderly, and the forgotten others.
"[The candidate] promised to raise the state's minimum wage, to offer health insurance to unemployed workers, and to expand the state's prescription drug program to cover more middle-class senior citizens. . . .[who he called] 'the people who fought our wars, worked in our factories, taught our children, and gave us life and love.'"
2. From a prominent columnist, "[The candidate], from the outset, has embraced the vision of the late Hubert Humphrey, the man who embodied what it meant to be an old-time Democrat. He frequently quotes Humphrey's famous statement that the true test of government is how it treats the young in the dawn of life, the elderly in the twilight, the needy in the shadows.
"The [candidate] has fashioned proposals to benefit those groups, especially seniors, and aimed his campaign at blue-collar families. He's relying on the support of a labor movement that, though still powerful, is not what it used to be."
3. From the candidate: "I'm not a supporter of damage caps, and I'm not a supporter of playing games with joint- and severe-liability provisions because, first of all, I don't think they lead to the result, which is this wonderful malpractice reform that some think is out there. And two, and more importantly, really, than the first one, more importantly is they adversely impact workers. I don't think that the cost of lawsuits and damages and big verdicts has anything to do with the medical-malpractice challenge . . . What happened, in this recent debate there was legislation passed, they made some progress on more reporting of medical errors, they made some progress from the doctor's point of view and from the lawyer's point of view. But what was left out of that, in a way that's outrageous, was the insurance companies. The ones who have caused most of the problems were left out and really not held accountable. It was like a huge elephant in the room and they weren't taken on. So you have doctors and lawyers at each other's throats and you had some reform passed, but it didn't satisfy either side and the insurance companies weren't held accountable, with all those investments they were making."
4. More, from same interview: "We have 1.2 million people in the state with no health care at all, a quarter of a million of them are children. Since the recession began in March 2001, we've had 120,000 people in the state lose their jobs, in many cases losing their health insurance. What I want to do immediately is use tobacco-settlement dollars and get legislation passed immediately to use tobacco-settlement dollars to target health-care coverage for the unemployed and their children. . . . Even above those levels, another 90,000 people, including children of unemployed workers. That's one of the first things I do."
But who is he? Follow the links.