As diaried on
yesterday, Minnesota had special elections for a house and senate seat. The house seat was safe for the DFL candidate, but the senate seat was a swing district. In
spite of the governor putting the election on the day many college kids would be out of state for the holidays, DFLer Tarryl Clark
won with 55% of the vote. Not too shabby. The Independence candidate took 7%, the Republican, a talk radio host, got 38%.
The GOP, never content to accept failure, blame the loss on the controversy over the house race, where a candidate was thrown off the ballot due to residency issues. If the voters are
that easily persuaded to dump the GOP over controversies in another district, then 2006 is not looking good for them at all.
So much can come down to one vote, one voice. State legislatures make many crucial decisions today. That Democrats in volatile Minnesota managed to pick up two long-held Republican seats - even as the media tells us that Bush is having a comeback and Pawlenty is popular or undefeatable - shows how ready people are for a change as long as we give them a reason to want change. Talk to them instead of AT them.
The moderate candidates won in these races. The candidates who did not run on hate and fear. In the best world that would mean the ugly anti-gay attacks which backfired against the GOP last year and this year will fail again next year. But no one knows what will happen. Next year will have yet another battle over a constitutional amendment that could ban even hospital visitation rights for gay and unmarried couples. If you want to help continue to push these bigots back into their caves, please go to Outfront Minnesota, an organization that does their best on very limited resources to fight for equality in Minnesota.
And congratulations again to Tarryl Clark and Larry Haws.