What a nice surprise to see my new Minnesota state legislators profiled in todays NY Times. Yes, Minnesota Disctrict 56, front and center.
Woodbury Three in NY Times
The article calls them the Woodbury Three. Woodbury, MN is where I live, and I was pleased to help contribute and door-knock for these Democtratic (or DFL in Minnesota) candidates last fall, and see them beat three incumbent repubs who were typical right-wing nuts.
A few thoughts on the article.
- The three women: Kathy Salzman, Marsha Swaila, and Julie Bunn are really what you would think of as soccer moms. Very mainstream Democrats, with the values that you would expect expoused here on dKos. These are not "conservative" Democrats who ran to the right in a suburban district.
- The article quotes one of the losing repubs, Karen Kinzling, as saying that, "My opponent ran on a Republican agenda, but maybe it’s where the Democratic Party is going." This is VERY untrue. In terms of attitude on taxes, education funding, stem cell research, women's choice, etc. etc, there is no comparison between the candidates position. The Minnesota voters in this type of suburban disctrict are not moving to the right, the right has moved too far from the middle, and these Democrats are much more main-stream for this area.
- The article highlights that it is three women who won. While this is true, I never saw it as they won because they were women. They won because their positions were what suits the voters here, they worked hard, and deserved to win. Did they win because they were women, who knows. One of the incumbent opponents that lost was a woman, so kind of a wash there.
- This district is just the type of suburban/exburban area David Brooks considers a repub stronghold. This is ceratinly not the case, as these victories show. Also, Patty Wetterling ran much stronger for US House seat (MN-6) in this area then the more rural areas that caused her to lose to the ultra-wingnut, Michelle Bachmann. At least I have these excellent Minnesota State Reps and State Senator in my disctrict.