Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 11:06 a.m. Central Time, Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar will explain what she wants to do in Washington and take questions as part of MPR's Meet the Candidate series. Ms. Klobuchar is the DFL-endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Mark Dayton. According to MPR earlier today, Republican candidate for the same seat, Mark Kennedy, was also invited but has yet to respond to the invitation.
On October 16, the program featured Robert Fitzgerald, an Independent also running for the seat. The Constitution requires that senators be at least 30 years old and Fitzgerald is just 29. However, he will turn 30 before a new senator is sworn in making him eligible. His age puts him at the nascence of such political tools as blogging, YouTube and MySpace. He appears vivacious and uses a vegetable-oil powered bus known as "Gus the Big Red Bus" for his campaign travels.
When he spoke to Gary Eichten yesterday on MPR, Fitzgerald said he wasn't thinking about the recent StarTribune poll which showed him with only 3% of votes. Rather, he was focused on the approval rating given to the current congress which polls at 25%. He told Eichten that he wants to get the other candidates off their talking points and focus the debates on issues. Ultimately, his goal is to win. You can listen to the program in its entirety through this MPR link.
Robert Fitzgerald was not invited to participate in the recent debate on Meet the Press where Amy Klobuchar and Mark Kennedy crossed swords, and Tim Russert tried to set the record straight. During the debate, Kennedy again railed on Klobuchar for things that seem to be completely made up. There is no question that Klobuchar is against rationing prescription drugs. Yet, Kennedy returns to this blatant falsehood time and time again. But this time, Klobuchar had the advantage of a national audience which recorded her own words, "That's flat-out wrong." Read a transcript of the debate here.
Just short of saying he supports Bush in his decision to go to war, Kennedy stated firmly that he "stands by his vote" which gave Bush the authority to go into Iraq pre-emptively. When Russert asked if Kennedy was a "Bush Republican" and whether he thought Bush was a good president, Kennedy said "We all make mistakes." Russert then brought up the fact that Kennedy has voted with Bush Republicans 92% of the time. Overall, the debate was fairly cordial although it could be said that Kennedy comes across with more negative attacks than positive solutions. MPR's invitation to participate in the Meet the Candidate series provides him with an opportunity to turn that around and talk about his positions, proposed solutions and his ties to both Bush and the Republican Party.
Today, listeners have an opportunity to hear what Klobuchar will do should she win on November 7. Additionally, Minnesota Public Radio has devised a sort of do-it-yourself online survey where, by answering a series of questions, you can see which candidate's views generally reflect your own. It is not meant to be a way to decide for whom you will vote, but it is a useful (and kind of fun) tool, nonetheless. Check out the Select A Candidate Online Survey here.
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Comments: 10
'Twas good enough.
Still for Amy.
Don't bother to ask why. See the Gather group heartshare
put it up so everyone state on this site could take it. There, is no question in my mind who should be seating in the Senate seat representing Minnesota and hopefully go on to higher office! Robert Kennedy. I , for one want to thank you Dianna for your energies and
caring for this race, our country to also know the issues & take a stand. Kudos to you!!
This morning I was surprised to see a politcal ad from Amy Klobuchar that was a rebuttal to all of the attack ads from Kennedy...she came off as being reasonable and rather pleasant...
Um, he's dead...