Mark Dayton's (D) decision not to seek re-election has left open a seat on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Hoping to fill that seat are Amy Klobuchar (D) and Mark Kennedy (R).
Amy Klobuchar (D) hails from Minnesota's Iron Range and has been Hennepin County's District Attorney since being elected in 1998. Prior to that she practiced law achieving partner status at Gray Plant Mooty as well as Dorsey & Whitney, where she worked closely with former Vice President Walter Mondale. As a prosecutor, she is known for taking on HMO's and insurance lobbyists.
Mark Kennedy (R) was born in Benson, Minnesota and is a twenty-year business veteran. Kennedy has served as House Representative for Minnesota's Sixth District since 2003 after a two-year term serving as House Rep for the Second District.
It was Klobuchar who kicked off the television ad campaign season on a positive note. In fact, she mentions Mark Kennedy in only her most recent ad which refers to his attacks. Kennedy has taken a different approach vis-a-vis the Republican offensive playbook. On September 25, MPR's Polinaut asked readers what they thought of Kennedy's most recent attack ad. Responses ranged from "Despicable" to "Can it be argued that the ads are fair?" You can read more here.
Klobuchar has now visited every county in the state of Minnesota. That's 87 counties and over 37,000 miles. In her North Star Tour speech at the capitol in St. Paul Klobuchar said, "I can tell you that from Albert Lea to Northfield to Elk River to Cambridge to Duluth, people are ready for change in Washington...a change of course in Iraq, actual progress in the areas of energy independence and affordable health care and education, and an end to the corruption and crazy spending on so many things that don't help the people of our state."
In visiting Kennedy's website, you might actually think he was running as a democrat. On the website he says, "We must promote conservation, expand domestically produced renewable energy, and invest in technologies that produce cleaner, safer and more efficient home-grown energy resources." With regard to health care he wants to put patients and doctors in charge of health care - not insurance companies. He writes of protecting the environment and making social security secure. However, when it comes to the most important votes of the 109th Congress, he has voted with the GOP all but once.
Both candidates will appear on nbc's Meet the Press as part of the Senate Debates 2006 series on Sunday, October 15 at 8:00 a.m. CST.
Poll numbers have shown Klobuchar leading Kennedy by 2% (April 2006, Rasmussen); 19% (July 2006, Minneapolis Star Tribune); and 10 points (August 2006, Gallup). In September, a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio shows Klobuchar with a 15% lead. Polls by the Humphrey Institute/U of M and the Information Specialists Group produced similar results.
As Klobuchar's campaign manager, Ben Goldfarb, said, it will likely be a close race. In any event, it's going to be a fun - and important - one to watch.
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Comments: 21
Thank you for the up-date on the Minnisota Senate race. One correction if I may. Meet the Press is a NBC program not an ABC program.
HEY WAY TO GO ! ! ! !
As far as being a CPA goes, that's hardly to his credit. CPA's don't study constitutional law -- a necessary knowledge when dealing with the Constitution.
At least there was an "amputation" - some people (Hastert, etc.) prefer to keep a "cancer cell" at large and hope no one will notice.
A far more serious infraction would be pretending you are a moderate when you clearly are a conservative who is doing the bidding of the party and who has the party's agenda at heart - like Mr. Kennedy is.
I agree with you that insurance companies and pharmaceuticals have been on the receiving end for far too long and it's time to put patients first. That's why Ms. Klobuchars healthcare plans to advance technology to reduce costs, end subsidies to pharmaceuticals, vaccinate all of Minnesota's children, focus on prevention, end discrimination in mental health care coverage (under which umbrella such fatal illnesses as anorexia are grouped) and more are clearly more beneficial to the average citizen than Mr. Kennedy's bullet-point benefits to health care companies.
I invite you to please read my latest article which discusses health care here and access the links provided therein.
With regards to Kennedy "doing the bidding of the party and who has the party's agenda at heart" which you criticize, my response to that it--it shows integrity. I would certainly hope a candidate for office who is endorsed by a political party would adhere to that party's platform. Are you saying Klobuchar won't adhere to her party's platform? Isn't she doing the bidding of her own party? Democrats are not that successfuly running on their far left platform that's why they create distractions like Foley which mysteriously just pop up within weeks of a general election. Democrats have no positive, winning agenda that's why their campaign plan to is to try to bring up dirt. As I recall two male Democrats in Congress in the 80s were merely "censored" for having sex with a male page under 18. Where was the uproar from the Democrats then?
Again, the Klobuchar Campaign did the right thing by dismissing the one person who allegedly violated the law. That's integrity.
Integrity and rubber-stamping, however, are two different things. If you have specific questions about Ms. Klobuchar's relationship to the DFL, I suggest you ask her. You can send a question to Meet the Press through this link and perhaps Tim Russert will bring it up during the Klobuchar / Kennedy debate which will be televised tomorrow morning on NBC at 8:00 a.m. Alternatively, feel free to contact her campaign office through her website.
The right thing? The right thing? A Democratic Congressman has sex with an underaged page in Congress (not virtual sex through some airy fairy email) and all he gets is censored? That's the right thing?????? By that standard Foley should have been disciplined by being forced to the end of the line in the Congressional cafeteria for a week. No, for his lesser offense he resigns. The Foley issue is pure politics. If you truly cared about kids being exposed to this you would have denounced this Democratic Congressman's sanction as too soft. Yet, you still stand here today and say it is the "right thing." Your position is not credible to me & I will not waste my time dialoging with you on this now "buried" article. I will look for your articles elsewhere.