Especially after a stunning development in Thursday’s special election in Minnesota Senate district 25.
DFLer Kevin Dahle, a high school teacher who has never held public office, defeated former Rep. Ray Cox, R-Northfield, to win the seat that Sen. Tom Neuville, R-Northfield, held for 17 years before being appointed to a Rice County judgeship.
The Republican Party had banked on Cox taking the torch from Neuville, but Cox's experience-- two terms in the House, 15 years on the school board and five on the planning commission -- apparently wasn't enough.
This result makes things even more perilous for Senate Republicans.
The win gives the DFL the two-thirds majority it needs in the 67-member Senate to override vetoes by the governor.
My wife and I have been especially active politically since the 2004 elections. We were incredibly proud of our efforts (phone banking, registering voters, etc.) in the re-election campaign of President Bush in ’04 and the US Senate bid of Mark Kennedy in 2006. But as Pat Shortridge of the blog Truth vs. The Machine pointed out in a November post, local politics is where we on the Right are practically conceding to the DFL.
The Right side of the spectrum still doesn’t get it when it comes to the importance of local elections. Our side gets all hepped up about the White House or a huge Senate race, over which we as citizens have relatively little control. But when it comes to the areas where we can have the most impact - electing mayors, city councils, school boards, etc, - we are just giving it away to the other side, barely even in the game, with a very few notable exceptions.
Ouch!! I don’t know about you but I feel that post was aimed directly at me. I’ve been receiving notices for some time from my local Senate district as well as prominent candidates for city council, mayor, etc. and have been a consistent no-show in the grass roots efforts.
No more!!
I recently received notification of my Senate District meeting this Tuesday the 8th. You won’t be able to keep me away!
-----------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment