After that straw poll outcome I went to the Walz website, and found a candidate who, while not my favorite, has much to offer to the progressives in the DFL. He is no blue dog (Republican lite), not by any measure, far from it.
Urging readers to check the website, but not quoting from it because anybody accessing it can navigate and read, instead, an email, likely the first sent to new voters signing for emails, is quoted:
When my father passed away, Social Security survivor benefits helped my family get back on our feet. And after I served in the Army, I got a good education thanks to the GI Bill. I know that government can do real good for people -- I’ve experienced it.
But right now Republican extremists are dead set on pushing through policies that will make success stories like mine all but impossible. They’re gutting education, eliminating regulations that protect consumers and our environment, and robbing our most vulnerable citizens of their health care -- all to pay for tax cuts for their wealthy corporate backers.
[...] Some of my constituents as a Congressman -- including many Republicans -- tell me they voted for me because they know that I’m as dedicated a public servant as I was a teacher. Because of that community-first approach, I’ve been elected in places where people didn’t think a progressive Democrat could win. I’ll use that experience to bridge the urban-rural divide that’s turned so much of the debate at the State Capitol into a contest between the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
This election will have great consequences for our state. It’s about whether we will commit ourselves to good jobs, good education, and good health care for all Minnesotans, or allow our wages to be driven down, regulations lifted, and the cost of health care sent skyrocketing by legislation pushed by special interests.
While a part of that is rhetoric common in current DFL Governor candidacies, there is a focus on being electable in the hustings. Indeed, having already been there, done that.
There is a feel of what he says is what you'll get. Nothing specific about a widening gulf between the top earners in the nation and the rest of us, about medicare for all or other ways to reach single payer government run healthcare as a right, nothing specific about ending the shame of money buying politicians both before and after Citizens United, but navigate the website and see what you think. An issues page of precise listed and discussed commitments might be desirable, but wait and see. If Walz gains the endorsement he remains open to differentiate himself from whichever of the Republicans advances to the general election. If he does not, than the person advancing as the DFL candidate will also face an easy differentiation process.
Certainly there are more clearly progressive candidates still in the running for Governor, and in total they out-drew Walz's single third of the straw poll votes; but for now he's done better by about ten percentage points over Otto, who had the second-most total.
Much time and process will intervene, so this post is mainly an endorsement that should Walz be the general election candidate, we should rejoice and back him even if "moderate" might be the tag some would assign Walz. Surely if things come down to having one Tim or another be our next Governor, make it Tim Walz and not some DC lobbyist for big banks and big money forces, against the people and what's clearly best for them.