http://margaretforgovernor.com/
Right. Margaret Anderson Kelliher got selected. As the only female candidate (aside from Bob Fletcher's NRC-8 hench-person), it is no surprise.
She's capable of getting the endorsement. She will abide, per Eric Black's MinnPost write-up of abiders and those keeping options open; this link.
See also, MinnPost, here, on the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) endorsement; so there's more than Emily's List so far.
Info on Kelliher is abundant, her official house page, the past and present legislator page, and her campaign "about" page.
Project Vote Smart, on Kelliher, here.
The past and present page on Kelliher is interesting, at the "Legislative Session: 84 (2005-2006)" entry. Entenza was minority leader, got the AG endorsement [dropping out later for reasons the press generally covered well and with Lori Swanson taking the AG office for the DFL in 2006], with Kelliher becoming minority leader when Entenza stepped aside to campaign for AG.
Next session, after the 2006 election and her efforts then, party-wide, the DFL took the majority and she became speaker. During all the Entenza "tenure," correct me if I am wrong, the DFL was the minority party while he was minority leader.
Whether taking the majority was Kelliher's energizing things previously moribund, or the 2006 Dem landslide after too much Bush-Cheney, is something people can disagree about, but my view is the switch into majority status happened after the Entenza-to-Kelliher hand-off; and I would want someone to disprove causation as the default presumption, in favor of coincidence or nationwide effect.
I would say that effectiveness of her leadership was a factor, since she followed that step with steering the transportation bill veto override into being, requiring someone capable of working with people in the other party.
I'd award two leadership gold stars.
I did a screenshot of the Kelliher "about" page, but go there, read it there, I am not posting it - because I found Kelliher has a much more relevant page that Tarryl Clark and Maureen Reed in the MN 6 house race might emulate; and which, perhaps, other Guv candidates might flat out copy.
This link, this screenshot it gets to the next immediate nitty-gritty and shows Kelliher savvy about what's a needed focus [click to enlarge and read - it says she will abide (so long as there is an endorsement and not a deadlock with no candidate getting 60% and hence no endorsement to abide by)]:
2010 could be historic. Minnesota has not yet had a female governor.
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Who do I like? Kelliher, John Marty, Steve Kelley, and Mark Dayton - the latter because he's the only player with the wealth to match the Entenza-Quam advertising capacity, dollar-for-dollar, as needed, if there is a primary and it degenerates into a spending spree. A spending spree primary is not something I would want to see, but it realistically exists as a likelihood, given that two, already, Dayton and Entenza, appear committed to a primary contest regardless of who is endorsed.
My understanding, correct me if wrong, is that if a candidate is endorsed - i.e., if things are not at a standstill where no endorsement ensues, that candidate expresses at convention a preference for Lt. Governor, making a ticket, where the second spot is by acclimation after the endorsed Governor candidate is decided.
That means each candidate in a primary would be forming a ticket, and it can get interesting, the pairings, although a second spot selection would seldom be a decisive thing to many voters. Yet, candidates who abide and fail to gain endorsement can shop for second spot, if they wish, and some primary candidates might be tempted to consider situations that way.
Forming tickets seems as wide open as wild west gunfighting, I guess. Once the first round of shooting's over, look who's still standing, and then who has whose back.
On the other hand, I would expect every candidate has a person in mind going into things, caucuses and convention, as the ideal person to pick to form a ticket, and would be testing the waters with people in advance to avoid mishap or surprise.
Beyond that, I go to caucus when I do, and I may have a better idea of a favorite and a possibly narrowed list then. For now, good luck to each of those four - Kelliher, Marty, Kelley, and Dayton.
_________UPDATE_________
Add Paul Thissen to that short list, make it five. He started early, had the website up quickly, and has been campaigning outstate, in the suburbs, the exurbs, around. He seems like the others, one I would trust to be a fair and capable governor and good on policy.
Anyone of the entire group of DFL candidates would be head-and-shoulders better than Siefert or, and I shudder to even contemplate it, Norm Coleman. That Norm would be at all considered after the wrestler whomped him and then Franken took the Wellstone seat back is not a mystery to me - it is proof the GOP lacks attractive candidates and will consider shopworn merchandise.
But Norm's a RINO, I read it on Residual Forces. The GOP leadership and some of the more opinionated grassroots might be headed for head-bumping if a "true" conservate [whatever that's supposed to mean] does not get the nod. It could be significant, or a tempest in a teapot with ranks closing once a determination has been made. I had hoped Mike Jungbauer's candidacy would have had more traction, but he's out of the Guv hunt, aiming to preserve his Senate District seat. It looks as if Mike Starr will again try to capture the seat for the DFL. I don't know if polling or fundraising results tipped Jungbauer to stay home. It would be interesting to know. Perhaps the Guv race was too warm for him, believing warming is a hoax and all.
__________FURTHER UPDATE_________
I had this in a browser tab and meant to include it in the main post. Kelliher on a healthcare position; this link, this excerpt:
Posted: 10/27/2009 - Kelliher Online Speaker's Policy Statement [also serving as a Press Release]
“Unlike Governor Pawlenty, DFLers will not play political games with Minnesotans’ health. Minnesotans expect us to pursue every opportunity to lower costs, expand access and improve quality,” said Kelliher.
The U.S. Senate plan would allow any state to refuse to participate in the public option by passing an opt-out law. But Kelliher said the legislature will work with the federal government to get the best health care options possible for all Minnesotans.
“We should not be held hostage to the private insurance companies,” Kelliher said. “"In order for every Minnesotan to have health care coverage, affordable insurance must be available. Right now we have big gaps in coverage and rising costs. A public option will provide affordable coverage for Minnesotans who cannot find it today."
Well, it does not go the extra twenty miles I would prefer, and call for single payer implementation just as our fortunate Canadian neighbors enjoy.
But the statement does favor creation of a situation where a suitably strong public option exists to limit the well-documented rapaciousness and callousness of the insurance industry, via that industry's status quo exclusion of preexisting conditions from coverage and its inefficiency where too much of premium payments go to things besides care giving, treatment, and cure.
You decide. Does the Kelliher statement stand strong enough for you, or beg the question? Will another DFL candidate strongly favor single payer, shifting my choice because that answer to that issue is of such key importance to me; and I expect to many, many, many others who feel the same as I do.
I am now past 65, and Medicare exists for me, but I feel human compassion for those not in that situation, in distress, and I want a policy in line with my abiding belief that healthcare at some reasonable threshold is a basic right all humans should have met, and that advanced nations such as the US that turn their back on that fundamental truth are less than other nations, in terms of what I would like this nation to be. The French, the Canadians, the British, even the Slovenians are more humane than we are to our poor in need.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
Project Vote Smart has a "Political Courage Test" page for each person it lists, Kelliher's being this link.