It's no secret that Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin has been seething ever since Matt Entenza filed to run against the endorsed Democratic incumbent for state auditor, but Martin made his feelings plain in a post-primary news conference Wednesday.
"It is personal," he said of his feelings toward Entenza, and he said he doubted the former House minority leader has a future in the party. "He really burned a lot of bridges," Martin said.
Because of Entenza's "blind ambition," the party had to spend money on a contested primary that it could have saved for the general election, Martin said.
Entenza's actions -- filing at the last minute and then spending more than $600,000 of his own money on a negative campaign for what is traditionally a low-profile state post -- showed his true colors, Martin said.
"It's always been about Matt," he said.
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Not only did Entenza screw up the Auditor race, DFL side; he screwed up cross-over voting because of those who stayed home on the DFL side of the ballot to protect Otto from the Entenza onslaught; and he made Steve Simon's primary harder. I have been told by a DFL veteran that, "I never seriously realized Simon had a primary," because of the costly and stupid diversionary stuff Entenza pulled, and its heavy press coverage.
Simon, in a major and important statewide race but one nonetheless down ticket from the Governor and Senator contests where the DFL had incumbents and no real challengers, suffered higher numbers against him, and a need to spend at primary time, because his primary was so heavily shaded by Entenza's cheap shot antics.
Entenza's earlier "always about Matt" stuff; shadowing Hatch, outspending Dayton in the Governorship primary last time; together now with this latest peccadillo equates to: When doing the last minute filing against Otto and slinging mud and spending a small fortune, Entenza in fact at filing time had very, very few bridges left, and had to realize it but his itch must have been just too great for him to not scratch. And, Martin now is correct, he has no bridges left to anywhere and should not go away mad ...