The headline sets the tone. Consider reviewing earlier posting, via a word search = Erdmann. Or be complacent, as counted on by beltway consultants intent on "our way or the highway" regard for regular citizens.
_______ELEVATED COMMENT AND RESPONSE_______
COMMENT:
Wes Volkenant said...
Eric - CD 2 Democratic race is an example of differences in our perspectives. It doesn't make either of us "right" or "wrong" but we can support opposite candidates.
I like Angie Craig as a candidate - certainly more so than you. These days I gravitate to candidates, like Craig - a well-financed, well-spoken, proven leader, strong lesbian role model, and determined after her narrow miss in 2016.
Craig lost because of Paula Overby. In 2014, running in the Independence Party, Overby got 5%. John Kline won with about 56%, defeating the Democrat, Obermueller, who had 38%.
In 2016, Jason Lewis lost 9% of Kline's vote - very significant. Craig lost by just over 1%, receiving nearly 46% of the vote - a 7+% gain. Overby drew 7.8%, about a 3% increase, running on the Green Party label.
A reasonable analyst would argue that Overby did not pull Republican votes away. And, she is running for the Senate in 2018.
I think it bodes well for Craig to draw a 4-5% increase, if not more, over her 2016 totals.
Perhaps Erdmann has what it takes, too. I don't know if he'd play better, worse, or about the same, if he were the DFL candidate instead of Craig.
But, we often look to give close losers, who showed marked increase over the previous election cycle - especially in a bad election year of 2016, a second try to wrest away the office.
REJOINDER:
Is the last presidential a "close loser" to be given another bite at the apple? Despite GoldmanSachs and Uranium One? Despite having made a massive family fortune out of being nothing but a career politician? Where would you draw the line? The attitude prevailing that progressives have no where else to go, "Fuck 'em because they will not, have not voted Republican," ignored stay-at-home protest or what I did, Jill Stein, and down-ticket less offensiveness DFL.
Bernie would have won. Deny that and it's the end of genteel debate. Bernie was sandbagged. The anti-democratic "Superdelegate" thing has a stench that needs remediation.
Taking progressives for granted nationally allowed the two lowest esteemed candidates of all time to move on to yet one more general election of that kind of LESSER OF EVILS choice. Pre-general election polling showed neither Clinton nor Trump were liked much at all by anybody. The more skilled of two grifters won. Because progressives were affirmatively disdained. And they felt the Bern. Blaming a third party candidate? Come on. Get real. If we had viable multi-party status in the nation, bravo. We don't. Craig lost because Lewis got more votes. That kind of does say something. To say "third-party" when the actual hope is a disaffection with people who have seen enough Trump-Pence to elect a historical loser is possibly one way to see things, but that ignores Erdmann and the strength of his character and his differences from Craig. And his being a new face and new force in his way of thinking. His lack of corporatism ties matters too. Are teachers as candidates a bad thing? To whom? They don't have piles of money, but most of us do not either. How the pie has been divided happens to be a major progressive issue, these days, and forever.
How does this wash: http://left.mn/2014/03/knew-klobuchar-franken-nolan-support-polymet-mining/
Unless and until sense is paid to progressives and the humane agenda, the spoils will be at stake. The governor race has several progressives, more progressive than Walz, so let's see how that works. Swanson at AG, staying there because fence straddling got called by Ellison keeps a sound progressive anchored at AG and does not add more clog to the field.
Obermueller got zero national NCCC and DNC support. He was left to hang and twist in the wind. He ran against an incumbent. Craig could not beat a mediocre talk radio idiot for a vacant seat. Run her again after that? Where's the wisdom to that?
Read where Erdmann stands. Think about it. Then a millionaire medical device candidate, having that constituency, is better? In what absolute sense? Tell me that.
Read and reflect upon this. Are the facts recited there in question? If so, why? Fairness is a question needing attention all the time.
There is a civil war. Face it. Give up the "Superdelegate" insult to fundamental will-of-the-people democratic norms, and progressives might see that as an olive branch. I will in my precinct caucus be offering that reform as a resolution. Bernie was snaked that way and it has to be faced.
This round, I stand 100% behind the ultimate DFL governor candidate because I would not like to see a Scott Walker attack on teachers and civil servants, in line with Koch will and intentions. That would be a bad outcome. But Wes, where's the olive branch? Ending "Superdelegate" stuff would be a great one, but expecting that is like expecting rain in a desert.
Craig has money. Okay. Spent a lot. Lost. To an idiot. Who at the presidential level might that remind us of?
Corporatism is a problem, since the first Clinton's "triangulation" business. State houses in Democrat hands is at an all time low, state legislatures are too Republican in Minnesota and elsewhere, gerrymandering has been allowed by courts, and the nation is in dire straits because the legacy of FDR's willingness to concede something to progressive thought has been abandoned.
Neither of us has a CD2 vote, we live in demographics that weigh heavily on middle of the road as well as upon progressive belief, so I do not see any denial that CD2 precinct caucus turnout results will be a bellweather test of what future if any the DFL faces.
BOTTOM LINE: Angie Craig is short term thinking. Erdmann is long term. Which is the sounder choice? A process is in place; but as with Bernie, Erdmann would win the general election, while a proven loser is an option. Of sorts. Counting on a giant Trump-Pence backlash might be okay, short term. Sending a sincere hard working teacher to Congress might be the more sensible and decent thing to do. Why does that NOT resonate in the beltway? Go figure. Haim Saban said his money would stop if a Muslim Ellison were to be DNC head, and we got Tom Perez. Clearly Haim has a bigger vote than I do. That's not right. It simply is not right, but how it is. Reform is needed, and need for reform cannot be ignored.
