Former Ramsey County Attorney Tom Foley said Thursday that “a number of people” asked him to run so their votes could be counted.
In Minnesota, voters have the option of writing in a candidate’s name, but for some offices (such as state, judicial and county offices) those eligible candidates need to file a written request by Oct. 30 to have those votes counted.
“I’m not so delusional to think that you can win a write-in campaign on a statewide race without putting in a lot of effort,” Foley said. [...]
Of the five Democrats who were competing to be their party’s pick in the primary, Foley finished third with 12.5 percent of the vote.
Foley has said he is focused on consumer protections for seniors, safe schools and the environment.
“A lot of people know my positions from the race we ran in the primary,” he said. “But there’s a large disconnect with the two party candidates running for attorney general, and a lot of people are unhappy with that choice and that’s why they want to write my name in.”
Foley said he is not actively campaigning or spending money, but would be “honored to have your vote. You just have to write it in,” he said.
So, spoiler. Admittedly so. His positions are 180 degrees opposite of Doug Wardlow, who wants "law and order" as his calling card, not the civil priorities the office has traditionally spent limited budget upon since Skip Humphrey's days in the office. Those affected by the mud-slinging against Ellison to the point of doubt toward a black, Muslim man with all the correct and sensible policy positions, those soreheads believing the Parker-Monahan BS, will have a sane alternative to Doug Wardlow, should they wish to write-in Foley.
Anyone really embracing the common policy viewpoints of Ellison and Foley, both Democrats, should not want Wardlow anywhere near the office to monkey it up disasterously, and should support Ellison, the fair-and-square primary victor in the DFL. Dilution of DFL inclined votes toward a spoiler would be unfortunate; but with a non-Ellison candidate besides the extremist, Wardlow, there is leeway.
The anti-Ellison campaign Wardlow has run might have convinced too many of the casual and less skeptical voters that wholly negative bunk matters; and Foley is a safety-valve that way because he is more humane than Wardlow's hate-laced Dobsoniam extremism. However, in total, the Foley step is ill-advised, at best, coming just when the third-party candidate on ballot has endorsed Ellison as being the sane candidate of the two-party official offerings on the question of sensible change of marijuana policy.
BOTTOM LINE: VOTE ELLISON. If fully convinced not to do that, then vote anyone BUT Wardlow.
Just as Wardlow shifted gears from being primed to go negative against Swanson, had Foley won the DFL primary Wardlow'd have figured out ways to go negative against him, and that is because there really is nothing positive about himself that Wardlow can run on. He's that extreme and mud-slinging prone a candidate. He's just a mud-slinger at heart. Mr. Negativity. Far and away the worse candidate on any spot for any office on the ballot this election.
Ask Aimee Stephens about Wardlow's cold steel heart.
Last, to whatever extent the Foley write-in thing is intended by party regular pooh-bahs' as a payback to Ellison for having been the first member of Congress to have endorsed Bernie, those people in Clinton-speak are "deplorables" and would cut off their noses to spite their faces. It would be fine if Foley were to say who those "people" were encouraging him to take this step. Him and his shadow? Or actual others Foley alludes to but declines to name.