Minnesota Governor's Race Still Up in Air

Some politicians just don't get it when they lose or fall behind in elections.  Why?  They might have to find a real job to pay for their beer and pretzels.

For example, more than a month after the Nov. 2 Mid-Term congressional elections, Joe Miller in Alaska is still trying to finagle a court-house route to unseat incumbent winner Lisa Murkowski. Both are Republicans.

Now in Minnesota, another weather-frigid state, Republican Tom Emmer awaits results of his requested recount in his race against Democrat Mark Dayton.  Dayton leads by 9,000 votes.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin backed both Miller and Emmer. Outgoing Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty is also supporting Emmer.

Pawlenty, you will remember, was supposed to have been Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 Presidential Election against Barack Obama.  Palin got the nod, instead.

Pawlenty, office for eight years, is not as popular as he once was among Minnesota voters. That was evident during Emmer's campaign stops.  He seldom mentioned Pawlenty and only at the tail end of the election race did he accept Pawlenty's support.

How do you like that?  Both are Republicans. Both dislike each other.  That's some arena in which to be playing political football.

Charlie Weaver,  Pawlenty's former chief of staff, tells Politico.com Pawlenty didn't have much "cross-party appeal" in his pitches for Emmer.

What he meant, in plain English, was that  Independent voters especially dismissed Emmer.  They were fed up with Pawlenty's repeated clashes with the Democratic-legislature and a drift to the right in his second term.

But I like the observation by Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota.

"This is an election that Republicans should have won going away/ "It really takes a lot of work to have this kind of historic demolishing of Democrats in the Legislature and lose the governorship. Voters were casting a protest vote against the Pawlenty administration."

Emmer will  be a footnote in Minnesota political history at year end.  Democrat Dayton will be in the governor's mansion.

What do you think?   

 

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