News From The Political Landscape

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The Elephant Has Left The Room

Norm Coleman has decided to take a pass on entering the 2010 Minnesota Governor's race.  The former Republican senator told his legions of Facebook followers that "(t)he timing on this race is both a bit too soon and a bit too late".

He's right on both counts.  Having lost his U.S. Senate seate to Democrat Al Franken in a protracted recount and trial, there wasn't time to put together a new campaign with precinct caucuses starting soon.  Besides, why risk losing another election to a novelty candidate?

Now that Coleman's made his decision, the other candidates no longer have to worry about him blocking their sunlight.  If Coleman had run, his chances of succeeding Governor Tim Pawlenty looked pretty good.

It's a wide open field now with seven Republicans and 12 Democrats in the running.  Most of the candidates, with the exception of former Democratic senator Mark Dayton, are familiar only to those political junkies who follow the goings-on at the Legislature.  But it'll be a long campaign, so by the time October rolls around, you'll be thouroughly sick of the remaining two or three left.

Scott Brown Wins In Massachusetts

Everyone knew that filling the shoes of the late Ted Kennedy in the United States Senate was going to be difficult, if not impossible.  Who knew it would end up being vital to the passage of health care reform?

The Associated Press reports that the seat that had been held by a member of the Kennedy family since the 1950s has gone to a Republican.  Scott Brown, who was given little chance only a few weeks ago, has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, the state's attorney general.

Coakley had been the front-runner in the special election, but she got lazy in her campaigning while Democrats watched in horror as her lead in the polls slipped away.

Brown benefitted not only from Coakley's blunder, but also from all the anger cooked up by anti-tax zealots who want to scuttle health care legislation and don't believe Barack Obama is a legitimate President of the United States.  Or is it because the voters in Massachusetts were sick of the Kennedys, and the Democrats who acted as if that Senate seat was their birthright?
 
With one more vote in the Senate, Republicans now have enough to kill the compromise health care bill about to come up before it.  The 'supermajority' the Democrats enjoyed since the last election is now gone.  Not that they made much use of it, anyhow, because they kept trying to appease the conservatives in their own ranks.

Welcome back to gridlock.