Who will be the next Governor of Minnesota?

[Lunar]

Dayton, oddly enough, would be my bet.

[Lunar]

Btw, can someone explain to me why such a Democratic-leaning state like Minnesota haven't elected a Democratic (formally DFL) Governor since 1986, even in 2006, when Republican asses were kicked literally across the country?

You do know that there are Republican governors of such conservative bastions as California, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont?  And Democratic governors from such liberal bastions as Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming. Montana, Kentucky, and Tennessee?  

5 of the 10 most pro-Obama states have Republican governors and 5 of the 10 most pro-McCain states have Democratic governors.  You're going to have to wrap your head around that ASAP if you ever want to be a political junky.

[Lunar]

I'm seeing a ton of Mark Dayton TV ads... they're pretty honest.  People don't like soundbites here.. if they perceive a candidate as honest, he gets like a billion kajillion brownie points.

http://markdayton.org/mainsite/video-archives/2010/06/29/2-new-tv-ads/

These ads are genius.

Why?  They preempt the biographical attack on Dayton that he's some rich guy who feels he deserves higher office, even if he's not attacked that way, there will certainly be that perception, being that [I think] he's throwing his own cash into saturating the ads across the media stations?

[Lunar]

I am not sure a class warfare ad works that well these days at the moment, even in Minnesota, and that is what these ads are about, including the pic of the French colonial mansion - a rarity in understated Minnesota (yes, that is the cultural norm up there; it ain't Hollywood), that must have taken a bit of work to find.

Plus, the tax loopholes favoring the rich, and what taxes the rich should be paying, are not specified, which I think leaves the ad as more of a class warfare kind of ad as its leitmotif, rather than something that is policy specific, that voters can sink their teeth into, one way or the other. Maybe I am way off base here, but outside maybe parts of the Iron Range, I find these ads singularly ineffective myself.

Like I said, part of their effectiveness comes from preemptively blunting class arguments against himself! 

[Lunar]

Except it's at a restaurant owned by the state chair of the MN GOP and it's invite only.  As seems to be the case with most Republican functions... we don't want the riff raff getting in and dirtying things up!

Yeah, can't imagine any of the people who work there asking any hardball questions, unless someone with no common sense whatsoever manages to slip in

[Lunar]

I remember reading about Emmer being a waiter for a day.  Did that already happen?  Any funny stories?

How is Emmer more blatantly extreme than Angle?  Honest question.  The GOP candidate for governor in Illinois would be considered solidly conservative in Oklahoma, so it wouldn't be that crazy if that were the case, but I haven't heard any wacky stories from Minnesota

[Lunar]

What is this image?  David Strom?

[Lunar]

Emmer sounds horrible enough, somewhat like Bill Brady in Illinois, that Democrats can get excited about the opposition no matter who their candidate is

[Lunar]

Well, similar situation in CT then.  Everybody hates Foley.

[Lunar]

If Lamont and Dayton both go down, what does that mean?  Both are former senatorial candidates with tons of $$$ but who were bucked by the party establishment.

I really like Malloy, as I've said elsewhere, I have not been following MN, but am surprised by these results.