The MN GOP Mantra

 

"Heck in 1984, when Reagan had his historical landslide and took 49 out of the 50 states - Minnesota was the one state who did not vote for Reagan. And therein, we have the problem. All we can do is look at Minnesota in wonder and amazement. How this state, year after year, can have such an ill informed electorate." 

I know. I know. Two things - first Mantra is a Hindu word. But I like it. Second, I have addressed this before. Seems like this happens every time we have a run up to a state wide election. The circular firing squad, which exists in the MN GOP, is already locked and loaded.

We are getting ready to weaken our candidates by having a bruising endorsement process and primary. Kind of reminds me of last go around, when Jeff Johnson was the endorsed candidate. And then Tim Pawlenty showed up. He could have jumped on the Johnson bandwagon and used his fund raising skills to really help Jeff out. Instead, he tried to primary Jeff. And all that money that Tim could have used to help Jeff - stayed home, and Jeff lost.

We have six good candidates running for Minnesota Governor on the MN GOP side. Any one would be a tremendous improvement over what we have now. Already, I can hear the sniping coming in from the bushes. "This candidate said this. That candidate said that. He or she is weak." Blah, blah, blah.

After being a state delegate for three terms, I decided not to run this year. Last time around, when I was on "Team Jeff Johnson", I became disillusioned with the process. Not just because of Tim Pawlenty, it was the entire process. I had an uncomfortable discussion with the Chair of MN GOP about the endorsement process. As much as I believed in it, the Chair gave a very tepid endorsement of the entire nominating process. To me, having an endorsed candidate, and then having a primary, was a fool's errand then, and it is now. Nothing good ever comes out of it.

After the results came in from the 2018 election, I did a post mortem on the results. I looked at the results county by county. Doug Wardlow, who was running against the very flawed Keith Ellison, did very well out state. However, coming in to the very blue counties of Hennepin and Ramsey, along with the North Shore and part of the Rochester area - he did not. That did him in. Same with Jeff Johnson. He did well outstate, but not so well in the Twin Cities. 

Why bring that up? For MN GOP to be successful this year, we need unity. Early unity. Positive campaigns. Creative ideas. And to be blunt - we need ideas which will sell in the inner city. There are a whole bunch of votes in the inner city (many of which are actually legal), which MN GOP needs to put a dent in. We can't keep blowing off the cities and focusing in on out state. It will doom us in 2022, just like it did in prior years.

Minnesota has not had a Republican Governor for 14 years. We have had a Republican US Senator since 2009. We have not had a Republican AG since 1971. And we have not had a Republican Presidential candidate carry Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972. Get the picture? MN GOP has no place to go but up.

Heck in 1984, when Reagan had his historical landslide and took 49 out of the 50 states - Minnesota was the one state who did not vote for Reagan. And therein, we have the problem. All we can do is look at Minnesota in wonder and amazement. How this state, year after year, can have such an ill informed electorate.