At the Senate District 41 meeting last night Edina Mayor (and recently turned DFLer) Jim Hovland announced his intentions to enter the race for the 3rd Congressional District. Hovland has previously indicated interest in running but last night’s announcement puts him in this thing officially. When Hovland decided to leave the Republican Party for the DFL earlier this year it perked up a few ears including the Star Tribune who took the opportunity to profile the independent-minded politician.
Is there room for Jim Hovland with Senator Bonoff and Ashwin Madia already in the race? Only time will tell I suppose. But to get a feel for all three take a look at the video from last night found below.
ZACK UPDATES - Turns out the event tonight is not a candidate forum but an Ash Madia for Congress event. Ash will be the only candidate there, but you should still go and meet one of our great DFL candidates for Congress. The event is at 7:30 at the Davanni’s in Minnetonka (15200 Highway 7, just west of I-494). Sorry for the error!
Jim Hovland is not a name you can trust.
So, initial reaction as this is the very first time I have seen all three of them speak.
I was shocked at how bad Terri Bonoff was - awkward, nervous and stumbling and didn’t really say much. And she is supposed to be the frontrunner?
Hovland was OK - didn’t say much, but also didn’t speak long.
Madia did fine - although didn’t ask for their support and is a little stiff - but not bad for a newbie.
Thanks for putting this up - good stuff!
The event referred to in the post is at the Minnetonka Davanni’s (15200 Highway 7, just west of I-494) at 7:30 pm tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 13th. The event will be in the party room.
At the event, Mr. Madia will be speaking with voters about his positions on the issues and answering any questions.
The post referred to the event as a forum with all of the candidates. The other candidates are welcome to attend - Madia welcomes the side-by-side comparison - but it was originally planned as a Madia campaign event, not as a forum with all of the candidates.
The Madia campaign has responded to requests from a number of organizations planning forums with all of the candidates. Madia hopes that the other candidates in the race will join Mr. Madia in providing the voters with opportunities to make side-by-side comparisons.
In the meantime, hope to see you at Davanni’s tonight!
We have three distinct choices now. Interesting.
they are all abiding by the endorsement and they all have time to organize for the caucuses (unlike District 5 last year). this will be fun!
delegates have a lot of weight on their shoulders. they have to ask who:
1) represents DFL views effectively
2) can win based on their demographics (moderate elected woman from a moderate senate district would appear to be the one in this case)
3) can win based on campaign/ability to connect.
and the negative comments about terri both echo both brodkorb’s bullshit and the negative comments i heard about betty mccollum when she first ran. betty was not that strong on the stump when she first ran and she was savaged by the pioneer press when they endorsed steve novak AND chris coleman over her in the primary.
Hovland can win the general, if the Dems give him a fighting chance to win the primary.
stpaulsage - I was not trying to be negative - this was truly my observation and reaction to seeing he speak - I didn’t think she spoke very well or articulated a clear message
I encourage everyone to listen to Madia’s podcast on the Star Tribune. His articulation and courage on the issues is drastically different from both candidates. I am confident he can win the general election. Having an Iraq vet speak on the war is going to carry an immense amount of credibility and the Republicans won’t be able to drag his name down.
DemGuy-
Trust Brodkerb - or if you don’t wait for this blog’s native Republican trolls. It doesn’t matter that he spent time in Baghdad fighting their war. They will find a way to swift boat Madia. Which would be his real test: does he find a way to roll with it and counter-attack?
Hovland becomes the instant frontrunner, in my opinion. I think he fits the 3rd about as well as a candidate (besides Jim Ramstad) could.
I think he will pull lots of crossover votes from the right. Edina has been leaning left alot in recent years — he’ll secure all of those votes. The 20% of most extreme Repubs will hate the fact that he switched parties, and 20% most liberal Democrats will think he is a poser, but we all know it is the middle 60% who control the 3rd.
This race just got pretty interesting.
I heard Madia say the same thing as DemGuy in that podcast: “I’m a former veteran, so they can’t attack me as being unpatriotic.”
John Kerry? Max Cleland? Anyone? Anyone? Remember how attacking Patty Wetterling couldn’t possibly work since she was such a sympathetic figure? Don’t base your support for someone on one bullet point on their resume.
I’ll also echo what st paul sage said about the early reactions to Betty McCollum, and just remind people that certain commenters ‘round these parts were regularly ripping the hide off Amy Klobuchar’s speaking style throughout ‘06. Most voters and activists didn’t seem to have a problem with it, to put it mildly. Women candidates seem to face particularly harsh criticism about this stuff with internet geeks, for whatever reason.
I think it’s gonna be Bonoff for the endorsement. A) She’s the only one who’s proven she can win a tough race as a Democrat. B) She seems to have locked up a lot of the early money and legislative endorsements. C) I’ve been through enough election cycles to know that moderate women sell very, very well in the suburbs, a lot better than men do, again, for whatever reason. D) There’s no Big Reason for delegates not to support her.
I don’t know if Hovland is planning to abide by the endorsement, but assuming that he doesn’t get endorsed and takes it to a primary, I have a hard time imagining him winning against an endorsed Bonoff. Against an endorsed Madia, it might be a little more interesting, but I still don’t really see him doing it.
As for a general election, Erik Paulsen is a well-scrubbed non-entity who nobody has any feelings about pro or con, and who’s never had an original thought in his life. Since there’s no way the GOP can win this race on personality, and probably not on issues either, given the current environment, they’re gonna have to do it by tearing down the opposition. I think, with enough money, a good organization, and a candidate who won’t let themselves be defined by the other side, the Democrats can take this one.
If Madia doesn’t become the November candidate, I just hope his supporters won’t play into the GOPs hands by spending six months pissing sour grapes about how they just caaaaan’t poooooooooossibly support Bonoff because Madia was just soooooo speeeeciaaaaaaaal, that they just have no choice but to cast a protest vote for the utterly irrelevant and soon-to-be-forgotten IP candidate who agrees with 90% of the DFL platform anyway. (See Becky Lourey supporters re: Peter Hutchinson/ Tinklenberg supporters re: 28-year-old whatsisface).
I agree with Chris and Sage that the attacks on Terri are not helpful. We should definately all rally around the best candidate without being negative to other democrats. This will only hurt us in the general election. We should be unified, and Terri can beat the republicans.
I enjoyed reading your post. I only disagree with one thing — Hovland is very much a factor in this race. A year is a long time. With 3-4 months, any early advantage Bonoff had will be gone and this will be a wide open race.
Let me put it this way.
I am a very moderate Republican (there are lots of us in the 3rd). I could see myself voting for Hovland if the Republican nominee is too conservative. I can’t say that about Bonoff yet.
Maybe I’ll like Bonoff as I learn more about her, but my bias would be to vote Republican unless the candidate really did something for me. I can’t say that about her yet.
“Another Chris”
You seem to have an air of inevitability around Bonoff. I’m not so sure. She is a far weaker candidate IMO. You may say it is harsh to criticize her speech on video, but I think it reflects very poorly on her grasp of basic issues.
Regarding her supposed fund raising advantage, you may want to wait for Madia to file his numbers. His supporters are not just twenty somethings. You are also going to be surprised as to who are shows up for him. He has already wrapped up some major endorsements. This is just one month into his campaign
I think we should be careful being so negative about the candidates here. These attacks make their way into the republican blogs and who knows where?
The attack dogs at democrats exposed have posted a terrible story about Terri there. We need to stop this sort of thing.
http://www.minnesotademocratsexposed.com/2007/11/15/sources-bonoff-has-meltdown-at-dfl-event-over-filming-of-her-speech-claims-cameraman-needs-her-permission/