Anatomy of A Whuppin’

Although Joe Bodell’s blog falls disappointingly low on the ‘snarky wonkishness’ scale it shouldn’t diminish the fact that every now and then he has some pretty awesome content up over there.

Anatomy of a Special Election Victory: SD25

DFLer Kevin Dahle emerged victorious in a special election this week to replace State Sen. Tom Neuville. Dahle prevailed against a well-funded, well-known Republican in the person of former State Rep. Ray Cox, who served half the district in the Legislature for several years until going down to defeat in 2006.

Dahle’s victory has set off a string of recriminations among Republican Party activists, one side accusing the other of not helping enough and the other complaining about a closed process that produced a weak candidate. In the mix are (of course) remonstrations that the DFL played negative politics to the bitter end on behalf of Dahle. Senator-elect Dahle, for his part, managed to stay positive throughout the short campaign, and now heads to St. Paul as part of a veto-proof majority.

Go check out some great analysis on why the DFL now has a VETO PROOF MAJORITY(!) in the State Senate — but remember who sent ya.

[update:] Another stellar write up from Ollie Ox at Bluestem Prairie. I don’t have a Google News Alert for Tim Walz anymore — I just go to Bluestem Prairie. Her coverage of this southern MN race was bananas too, stop by and give her a read.