We need your help; please stop the Governor from taking the health coverage from the lowest-income adults in Minnesota.
We need our health coverage now more than ever. I am 68 Yrs of age and I cannot afford to retire. I am also finding
it very difficult to secure employment that covers health care.

Thanks & good luck,

Leon Wallace Jr

Still, her entry into the race is interesting. I would think that it comes down to her and Dayton, given the current field.

Still hoping Ramstad runs on the GOP (or IP) side. He’d be a shoe-in, according to my Democrat wife.

“Despite speculation that Kelliher would follow the precedent set by Matt Entenza and Marty Seifert, I’m told that the Speaker plans to keep the corner office at the State Office Building for the foreseeable future.”
Are you saying that Kelliher intends to run for both her House seat and the Governorship if she gets the endorsement in 2010?

If you review the facts, you’ll discover that Entenza did not leave the minority leader position upon deciding to run for the AG position, but only stepped down upon securing the party’s endorsement in Rochester in 2006.

Wouldn’t it be more likely that she would follow the actual precedent set by Entenza in 2006 — which would be to relinquish the Speaker position upon getting an endorsement.

It’s simply not accurate to equate Entenza’s decamping as minority leader in 2006 with Seifert’s leaving his leadership post in 2009. The DFL caucus had approved the switch from Enneza to MAK in January, but it didn’t occur until after the convention.

This AP account, drawn from Nexis, is typical of the reporting at the time:

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

June 20, 2006 Tuesday 5:23 PM GMT

Anderson Kelliher moves up House chain of command

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL

LENGTH: 209 words

DATELINE: ST. PAUL

A new leader of Minnesota House DFLers is stepping up as the current leader campaigns for state attorney general.

State Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher of Minneapolis took over as minority leader Tuesday, succeeding Rep. Matt Entenza of St. Paul. If Democrats win a majority of seats this fall she would be the favorite to be speaker of the House.

Republicans and current House Speaker Steve Sviggum had a two-person majority last session.

Kelliher said House Democrats hope to pick up seats in the Twin Cities suburbs and rural Minnesota. She vowed to focus on reversing tuition increases at the state’s colleges and universities, expanding access to health care and reining in property tax increases.

“We’re optimistic about our chances of becoming the majority after November 7th,” she said.

At a news conference, Entenza took credit for bringing the Democrats within two seats of the majority and changing the state’s political climate. He’s the DFL-endorsed candidate for attorney general.

The power transfer was approved by the House DFL caucus in January, when Kelliher was named deputy minority leader. The Democrat grew up on a dairy farm near Mankato and has represented Minneapolis’ Lake of the Isles and Kenwood neighborhoods in the House since 1999.