What’s so different about Minnesota?

Clearly it is rare to elect a 3rd party candidate to state wide office, so why should anyone expect Minnesota might do it on a consistent basis? First of all there is no dominating political view in Minnesota. We elect the most liberal of the liberal in Paul Wellstone but can also go very conservative with Tim Pawlenty. Just when you think you have Minnesota politics figured out everything changes.

We have strong convictions and will not allow our politicians to push us around on those. If you make a no new taxes pledge, you better stick to it. If you’re a conservative governor you better not start banning things. If you’re a liberal stand up and be a liberal, don't vote for a way then become critical of it later. Basically we hold out politicians up to a high standard of honesty, and for the most part we have a good sense of when we're being lied to.

With that said it opens the door for anyone to win, but more importantly it means the average politician is on the verge of losing if someone steps up to the challenge.

Another key is the openness of our process. With same day voter registration people who get motivated late, for example in the debates have an opportunity to vote no matter how uninspired they may have been in the past. This is clearly an advantage for the non traditional candidate who intends to bring forth change.
And probably most importantly we've done it before and in large #'s we want to do it again. In other words we have a strong base, and clear evidence that the base can expand