5th CD DFL race

We're now a month away from what will turn out to be a turning point in the race for Congress in the 5th district. In Keith Ellison, Mike Erlandson, and Ember Reichgott Junge, we have three candidates ready to tax and spend, and tax and spend again, and again and again. If they manage to bring the troops home from Iraq, forget about a tax cut as the financial burden of the war deflates; that money is already spent if any of these three are elected, and it's not coming to the 5th district or even Minnesota. A lot is being made about the personal element of the DFL candidates, and that will come into play in November. However, very little is made of the candidates on the issues themselves. If a DFL candidate does win in November, I would prefer Keith Ellison because he would be the least effective of the three, and as odd as it might be, he seems more rational than Mike Erlandson. While I don't recommend crossing parties to vote in the DFL primary, I think the pathetic reality is that Keith Ellison is no worse than his two main opponents.

It appears Ember is running a stronger than expected campaign. This is great news for those who hope Ellison will win the primary as she will split votes with Erlandson and lower the bar for Ellison to pass the primary. If she can lower that bar from 43% to 35% or so (keeping in mind Ostrow and others should combine to get close to 5%), I think it's a done deal that Ellison will be on the ballot in November.

If Ellison wins, Tammy Lee will get over 50% of the vote in the suburbs, and hopefully the people who pull the strings in the GOP will find a way to cut the Alan Fine situation from this race (I call him a situation because I can't call him a candidate, much like Doug Williams, Bill Dahn, and Adam Steele running behind the Independence Party). While that might be a long shot, if it happens I can almost guarantee a member of the DFL will not represent the 5th district for the first time in a long time, and we can work on cutting spending in Washington and taking the national debt burden off our unborn children.