6th District Seat Sure to Intrigue
The Strib’s Eric Black opines that my home district, MN CD-6, might be an intriguing race. To the extent that it’ll be interesting to see who emerges from the Republicans, that’s true. Once that’s been decided, though, this district leans heavily Republican.
Democrats would’ve been better off had Patty Wetterling not jumped into the race at the last second. Elwyn Tinklenberg was the type of Democrat that was tailor-made for this district: pro-life and relatively conservative. In a heavily Catholic district, that matters. Wetterling, by comparison, is pro choice, pro gay rights, anti-Iraq War and is a MoveOn.org lefty politically.
Don’t mistake that political analysis to mean that Patty Wetterling hasn’t done alot of good on children’s issues and with her Jacob Wetterling Foundation. She’s certainly been a warrior on those issues and deserves credit for them.
With those battles already having been largely won, that leaves us with examining her political positions.
Amy Walter, who follows House races for the Cook report, said she remains to be convinced that either Wetterling or Tinklenberg can overcome the district’s Republican tilt, but says she will be watching the Democratic nominee before deciding whether to move the race into the “tossup” category. “In a district like that, it would be hard to say that the Democrats have the wind at their backs,” she said. “But at the moment, they have less of wind in their face.”
This is a typical ‘moral victory’ type of race, where they don’t win but where they spin it as positive because they ‘made it closer than the experts thought’. Simply put, this seat is strongly Republican.
Saying that a Democrat would need a “perfect storm” to win this seat sounds reasonable…if you’re thinking a storm much stronger than Katrina.
Cross-post at LetFreedomRing