Thursday, August 6, 2009

Tarryl Clark: DFL Superstar


State Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, announced this week that she'd take on Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, R-Wingnut, in the 2010 sixth district Congressional race.

The news evidently surprised the unfortunately-named Elwyn Tinklenberg (who lost to Bachmann last year, despite Bachmann's enthusiastic help). After announcing his candidacy just a few weeks back, Tinklenberg dropped out Tuesday.

That's evidence of the political sway Clark has gained since winning her seat in the Republican-leaning district during a special election in 2005.

In the state Senate, considered to be the more tradition-bound of the state legislative bodies, Clark rose to Assistant Majority Leader in her first complete term. Throughout this year's session, she served as the face of the Senate DFL, delivering DFL talking points and attacks on Republicans with clarity and reason.

She's young, pretty and well-spoken, with the backing of labor and a moderate reputation, despite years of community activism. And her ambition is widely aknowledged at the Capitol. Before July, most rumors about Clark revolved around a run for the already cluttered governor's race. By moving into the 6th district race, especially with Tinklenberg gone, Clark eliminates the need for a bruising primary fight that could potentially damage her career (the other candidate, Maureen Reed, is a former Independent Party candidate and has little chance of gaining the DFL endorsement against Clark).

Since the last election, Bachmann has fallen further off her rocker, digging deep into right-wing conspiracies (Isn't it a miracle that she has't made a peep on the Obama Birther movement?). Even in 2008, Tinklenberg only lost by three percent, and he didn't really fight back; the endless stream of zany statements by our Midwestern Maverick, if taken advantage of by a savvy politician like Clark, could be devestating to the remnants of Bachmann's public image. Not to mention that Bachmann has become a favorite target of liberals like Keith Olbermann, which could herald a flood of out of state campaign donations for Clark.

One thing is clear: As long as Bachmann stays nears cameras and microphones, it's Clark's election to lose.

Posted by Rhubarbarism at 2:13 PM
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2 comments:

  1. Hopefully the DFL will endorse soon. Voters in the 6th district, regardless of their party affiliation, have already shown that they approve of state Senator Clark's level-headed approach to the many issues that Minnesotans are faced with during this country's difficult economic crisis. It's highly doubtful that the good people of Minnesota will want to continue to be emabarassed by the inappropriate antics and lack of productive representation of Michele Bachmann.

    It will be very interesting to see what Maureen Reed does if and when the DFL endorses Clark, as is expected. In a recent interview with Eric Black of the MinnPost, Dr. Reed indicated she would withdraw from the race rather than run on the IP ticket.

    A three way race would probably result in the re-election of Bachmann. Clark has promised to abide by the DFL endorsement. Let's hope Reed will do the same.

    Good luck to the good people of Minnesota!!!
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  2. Good point.


    It's important to remember that Bob Anderson got about 10 percent of the vote running as the Independence Party candidate. Even though Tinklenberg had the IP endorsement, Minnesota law forbids a candidate to list two party affiliations (the policy harks back to the Farmer Labor party, which was poaching progressive Republicans and Democrats).
    Anderson could do the same thing again.

    2008 District Six election results: (http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/20081104/ElecRslts.asp?M=CG&CD=06)
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