Now that filings have closed, it's interesting to look at who filed in all of the Minneapolis legislative races. There are six senate seats and 11 house seats at stake (that would be Senate Districts 58/59/60/61/62/63, and the "A" and "B" House Districts for all of those except for 63B, which lies entirely outside the city). On the Senate side, all six have DFL candidates. There are five Republicans; apparently no one has filed to carry the GOP banner in Senate District 60 (lakes area), despite the fact that it's an open seat. The Independence Party has covered three of the six districts: 58, 62, and 63. The Green Party also has candidates in three of the six, but they're in 60, 61 and 62, so only SD 62 will get all four of those eligible for public funding for their campaigns. And only SD 59 (East side) will see the traditional DFL/GOP battle, without a Green or Independence. Only two districts have primaries (58 & 60), both on the DFL side, and from what I hear the endorsed candidates should win those handily. On the House side, all 11 have DFL candidates. There are seven Republicans; I will have to look it up, but I think this is down from previous election cycles, in which they usually fill most of the spots. Four of the districts have Independence Party candidates, three have Greens, and one has an independent. There's a DFL primary in 58A, and 58B gets the prize for the most choices in the general: a five-way race to replace Greg Gray. Perhaps most amazing is that Met Council member Frank Hornstein, running for the open House seat in 60B, is completely unopposed -- no one has filed against him in the primary or general. Congratulations, Frank! (If I missed someone, I'm sure someone will quickly correct me; I'm taking this info from the Secretary of State website and the Hennepin County website well after 9PM, and since filings closed over four hours ago, I would assume that they've been updated with all the last-minute filings.) Anyway, these 19 Senate candidates and 28 House candidates ought to give us something to talk about for the 16 weeks from today until election day. Don Jorovsky (25 years in Minneapolis, currently in New Brighton) Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com |
