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Thursday, September 22, 2005 

Kelly Doran for Governor

An anonymous comment just left here brought a thought. Mike Hatch and Steve Kelly have obvious natural constituencies. What is Kelly Doran's? His apparent lack of one plagued him during his brief Senate campaign and I can't see how things will change in the gubernatorial race. The only real difference is that there is no well-established candidate for him to beat this time. Even so, however, he has a long, uphill battle. His name recognition is still minimal, he's not familiar with the political process or scene, and his self-financed campaign may arouse fears that he's trying to buy the election.

Mr. Doran, how do you plan to win the Governor's Mansion?

For those of us that are not so well informed, having to raise money does not necessarily make a canidate a tool of special interests contrary to nk2134's beliefs. Most fundraising money comes from individual DFLers and others who believe in a canidate, especially when the state of Minnesota has a reinbursement program for individuals donating one hundred dollars or less. Furthermore by winning the DFL endorsement the party helps canidates by providing them with a portion of their funding. Dorran (who has not declared that he will abide by the endorsement) is essentially saying that he will not abide by the will of members of the DFL voters and caucus attendees because he can outspend whoever the party believes is the best canidate.

I simply fail to understand how average voters, who believe in a good canidate, are now labeled "special interests." Moreover, when self financing you don't need to really have any support because you don't have to spend time fundraising and contacting voters, and instead Dorran is relying on paying volunteers because he lacks any real grassroots support.

Finally why did Dorran decide to switch to the Governor's race? Did he just realize that if he won the Senate seat he'd have to move to D.C. or is he planning on just jumping from race to race until he is a clear front runner.

nk2134 writes:
Who knows why (Doran) actually switched races. He hasn't been a politician before so maybe once he was out campaigning the real reality of being away actually sunk in. It's pretty human to not fully understand something until you actually experience it.

I kind of prefer the candidate who's got some political/living experience without being a career candidate (ala Mike Hatch). (Mike's been running for Governor so long that we're on his second round of "I want to be Governor" Christmas card list.)

I'll accept Doran's claim that he switched from the Senate race to the Governor race when he realized that his family life would be sacrificed if he became Senator. Not sure he fully appreciates how it's still going to be affected as Governor but in his mind it's apparently "all good now." But any casual reader of American Politics would have known that if (s)he moved to Washington DC as Senator it might be hard to make Junior's baseball games.

We had a political naif as Governor (that wrassler guy) ... I sure don't want another.

nk2134 why can't you just admit that Dorran is just running because he's rich and has nothing better to do? Just because someone can try to buy the election doesn't mean that he's experienced or qualified to run an executive branch

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