Ranum out

Posted at 9:15 AM on January 24, 2006 by Bob Collins

Sen. Jane Ranum, DFL-Minneapolis, is the latest Minnesota legislator to announce she won't run for re-election.

(Update 10 a.,m.) Rep. Dan Larson, DFL-Bloomington, says he'll run for Ranum's seat. That could put the House 63B seat in play, but Larson is holding open the possibility of a re-election campaign to the seat if he doesn't get the DFL endorsement in his bid for Ranum's seat.

(Update 11:53 a.m.) With Ranum's exit from the Legislature, here's the list of changes from the squad that ended the 2005 session. Unless otherwise noted, those on the list will be involved in the 2006 session.

(Update 2:15 p.m.) - They're dropping like flies at the Capitol. Rep. Scott Newman, R- Hutchinson, says he will not run for re-election, he wants to run for judge, although he hasn't said which seat. His release today is an example of unleashing judicial candidates to say what's on their mind. Newman outlined several cases decided by Minnesota courts that he thought were wrong, including a Ramsey County judge's order on maintaining core services during the government shutdown last year. From a media perspective, judicial campaigns might actually be worth paying attention to now.

SENATE
Mark Ourada (R)* - Buffalo
Dave Kleis (R)* - St. Cloud
David Gaither (R)* - Plymouth
Sen. Bob Kierlin (R) - Winona
Sen. John Hottinger (D) - Mankato
Sen. Sharon Marko (D) - Cottage Grove
Sen. Jane Ranum (D) - Minneapolis

HOUSE
Rep. Joe Opatz (D) - St. Cloud
Rep. Matt Entenza (D) - St. Paul
Rep. Jeff Johnson (R) - Plymouth
Rep. Jerry Dempsey (R) - Red Wing
Rep. Ruth Johnson (D) - St. Paul
Rep. Scott Newman (R) - Hutchinson
Rep. Fran Bradley (R) - Rochester

Democrat Terri Bonoff claimed Gaither's seat, DFLer Taryl Clark won Kleis' seat. Ourada's seat went to Republican Amy Koch.

On the reaction front, the blog SD63: red life in a district of blue says:

As you can imagine, this is a significant reshuffling of the deck for SD63 for the '06. A while back I hinted that Senator Ranum may not run for re-election, but that was because I suspected she would be running for Amy Klobuchar's current position.

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