Kelliher responds to MPR poll results

Posted at 8:40 AM on May 19, 2010 by Tom Scheck (5 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

MPR News and the U of M's Humphrey School released a poll that focused on the 2010 race for governor and approval ratings for several statewide office holders. On the DFL side, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton leaders MN House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and former legislator Matt Entenza in the race to win the August primary. Dayton also has a slight edge over GOP endorsed Tom Emmer in head to head match-ups. Emmer leads Kelliher and Entenza in those head to heads.

You can read the story on the poll here.

Meanwhile, Kelliher released a statement on the poll results that calls out Dayton and Entenza's personal wealth:

"While I have been at the Capitol standing up to Tim Pawlenty and radical Republicans like Tom Emmer, my opponents have been spending their own personal fortunes to get a head start in this race.

"But I know that's not how you earn the support, or the votes of Minnesotans. Paul Wellstone taught me at a young age how to organize Minnesotans around a cause, and inspire communities to achieve something better.

"That's why I am building a people powered campaign for governor. We're going to win this election door-by-door, voter-by-voter. Together with Minnesotans, we are going to win. Because this campaign is about more than one person, it's about one Minnesota.

"That's what I'm fighting for. That's how we will close the chapter on Tim Pawlenty, and build a better Minnesota."

Update: Dayton also talked about the poll results with MPR's Morning Edition.

Update: Matt Entenza's campaign sent out a statement from his campaign manager. We aren't posting it because we want our readers/listeners to know what the candidate is saying not their campaign staff. A spokeswoman for the Entenza campaign said Entenza "doesn't comment on polls."

Comments (5)

standing up to pawlenty? losing the budget fight last year, losing gamc this year, losing more budget battles this year, not having leadership to bring up vikings stadium solution . . .

and this female victimhood she's playing is rediculous. her current campaign slogan of "let's make history" is crap. minnesota has elected a female to US Senate, we currently have a female auditor and attorney general, and lieutenant gov. before ritchie we had a female secretary of state. that's every statewide office except governor. there is no glass ceiling in minnesota politics for women (we also have 2 women US representatives). there just hasn't been the right female candidate for governor.

if klobuchar ran for governor, she'd probably win because people like her, they know who she is, what she stands for and what she'll do.

no one knows who margaret is. she spent the last 3 decades in minneapolis politics but claims she's from a farm because she milked cows as a kid. it's this sort of schizophrenic, non-identity candidate that drives voters crazy.

i'll vote for dayton because i know who he is, what he stands for, he has a clear message and has articulated what he stands for.

margaret has failed us as leader of the state house. she'll fail us as governor.

and p.s. for the love of wellstone himself, stop invoking the specter of paul. his own son endorsed rybak. i'm sure paul would have as well. get off it already.

Posted by chris m. | May 19, 2010 9:05 AM

Chris, you sound about as out of touch as the candidate you are stumping for. Tim Pawlenty and an obstructionist House GOP is who should be blamed for driving this state into the ground. If you don't know who your friends and enemies are, you really need to re-channel that anger.

Dayton has one simple and wrongheaded solution to everything: just tax the rich. But it doesn't add up to a solution. The ironic thing is, Dayton supported the Bush tax cuts when he was in the Senate. He was as out of touch and erratic then as he is now.

Once Minnesota gets to see and know Margaret, they will like her and trust her. She is the only candidate who has the smarts and the ability to work well with others to move Minnesota out of this mess.

Posted by Ray | May 19, 2010 9:41 AM

Well, let's see. Based on her voting record, Minnesotans know that Amy Klobuchar worries about kids drowning in swimming pools, Asian carp, local sports teams and/or just about anything that's not Wall Street looting our economy or about keeping our troops in harm's way. To review Klobuchar's most recent legislative offerings, go here: http://tinyurl.com/AKlege

Whatever popularity Klobuchar has stems from her refusal to take positions on important issues. Al Franken's done more for the U.S. and Minnesota in his first year in office than Klobuchar's done since being elected.

I don't think anybody whose world is rocked by Amy Klobuchar knows much about politics or winning the governorship.

Posted by Mark Gisleson | May 19, 2010 9:58 AM

I tend to think Kelliher is better suited to be Governor, but just to set the record straight, Dayton voted against both the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Follow the links to see the recorded votes.

I'd like to know what your source is for making that claim, Ray.

chris m., I don't see any "female victimhood" in Kelliher's comments. What specifically are you talking about?

As for Paul Wellstone's posthumous endorsement, his son (who lives in California now, btw) worked on Skip Humphrey's campaign in '98 while his father supported Mike Freeman as the DFL-endorsed candidate. Dayton and Rukavina had the longest-standing relationships with the guy, Kelliher and Rybak are both mentioned in Dane Smith and Mike McGrath's book Professor Wellstone Goes to Washington as having supported on his '90 campaign, and John Marty had the most left-wing platform of the bunch. Given how many of the candidates had some kind of connection with him, I suspect, had he been alive, Wellstone would have done the same thing he did in every other DFL endorsement contest: stay out of it and support whoever the convention endorsed.

Posted by Chris | May 19, 2010 3:34 PM

That should be Dennis McGrath, not Mike McGrath. Sorry.

Posted by Chris | May 19, 2010 3:36 PM

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