Word on the street is that Dean Barkley may be running for Congress in the 6th, against Bachmann.
There was some speculation that Mr. Barkley may try and run as a Democrat. His electoral history places him in some pretty interesting company as an Independent.
1996 he was an Independent for US Senate in the race of Wellstone versus Boschwitz.
1994 he ran as an Independent for US Senate in the race with Rod Grams and Ann Wynia.
1992 he ran for Congress as an Independent in the old 6th CD, with Rod Grams and Gary Sikorski.
It could be very difficult for Barkley to secure an endorsement in the 6th, no matter who the candidates are. Entrenched DFL delegates would be very unlikely to endorse someone who has an electoral history as an Independent and will be perceived as a spoiler in a few elections.
Some delegates will perceive it to be that simple. Truth be told, it's much more complicated than that.
He's an Annandale guy so that sits well with me.
Ok, seriously though. He's been through this a few times before. He knows the complexities of running a campaign such as this.
Money won't be a big issue in this race. It's there. People want Bachmann beat.
It's going to boil down to message and the organization of the grassroots efforts.
Dean Barkley for US Congress. Hmmm. He kind of sounds like an Elwyn Tinklenberg kind of guy for this race.
I have a few more names that have been floated out there for the 6th as well. I will be trying to put together a more detailed analysis of stregnths, weaknesses and such at a later time.
Just got this info over lunch and wanted to get it out there to see what people thought!
7 comments:
I'm interested.
DFL delegates need to back a winner.
Look at Sen. Jim Webb -- up until the turn of the century the guy was at least nominally a Republican. Today he's a Democrat and a big improvement over George Allen.
Excellent point Chris! I was pondering people like Webb...just never hit that point.
Barkley is a good guy, but I doubt he'd run as a Democrat - he'd most likely run as an IP candidate, and I'd think he'd be cutting into the Democrats hide more than Bachmann.
I had a very interesting time reading about Dean Barkley. As far as I can tell, he has two main political accomplishments in his career. The first is casting a pivotal vote in the creation of the Department of Homeland Security when Jesse appointed him to the Senate after Wellstone was killed. (There go the libertarian votes.)
The more interesting one is acting as campaign manager for the Texas governor's campaign of Kinky Friedman. Check out that campaign. It's a hoot!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinky_Friedman
Yeah, I saw the Kinky Friedman bit as well, him and Ventura were down in Texas workin that crowd. We're talking Jesse with the ponytail/braids too!
Barkley is an interesting guy...I wonder if he could be Minnesota's version of Webb v. Allen
Sadly Lloyd is probably right.
Barkley was a Democrat before he started the IP. If I recall, he was disaffected with partisanship, and what he saw as fiscal irresponsibility, and wanted to shake things up. He is a radical moderate. On social issues, he's a Dem. He would surely caucus with the Dems. He would probably have the support of his friends Ventura and Tinklenberg. In a 3-way race, Bachmann wins, so the Dems and IP need to get together. BTW Charley, he had good accomplishments at MN Planning - and wasn't his biggest thing getting Ventura elected?
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