This evening Edina DFLers organized a meet the candidates event at Southdale Library. The two announced candidates seeking the DFL endorsement for US Congress in CD3 spoke--separately--and took friendly questions.
Dr. Maureen Hackett has a direct, low-key, matter-of-fact delivery, appearing exactly as she does on her website. Hackett touches on the standard issues of the day, with good audience rapport and a coherent sound. She's relaxed and friendly; she refers to a daughter who graduated from high school not long ago.
Both candidates give Pres. Obama the benefit of the doubt on Afghanistan, and do not dissent with BHO's recent decision to 'surge' in that country. Both are pro-choice, though Meffert sounds more committed on the issue.
Hackett has a this-struggle-changed-my-life story centering on her effort to rid Minnesota's state hospitals of cigarette smoking. She doesn't quite deliver the chapter with drama or emotion. A questioner later asks her about her lack of previous experience in seeking or attaining elective office. She gives an unoffended reply, suggesting the various potential strengths were the party to run an outsider.
Jim Meffert
Jim Meffert enters after Dr. Hackett's half-hour. Meffert appears a bit new to political stand-up. He has a more impassioned delivery, calling for self-confident, progressive leadership 'without apology' (while not quite delivering it with each of his own sentences). He seems friendly and professional, if a bit green. Meffert attended St. Olaf with Erik Paulsen and professes a personal regard for the congressman.
Meffert has a kid with him and mentions twice he's just rushed over from Normandale Lutheran Church's Advent service. Hackett's presentation doesn't mention religion. Meffert tells us he's spoken with Tim Walz and looks to Walz with respect on Afghanistan. Meffert appears to intend to exude inevitability, though Hackett has her own unassuming self-confidence. (While Meffert ostensibly doesn't find it worthwhile to observe Hackett's presentation, she is not beneath viewing his.)
Meffert is asked for his analysis of Ashwin Madia's disappointingly large gap on election day. He marshals the viewpoint that Paulsen successfully portrayed Madia as not-one-of-us--an elastic charge signifying something between guardedness directed toward bachelors to KKK membership.
The profounder analysis of Madia's defeat, in retrospect--and whose validity does not contradict Meffert's cultural pigeonholing thesis, reasonably interpreted--is that Madia planned for an Iraq-based campaign within a political season in which the economy became salient, magnifying Mr. Gray Flannel Suit's Robert Young comforting quality in the public imagination. Among the mainstream Democratic prescriptions for fixing the economy, Madia's beloved 'green economy' plank was not the strongest, as a political shiv. (And it certainly seemed that Madia wanted passionately to win.)
Both candidates appear to have organized, serious campaigns; both had friendly staffers in tow. Erik Paulsen's District Outreach Coordinator--John-Paul Yates--was in attendance, as was a beflipcammed GOP tracker (I was told). You could detect a small hint of mutual non-affection between the two campaigns, with some sotto voce encouragement from the Hackett camp for me to explore the lobbyist label vis-à-vis their opponent.
It was funny to be back at this stage again in the cycle, when Congressional candidates will take questions and interact with members of the public. It doesn't appear obvious who will win; other candidates could yet join. Both appear earnest, presentable, occasionally naive. Terri Bonoff could have the nomination for the asking, though the hour is getting late.
