Due to state Sen. Linda Scheid's death, a special election is being held in Minnesota's senate district 46. The Independence Party has endorsed Tom Reynolds. A meeting was held at Brookdale Library last night to support Reynolds, who is shown above with Venturaware. About 25 people attended.
Indies believe lots of Minnesotans think 'These two parties are fucked, incapable of putting forward honest ideas, owned by special interests. We need a new party that isn't so narrow-minded--willing to speak the blunt truths which need to be said.'
Reynolds appears a rather attractive candidate, soft-spoken and warm, playing the reluctant majorette with aplomb.
MNIP gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner introduces Reynolds, who's running a real sign-waving, door-knocking campaign. After the meeting, I chat with Horner, who acknowledges--overcoming a perfunctory initial coyness--the Mark Dayton victory is far preferable to a Tom Emmer win, even with Dayton's 'non-starter' of a budget proposal.
If you view one major-party candidate as vastly preferable to another, it just seems strategically stupid to interject a third candidate in between. The third candidate, from the get-go, should address this central question: Are the two existing parties genuinely equally repellent? If not, then how can it be responsible to risk one's vote on a third?
At its worst, the MNIP expresses pseudo-sophisticated High Broderist sanctimony, as when a candidate bases a campaign on his fervent rejection of 'political bickering.' When the candidate from the less hypocritical than thou party puts forward the cheesiest schmaltz on offer, our bullshit light ought to flash.
