Last night, Ray Cox told the Strib that his defeat was part of a plan by DFLers, pesky college students, Al Franken and Tim Walz to get more people out to vote.
More evidence of the plan's success in the Pioneer Press: DFLer Dahle wins special legislative election, the Northfield News: Dahle wins election with Northfield landslide, and the Rochester Post Bulletin: DFL gains veto-proof majority with Minnesota Senate win.
We rather like that last headline.
On the dexter side, Drew Emmer writes Out-smarted, Out-flanked and Out-worked in SD25. The most entertaining line:
The media had carefully set the story up as to appear to be a sure thing for Ray Cox to hold the seat for the GOP.
Yep, kids, the Star Tribune's endorsement of Ray Cox? The right-leaning bias of the Northfield News? All a smokescreen to conceal a plan to quietly elect a DFLer. And we have no idea what the heck Emmer is talking about here:
The DFL found victory in coy manipulation of same-day registration and what is reported as a higher than expected student turnout in Northfield proper.
"Coy manipulation"? Huh? Minnesota law allows voters to register on Election Day; there's nothing coy or manipulative about it. As for the "expected" student turnout, we expect that a low student turnout was among Pawlenty's expectations when he set the date for January 3. It's understandable why that expectation might tick off students enough to get them to the polls.
Emmer too sees Al Franken and Tim Walz as players in the win:
Al Franken and Tim Walz showed up to help execute the quiet revolution in SD25. And their efforts paid off.
Hard work paying off? How terribly American of them.
But we have to give Wright County Republican blogger Emmer credit in citing the hard work; at least he's not a notorious political hitman carrying on about how negative tactics work. Oh, the irony: if they didn't, neither would D. J. Tice's favorite blogger.
More later as news develops. BTW, one important piece being left out is the role of labor volunteers in the win. SD25 is home to a fairly large number of union members, somewhat surprising for a district that is exurbian and rural. Update 1:14 p.m.: Workday Minnesota tells the story.
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