Looking over President Obama's speech last week at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis, we can't find any mention of Minnesota House District 48B candidate Sheila Kihne, who blocked party endorsement of incumbent Republican Jenifer Loon and now challenges the assistant house minority leader in the August 12 primary.
But if one were to believe the Minnesota Family Council's latest mailing to voters in the district, the President doesn't want her.
"Liberals like Obama and Franken don't want Sheila," the top of the mailer states. "Don't like them win. Plan ahead and vote early."
This is a peculiar criteria for which to ask voters to decide in a Republican primary in a suburban state house district, as we find no evidence that liberals like Obama and Franken favor Jenifer Loon, a Republican who voted against many of the state-level versions of the things President Obama lauded last week.
Indeed, the DFL has endorsed Joan Howe Pullis, who is unopposed in the August 12 primary.
While the district swung to Romney in 2012, it did reject (by 60 percent) the Minnesota Family Council supported amendment to restrict the right to marry, so we're curious why voters would favor the Kihne version of "trusted conservative" over that maintained by Loon when ordered to do so by a group whose values they partially rejected in 2012.
Do Eden Prairie Republicans want a legislator beholden to one group?
Kihne campaigning on costs of marriage equality
Kihne's campaign also sent out another mail piece, which railed about the financial burden to businesses and the damage to religious freedom of Loon's "bad vote" on marriage equality.
While perhaps that pitch offers something to the more conservative slice of the Republican base in the district (if little evidence of the burdens Kihne asserts although we're sure she feels the latter), it seems weak sauce in the era of equality.
Last month, Minnesota Public Radio's Catharine Richert reported in Same-sex marriage approval reaches MN high:
“About a year after gay marriage became legal in the state, support for it has hit an all time high in our polling with 52% of voters in favor of it to only 40% who are opposed,” according to a press release from the firm.
Approval is up from 49 percent right after same-sex marriage was legalized in 2013. It may be because most Minnesotans don’t feel same-sex marriage affects their lives; 80 percent of those surveyed said letting gay couples get married has had a positive impact or no impact at all on their lives. . . .
Do likely primary voters in Eden Prairie disagree enough to motivate a Kihne vote?
Photo: Two new pro-Kihne lit pieces in the House District 48. Submitted photo.
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