Late special election commentary

This is a bit late, but as everybody knows, the DFL won both seats in Saint Cloud yesterday by pretty substantial margins. This comes as no surprise to anybody who was paying attention.

What will also probably come as no surprise is how Republicans are already trying to spin it. It's pretty impossible to put a positive spin on having your House candidate taken off the ballot for not living in the district, so they aren't really trying to do that, but when it comes to the Senate race, they have no shame. According to Mark Drake, who is some kind of Republican spokesman, the only reason Ochsner lost is because of the whole Ek issue. "It drowned out the message that Clark is a liberal who is out of touch with the district," he says. Well, boys, keep on thinking that if it gets you through the night. Better yet, base you next campaigns on that theme.

In reality, Clark won because voters connected with her, not because she is out of touch. She came within a hair's breadth of beating Dave Kleis in 2002, and against a pathetic opponent this year she cleaned house. The Republicans lost because they had horrible candidates, unlike the Democrats who have had some pretty good candidates of late. Ochsner is not charismatic, has no integrity, and insulted his voters. Ek....no need to rehash that. Even aside from that, though, all Republicans could do is scream "Liberal! Liberal!" which didn't stop after the election. Democrats talk about real issues, like education, property tax increases, and transportation.

If Republicans think that screaming "Liberal!" and beating the gong of abortion and gay marriage is going to win them elections next year, they are in for a rude shock. Voters are tired of this crap and want adults to have reasonable debates about how to improve our state and act responsibly. They don't want radio shock-jocks talking about how stupid people are.