It's the person

Longtime contributor Anonymous has this to say about my reticence to see politicians like Paul Wellstone or Becky Lourey in executive positions:

If you support her politics, or Wellstone's for that matter, why shouldn't people like that be running the Government. We both know the Republicans run their ultra-right wingers for Executive positions. If you think a candidate can lead and has good politics, that's what we need in Executives.

Because, to put it simply, I'm voting for a person, not a set of politics. Given the choice between a great character with so-so politics, and a questionable character with perfect politics, I will choose the former every time. So will most voters. That's something that a lot of Democrats don't seem to get.

That's certainly not to say that Lourey or Wellstone have bad characters; far from it. But I think they would be far less effective in an executive position, where compromise and management and building coalitions is what you have to do. There is nothing wrong with being ill-suited for the executive. Wellstone was perfectly suited for his role as a senator, and I would vote for him forever. If I lived in Lourey's district I would vote for her for senator no problem. Being governor requires a different set of skills, though, and they have nothing to do with a candidate's politics.