G.R. Anderson writes in the Minnesota Post that Independence Party activists “have their sights set on St. Paul in 2010.” This year, U.S. Senate nominee Dean Barkley “scored more than twice the percentage points he did in Senate bids in 1994 and 1996. And the party has maintained major-party status, with Peter Hutchinson’s 6.4 per cent showing in the 2006 gubernatorial race — something that opens some state coffers for any candidate the IP may field.”
Meanwhile, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, columnist Lori Sturdevant writes that if Minnesota used instant-runoff voting, the “Senate race might still be headed for a recount. But there’s a decent chance” Democrat Al Franken, not Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, would be in the lead, since one exit poll found that if Barkley was not on the ballot, “his voters would have chosen Franken over Coleman, 30 percent to 25 percent. That’s only a suggestion of a Franken advantage under IRV, however. This poll has a 4 percentage point margin of error; an earlier version, cited by this scribbler on Thursday, found Barkley voters preferring Coleman and Franken in equal numbers.
Not sure I agree with the analysis. Many were tempted by Barkley simply because of the outrageous nastiness Franken and Coleman displayed toward each other. Barkley’s Senate experience and talks on the issues just sealed the deal. He drew almost equally from both sides, mostly those who were sickened by the ads and attacks of the two party candidates.