On Tuesday, I posted
Road trip: MNGOP brings clown car politics to Minnesota's Seventh, which looked at the expansion of the Clown Car Syndrome as a political strategy into the sprawling rural district:
Back in 2007, potential candidates started lining up in Southern
Minnesota to run against then-freshman representative Tim Walz. By
2008, FDL/Mercury Rising blogger Phoenix Woman soon identified this as "The Clown Car" Syndrome, a strategy the MNGOP appears to be repeating in the First.
Given the anemic fundraising by the candidates running against Walz, it's more of a kiddies' party than three-ring circus.
The Republican Party seems to be taking the clown car on the road to
Minnesota 's Seventh Congressional District, a seat now held powerful
House Agriculture Chair and Blue Dog Collin Peterson. While
progressives across the country are dismayed by Peterson's voting
record, he remains quite popular in the sprawling rural district.
Four potential candidates have hitched a ride.
Since then,
Forum newspapers have learned to check the Minnesota CD7 website, since the new candidates aren't sending out press releases. Unlike Bluestem, the papers' accounts-- and
Minnpost's digest of them--aren't acknowledging the Clown Car Syndrome, or the long shot nature of the bids.
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