Rowley Optimistic About Campaign

In a Minnesota Monitor interview following last Friday’s debate with Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Democratic challenger Coleen Rowley expressed optimisim about the state of the campaign, and strongly condemned her opponent’s position on the Iraq war.Rowley said that “there are some indications” that the race is tight, and that some fragmentary polling showed the race between the two to be “neck and neck.”  Rowley also painted the attack fliers sent out by her opponent as a positive sign.

“When he sends out these attack fliers…why would you do that unless you’re worried?” she said, noting that she interpereted it as a “positive development” for her campaign.  Rowley also noted that Kline had voted with President Bush over 90 percent of the time, and based on that, said she couldn’t see how her campaign could not be doing well.

Rowley expressed her support for a comprehensive approach to energy policy.  “We need to look at all potential renewable sources,” Rowley said, suggesting that we also need measures to reduce consumption of oil until new forms of energy can be brought online.

On immigration, Rowley expressed her support for the McCain-Kennedy immigration proposal, and noted that immigration violations are simply administrative violations, not criminal infractions, and attacked her opponent for working against immigration enforcement “Guess who voted for less detention beds [and] border patrol?  John Kline,” she said.

Rowley’s toughest words were with regard to Iraq.  “We need to disavow a magic bullet, ‘cakewalk’ plan,” she said, criticizing the people who believed that invading Iraq would be simple.  “Guess what?  It didn’t exist then, and it doesn’t exist now.”

Rowley stated she was in favor of “responsible redeployment in a phased way,” possibly even deployment into the Kurdish area of Iraq.  She also blamed the Bush administration for speaking in broad terms, instead of dealing with root causes of violence in Iraq. 

Rowley also blasted Kine for voting for permanent bases in Iraq, as well as his statement late last year that he would be shocked to be in Iraq nine months later.  “We need to end Iraq,” Rowley said, simply.

Asked how she felt about the debate itself, Rowley seemed generally pleased.  “I’m not so great on debating skill,” Rowley said, but added, “I think it was an okay start–because this was hopefully just a start.”  She said she wanted “lots and lots” of debates with Kline–and that debates were a means to getting media and the public engaged and aware of the issues.

Finally turning back to the recent attacks on her campaign, Rowley said she was sure there were others in her campaign who had unpopular positions, and said she was glad of it.

“I think it’s interesting when people have diverse opinions,” she said.  “Why would you even imply that people in your campaign should be in lockstep with you?”