Campaign Notebook: Candidate Clusters, Cloture and (Habeas) Corpus

Wednesday night’s 3rd Congressional District DFL meeting did not disappoint. Several potential candidates for the DFL nod had a chance to speak, includingstate Sen. Terri Bonoff, Rep. Melissa Hortmann, Rep. Steve Simon (who would have to move out of his state House district to establish residency in CD3)*, Buck Humphrey and a representative of Andy Luger. Publius’ report from the meeting jibes with what we’re hearing as well. As summer ends, kids go back to school and this campaign gets under way, expect the party leadership to be put under greater pressure to hold more regular meetings as candidates seek every possible chance to get their faces in front of the party-regular base.

Read moreWith all the brouhaha over the 3rd District, what about that Senate race? WCCO’s Pat Kessler fact-checks the latest anti-war ad targeting Norm Coleman for his votes on the war, and finds them somewhat lacking. However, as soon as that was done, Coleman gave his DFL opponents more ammunition — Wednesday, a cloture vote on restoring the writ of habeas corpus failed, with Coleman voting no. Keep in mind, kids, that habeas corpus is a constitutionally guaranteed right, and last year’s Military Commissions Act ran roughshod over it. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voted no for procedural reasons, so the bill actually got 57 votes, meaning Coleman was one of just three votes needed to restore an important piece of the Constitution that Democrats and left-leaning activist groups say has been mangled by the Bush administration.

*Correction:  Although geographically the shortest route to CD3 for Simon is straight into Minnetonka, a single precinct in House District 44A, Hopkins 7, is indeed in CD3.  This means that Simon would NOT have to move outside his House district in order to run for Congress.

Thanks for the catch!