Freeman endorses Hovland’s congressional bid

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman has endorsed Jim Hovland’s congressional bid in the Third district. 

Freeman preceded Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the County Attorney’s office before running unsuccessfully for Governor in 1998.  He returned to the office in 2006 by defeating fellow DFLer Andy Luger, with the support of many Republicans and independents in suburban areas of Hennepin County, many of which are in the Third district.

In an email sent today by the Hovland campaign, Freeman said

In the 2006 election I was very successful in the CD3 portion of Hennepin County because we captured not only the DFL vote, but a significant portion of the Independent and Republican vote.

In a district like CD3, where the Voter Index does NOT favor us Democrats, you must win those voter segments to achieve victory.

Jim Hovland can do the same thing in November.  His record working across Party lines as a Mayor and a metropolitan transportation official really demonstrates how successful he can be running against a right-wing Republican.

It’s an icky prospect for many endorsement-minded DFLers, but if the April 12th convention fails to produce an endorsement, it’s quite possible that the Hovland camp would see that as a very good thing.  Hovland’s stump-speech reasoning that his bipartisan record makes him best suited to win in November certainly seems to fit a strategy centered on taking one’s message to voters who can vote in either party’s primary in September.  If Hovland can clean up in SD41 (encompassing his hometown of Edina) and get a few delegates here and there across the rest of the district, totalling and holding around 20%, he might actually have the capacity to prevent an endorsement.

Of course, there’s still a political eternity left in this race, so that’s idle speculation right now.