AM.MN: Dayton reveals depression
Monday, December 28, 2009 at 8:39 am
- 1 Comment
DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton revealed to the Star Tribune that he drank towards the end of his U.S. Senate term (he’s a recovering alcoholic) and has “mild depression” that he controls with exercise and medication. It’s “not relevant” to the 2010 race, says the state GOP chair. But it does put a new light on the campaign he won in 2000, which featured another DFL candidate, Dr. Steven Miles, who had earlier made public his own bipolar disorder (in the course of a battle with the state Board of Medical Practice) and made no secret of it in his Senate bid.
Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …
STATEWIDE: Cremation hot. Minnesota leads the Midwest. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]
STATEWIDE: Counties’ costs to bury poor are up. Thanks to the poor economy, more die without family who can afford burial expenses. [Star Tribune]
STATEWIDE: End of health aid looms for poor. Would former Gov. Floyd B. Olson have been cut off? [Minnesota Public Radio]
DULUTH: Cell tower harms birds. The feds say a 180-foot AT&T tower is too close to the Lake Superior shoreline that birds migrate along. [Duluth News Tribune]
LAKE SUPERIOR: Steamships okay to ply waters. Low-sulfur fuel requirements are supposed to help health in port cities. [McClatchy Tribune Information Services]
TOWER: WIMPs have always been with us. At least since the big bang. [Star Tribune]
1 Comment
Comment posted December 29, 2009 @ 4:27 am
I have a great deal of respect for Mark Dayton. He has been a lifelong public servant, in one capacity or another, and is an honorable and decent human being. I have not personally supported his gubernatorial candidacy however, because I believe that his behavior as a Senator was erratic. These recent revelations shed some light on that for me.
While the polite and politically correct response would be to say that this does not matter, it does. A Senator is 1 of 100; a Governor is 1 of 1.
If Mark Dayton is endorsed by his party to run for Governor, I will yield to the collective wisdom and support him wholeheartedly. If he is not, the wise thing for him to do would be to graciously support the one who is. That is a recommendation I would make to the entire field of well qualified Democratic candidates that we are blessed to have running for Governor.
Ego can be one of the more difficult human afflictions to overcome but in difficult times like this, it must be.
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