Gaertner ‘crosses gender lines’ to endorse Entenza

Susan Gaertner

When Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner dropped out of the governors race in April, she said she didn’t want to be the “spoiler” in DFL-endorsed candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher’s bid to become Minnesota’s first woman governor. But that doesn’t mean she supports Kelliher: Today she announced she’s endorsing Matt Entenza, who’s facing off with Kelliher and former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton in the Democratic primary this August.

When she bowed out, Gaertner issued a statement saying two woman duking it out against “two self-financed and well-funded male candidates” would make it “extremely difficult to raise sufficient funds for an effective campaign.”

In today’s endorsement of Entenza, she referenced gender again.

“At times personal loyalty can and should cross gender lines,” she said at a press conference Tuesday. “When I had a tough re-election bid in 1998, all the Ramsey County DFL legislators supported my opponent, save one. And that one person was Matt Entenza endorsed. I’ll never forget that.”

So far, Entenza’s campaign website makes no mention of the endorsement.