I went and looked up info on that infamous 1970 Senate contest, which was actually a rematch of 1964. Tom Kleppe won his 2 House races by an unimpressively narrow margin (defeating freshman Democrat Rolland Redlin by less than 4,000 votes, 52-48% and in a rematch where he won by a plurality of 49% in 1968). Kleppe was wealthy and decided to wage a new style of campaign in 1970 by literally bombarding the airwaves on just how far-left Quentin Burdick was (Barone pointed out in the first edition of the Almanac of American politics that $32 or so would buy you a tv ad, and Kleppe dropped several hundred grand).
It ended up backfiring, but only because the voters couldn’t understand how that “nice” Burdick fella, longtime former Congressman Usher Burdick’s beloved son, was the ultraleft monster portrayed in Kleppe’s ads (’cept he was), and Kleppe lost by an even wider margin than his 1964 race. The fallout undoubtedly also harmed the GOP nominee, Robert McCarney, in the ND 2nd District (the seat Kleppe was vacating), as he lost to Democrat Arthur Link by about 500 votes (a 50-50% tie)).
To add to the strangeness, ANOTHER candidate named Kleppe (Russell Kleppe) ran as a 3rd party Conservative (he also ran in the 1968 race, almost costing Tom Kleppe the seat).
I find it odd that the DemocRAT has raised more money than both Republican candidates combined. Republican donors seem to be waiting for the June primary before opening their wallets. Also, it’s not typical for convention winners to be challenged in the primary. That doesn’t mean we’ll lose it, but the elements for an upset are there. Also, in sparsely populated states, local issues have a way of impacting the results without the national press corps knowing it. This is why I’ve been asking about the candidates, trying to see if they’ve said or done something to alienate them.
“ANOTHER candidate named Kleppe (Russell Kleppe) ran as a 3rd party Conservative (he also ran in the 1968 race, almost costing Tom Kleppe the seat).”
When did he change his name to Sam Garst and move to Minnesota?