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Kennedy(R) trails 2 DFLers, leads 2 in MN Senate race poll
Star Tribune ^ | 12/22/05 | Star Tribune

Posted on 12/22/2005 8:49:22 PM PST by AZRepublican

U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, the lone Republican candidate for Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat next year, trails two DFL candidates and leads two others in a new poll from Rasmussen Reports.

In the poll conducted Dec. 14, 500 likely Minnesota voters were asked to state their preferences between Kennedy and each of the four DFLers. Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar and children's safety advocate Patty Wetterling narrowly topped Kennedy within the poll's 4.5 percentage-point margin of sampling error.

Meanwhile, Kennedy beat veterinarian Ford Bell by 10 points and attorney Mike Ciresi by three. Ciresi, who unsuccessfully sought the seat won by Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton in 2000, has not formally entered this race. Dayton has said he will not seek reelection after one term in the Senate.

In the same Rasmussen poll, 62 percent of respondents said the Iraq war is most likely to affect their vote for U.S. senator, while 27 percent chose immigration. President Bush, whose policies Kennedy has generally supported in Congress, got 37 percent approval in the poll for his handling of the war, while 61 percent rated it fair or poor.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: 2006elections; kennedy; markkennedy; mn; senaterace

1 posted on 12/22/2005 8:49:24 PM PST by AZRepublican
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To: AZRepublican

Anyone have any guess as to whether Kennedy can win the seat?


2 posted on 12/22/2005 8:52:25 PM PST by AZRepublican
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To: AZRepublican

http://markkennedy.house.gov/


I think he can but it will be hard work and he will need lots of money.


3 posted on 12/22/2005 8:58:16 PM PST by msnimje (Political Correctness -- An OFFENSIVE attempt not to offend.)
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To: AZRepublican; Clintonfatigued; AuH2ORepublican

He'll win. Not by a landslide, of course. The troglodytic MN DFL'ers usually nominate the nuttiest radical leftist for office, so after they go through their circular firing-squad, and Kennedy keeps his powder dry, he'll be in a good position going into the general.


4 posted on 12/22/2005 8:59:30 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Cheney X -- Destroying the Liberal Democrat Traitors By Any Means Necessary -- Ya Dig ? Sho 'Nuff.)
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To: AZRepublican
It's possible. Kennedy beat Wetterling already for his current seat and she was a put-up sympathy candidate based on the loss of her son to kidnapping about 20 years ago - no other qualification other than being a Sheehan clone with a sob story. Cerisi is the maggot lawyer that stole millions out of Minnesotan pockets with the landmark tobacco theft engineered by Hillary back in the 90's - he's too greasy even for Minnesotan leftist kooks. Klobuchar is the leftwing lawyer daughter of a former columnist from the Red Star. She's a rising star in the MN left and charged full of their hard left schemes - she holds a serious prosecutor spot now and is going to present a challenge because she's smarter than the rest of the RAT pack and has high name recognition (her father was from the iron range and is something of a drunk so that will count for many up north).

Kennedy will need a lot of pull from the grassroots, though. He's pissed more than a few already with his weenie stance on ANWR this week, but I suppose he's going to try and lever some of the environ-mental cases into his camp. I talked to him earlier this year and warned him that he needs to lead conservative if he's going to run conservative. He gave me the 'what the hell do you know' look and I suppose this is his winning strategy - 'be all the you can be to all the people that marginally follow your political career.' On most things, he's a pretty good conservative - social conservative - but he definitely has ambitions and that usually means softening the image. Too often it means softening the actions, too.

I suspect we'll pull behind him and he has a decent chance of winning, but I still think MN is in play and can't counted on for sure delivery yet. The Red Star will throw everything they can at him; the Metro RAT contingent will shriek like they are being boiled in oil and the northwoods RAT and union thugs will kneejerk against him like they had St. Vitus dance. Still, he might do it.
5 posted on 12/22/2005 9:18:12 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (The problem with being a 'big tent' Party is that the clowns are seated with the paying customers.)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

It's more likely than not that Mark Kennedy will win by a slim margin. But if the political tide turns nasty again, the Democrats could very well hold this seat.


6 posted on 12/22/2005 9:39:32 PM PST by Clintonfatigued (Sam Alito Deserves To Be Confirmed)
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To: AZRepublican

OH NO! We're doomed DOOMED I say.


7 posted on 12/23/2005 5:13:45 PM PST by Valin (Purple Fingers Rule!)
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To: AZRepublican

Klobuchar is the only one of the three Dems that might be electable. The others are extreme left wing nutjobs.
It will be a fight between (liberal)Amy and Kennedy.


8 posted on 12/24/2005 7:06:26 PM PST by Fireone (Homeland security is 10,000 rounds of ammo and 10 cords of dry firewood.)
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