 Former House Minority Leader Matt Entenza has a good idea of where his campaign needs to go and how to get there: with judicious use of internet technology.
"Statewide campaigns either get a political cold and die, or keep building, and by the end we're talking to 2.3 million people. By the end of the campaign almost every voter in the state will have some form of web contact with the campaign -- the campaigns that don't use the web early will die."
Entenza was the DFL-endorsed candidate for Attorney General in 2006, but walked away from the race after getting involved in a public political fight with gubernatorial nominee Mike Hatch. But he didn't walk away from politics altogether -- he started MN 2020, a progressive think tank that has experienced rapid growth and helped move the debate away from reactionary Republican messaging and toward progressive views of issues and governance. "When you're in political leadership, you spend very little time thinking about ideas -- you spend most of your time recruiting candidates, raising money, engaging in political dogfights with the other side that are 'of the moment' -- but you're still operating in the conservative message frame.
"In the last two years I've been able to step back and ask where the state should be going, and focus on the things that made this state great -- quality public education, infrastructure, a strong economic development system, and health care that's pretty good compared to other states. State politics over the last twenty years have been about abortion, gay marriage, stadiums, things other than those that made the state work -- that's conservative politics. We've been able to move the debate at MN2020."
Can Matt Entenza win? He's already put together a strong campaign team, has the necessary resources, and is reportedly "an animal" on the dialing-for-dollars circuit. He has experience both political and ideological, and is committed to employing all the technological tools at a modern campaign's disposal in order to win. I came away impressed at how easily he was able not just to link important issues, but put them in a progressive frame and clearly describe how to use that frame to win. Tim Pawlenty and his buddies in the Republican Party hate his guts -- if the past two election cycles are any indication, that should put Entenza is good company with the general electorate of Minnesota. He'll be a strong contender for the DFL nomination, and we'll all be watching very closely to see what happens in the seven weeks between that nomination and the general election.
More after the break |
| With MN2020, Entenza has built an important piece of the progressive infrastructure in the state, and speaks easily about important, interconnected issues like mass transit and economic development, green energy and health care. "For any Democrat to win this race, you need to have a positive, progressive vision of how to grow an economy ... Iowa does a tremendous job of getting companies to locate to their state, and the only thing Minnesota currently has is JOBZ -- tax cuts. JOBZ is one of a number of things that will be gone when I'm in office."
"Conservative politics in this state are about shrinking the pie and forcing educators and social services and other state programs to fight against one another for funding, and everyone loses. To do all the things we want to do, we have to grow the pie, we have to grow the economy. There's a handful of states where clean, alternative energy is going to grow, and we have to be one of them."
Entenza mentioned that JOBZ would be gone if he's elected Governor, and I asked which other programs would be changed or dropped. He immediately brought up No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration's major education bill which has been widely panned by public school teachers and administrators for placing standards on school districts but not providing resources to reach those standards.
As I have with other candidates seeking the DFL nod, I asked how the campaign message now compares with what is necessary to win next November. Entenza's answer? "Barack Obama's campaign showed that the message on Day One needs to be the message in November. The people who argue that you start by appealing to your base and then pirouette to the center...that's the old way. It doesn't work. The DFL hasn't won the Governor's office since 1986 -- that's a pretty good sign that the old ways aren't working very well. I think it's largely because DFLers haven't produced a vision of where to take the state. Conservatives have -- it's a terrible vision, but they have a vision. And if the choice is between a candidate who has a vision and one who doesn't, people will choose the one who does."
Entenza has the resources to compete at whatever stage of the campaign he chooses -- along with former U.S. Senator Mark Dayton, he's one of the two candidates in the race who could theoretically afford to self-fund a competitive campaign. I asked him about the DFL endorsement and primary process, and how his campaign is treating them: "I prefer the endorsement process. But when you have several candidates who aren't abiding, it creates mischief in the convention process. Candidates who aren't supporting the process start trying to get the weakest candidate the endorsement. I want to be endorsed, and will put a lot of energy into the endorsement." He cited 1994, when Mike Hatch managed to throw the endorsement to John Marty, believing Marty to be a weaker candidate in a primary than Mike Freeman. Hatch ended up losing a close primary to Marty, who then proceeded to get slaughtered that November.
"In order to win, you have to know the whole state -- the first time you go to a small town can't be when you're running for Governor. I've spent the last 12 years as a legislative leader and with MN2020, I've traveled on every road that's out there, I know the mayors, the little issues. People who wins elections are folks with a base in the whole state." |
