Free Republic

Amy Klobuchar (DFL) has opened her biggest lead of the season over Republican Mark Kennedy in the race for Minnesota’s open Senate seat. The latest Rasmussen Reports election survey shows Klobuchar ahead 50% to 38% (see crosstabs). Independence candidate Robert Fitzgerald draws support from 5% of respondents. That’s a big improvement for the Hennepin County Attorney. Klobuchar held a seven-point advantage last December when the DFL field was still crowded (The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or DFL is the state's equivalent of the Democratic Party.) In all of our polls since, her lead has been smaller, typically 2-3 points. She led...

American Military Kills al-Zarqawi in Air Raid Will Amy Klobuchar Join John Kerry and DFL in Cutting Funding for our Troops? (St. Paul, Minnesota) – Reports this morning confirm the death of the #1 terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The death of al-Zarqawi is a testament to the great work the men and women of our military are doing in Iraq to keep us safe at home and another reason why cutting off funding for our troops, as John Kerry and Democrats in Minnesota are proposing, would be a huge mistake in winning the War on Terrorism. “The death...

Iraq war fires up Minnesota's Senate race Democratic front-runner contends with anti-war maverick and GOP foe By Tom Curry National affairs writer ROCHESTER. Minn. - On a furnace-hot Memorial Day at the Soldiers’ Memorial Field in Rochester, Minn., Amy Klobuchar, the front-runner for the Democratic Senate nomination, offered an instructive case study in how to run as an anti-Iraq war candidate - without calling for a date for withdrawing U.S. soldiers and without calling for a cutoff of the war’s funding. “These guys told us that there were weapons of mass destruction - and there weren’t. They told us the...

Amy Klobuchar’s Political Facade Campaign Sound Bites vs. Washington Results (St. Paul, Minnesota) – During a radio address on Memorial Day, U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar said she was, “Proud to live in a country where we protect and defend the people who have risked their lives to keep us safe.” Yet just last fall, Klobuchar said she would have voted against a bill providing body armor and explosive detection equipment for those very same people who risk their lives to keep us safe. “If Amy Klobuchar was serious about protecting the men and women of our military, she would...

May 10, 2006--DFL county attorney Amy Klobuchar now leads Kennedy 45% to 43%, which is comparable to the toss-ups we've seen all year when the two are matched (see crosstabs). (The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or DFL is the state's equivalent of the Democratic Party.) The single-term Democratic incumbent, Mark Dayton, is stepping down. Klobuchar led Kennedy 45% to 42% in our previous Minnesota election poll. The other Democrat in the competition, Ford Bell, now trails Kennedy by eleven percentage points, 44% to 33%. Bell has trailed in three of the four election polls we've conducted in the state. In February,...

We chose life, AmyMy family celebrated the birth of our third child on Feb. 17. While in the hospital, I purchased your paper as a keepsake for the newborn. How ironic that as I waited for the birth to occur, I read an article about how Amy Klobuchar's campaign just received a large donation from EMILY's List ("Kennedy draws GOP Senate cash," Feb. 17). As noted, EMILY's List raises money for female Democratic candidates who support abortion. I'm sure when my son is able to read the paper from the day of his birth, he will be pleased that his...

In the scramble to take over the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Mark Dayton, likely Republican nominee Representative Mark Kennedy is neck-and-neck with DFL county attorney Amy Klobuchar. (The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party or DFL is the state's equivalent of the Democratic Party.) The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll shows Klobuchar at 43% and Kennedy at 42%.

Rod Grams gave up his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Saturday, according to an official in the state party, a move that would virtually ensure that U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy will walk away with the Republican nomination in 2006. Grams did not return phone calls to his home Saturday for comment, but a party official said the former senator announced plans to drop out of the race during a speech at the Minnesota Republican Party's Eighth District Convention in Isanti, Minn. "He basically said, 'I want my friends here of the Eighth District to be the first to...

Klobuchar portrayed herself as a tough prosecutor, a fiscal conservative, a populist who opposes tax cuts for the rich and a champion of the old, the young, the disabled and the "ordinary heroes" of Minnesota.