Thoughts about the MN Independence Party

Pam Ellison, a political activist who has been involved with the Independence Party since 1998, unsuccessfully sought this year’s IP endorsement for Governor. She has decided to run in the Primary Election against the endorsed candidate Peter Hutchinson.

At this year’s IP convention I was amazed at the number of people supporting Pam Ellison Campaign and I must admit after her speech that it might take a number of ballots to choose the party’s endorsed candidate. I think many people like myself were unfamiliar with Pam’s campaign spent a sometime reading her web-site just prior to the convention to get up to date. I must say I choose to support Peter Hutchinson because I felt he was a more well rounded candidate than Pam. With the number of Pam supporters from the 4 Congressional District we sat in shock when Peter Hutchinson was announced as the winner of the Endorsement with over 90% of the delegates vote. Not only was Pam defeated she was overwhelmed.

I wonder if the old adage “Any publicity is good publicity” applies to this situation. With apologizes to Pam in advance; I doubt that Pam Ellison could win a primary election let alone the general election getting and keeping the news about the primary election in the local media helps Peter Hutchinson build name recognition for little or no cost to the campaign and that is what he needs. If Pam gets any media attention the media will automatically have to go to Peter and ask for a response.

While Pam decision might be good for the IP I really do not believe that Becky Lourey’s decision to run in the Primary is not in the best interest of the DFL Party. While Mike Hatch is the DFL endorsed candidate Becky’s platform might be more in line with the rank and file of the DFL views. Becky has stated she wants to focus on the issues rather than the candidates and that plays into Mike's favor; however things change. Becky has hired a professional fund raiser and other professional staff for her campaign since the convention the only chance she has on winning is to take the issues and make them personal with Mike. The question in this case is can Becky raise enough money to get her views out to populace before the election, if she can raise enough money there is an upset in the making.
Mike Hatch's current philosophy is to ignore Becky Lourey and focus on the race with Tim Pawlenty.

Jeff