The battle for Minnesota's open U.S. Senate seat is turning into one of the closer races of the 2006 election season in a state once ruled by Democrats but trending Republican in recent years. Even Minnesota's Democratic state chairman, Brian Melendez, told The Washington Times that "this state is about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. It has become more conservative-leaning in recent years. It's not a state that either party can take for granted."
A little more than three months before Election Day, independent voter polls show Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy trailing Democratic Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar by five percentage points in a contest for the seat held by retiring Sen. Mark Dayton, a Democrat. Mr. Kennedy calls Mr. Dayton "a fringe liberal who got nothing done and wasted the Senate seat for six years." A SurveyUSA election poll of 700 Minnesotans showed Ms. Klobuchar leading Mr. Kennedy 47 percent to 42 percent. Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald, who could be the spoiler in the race, drew 8 percent. The poll, conducted last week for several statewide television stations, has a margin of error of four percentage points.
Earlier this month, the Minneapolis Star Tribune published its Minnesota Poll showing Ms. Klobuchar with a 19-point lead. The Kennedy campaign said the poll has a notorious history of being "skewed against Republicans." Mr. Kennedy, who is in his third term in the House, is attacking Ms. Klobuchar as someone far to the left of Minnesota's political mainstream. He said he will be an independent voice in the Senate, citing his vote against President Bush's proposal to drill for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and his opposition to the president's No Child Left Behind education act. |