Who’s in, who’s out in 7B?

The DNT has a nice story about the retirement of State Rep. Mike Jaros (DFL-Duluth) today. I don’t know Jaros, and I’ve learned that I didn’t know much about his very interesting background, either. I always hear he’s a good guy.

In the story, Duluth city councilor Roger Reinert, after acknowledging Jaros in the story, says he’s “seriously considering” a run for the 7B seat as a DFLer. But from the tone of his comments he seems to be “super duper seriously considering it.” He sounds like a candidate.

Meantime, one person mentioned as a candidate in DFL circles has sent me a press release saying he is not running: state DFL committeeman and Duluth native Kendall Killian. Killian says he is going to focus on the his job with the MAPE union and the important Presidential and U.S. Senate races for this year. He also offered the best reason for not running that I have yet to hear:

“Simply put, I cannot sacrifice the time away from my bachelor lifestyle to pursue this office,” Killian said.

Not only did Killian send me a press release saying he’s not running, but he included a bio.

Kendal Killian is a native of Duluth and member of the DFL State Executive Committee. He has worked for numerous DFL campaigns and progressive causes around the state and once earned second place in the Land of the Loon loon-calling contest. Killian currently lives in the Seward neighborhood Minneapolis with no children, dogs or cats. He enjoys playing softball, biking and drinking cheap beer.

We haven’t heard the last of him, me thinks.

A full 24 hours after Jaros’ announcement, we have only one serious DFLer, Roger Reinert, publicly talking about running. Brandon Clokey still says he’s a candidate, but has yet to file a campaign committee after announcing his candidacy six months ago. If he didn’t use a six month jump on his competition to raise money and campaign, I don’t see how he can win a competitive primary. In any case, we’ll see what comes next.

Comments

  1. Duluth’s loss is Seward’s gain. Kendall is like John Blatnik, John Fedo, and John Lesch all rolled into one.

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