A source tells me that, at a fundraiser for State Sen. Tom Bakk yesterday, the Iron Range lawmaker is telling people that he’s running for governor in 2010 and that he’ll run in the DFL primary regardless of the endorsement. This isn’t a surprise, but I think other candidates can now count on Bakk being in the race and running a centrist message through the primary. This opens the potential for a very large, expensive primary fight among multiple candidates.
ANALYSIS: The Bakk fundraiser was well-attended, I’m told, but no fewer than six attendees were members of the Micheletti family of Excelsior Energy fame. If that’s how this campaign is going to be funded, count me out. If you have somehow missed my coverage of this boondoggle economic development “project,” know that it’s a project that exists only because of the formation of close relationships between project lobbyists and elected officials at every level of government. I have great sympathy for Iron Range candidates, but that sympathy now has a limit. I’ve watched a drifting economic development policy meander across the landscape of the Iron Range since 2001. If it weren’t for the spike in steel prices, we’d be screwed right now. We need to see more than the repetition of “jobs, jobs, jobs” as a substitute for a comprehensive plan.
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