Almanac: At the Capitol

Gov. Pawlenty has set the date for the special election to fill Sen. Neuville's seat for Thursday Jan. 3. That is the day students return to class at St. Olaf and Carleton, so Democrats should be pleased it's at least not during the school break, which many of them were anticipating. But, I don't know how many students will vote on their first day of school. Gov. Pawlenty did tell me yesterday that he wanted to get this seat filled well before the session starts in February. If there's a primary it would be Dec. 18th. It's been interesting to me to hear the positives for former Rep. Ray Cox and his run to replace Neuville. His moderate views on gay rights seem to have won him some favor with Independents and even Dems. Many Democrats are telling me this seat isn't worth spending too much money on because of Cox's moderate appeal. But, he did lose his House seat, and I've got to think this is still in play for the DFL and they won't take a pass at an open seat in a potential swing district. Thanks to all my friends in the blogging world for the great links on breaking this story!

Speaking of friends on the web, I just got this tip on some DFLers that are likely to run:

Two people I have heard are thinking about running for the DFL are Jim Mladek and Tim Siebsen. Both of Montgomery and both have worked on eachothers campaigns in the past. Tim helping Jim in 2002 against Neuville and Jim helping Tim in 2006 against Laura Brod. I think either of these two would make a great Senator. The only problem is who will it be. They have a very close relasionship with each other.

Another update on another candidate who's officially in the race and has a website already: Anne Miller