An odd event occurred on Sunday, May 3: U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar held an event, a press conference, in support of her campaign to be become Minnesota Governor.
Forget for the moment the question as to why a titan of the Senate like Klobuchar would give up that status to serve as the governor of a Midwestern flyover state. I mean, why not run in California or New York, states that also have elections this year?
I had assumed that when Walz decided back in January not to run for a third term that he would have won going away, it was finally time to elevate one of Minnesota’s diverse cast of progressive superstars, like Ilhan Omar or Keith Ellison.
Instead, Democrats went with the most boring member of their deep roster: the senior U.S. senator.
Who holds a press conference on a Sunday? The Senate is in the middle of yet another two-week break. It won’t reconvene until Monday, May 11. Why interrupt a middle day of the three- or four-day weekends of the state’s political press corps?
Regardless, the event played to rave reviews. From the Minnesota Reformer,
Sen. Amy Klobuchar seeks clean break from Walz, releases anti-fraud plan
A “clean break”? A break from what or whom? The Reformer reports,
The senior senator on Sunday released over 40 proposals to both eradicate fraud and streamline how services are delivered to Minnesotans.
What fraud? The list of 40 items do not form anything that would resemble a “plan” in any sense of that word, they represent a laundry list of ideas already put forward by Republicans, later stolen by Tim Walz, and some of which have allegedly already been implemented.
Star Tribune columnist Rochelle Olson cheers,
Klobuchar comes out swinging in campaign kickoff
“Swinging”? Against what or whom? As a careful reader of the Star Tribune news coverage, I gather that Klobuchar is running unopposed on the November ballot. Why “kickoff” a “campaign” when the outcome has already been decided. It just seems like a big waste of everyone’s time and resources.
As it happens, the state legislature still has two weeks to go in their 2026 regular session. Why not just implement these ideas now, since most of them are from Republicans anyway, and get on with it? Why do we have to wait until 2027?
Olson ends her column with this summary of Klobuchar’s Sunday performance,
She understood her assignment, which is laying the track to restore Minnesotans’ faith in the ability of government to be a force for good in their lives.
“Restore”? When was that faith ever lost? And who lost it?
