More views from the Minnesota State Fair (from the Minneapolis Star Tribune)
This was a column in today's Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/what-the-state-fair-tells-us-about-minnesota-voters/324529031/
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What the State Fair tells us about Minnesota voters (Lori Sturdevant)
Evidence of Minnesotans’ interest in a major shake-up in national politics was easy to spot at the State Fair HQs of both major political parties. At the DFL pavilion, two presidential campaign tables bearing literature, trinkets and volunteer sign-up sheets vied for fairgoers’ attention. As 2 p.m. parade time neared Wednesday, a cluster of fairgoers three or four deep stood around Bernie Sanders’ table, grabbing copies of “Bernie’s agenda for America,” scribbling messages on a white board, and offering their names and e-mail addresses.
“It’s been this way every day,” said Christine Carragee of Minneapolis, who heads the Sanders campaign’s events team in Minnesota. “We’ve been signing up 300, 400 people per day,” and employing six volunteers at a time. It’s no cult of personality she’s witnessing, she said. Rather, “people come with an issue in mind — preserving Social Security, improving health care access, income inequality.”
Traffic was much lighter at the adjacent table for Hillary Clinton. Clipboards bearing “I pledge to caucus for Hillary” forms bore just two names when I peeked. Solo volunteer Dorothy Baker of Eagan allowed that she’d love to see a woman elected president. “It would be such a moment for women in this country!” she enthused.
That it would. But Clinton’s potential to be a history-maker wasn’t drawing a crowd. A lonely-looking life-sized Hillary cutout near her table waited, and waited, for someone to stand close enough to snap a selfie.
“People are tired of lip-service” from Washington, offered Minnesota Farmers Union President Doug Peterson by way of explanation of Sanders’ appeal to fairgoers. They are annoyed with a political establishment that does not seem to listen to them, he said. “That’s why Sanders is bringing excitement. He’s like a prairie populist.”...
The article goes on that over at the Republican booth Trump appears to be running away with their unscientific poll with Carson and Fiorina running distance second and third. The Republican state party chair claims he is hearing from union members who claim to be DFLers who really like Trump. If that's true, it's scary, but we have to consider the source of that comment.
Meanwhile, at the booths the state House and Senate run, they're getting fairly positive comments which indicate that Minnesotans are fairly happy with how things are going at a state level (all things considered, they ought to be). It's at a national level that everyone seems to be looking for something other than the usual.
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