For those of you who haven’t already heard, Ashwin Madia, who we interviewed way back in December here at SM, won the Democratic Primary in his Minnesota Congressional district against rather tough odds:
DFL activists Saturday chose first-time office seeker and Iraq War veteran Ashwin Madia as their endorsed candidate for the Third Congressional District seat being vacated by Republican Jim Ramstad.
It took eight ballots before state Sen. Terri Bonoff, who had trailed Madia throughout the day, withdrew.
DFLers left the convention energized by the possibility of having a Democrat elected to the seat in the western Twin Cities suburbs for the first time in 50 years. [Link]
I find that there are some interesting parallels between the strategy he used to beat the more well known and experienced Terri Bonoff, and the strategy Barack Obama has used to pretty much beat Hillary Clinton:
- Both women were the presumptive front-runners with loads of traditional political experience and establishment backing
- First-time participants make up the base of both Madia’s and Obama’s supporters and are very enthusiastic
- Madia and Obama both realized that it is the delegates that matter most and went after every one
- Rhetorical charm, not attacks were employed by both during debates and speeches to win support
Eric Black, a writer at MinnPost.com who has a great play-by-play of the selection process, made the following observations about Madia’s campaign that also struck me:
- Ashwin Madia, a very young, dark-skinned, bachelor lawyer with a foreign-sounding name, who had not run for anything since college, who started with name recognition in the zero range, beat state Sen. Terri Bonoff, a bright, attractive, well-regarded, well-financed woman for the DFL endorsement
- As the candidates trouped around to various joint appearances and debates, Madia continued to impress audiences. I moderated two debates in the race. Madia didn’t crush Bonoff and Hovland with big put-downs, not at all. As I heard it, his rhetorical charm has been his knack of at least giving the impression that he had actually answered the question he was asked, more often than many politicians do.
Politico.com observed the following:
- “It became very clear [Madia] was working very hard and [Bonoff] didn’t take him very seriously,” said Minnesota-based political analyst Barry Casselman. “On paper, she was the perfect candidate, a moderate who fit the district, yet she lost.” [Link]
Like many of Clinton’s supporters, Bonoff’s supporters were left wondering what happened:
“He came out of nowhere and he doesn’t have a voting record,” Kay continued. “Anybody can say something. I just don’t know where he stands.”… [Link]
Madia has a really good shot at winning this congressional seat and becoming the first Indian American Congressman since Bobby Jindal. Despite the fact that the 3rd usually goes to the Republicans, anti-Republican sentiment is high in Minnesota and the rest of the country. You can tell the Republican’s there are afraid because they immediately started distorting him:
DFL leaders talked of the need to focus the passion that was brought to the endorsement against presumptive Republican opponent Rep. Erik Paulsen, who is running without opposition. Immediately after Madia’s endorsement, state Republican leaders said Madia was “pretty far out there in the liberal fringe.”
“He’s far from a moderate and he’s far from a centrist,” said Republican spokesman Mark Drake, who pointed to Madia’s opposition to tax relief and to surveillance programs, as well as the endorsement on Thursday by U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. [Link]
Ummm. Madia is actually a former Republican who voted for Bob Dole and supported John McCain in 2000. I asked him about his Republican roots in my interview.
The fight now focuses on Erik Paulsen:
Madia labored hard to build a grassroots organization and went after delegates hard in recent endorsement conventions.
Madia estimated he will have to raise $3 million during the upcoming campaign, but said he is confident he can do it.
Early in the day, DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez urged delegates to focus on defeating Paulsen, the expected Republican candidate, in November instead of getting caught up in differences that might emerge during Saturday’s endorsement fight. [Link]
If you want to support Madia’s campaign you can volunteer or donate $.
