With apologies to the Chordettes – Bum bum bum …

…bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum

Mr. Sandman
Are you a bad dream?
Knock off a Congressman
to elect one who’s Mean.
Who’ll work for corporatists
rolling in clover
Destroying life on Earth till it’s-all-over?

I see in the Trib that Skip Sandman, who ran for Congress in 2014 is throwing his hat in the Congressional race again for 2018. He got 4% of the vote the first time as a candidate for the Green Party. If he got that many in 2018 he might be able to snatch victory away from a Democratic candidate. Nolan only beat Mills in 2016 by a scant 2 percent.

Such considerations don’t much trouble third party candidates like George Wallace, who helped elect Richard Nixon, or Ralph Nader, who did in Al Gore, and I should know! They didn’t bother me. I ran for the same seat in Congress that Skip is after in both 1992 and 2006 as a third party choice. In the first race I did even better than Skip’s 4% winning 7% of the vote:

James L. Oberstar, Democratic-Farmer-Labor 167,104
Phil Herwig, Independent-Republican 83,823
Harry Robb Welty, Perot Choice 22,619
Floyd A. Henspeter, Term Limits Candidate 8,602

I think Trump’s Ragnarök will provide a safe cushion for the incumbent Nolan but I’m not so sure how an unknown replacement for Nolan will affect the General election race a year from now. FUN FACT – Minnesota Populist politician Ignatius Donnelly penned a fairly popular novel by that name in the 1880’s.

About the author

Harry is a ferociously good natured eccentric in Duluth Minnesota who detests traitors dressed up as Uncle Sam. You can find somewhat better edited writings of his at the Duluth Reader "contributors." page. The URL is:

https://duluthreader.com/contributors/h/84/284-harry-welty