A new Senate candidate
October 11th, 2007 – 6:41 AM by Dennis J. McGrath
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For some time, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer had been an unofficial but very visible U.S. senate candidate, and on Wednesday he made it official. Here’s our story by Bob von Sternberg about yesterday’s announcement.
As a professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas, Nelson-Pallmeyer has already made a name for himself as a speaker, writer and activist. And as a semi-candidate for the senate, he’s been invited to a number of DFL candidate debates recently. So unlike most candidates who aren’t household names, there’s already quite a bit of information available about him.
Here’s our video and here’s our story about a Sept. 30 debate at Augsburg College, which included Nelson-Pallmeyer.
And here’s his opening statement at a Sept. 5 debate sponsored by the Golden Valley Progressives. Several other videos covering the entire debate are also posted on You Tube.
Here’s a St. Thomas page about him, which includes a list of his books. Among them: a novel called “Harvest of Cain.”
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (left), Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen and Al Franken |
Here’s his campaign website: www.jackforsenate.org (Don’t confuse it with a jackforsenate.com, which belongs to a 2004 Republican candidate in Connecticut.)
And here are a couple of blog posts about him:
MNPublius includes a copy of the campaign’s pre-announcement, and a related discussion about bean feeds.
This post on Norweigianty is about the Sept. 30 Augsburg debate. It describes Nelson-Pallmeyer as getting “the most frequent and loudest applause. He was also pandering to the audience to a certain degree.”
Nelson-Pallmeyer made waves early last year when he announced he would challenge U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo for the DFL endorsement. About a month later, Sabo surprised everyone by announcing that he would retire, and Keith Ellison went on to win the party endorsement and the seat.
Nelson-Pallmeyer has a strong following among those in the party’s progressive wing. It’s no surprise that he’s chosen the Wellstone green and white color scheme.
What impact do you think Nelson-Pallmeyer will have in the race for the DFL endorsement for the senate? Does he automatically become a major factor, or does he still have to prove that he can win over rank-and-file delegates? And if he does become the party’s nominee, how does he stack up against Sen. Norm Coleman?
3 Responses to "A new Senate candidate"
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (left), Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen and Al Franken.
That’s the best we can do?
A “semi-candidate”? That’s good for at least 5, 6 very cheap jokes.
(I’m a ’semi-driver’. See? Cheap)
Franken isn’t the very most liberal in the race anymore, which probably helps him among the rank and file.
I think he is a big factor. Outstate he might not be well known, but he was an important player in the 5th district drama last time around.
He’s strong on issues close to the hearts of the DFL base, and he’s very authentic. I think he has a problem with money and favors to call in from within the party compared to Franken (for the endorsement), and I think he fares much worse than Franken in November vs. Coleman, but if he doesn’t keep his pledge to abide, he could be a big vote getter in the primary, at least in the cities.