Has The Minneapolis Police Murder Hurt Klobuchar?

The chart above reflects the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between March 23rd and 26th of 1500 adults nationwide, with a 3.2 point margin of error. This chart reflects the views of Black voters on some of serious candidates Joe Biden could pick to be his vice-presidential running mate.

The Black vote is very important to the Democratic Party, and it would help Biden to pick a candidate well-liked by Black voters. This chart shows that Elizabeth Warren is viewed favorably by most Blacks (about 65%). Others who do well are Amy Klobuchar (54%), Kamala Harris (53%), and Stacey Abrams (49%).

But the poll was done before the police murder in Minneapolis, and one has to consider whether that has hurt Klobuchar's chances to be selected. Before being elected to statewide office, Klobuchar was a prosecuting attorney in Minneapolis, and her record of prosecuting police for abuse is not necessarily one to be proud of. Here is just a part of how The New York Times is reporting it.

Senator Amy Klobuchar swept into office in 2007 as a former tough prosecutor, boasting of how she had reduced crime in the most populous county in Minnesota. But as protests over George Floyd’s death in police custody bring chaos and violence to Minneapolis, her record as prosecutor there is facing renewed scrutiny as she prepares to be vetted as a leading vice-presidential contender.

With a police force in Minneapolis that has long faced accusations of racism and complaints of abuse, Ms. Klobuchar declined to bring charges against multiple police officers who were involved in shootings during her seven-year tenure. Instead she often opted to send cases to a grand jury, a common practice at the time but one that some law enforcement experts say favors police officers.

On Friday, Ms. Klobuchar said that grand juries were used “in every jurisdiction across our state,” and that she now regretted those decisions.

“I think that was wrong now,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I think it would have been much better if I took the responsibility and looked at the cases and made the decision myself.”. . .

During her own presidential campaign, Ms. Klobuchar faced continued protests, as well as some calls to drop out of the race from local black leaders in Minneapolis, after news reports found numerous faults in the prosecution of a black teenager named Myon Burrell while Ms. Klobuchar was the prosecutor. Mr. Burrell had been charged in the murder of an 11-year-old girl and was convicted, but maintained his innocence, and one of Mr. Burrell’s co-defendents had said he was in fact the gunman responsible.

Two days before Super Tuesday in March, a rally in her home state was shut down by protesters demanding she do more to help free Mr. Burrell.

In the months since she dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Mr. Biden, Ms. Klobuchar has taken steps to rectify some of her record.

On the Wednesday after Mr. Biden dominated Super Tuesday states, Ms. Klobuchar sent a letter from her Senate office to the district attorney’s office in Hennepin County, asking them to launch an independent review of Mr. Burrell’s case. She also met with Mr. Burrell’s family and local activists.

Has this hurt Klobuchar's chances of being selected? I have to believe it probably has. Joe Biden needs Black voters to show up in large numbers next November, and picking Klobuchar now would just create a problem that he doesn't need.

Biden Tops Trump In Poll (& Dems Prefer Warren As VP)

The chart above is from a CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between April 28th and May 1st of 2,200 respondents nationwide, with a 2.5 point margin of error.

The poll showed Joe Biden with a 6 point lead over Donald Trump. That is consistent with other recent polls.

The poll also questioned about 800 Democrats on who they thought Biden should choose as his vice-presidential running mate. Senator Elizabeth Warren led the pack. About 71% said she should be considered to be the VP choice. Others receiving significant support for consideration were Kamala Harris (59%), Stacey Abrams (50%), and Amy Klobuchar (49%).

When the respondents were asked to pick a single candidate, Warren led the others with 36%. Harris had 19%, Abrams had 14%, and Klobuchar had 13%.

NOTE -- Biden promised during the debates that his VP choice would be a woman.

Dems Like Biden's Promise To Choose Woman As Veep

The charts above reflect the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between March 22nd and 24th of of a national sample of 547 Democratic primary voters.

In the last Democratic debate, Joe Biden promised to choose a woman as his vice-presidential running mate. Democratic voters like that idea. An overwhelming 80% of them approve of that decision by Biden.

Who could that woman be? Voters are split on the best choice. Elizabeth Warren leads the pack with 27%. Others are Kamala Harris with 18%, Amy Klobuchar with 10%, and Stacey Abrams with 9%.

Personally, I think all of them would be good.

The Field Is Down To Four As Klobuchar Drops Out

Amy Klobuchar is dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. That narrows the field to four candidates (after Steyer and Buttigieg also dropped out over the weekend). The remaining candidates are Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Michael Bloomberg. Someone might mention that Tulsi Gabbard is still running, but it's hard to consider her a real candidate since almost no one is voting for her.

I expected Klobuchar to drop out fairly soon, but I was surprised that it came this quickly. I had thought she would stay in through Super Tuesday (when her home state of Minnesota votes). But she has decided to give Joe Biden a better chance on Super Tuesday. She has endorsed him.

I already liked Klobuchar (even though I didn't vote for her), but this further raises my estimation of her. She decided that choosing a candidate that can beat Trump was more important than feeding her own vanity (she would likely have won Minnesota) -- and she doesn't see Sanders as that candidate.

Klobuchar Leads In Her Home State Of Minnesota

The chart above is from the Mason-Dixon / MPR News / Star-Tribune Poll done between February 17th and 20th of 500 likely Democratic primary voters in Minnesota, with a 4.5 point margin of error.

The poll shows Amy Klobuchar leading in Minnesota -- her home state. Minnesota is a Super Tuesday state, and will vote on March 3rd. It is critical that Klobuchar hold this state, or she will no longer be a viable candidate.

New York Times Endorses Warren AND Klobuchar

 (These caricatures of Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar are by DonkeyHotey.)

The voting to choose a Democratic presidential nominee will begin in Iowa in about two weeks. And I will be voting on Super Tuesday in about a month and a half (March 3rd).

I have not publicly supported any of the candidates until now -- and I am convinced that any of the Democrats running will make a much better president than Donald Trump. But it's now time for me to get off the fence.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be voting for Elizabeth Warren on March 3rd. My second choice would be Amy Klobuchar. I just think it's past time for this country to have a woman as president, and both Warren and Klobuchar would be an excellent choice.

It seems like I'm not alone in that view. The editorial board of the New York Times has made their endorsement for the Democratic nominee. Instead of choosing a single nominee, that board has endorsed two candidates -- Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. Here is some of what they had to say:

On the Democratic side, an essential debate is underway between two visions that may define the future of the party and perhaps the nation. Some in the party view President Trump as an aberration and believe that a return to a more sensible America is possible. Then there are those who believe that President Trump was the product of political and economic systems so rotten that they must be replaced.

The Democratic primary contest is often portrayed as a tussle between moderates and progressives. To some extent that’s true. But when we spent significant time with the leading candidates, the similarity of their platforms on fundamental issues became striking.

Nearly any of them would be the most progressive president in decades on issues like health care, the economy and government’s allocations of resources. Where they differ most significantly is not the what but the how, in whether they believe the country’s institutions and norms are up to the challenge of the moment. . . .

The history of the editorial board would suggest that we would side squarely with the candidate with a more traditional approach to pushing the nation forward, within the realities of a constitutional framework and a multiparty country. But the events of the past few years have shaken the confidence of even the most committed institutionalists. We are not veering away from the values we espouse, but we are rattled by the weakness of the institutions that we trusted to undergird those values.

There are legitimate questions about whether our democratic system is fundamentally broken. Our elections are getting less free and fair, Congress and the courts are increasingly partisan, foreign nations are flooding society with misinformation, a deluge of money flows through our politics. And the economic mobility that made the American dream possible is vanishing.

Both the radical and the realist models warrant serious consideration. If there were ever a time to be open to new ideas, it is now. If there were ever a time to seek stability, now is it.

That’s why we’re endorsing the most effective advocates for each approach. They are Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. . . .

Elizabeth Warren has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic left.

Senator Warren is a gifted storyteller. She speaks elegantly of how the economic system is rigged against all but the wealthiest Americans, and of “our chance to rewrite the rules of power in our country,” as she put it in a speech last month. In her hands, that story has the passion of a convert, a longtime Republican from Oklahoma and a middle-class family, whose work studying economic realities left her increasingly worried about the future of the country. The word “rigged” feels less bombastic than rooted in an informed assessment of what the nation needs to do to reassert its historic ideals like fairness, generosity and equality.

She is also committed to reforming the fundamental structures of government and the economy — her first commitment is to anti-corruption legislation, which is not only urgently needed but also has the potential to find bipartisan support. She speaksfluently about foreign policy, including how to improve NATO relations, something that will be badly needed after Mr. Trump leaves office.

Her campaign’s plans, in general, demonstrate a serious approach to policymaking that some of the other candidates lack. Ms. Warren accurately describes a lack of housing construction as the primary driver of the nation’s housing crisis, and she has proposed both increases in government funding for housing construction, and changes in regulatory policy to encourage local governments to allow more construction.

She has plans to sharply increase federal investment in clean energy research and to wean the American economy from fossil fuels. She has described how she would reduce the economic and political power of large corporations and give workers more ability to bargain collectively. And she has proposed a sweeping expansion of government support for Americans at every stage of life, from universal child care to free public college to expanded Social Security. . . .

Ms. Warren’s path to the nomination is challenging, but not hard to envision. The four front-runners are bunched together both in national polls and surveys in states holding the first votes, so small shifts in voter sentiment can have an outsize influence this early in the campaign. There are plenty of progressives who are hungry for major change but may harbor lingering concerns about a messenger as divisive as Mr. Sanders. At the same time, some moderate Democratic primary voters see Ms. Warren as someone who speaks to their concerns about inequality and corruption. Her earlier leaps in the polls suggest she can attract more of both. . . .

Amy Klobuchar has emerged as a standard-bearer for the Democratic center. Her vision goes beyond the incremental. Given the polarization in Washington and beyond, the best chance to enact many progressive plans could be under a Klobuchar administration.

The senator from Minnesota is the very definition of Midwestern charisma, grit and sticktoitiveness. Her lengthy tenure in the Senate and bipartisan credentials would make her a deal maker (a real one) and uniter for the wings of the party — and perhaps the nation.

She promises to put the country on the path — through huge investments in green infrastructure and legislation to lower emissions — to achieve 100 percent net-zero emissions no later than 2050. She pledges to cut childhood poverty in half in a decade by expanding the earned-income and child care tax credits. She also wants to expand food stamps and overhaul housing policy and has developed the field’s most detailed plan for treating addiction and mental illness. And this is all in addition to pushing for a robust public option in health care, free community college and a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Ms. Klobuchar speaks about issues like climate change, the narrowing middle class, gun safety and trade with an empathy that connects to voters’ lived experiences, especially in the middle of the country. The senator talks, often with self-deprecating humor, about growing up the daughter of two union workers, her Uncle Dick’s deer stand, her father’s struggles with alcoholism and her Christian faith.

Ms. Klobuchar promises a foreign policy based on leading by example, instead of by threat-via-tweet. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she serves on the subcommittees responsible for oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the nation’s borders and its immigration, citizenship and refugee laws. In 13 years as a senator, she has sponsored and voted on dozens of national defense measures, including military action in Libya and Syria. Her record shows that she is confident and thoughtful, and she reacts to data — what you’d want in a crisis. . . .

Any hope of restoring unity in the country will require modesty, a willingness to compromise and the support of the many demographics that make up the Democratic coalition — young and old, in red states and blue, black and brown and white. For Senator Klobuchar, that’s acknowledging the depth of the nation’s dysfunction. For Senator Warren, it’s understanding that the country is more diverse than her base.

There will be those dissatisfied that this page is not throwing its weight behind a single candidate, favoring centrists or progressives. But it’s a fight the party itself has been itching to have since Mrs. Clinton’s defeat in 2016, and one that should be played out in the public arena and in the privacy of the voting booth. That’s the very purpose of primaries, to test-market strategies and ideas that can galvanize and inspire the country.

Ms. Klobuchar and Ms. Warren right now are the Democrats best equipped to lead that debate.

May the best woman win.

Amy Klobuchar Becomes The 11th Democrat In The 2020 Race

(Photo of Amy Klobuchar announcing her candidacy is from CNN.com.)

Standing in a 14 degree snowstorm in Minnesota, Senator Amy Klobuchar announced she is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.

She joins 10 other candidates who are already in the race -- Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Cory Booker, Senator Kristen Gillibrand, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Rep. Joe Delaney, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, author Marianne Williamson, and businessman Andrew Yang.

Klobuchar is trying to stake herself out as the pragmatist in the race -- a more centrist candidate who is more interested in solutions than policy. Will that be enough to separate her from the pack? So far, she has not polled well, but that could improve now that she's an official candidate. And like the others, she has plenty of time to build support before any primaries or caucuses are held.