A Kennedy to be proud of!
Summertime in Minnesota means one thing.....community festivals. I had the opportunity to walk in the Prior Lake Lakefront Days parade with Congresman Mark Kennedy. Congressman Kennedy is running for the soon to be vacated Senatorial seat held by Senator Mark Dayton. I wanted to post a couple of quick thoughts on the parade in general and Congressman Kennedy in particular.
The thing that struck me the most was the representation of the Republican candidates for office. Now Scott County is very red. As Savage Republican and Amendment X are wont to remark "there are no elected Democratic representatives in Scott County until you get to the US Senate (Mark Dayton)". However every single Republican candidate that was running for office was at the parade today and (with the exception of the incumbent state house and senate holders) all had their own unit in the parade. The DFL, meanwhile, had one shared unit and none of the candidates bothered to show up for the parade (as far as I saw). I had the opportunity to speak with all the Republican candidates except Pat Anderson (incumbent state auditor). All were excited to be there and thankful that our triple digit heat from last week had finally broken. It was a beautiful day for a parade!
As far as Congressman Kennedy goes, for a brief 2 years, Congressman Kennedy represented Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District so this is familiar territory for him. Because this is parade season, the Congressman arrived to our location (it was his second appearance of the day) just a few minutes before our unit was set to step off and just in time to walk right in front of the DFL float as they stepped off. There was a little good natured kidding between the two as the Congressman cordially greeted the amassed DFLers.
Once we got going, the Congressman was a whirlwind of motion. He crossed back and forth across the street constantly, shaking hands with young and old alike. This is what he does best. The comments from the crowd were nothing but supportive (which surprised Mrs. Kennedy who confided in me that there had been times when the Klobuchar supporters were less than polite in their greetings of the Congressman). Comments ran the gamut..."we're pulling for you!" to "we'll win this". This was, no doubt a friendly crowd, but that didn't stop the Congressman from reaching out to those who were not shy about showing who had their vote (there were a few Klobuchar lawn signs and stickers in the crowd). When you say that he is "running" for office, you can take that literally. Even though the parade itself moved very slowly at times, you could not keep up with Congressman Kennedy.
All in all, it was a fun experience and one that I hope to get again.
Oh and for those of you who are looking for pictures - they are coming. I am a 35mm girl. I know this is the digital era, but I am more comfortable with my good old trusty Pentax camera. As soon as I get the prints back from the developer (tomorrow probably) I will post pictures of the parade.
Cross posted at Ladies Logic
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home