There’s one thing that has be asked about NRSC chairman John Cornyn’s bold statement that it could take “years” to resolve the Minnesota Senate situation: While it would obviously benefit D.C. Republicans to keep Al Franken out of the chamber, wouldn’t this also trigger a huge backlash against the state GOP?
I asked Prof. Lawrence Jacobs of the University of Minnesota what sort of problems it could create for the state Republicans, if the national party were to keep the state without full representation for such a long time. And here’s what he said:
Senator Cornyn’s strategy may make political sense for Washington Republicans eager to maintain their leverage through the filibuster. But this national strategy could backfire in Minnesota against state Republicans coming into a big 2010 election year. Usually, the president’s party loses seats in the Midterm election but a backlash against Minnesota Republicans could hurt them in the race for Governor and for the competitive congressional races for the seats currently held by Michele Bachmann and by first year Representative Erik Paulsen.
It should be noted that this isn’t really Cornyn’s problem — there is no Senate election scheduled for 2010 in Minnesota. But could such an impasse really imperil Bachmann? Nooooooo!
