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Minnesota DFLers cheer Edwards selection, but effect is harder to gauge
by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio
July 6, 2004

U.S. Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) waves as he carries his son, Jack, followed by his wife, Elizabeth, and younger daughter, Emma Claire, as they walk out of their home in Georgetown after Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, selected Edwards to be his presidential running mate for the 2004 election. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Many Minnesota Democrats are cheering Tuesday's selection of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as presidential candidate John Kerry's running mate. They say Edwards brings energy to the ticket, and will appeal to undecided and moderate voters. But political analysts say vice presidential picks haven't made much difference in the outcome of recent elections.

St. Paul, Minn. — John Edwards is popular among many Minnesota Democrats. He finished second to John Kerry in the DFL caucuses in March, getting about 27 percent of the vote in a presidential preference ballot.

Emily Wenzel is a Minnesota delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Boston later this month. She's 25 years old, and a teacher in Rochester. Wenzel says she started out as a Howard Dean supporter, then switched to Edwards when Dean started dropping in the polls. She says when she saw Edwards speak at the state DFL convention in May, words, he "wowed" her.

"I knew he was a nice guy, a great guy, in fact I saw his wife speak a month or two earlier in Rochester. And she impressed me. But when I saw him speak, it almost blew me away, because I really listened to everything he was trying to say, and in fact, he almost reminded me of Bill Clinton when he spoke when he was president," she said.

Wenzel says she and her friends have been saying Kerry needed to pick Edwards as his running mate. One of the Minnesota chairs of the Kerry campaign, Minneapolis attorney Sam Kaplan, says he heard that from many Minnesotans.

"I can't tell you how many calls I got from people who said, 'please tell him to choose Edwards.' I mean, that was the common call that I got, again and again and again," according to Kaplan.

Kaplan says people are impressed by Edwards' energy and his message of two Americas, one for the privileged and another for everyone else.

While Kerry and Edwards' supporters are praising the ticket, Democrats who support Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich for president are skeptical. Faith Kidder, the state coordinator for the Kucinich campaign, says both Kerry and Edwards supported the decision to go to war in Iraq. She says Kucinich supporters want to see a focus on world peace.

"I wanted Congressman Kucinich to be vice president. I guess, really truthfully, I didn't expect it ... and in some ways, I'm kind of relieved because I had been hearing that Kerry was going to go for somebody with really strong military background," she said.

Kidder says Kucinich supporters will follow Kucinich's lead at the national convention. If Kucinich throws his support to Kerry, they'll back the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

While Edwards may not do much to shore up Kerry's support on the left, he might help Kerry with some voters on the right. Political scientist Lilly Goren from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul says Edwards could appeal to crossover and undecided voters, as he did during the primary season when he was a presidential candidate.

Goren says Edwards may help Kerry pick up enough undecideds to carry swing states like Minnesota.

"It's not clear that somebody like John Edwards can bring an entire state with him in the electoral map, but it is a question of where can the Kerry campaign look to pick up some votes," she said.

Goren says vice presidential picks haven't generally had much of an electoral payoff in recent elections. She points out that in 1988, polls showed strong support for Democrat Michael Dukakis' running mate, Lloyd Bentsen, yet Dukakis lost.

Undecided voter Connie Mills of St. Paul says the Edwards pick won't have much impact on her vote for president.

"It doesn't really influence me one way or the other. I guess it does lend some credibility to Kerry but it's not enough to sway me," Mills said.

Mills says she doesn't know much about Edwards, and says she's more interested in seeing Bush and Kerry debate the issues. Mills is a former corporate middle manager who lost her job about eight months ago. She says she thinks both Bush and Kerry are too optimistic about job growth, and says she wants to hear more from both candidates about their vision for the economy.

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