Ciresi won’t run for Senate

02/09/2006

He cites frustration with inertia in D.C.

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Minneapolis attorney Mike Ciresi will not seek a U.S. Senate seat this year, he said Wednesday.

Ciresi, who ran for Senate six years ago, was considered a potential Democratic candidate when incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton announced last year he would not run for re-election in 2006. Even Ciresi said he thought he would be a candidate but decided he would be more frustrated than effective in the current climate in Washington, D.C.

“I was very close to running. In fact, everything was in place to run,” he said. But watching the Senate right now, including the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, made him decline a run. “You have to be true to yourself and say what type of person are you? By nature, history and inclination, I like to get things done.”

And he just didn’t feel he could do that in the Senate.

He likened his potential race to a dog that chases after a train only to catch it.

“Now, what do you do with it?” asked Ciresi, who has won big cases against tobacco firms, defective birth-control device makers and Union Carbide in the 1984 Bhopal, India, chemical disaster that killed thousands.

His decision to forgo the race solidifies the field of major Senate candidates to three. They are Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy and Democrats Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar and veterinarian Ford Bell.

The three will debate on March 3 at Mounds View’s Mermaid entertainment center.

Ciresi said he expects he will stay involved in politics and didn’t close the door to a future run for office. He did not endorse any of the remaining candidates for Senate.