Obama rallies Minnesota Democrats in Rochester

10/30/2006

Patrick Condon, Associated Press
Last update: October 30, 2006 – 8:28 PM

ROCHESTER, Minn. — With a week and a day until the election and a visit from one of their party’s biggest names of the moment, Democrats in Rochester were feeling good Monday.

“I feel a wave forming. I think this is a seminal year for Democrats” said Sharon Vandenorth, a Mayo Clinic employee who joined a huge rally for U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar and 1st District congressional candidate Tim Walz that featured as the main attraction U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

The crowd of more than 1,000 Democrats gave Obama a rock star’s welcome, reflective of his growing national stature. The senator from Illinois has stoked that interest in recent weeks by admitting that he’s considering a presidential run in 2008.

“I need you to knock on doors. I need you to make phone calls. I need you to volunteer,” Obama told the crowd. “And if you do that, on November 7th we are going to take America back.”

The growing city of Rochester is a linchpin of Democratic hopes in Minnesota this year. Once a Republican stronghold, the DFL Party two years ago unexpectedly picked up several legislative seats and transformed the area into a key swing region. Walz, once considered a long shot against Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht, has in recent weeks surged onto the list of possible Democratic pickups this year.

“The eyes of Minnesota were on Rochester two years ago, when independents and Democrats and moderate Republicans came together and voted for change,” Klobuchar said. “You’re going to do it again in 2006.”

Both Walz and Klobuchar, who’s been running ahead of the Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, in the polls, hammered on the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress.

“We have a moral responsibility to leave this country in better shape than we found it,” Walz said. “This administration and this Congress have failed to do that.”

Vandenorth, who’s been door-knocking recently for several local candidates, said voters in the city are responsive to the Democratic message of change. “I’m hearing a lot of undecided and even Republican voters say they’re listening to the message of Democratic candidates,” she said.

Merl Winter, a recently retired educator who came out for the rally, said he’s heard the same sentiment from many friends.

“These are people my age who said they’ll be voting a straight Democratic ticket this year,” Winter said. “Four years ago, they all called themselves Republicans.”

Republicans were quick to criticize the three candidates in the spotlight in Rochester.

Mark Drake, a spokesman for the state Republican Party, said in a news release that Obama, Klobuchar and Walz have “far-left views” that are out of touch with voters in the district. “With their mutual support of tax increases, abortion on demand, and opposition to the marriage amendment, these candidates are three liberal peas in a pod,” he said.

Obama, meanwhile, said it’s an opportune time for the Democratic Party, with more Americans picking up on what he said is a sense that the country is not headed in the right direction.

“The country is in a different kind of mood than it’s been in the last couple election cycles,” he said. “There’s a seriousness to the voters this time. They are paying attention.”