Democrats and Minnesota

On Race to the Right today there was a discussion on the importance of the governor's race in Minnesota politics. Although Republicans have made significant gains in the last decade, the last election should serve as a wake up call that Minnesota is not yet a red state by any stretch of the imagination. If the democrats would start offering centrist candidates, or at least candidates who could do a convincing job at portraying themselves as centrists, Democrats would win. I would submit that the reason for the successes of the Republican party in Minnesota was the poor quality of democrat candidates. Specifically, the DFL has been offering candidates who have been on the extreme left, and who have made no attempt to move to the center. Lately the trend for the democrat party in general has been to move further to the left. It will portend favorably for Republican candidates should that trend continue. However, the task of turning Minnesota squarely into the Red category still remains formidable.