Now what???

Well.. it's official. Sue Ek has been officially drummed out of the Minnesota Representative District 15B race:

Court Removes St. Cloud Candidate From House Race

(AP) St. Paul A week before a special House election in St. Cloud, Minnesota's highest court on Monday removed the Republican candidate from the ballot as questions were raised about where she lived.

Sue Ek, who runs a natural family planning organization, was ensnared by an affidavit she signed July 9 stating she lived in a St. Paul house owned by her parents. That was about two weeks too late to meet a constitutional requirement that candidates live in a district -- in this case, St. Cloud -- for at least six months before an election.

So now what? Will the Courts step in and allow extra time to file like they did when Torricelli resigned?

Sue Ek should have set aside her ambitions and 1. Not have run at all until her residency was firmly established; and/or 2. dropped out of the race early on as soon as this situation saw the light of day. Now here we are, only a week until the elections, and we have no candidate.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if Larry Haws gets elected (a probability even if Ek was allowed to remain in the race) does that mean an even Minnesota House? as far as I can tell the current tally is a 68-66 majority in favor of the Republicans.

Regardless, the Republicans (I count myself among them) have a lot of work to do to either regain or maintain control in the November, 2006 elections.

(Filed under Elections)