2006 New Member Profiles
Minnesota Senate: Amy Klobuchar (D)
The Almanac of American Politics
© National Journal Group Inc.
| Amy Klobuchar |
| Born: |
May 25, 1960 |
| Family: |
Husband, John; one child |
| Religion: |
Protestant |
| Education: |
Yale University, B.A. 1982; University of Chicago Law School, J.D. 1985 |
| Career: |
Lobbyist; lawyer |
Elected
Office: |
Hennepin County attorney, 1998-2006
|
Amy Klobuchar will become the third occupant of this Senate seat in as many elections after her successful bid to succeed Democratic Sen.
Mark Dayton, who declined to run for a second term.
When Dayton announced his retirement in February 2005, this open Senate race figured to be one of the Republican Party's best opportunities to pick up a Democratic-held seat. But Klobuchar, in her first bid for statewide office, built an early lead over GOP three-term Rep. Mark Kennedy and never relinquished it.
Klobuchar was the first to formally announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination, in April 2005; national child-safety advocate Patty Wetterling and wealthy veterinarian Ford Bell later joined the field. Wetterling, however, left the race in early 2006 to run for Kennedy's open House seat, and Bell dropped out in July, one month after Klobuchar was endorsed at the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party state convention. With a clear path to the nomination in the September 12 primary, she was able to conserve her resources and focus her sights on Kennedy.
Klobuchar, whose father is a well-known former columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, had the advantage of serving two elected terms as attorney in Hennepin County, home to almost a quarter of the state's population. A former president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, she framed herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor whose office spearheaded a crackdown on gun crimes and secured nearly 300 homicide convictions.
Minnesota Republicans had quickly united behind Kennedy's candidacy after a comeback attempt by former GOP Sen. Rod Grams, who lost the seat to Dayton in 2000, went nowhere. But Kennedy struggled to distance himself from an unpopular Republican president and from his national party.
Klobuchar called Kennedy a "rubber stamp for President Bush" who supported Bush's policies more than 90 percent of the time. Kennedy touted himself as an independent, bipartisan leader who would not "take up Senator Dayton's place on the fringe." He also sought to portray Klobuchar as an ineffective liberal by linking her to the unpopular outgoing incumbent -- in April, Time magazine ranked Dayton as one of the five worst senators. But ultimately, Kennedy's efforts failed to gain traction against the drag of the Iraq war and Bush's low approval ratings in Minnesota.
