The Governor's Race -- DFL

KSTP had a poll on the governor's race. The ever-industrious Luke Hellier at MDE has the numbers. First things first -- nothing really matters until the DFL settles its catfight. We still have nearly two months to the primary, but it's not looking good for the endorsed candidate, Margaret Anderson Kelliher:

In the DFL Primary Mark Dayton led Margaret Anderson Kelliher by 13 points.
Matt Entenza also closed the gap and was only four behind Kelliher.

Dayton – 39
Kelliher – 26
Entenza – 22

A few observations:

• As is often the case, being the DFL nominee doesn't really mean much. Kelliher called in an enormous amount of chits and had to expend a lot of energy to fend off R.T. Rybak to get the endorsement, only to find herself in a primary with two exceptionally profligate limousine liberal candidates who are more than willing to spend millions for air time that she cannot match. Not that she merits much sympathy.
• Entenza has been spending a ton of money for his ads and it hasn't gotten him very far. There's a reason that I refer to him as "Don Quixote de la Entenza" -- he's a rich dude with a fondness for windmills who is involved in a very quixotic quest. As long as his wife doesn't pull the plug, he'll continue to erode Kelliher's vote totals, even though there's no reason to think he'll win.
• Mark Dayton is winning this on name recognition alone. Should he win, he'll be an exceptionally easy candidate to run against.
• What's most interesting is this: despite the near-constant attention the DFLers are getting, Tom Emmer is in a statistical dead heat with each of them right now. We'll talk more about that anon.