Despicable Me

Another very bad day for Satveer Chaudhary:

Sen. Satveer Chaudhary decided Sunday he will leave it up to the voters.

Moments after being handed another political defeat, this time before a special state DFL panel, a lawyer for the controversial state senator said Chaudhary would end his attempt to win back his party's endorsement.

The three-term senator will now face an Aug. 10 primary without his party's backing but with a continuing firestorm over his attempt to get special fishing regulations for a lake where he owns a cabin.

The long knives are out for this guy. If he weren't such a deserving target, one might even feel a little bit sorry for him.

There's two ways to look at this: either Satveer Chaudhary has now received the kiss of death, or this series of misfortunes may work to his advantage. The DFL endorsement has some value in a district that has been a DFL redoubt for a long time, but it will still take an intense effort of the party activists to get enough voters to pull the lever for his lackluster primary opponent, longtime DFL SD50 operative Barb Goodwin, who served in the state house a few terms ago. Goodwin seems like a nice enough person, but her campaign, which has spoken of reform, is risible. Goodwin, like the rest of the DFL apparat, never had any public issues with Chaudhary until his troubles surfaced. It beggars belief that she would do anything other than fill the seat until a better option arrives. Meanwhile, the better option is the Republican candidate, New Brighton City Councilwoman Gina Bauman, who waits patiently for her opportunity to clean up a district that has been in DFL hands for over 30 years.

Andy Warhol once said: Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches. Chaudhary has built himself quite a clipping file in recent weeks, and it's not clear how carefully a summertime electorate is paying attention to the race. And on the bright side, he bears a remarkable resemblance to the new cartoon character in the movie Despicable Me. This might a be a good month for antiheroes.