A New Wellstone?

Here's some more on Keith Ellison's win in the Minnesota Democratic primary to replace retiring representative Martin Sabo (noted in this morning's news roundup). First, some background from the Star-Tribune:

Ellison is a two-term legislator from north Minneapolis who won the party endorsement in May. Tuesday he beat back primary challenges from former state DFL Chair Mike Erlandson, Sabo's longtime chief of staff and his choice of successor, and former state Sen. Ember Reichgott Junge, who made health care her central issue, and Minneapolis City Council Member Paul Ostrow. Erlandson ran second with 31 percent of the vote; Reichgott Junge ran third with 21 percent.

To make history, Ellison still must win in November, but the Fifth District leans hard to the left. That makes him the favorite against Republican Alan Fine, Independence candidate Tammy Lee and Green Party member Jay Pond in November. Pond has challenged Sabo in the past with minimal success.

And here's some more from John Nichols at The Nation:

Ellison distinguished himself as a passionate progressive who, in the words of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, mounted a campaign that was "reminiscent of the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone."

Ellison featured a photo of himself with Wellstone, the late senator from Minnesota who has become a national progressive icon, in his campaign mailings. He even borrowed the color green, which was used in Wellstone's three Senate campaigns, as the background for "Ellison for Congress" signs and shirts.

It was Ellison's outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq -- which Wellstone also opposed in a critical Senate vote shortly before his death in a 2002 plane crash -- that helped him to win the pre-primary endorsenment of the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and the enthusiastic support of grassroots activists during a fast-paced campaign that began only after Sabo unexpectedly announced in March that he would not seek a new term.

"Nearly 2,600 Americans have been killed since the war began on March 19, 2003, and an the estimated 15,800 have been wounded. President Bush recently admitted to 30,000 Iraqi dead, but other estimates put the toll as high as 100,000," argued Ellison. "It is time to admit this war was a terrible mistake and bring our troops home as soon as possible."
[...]
Ellison also departed from the political norm by targeting what his campaign referred to as "unlikely" primary voters, placing special emphasis on drawing people of color, gays and lesbians and war foes to the polls. In particular, the Ellison campaign focused on getting members of the burgeoning Somali community to vote -- a project to which Wellstone also devoted a great deal of time.