Primaries

Minnesota's only openly gay Republican legislator, Sen. Paul Koering of Fort Ripley, fended off attacks from anti-gay marriage groups Tuesday and won a hard-fought primary election against Brainerd City Council Member Kevin Goedker, who campaigned as a family-values candidate.

In one of the most closely watched of 20 legislative primary contests in the state, Twin Cities-based Minnesota Citizens in Defense of Marriage had leafletted cars at Brainerd-area churches Sunday to publicize Koering's failure to vote three years ago on a floor amendment to prohibit the promotion or teaching of homosexuality and bisexuality in public schools.

I wasn't terribly interested in any of the primaries from yesterday, except this one. I think that he won is a big deal. It's yet another single of a shift in American attitudes.

When Koering originally "came out" a year or two ago, I wrote him a letter congratulating him on it, and took him to task for being a gay wing-nut. He wrote me back a nice letter, and a couple went back and forth.. and things got a little odd after that.. but since this is a "family blog" (har), I'll just leave it at that.