Peter Wagenius, aide to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and son of Rep. Jean Wagenius, has announced he will seek the Minnesota Senate seat being vacated by Larry Pogemiller.
Wagenius, 40, is a policy adviser to Rybak and long has been a DFL campaign strategist.
He’s joining what promises to be a long list of DFL candidates. Jacob Frey, 30, an attorney and party activist and organizer of progressive events, also has announced his intention of entering the race.
And the Minnesota Daily has reported that Rep. Diane Loeffler, who has been in the House for four terms, intends to run.
Gov. Mark Dayton has announced that the special election to fill the Pogemiller seat will be held Jan. 10. If a primary is needed — and that appears to be a certainty — it will be held on Dec. 6.
Noting that the Senate has “lost a generation of strong progressive leaders’’ (Linda Berglin, Ellen Anderson, Linda Scheid and Larry Pogemiller), Wagenius said “it’s time for the next generation of leaders to make new critical investments in our state with a new set of tools and make sure that our government works for ordinary people.’’
The District 59 Seat opened last week, when Dayton appointed Pogemiller, who has been in the Senate since 1982, as director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
Rep. Loeffler announced on Sunday that she will not be running as “walking away from four terms of seniority to the back of the line in a new body would be a restart that has consequences for both me and our area.”
Her entire letter is posted on SD 59’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/9984544497/