Daschle Gets His Own "Nader"

Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the ineffectual minority leader in the Senate who can't bring himself to vote with the Democrats on some key issues and who is running for reelection against the strong Republican challenger John Thune, now has opposition on his left from Tim Giago, a Native American newspaper publisher who is also a Democrat but will run as an Independent. South Dakota has about 60,000 Native American voters who tend to vote solidly Democrat. Even before Giago popped up on the political scene, everyone expected Daschle's reelection to be a very close race. Giago's siphoning off of Native American support could be the deciding factor. (Washington Post story here.)