| As reported by the Star Tribune Wednesday, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Agre has decided against entering the DFL field seeking to face incumbent Senator Norm Coleman in 2008.
I interviewed Agre (links here or here) in May when he first began exploring an entry into the race. He said then "I think there are a lot of people waiting to commit to one candidate or another, and I'm considering the possibility that I'm that person," and that he hoped to make a decision by August (which he now appears to have done -- who says political figures don't keep their word?).
 Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Agre said that he and his advisors looked at every angle of the race, but he eventually realized that Duke University, where he currently works, might have to close his lab and relinquish his federally-funded research grants if he were to become a federal candidate -- to say nothing of losing their tax-exempt status if they paid a salary to such a candidate. The reality of current laws would have forced him to go without pay and health coverage for more than a year.
On the race he decided not to enter, Agre would not make an endorsement one way or the other, but offered a warning to the DFL: "I think the party has to get real, and pick a candidate who's going to win. The candidate who wins the middle wins the election."
Despite his decision not to run, Agre said he will not be a stranger to his home state, and would not rule out civic leadership in the future. |
