That said, I listened to what Ron Carey said yesterday about the 3rd district race and the money, time and sweat that it will take to win.

I sincerely hope that both parties nominate qualified and serious candidates to compete in this race.

Note to the readers: When I say serious — I mean candidates that can raise a bit of cash, that respect the endorsement process, have a legitimate stance on 3rd District issues and actually have a chance of winning.

[This is a direct juxtaposition to this “Broom-Wellstone” idiocy. You folks here at MN Publius are smart enough to understand how big of a dope this Broom character is.]

My hometown rep is Melissa Hortmann. She is smart, media savvy, will have plenty of fundraising advantages — -and presents a legitimate candidate for the suburban mother of district 3 to believe in.

Recently, Hortmann has allowed her own ideology to blind her. By publicly writing and vocally rambling about Global Warming of all things….she alienates voters that only care about how much disposable income they have in their wallets.

Simply stated — -taking a hard stand on Global Warming will NOT get anyone any additional votes in district 3. Its a stupid road for Hortmann to go down…she’s smarter than that.

3rd district voters (the suburban vote) want someone to represent them in DC who looks out for their best interests, which more often than not, deal with taxes, the economy and jobs.

Hortmann would be well served to start representing the constituents of 47B and/or MN-3….and stop representing herself.

MN-3 voters obviously don’t want idealogues representing them. How else do we explain Jim Ramstad winning 9 terms??

The idea of Bonoff is certainly interesting. There is another post that mentions how she wouldn’t have to let go of her seat in the legislature in an effort to run. Definately a plus…if you don’t think so — -ask Larry Pogemeiller.

Bonoff’s success in a relatively red area of MN indicates that she has a winning formula, and a message that resonates with an undecided voter. She’s no lightweight.

As a conservative, but also an educated voter — -I have to admit that both Bonoff and Hortmann pose serious challenges to the GOP effort to keep MN-3 red.

Bottom Line…hopefully BOTH parties nominate candidates that want to make District 3 a better place

She is undefeated in a traditionally Republican district (she’s 2-0).

And, she won’t have to give up her seat to run (she’s in the middle of her term).

Is MN Publius ever going to interview this James Broom Wellstone candidate??

It seems like a fascinating story.

I don’t think he would do what he’s doing without the blessing of the Wellstone family? So why no interview from MN Publius in regards to Wellstone?

A large part of me can’t believe I just typed that out. As many people have said on this thread, that’s politics. JFK won because he wore make-up.

As you can see the power brokers in training do not care at all about actual democracy. They care about pushing the right pieces into the right places to gain a seat and hopefully advance the careers of a few party loyalists. The Republicans work the same way and are going through the same conversations right now. It is fine to play the game as long as the big picture, representing the people of the 3rd, is not forgotten. Unfortunately Democrats have been notoriously bad at figuring that out before picking a candidate. In part because they look at candidates from only the perspective of their loyal base and not the general public. With that attitude they will rightfully continue to loose elections they could otherwise win. Their only saving grace is the Republicans are no better.