The list of potential candidates on the GOP side is almost as long as it is on the DFL side. I’m not going to attempt to make an exhaustive list, Tom Scheck at Polinaut is doing an excellent job of that, I just want to put down a few thoughts about a few of the candidates:
- Brian Sullivan is the early frontrunner. He almost snared the GOP nod in 2002 and he is very well liked among activists. His arch-conservative views are a liability in the general election but an asset in the endorsement race, particularly given that the mood among the GOP faithful is rightward looking. Sullivan is also wealthy, though who knows how his fortune has fared in the current economy. As I alluded to above, Sullivan is way out on the right wing. If he is the nominee, the DFL will have an excellent chance of occupying the big house on Summit Ave for the first time in twenty years.
- There is only one possible candidate who could outflank Sullivan on the right: Michele Bachmann. If she’s smart, she won’t run. She’s got a pretty safe seat in Congress and she’d get creamed in a general election. That being said, banking on Bachmann’s intelligence is not a safe bet. I know she sees herself as a statewide candidate someday, I’m just not sure if she has her eyes on the Governor’s mansion or a Senate desk.
- Among the long list of prospective GOP candidates who have no chance of being Governor (who does Paul Kohls think he is kidding?) there are two that I think would actually be very competitive in a general election. The first is Jim Ramstad (obvious, I know) and the second is Charlie Weaver. Both are skilled politicians, moderates and have their base of support in swing suburban areas. There seems to be some doubt that Ramstad will run, and Weaver might not have a big enough of a profile to compete with Sullivan, but they are the guys that would be the strongest candidates in my book.
I really hope Charlie Weaver runs. I do not consider him a moderate. Because he was Pawlenty’s chief of staff and former head of the MN Business Partnership, it’d be easy to tie him to King Pawlenty’s unallotment debacle.
Unless Jim Ramstad runs, this has all the making of a IP victory as in 1998. The GOP will run Brod or Bachmann and alienate the average voter, and the DFL will counterbalance the GOP by running someone on the leftmost 25% of their spectrum. As a result, Minnesotans will be left to deciding between two party philosophies that they don’t wholly agree with, or a refreshing 3rd party voice.
I’d listen to what a 3rd party had to say. I’ve voted IP before.
Wow, of all the stupid things you have said here, that about takes the cake. The IP won’t win anything because it doesn’t have a former professional wrestler and actor at the top of the ticket. Just a collection of assclowns.
I have a general question: has Jim Ramstad actually said anything publicly about being interested in the gubernatorial race? If so, where? I’ve heard his name but nothing attributable to him about running in 2010. This speculation seems similar to the Democrats dreaming of Mario Cuomo running for the presidency in late 80’s / early 90’s.
Even if Rep. Ramstad does indicate he might run, a bigger question could be: does he have a chance of earning the endorsement? Remember, this is the bunch who would not even endorse a sitting governor of their own party in 1994.
He doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance of getting the endorsement, unless he runs in the primary (and even then, it’s doubtful). The bigger question is, is the Republican brand so tarnished by the likes of Michele Bachmann that even a moderate like Ramstad would find himself tainted?
If the Republicans were smart, they’d draft Geoff Michel. He’s the most intelligent, articulate, and likable member of their Senate caucus. I’m sure he’s not hurting for fundraising contacts (he is a “consultant”, after all).
David Brauer over at MinnPost is floating Norm Coleman as a possible candidate, equating his possible candidacy to that of Jim Ramstad - Brauer also has a CQ link that says Michele Bachmann is “seemingly out” of consideration.
http://www.minnpost.com/dailyglean/2009/06/03/9248/daily_glean_no_three_for_t-paw
Looking at the mess Pawlenty is leaving behind, I can’t imagine Coleman, Ramstad, or Bachmann being willing to step into the pitch to take one for the team.
what do I think of Pawlenty? “o villain, smiling damned villain!” Governor Farquaad has done his party’s bidding and smashed the state’s infrastructure (falling bridges anyone? accountability zero), reduced its once-superior school system to a shambles, crippled social services to the neediest, left us with one of highest deficits in the country(!), and hobbled the U of MN for the next 10 years by forcing it to cannibalize basic education and deferred maintenance to support the Gov’s pet projects for the big republican donors who are elbows-deep in the lucrative an corrupt bio-medical business. New campus in Rochester when we don’t even have air-conditioning in basic classrooms in some buildings because the bonding bills keep getting line-item vetoed? ***k me! Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul is NOT balancing the budget, no matter how many times he repeats that tired mantra; it’s cynically taking a dump in the state and leaving us with the stinking mess while he goes off to address the College Republicans in DC. If he thinks he has a national future, with his piss-poor speaking skills, he hasn’t watched Bobby Jindal implode on TV yet. Getting dumped for Palin after arranging to have the RNC convention here should have been the message: your turn will never come, buddy. But we’ll be paying the price for his national ambitions because too many people were blinded by the bait-and-switch: “no new taxes!” but also “no revenue for basic services, so screw you if you aren’t already wealthy.
A non-DFL endorsed or non-GOP endorsed candidate has won 3 of the past 5 gubernatorial elections, and has been a material factor in the other two. I hardly think my point is invalid.
Ramstad could win a Repub primary because it is an open primary, he could not win convention endorsement because the MN GOP is controlled by lunatics. He could win state-wide because he is moderate enough to appeal to the middle ala Arne Carlson.
I have to agree with your entire post, Rick.
Could all the Ramstad-ers answer my question above?
Ramstad has never publicly said he would pursue Governor. Neither, however, have other short-listers on both sides of the coin.
But, when Rammer retired, the whispers were that a Gubernatorial run would be one of three or four things he’d keep on the table for the future.
I actually think Ramstad would be in his element as Governor. The job of a Governor is to bridge gaps and get something done. May not be exactly what the liberals want, or exactly what the conservatives want, but everyone can agree it is at least a step forward. That is exactly what Ramstad is great at.
Both he and Weaver excite me. Anyone else, and I’ll just be a spectator like everyone else.
DTM,
Thanks for advocating for moderate leadership in your party. We will all benefit from that if those like you are successful.
I have to assume Rammer got out of politics precisely because he wasn’t welcome in the Theocrat party anymore. Ramstad would probably win, but I really believe he got out because moderates are not welcome in the GOP anymore, so why would he go back?
I grew up with Charlie Weaver in Anoka, and was represented by him in the State House during the Arne Carlson era. I’m a union and DFL-activist, who votes a strongly-DFL/Democratic slate these days, but in those years, I supported Charlie Weaver, and never regretted doing so, even if I didn’t always agree with every legislative vote. Charlie - when he ran for Attorney General - was the last statewide Republican I voted for. He may have changed, or the political scene may have changed during the past decade that he’s been out of office, but I have always trusted Charlie to be a thinker and a doer, and in our current elective terms, a “moderate.”
I believe Charlie Weaver represents the Bill Frenzel-Jim Ramstad type of Republican, not the Erik Paulsen (or Pawlenty or Sullivan types) that we associate with the current Minnesota Republican party.
I would have to give strong consideration on my Gubernatorial vote if Charlie was the GOP nominee vs. a Matt Entenza, John Marty DFL candidacy.
Charlie was in the same Anoka class of ‘76 with my younger brother. I graduated in ‘74 with Michele Amble, who later married a certain Marcus Bachmann, came back to Minnesota, and the rest is history…. If only the Anokan of ‘76 had become the legislative darling and 6th District Congressman, elective politics in Minnesota would be far quiter, but much more sane and productive.
Wes
I guess it’s hard to see MB running for governor, given that quote (though it came quickly) and her extreme rightwinginess. But (at least in my opinion) she is without question an intelligent politician. Saying otherwise is majorly underestimating her…she gets it, she’s a master of spin, and I get tired of/worried by us Dems making the mistake of thinking the vast majority of the “crazy” shit she says isn’t calculated.
Is she intelligent enough to win a statewide w/ all the baggage she brings? Who knows. Intelligent enough to realize who controls the MN Leg., when redistricting is, and which CD is likely to be broken up if MN goes down to 7? You betcha. I look for Bachmann to run in a statewide in either 2010 or 2012, as I don’t think she can win in any CD that split up the Western bloc of that district and I think she knows it. Who knows if this is the race or if she will attempt to hold statewide office at all…another interesting question is whether she’d be better suited for a gubernatorial or a senate race, but I hate her and don’t want to think about her anymore. Yuck.
this is utter genius.
Michelle Bachmann has a future in politics like the flu virus has a future in medicine. No matter how hard you work towards the eradication of viral ignorance, it has a way of persisting in the body politic. The most we can hope for is to control it.
Michelle Bachmann’s future depends little on voters and much more on media moguls. She is a spotlight away from becoming the darling of the conservative talking heads branch of big media. Michelle can say with a straight face complete lies and false history. Not everybody can do that…