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CHECKS AND BALANCES: 2008 FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SET TO START
By Michael B. Brodkorb | January 16, 2007
It is usually presidential politics that start incredibly early, sometimes as much as three years out, but in the 1st Congressional District talk of an opponent for newly elected Congressman Tim Walz (D-MN1) is well underway and started almost the day after he won on November 7th. We have heard a number of names discussed amongst Republicans and the most recent name to surface is one of the most interesting. We have it on good authority that former Senate Minority Leader Dick Day (R-26, Owatonna) is set to make a bid.
Day was elected as Senate Minority Leader in 1998 after Sen. Dean Johnson was ousted from the position. His achievement of the spot was based his support for a Republican conservative agenda and a commitment to fight for his caucus, something by implication, that was not ascribed to Johnson. We expect Day will take a similar stance in his opposition to Walz and challenge his moderate credentials.
Day is expected to commit to and abide by the Republican Party endorsement. The GOP has proven to choose and support their candidates early in the process. During the last election cycle Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) cleared the field of candidates quite quickly when he was tapped for the U.S. Senate seat in 2005.
As the minority leader Day played the role of principal critic and opposition leader in the state senate and ironically he was the minority leader to Johnson as Majority Leader. He chose not to seek the post for the 2007 session after the Republicans lost an additional six seats to the DFL in the November election. His most notable accomplishment occurred in 2000 and something he called the “Freedom to Drive” agenda, which resulted in a study of the freeway ramp meter system and significant changes in the administration of the program.
Other names we are hearing mentioned as possible candidates are: Rep. Randy Demmer (R-29A, Hayfield), Sen. Julie Rosen (R-24, Fairmont), former Reps. Dan Dorman (R-Albert Lea) and Greg Davids (R-Prescott) and John Wade, President of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and former Chief of Staff to former Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R). Source: Checks and Balances, January 16, 2007 [registration required]
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26 Responses to “CHECKS AND BALANCES: 2008 FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SET TO START”
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January 16th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Dan Dorman! Ha! Thats funny. The Republican party has no place for Dan Dorman, you all ran him out of your caucus like he was Typhoid Mary. Dan Dorman would get the Republican nomination when the sky turns fuscia and the Republican party stops throwing anyone who doesn’t kowtow to their extreme agenda overboard.
Sean
January 16th, 2007 at 11:51 am
A new Day dawning for republicans in CD1 is welcome news indeed. Dick Day will be a great candidate and no doubt he can outshine Walz at the podium.
Best part is that Day much more accurately represents the political personality opf CD1 than Walz ever will.
See Dick Run!
January 16th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
This is what happens when even the party of the incumbent labels a sitting member of Congress among the most vulnerable. The prospective field grows quickly.
There is a host of strong contenders here, and certainly Day would automatically start with a great opportunity.
On a similar note, you will notice the list of prospectives against Coleman is not nearly as deep (a clown car comedian and a disgraced, defeated liar).
In terms of pure odds making, I’d say Walz is definitely the most vulnerable incumbent in MN, and one of the most vulnerable in the nation.
Especially with this crop of prospects.
January 16th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
‘The GOP has proven to choose and support their candidates early in the process. During the last election cycle Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) cleared the field of candidates quite quickly when he was tapped for the U.S. Senate seat in 2005.’
And we all remember the blazing success of Mark Kennedy.
January 16th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Why isn’t Gutnecht running? I suspect after two years of Walz, everybody will be ready for a do-over on the election.
January 16th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Let’s get serious, it’s John Wade, and it’s no one else who will be running against Walz.
Dick Day’s red-in-the-face, pound-my-shoe-on-the-table will disqualify him when things get serious. Plus, isn’t he about 200 years old?
Randy Demmer says interesting things like “Teachers are a dime a dozen, go ahead and quit, we’ll get more.” I wonder if the people of Hayfield are aware that so many people are beating down the door to live in their community that their elected officials can berate those who care for and teach their children?
Julie Rosen–seriously.
Dorman, though he is a genuinely decent guy, has seen his season pass.
Greg Davids is from Preston (what, he’s so little known that C & B got his town’s name wrong?) and is best known for swearing at constituents–I think that might come up in the next 18 months.
Wade has a significant leadership profile–President of Rochester’s Chamber, and is part of the Twins Ballpark team to name two. Has deep ties to Rochester, and has been on the front edge of the DM & E fight–the battleground that cost Gutknecht dearly.
Wade also doesn’t have much of a voting record to explain–all of the other mentioned opponents will have hundreds and thousands of public votes to live with.
Let’s not kid ourselves, it will be Tim walz and John Wade in 2008, and each of them will need to raise in excess of $2 million to be competitive. Walz will find his money through the incumbency advantage–will the business community love Wade enough to write the checks?
What do you say Brodkorb? You’ve been pretty critical of Walz–are you backing a horse in this one yet?
January 16th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I’m not backing anyone – yet.
January 16th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Southern Minny Moderate,
John Wade??? After the people of the First District just booted Gutknecht, you want to run Gutknecht’s right hand guy, John Wade??? Are you nuts! You say Wade was on the Twins team, well Dick Day was in the legislature doing the hard work to get the stadium passed.
The bottom line: While ties to Rochester are important to carrying the district, another Rochester insider isn’t going to carry the district. The people of the First District just threw the last Rochester insider out. Tim Walz was a Rochester outsider and won. I take it you live in Rochester, Minny Moderate. What you don’t realize is that the rest of the district outside of Rochester doesn’t appreciate all of the money going to Rochester while their communities get nothing.
January 16th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Nuts, take a deep breath and see the reality–it’s John Wade. In a conservative district that is trending democrat, running a well connnected “business” Republican, who happens to live in the district’s largest city, and is connected in a big way to the Mayo Clinic, the Governor, has a statewide reputation, etc is smart.
Wade is as polished as they come. You may be right though, his back-slapping, handshaking, “Gee it’s good to see you” ways may ring as patronizing outside of his natural constituency.
My guess is that in 18 months that there will still be 35-40% of the district who loves Gutknecht–having that as a built in base isn’t a horrible thing.
With all that said, and despite Brodkorb’s disgust, I think Walz will be stronger in two years than he is now, and will win–regardless of opponent.
From where I sit, however, John Wade would not be a bad choice either.
January 16th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Will you guys ever just accept the fact that Tim Walz represents a district that’s trending blue, and that’s the reason he won in a fairly comfortable victory?
He has more grassroots support than anyone since Wellstone. That’s a fact. Rochester is no longer a GOP stronghold, and won’t be for some time. Face it, Walz is here to stay.
January 16th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Seriously….Julie Rosen would be an excellent candidate.
January 16th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
I’d like to know more about the different candidates. I think some of Dick Day’s antics at the legislature might come back to haunt him.
I hope Dorman runs. I thought he was good in the legislature.
If Wade doesn’t share the bizarre attitudes towards science that his boss had, he could do well.
January 17th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Julie Rosen? seriously, we need a republican, and someone that can stand scrutiny on immigration.
January 17th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Please, oh please run Dick Day… if you think Al Franken is a joke you haven’t seen anything yet.
January 17th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Everyone that is gaga over Dick Day might just talk to the Republican Party of Wabasha County. You will quickly realize that he would have zero support after the unbelievable dirty things that the Senate Caucus Committee (under his direction) did to the Repblican challenger to Sen. Steve Murphy. This is a guy where trust is not part of his vocabulary.
The best part of this is that I just may have some input into the candidate selection.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Rightwinger has no credibility on this one. First, the candidate he refers to was an unendorsed candidate who ran against the endorsed candidate in the primary. Second, the candidate had serious charges filed against him for assaulting his daughter and not paying her child support. Is that the kind of family values the Republican party is supposed to espouse rightwiner? Sorry, but you’re a kook.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
P.S. the Wabasha County GOP doesn’t have much credibility either after openly supporting the unendorsed candidate. Wabasha is a DFL County and always will be until people like rightwinger step aside and let real Republicans take over.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Dick Day has baggage baggage baggage
January 17th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
rudy, What’s the baggage?
January 17th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
So Rudy…..who’s your choice?
January 17th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
rudy,
where are you? Lets back your post up.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:10 am
I am not backing anyone yet but someone that is not 70+ years old would be a good start. The Republicans will spend a tremendous amount of money, lets choose a candidate wisely.Dick Day has been in office for soooo long – tell me what major bill or legislation he has ever sponsored or passed. There have been numerous campaign law suits during his reign – a new one just this week on Koerings race in Brainerd. Anyone can check the archives for all his goofy and inappropriate comments he has made over the years, great campaign fodder, why would we go there?
January 18th, 2007 at 9:01 am
So….whats wrong with Julie Rosen?
January 18th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Rudy,
Do you live in the First District? If you do, you would know that Day led the efforts in the legislature to fund the desperately needed expansion of highway 14 between Mankato to Owatonna. We just opened the stretch leading to Waseca last fall and MNDOT is nearly finished buying the right of way between Waseca and Owatonna. They are scheduled to begin construction in 2008. Our past Congressman’s focus was on Hwy 52 in Rochester, often at the expense of 14.
Also, I don’t know how you can criticize Day for getting sued by the Democrats. If that were the case, then George W. Bush shouldn’t be in office either after all of the 2000 lawsuits.
Finally, what exactly has Day said that you think is “inappropriate”? (Insert Garage Logic Fog Horn here) For example, he’s been right on talking about how Minneapolis schools suck. Kids in Minneapolis get a very poor education at a very high price. In fact, Minneapolis schools literally suck money out of classrooms in the first district, which typically get half the per pupil funding Minneapolis receives.
January 18th, 2007 at 10:59 am
So in 16 years in office he funded a road. Powerful record. I didn’t critizize Day for the law suits or comments – just pointed out the baggage he carries. If he were so good his caucus wouldn’t have ousted him as leader. The point is why choose someone 70+ years old with “baggage” surely there is someone out there that can energize the base and not be so challenging to campaign for.
January 18th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
The GOP have several good candidates to choose from. I think many will be interested in running.
I don’t, however, think Wlaz is as vulnerable as everyone thinks. He ran a very effective campaign last time and he has a decent resume. As long as he doesn’t make a bunch of bad votes his defeat is far from inevitable.
He’ll have the advantage of incumbency and who knows what the political climate will be in 2008.