Ramstad was/is a RINO. You think by having centrist candidates that the party will be strengthened? You’re weakening it! If Al Franken ran as a Republican, people of your ilk would vote for him, even though they don’t believe in his values. Why? Because there’s an (R) in front of his name.

Thanks for voting to grow the government, Jimmy!

Let’s be respectful of our Republican friends.

We are lucky that we have some excellent choices in the 3rd to talk about, but at the end of the day, I suspect that Paulsen and Michel will be the front runners.

Pinning the 04 and 06 state House losses on Gregg Peppin is a little low. Using that logic, I could also claim that Peppin was the reason the GOP ever won the House majority in the first place. He ran the House campaigns when seats were lost in 04 and 06, but he also ran the House campaigns when 30+ seats were gained in the 90s/early 2000s.

Regardless of your personal feelings about the guy, you have to admit that nobody on the GOP side knows political campaigning in Minnesota better than Gregg Peppin.

Whoever our candidate is in the 3rd would be lucky to have Gregg offering him or her advice.

Barely won maybe, but he won. Klinzing, LeClair and Krinkie all had better districts than Zellers and they say last session out. I’m pretty happy he won in a year when so many lost.

Had last year been a two way race, Zellers would have won by a much greater margin.

The selection of a candidate must be done very carefully:

Rep. Joyce Peppin – Very nice person, but too green and hasn’t done anything of signifigance. Also a negative is her husband would run her campaign. He was in charge of House GOP efforts that lost a total of 33 Republican seats in two elections costing them the majority. He also was in charge of the redistricting that was supposed to keep them in power for a decade. If she runs, other GOPers should beware what her husband might do to them (ask former Rep. Arlon Lindner).

Sheriff Rich Stanek – Good choice but he does have some history that might make some queasy. He’s a proven winner and campaigner, but not sure he’d give up the sheriff’s job to run.

Rep. Kurt Zellers – Much potential that he hasn’t lived up to. He’s too quickly become a backbencher in the Legislature that just shows up and he barely won re-election last time in GOP Maple Grove of all places!

Sen. Geoff Michel – Seems pretty solid and has moved up the leadership ranks in the GOP Senate (of course, it’s the GOP Senate we’re talking about).

Rep. Erik Paulsen – Another Peppin puppet who was not terribly effective as House Majority Leader.

Former Rep. Jeff Johnson – He would be an excellent candidate if he wanted to run. He’s solidy conservative with a moderate image if you can believe that. He should have a little name recognition left over from his AG run and he’s bright and articulate.

Brian Sullivan – can’t win. period.

Carlson is a hero to moderate Republicans, and perhaps Michel can parlay that into his platform (if he runs).

Sen. Michel also can also speak to the transportaion issues in the 3rd; since he represents Edina…he has to kep a watch over 494, 169, 100 and the mess we call Hwy 62.

I’ve understood Sen. Michel to be more conservative than some other MN Senate members, but I could be wrong on that.

What is worth noting is that I have also heard that Sen. Geoff Michel has been interested in running for MN Attorney General.

We’ll have to keep our eyes on this potential candidacy.

Moreover, as much as I like the idea of Rich Stanek…we need him so much more in the job he currently occupies.

I think he is doing a great job in law enforcement, but if he DID decide to enter the race, I think conservatives of all stripes should pay attention.