The battle for rural votes

Rural voters are getting plenty of attention today as the two GOP gubernatorial candidate front runners, state Rep. Tom Emmer and state Rep. Marty Seifert, try to woo delegates. Seifert's campaign has taken aim at his opponent for having an all metro-area ticket with Emmer of Delano and Annette Meeks of Delano. In literature passed out by the Seifert campaign to delegates, it states "an 'all-metro' Republican ticket sends the wrong signal to voters in rural Minnesota." Seifert is from Marshall and his running mate is Anoka County Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah.

That argument appears to be winning over Mower County delegates. So far of the 11 delegates all are going for Seifert except for one. Delegate and House District 27B candidate Jennifer Gumbel said she is backing Seifert because she believes he is more in touch with rural Minnesotans.

"I don't think that outstate development is going to be on Emmer's radar," Gumbel said.

But it is a totally different story in Wabasha County. State Rep. Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa, a backer of Emmer, said that the entire county delegation is expected to vote for Emmer. Drazkowski challenged the assertion by Seifert's campaign that Emmer-Meeks is an "all-metro" ticket saying that half of Emmer's legislative district is rural.

"(Emmer) is very, very in tune with the rural area," Drazkowski said.