Political Party

Hagedorn scrubs blog posts

Minnesota bloggers have discovered that 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Jim Hagedorn appears to have sanitized his blog "Mr. Conservative" in advance of his announcement yesterday that he is running. Bluestem Prairie notes that it appears all entries prior to 2004 have been scrubbed.

A Bluestem Prairie blog post from October includes some of these deleted posts. The Minnesota Independent also has a story about the removed posts that mocked Wellstone mourners and Rod Grams' infidelities.

Here is one example of a deleted post about the funeral for former Sen. Paul Wellstone who died in a plane crash:

"About the memorial service. Was it just me or did it not seem as if someone bailed out the union thugs; tree huggers; abortion rights feminists; peaceniks; citizens for gay animal rights; NAMBLA members and the other Marxist sympathizers who protested at last month’s IMF meetings, and transported them to Wellstone’s memorial in a slew of green busses? Talk about lefties all in one convenient location. Hopefully after the ceremony they fumigated the arena."

There is another interesting post regarding the 2002 race in South Dakota and efforts to register Native Americans to vote.

"The race has been highlighted by a Democrat drive to register voters in several of South Dakota’s expansive redistribution of wealth centers…err…casino parlors…err…Indian Reservations. Remarkably, many of the voters registered for absentee ballots were found to be chiefs and squaws who had returned to the spirit world many moons ago. What is truly astonishing is not that the Democrats would cheat, but that the FBI and other law enforcement types actually took the initiative to catch them.

Voter backlash against the Democrat’s (typical) election-stealing maneuvers will be the margin of victory for Thune. Leave it to liberals to ruin John Wayne’s* wisdom of the only good Indian being a dead Indian."

Hagedorn announces run for Congress

Republican Jim Hagedorn made it official this morning that he is running for the 1st Congressional District seat held by Democrat Tim Walz.

Hagedorn is the son of former Minnesota Congressman Tom Hagedorn. The junior Hagedorn recently moved back to his hometown of Blue Earth to run in the race.

In a news release, Hagedorn is quoted as saying "The greatness of America is under assault by the liberal politicians who run Washington D.C. The big government agenda of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Tim Walz is in direct conflict with our free enterprise system and the enduring principles of liberty, individual opportunity, personal responsibility and traditional cultural values."

He goes on to call Walz a "thoughtless liberal" and voices concern that the U.S. is headed toward "European socialism."

Hagedorn has spent the past 25 years working on Capitol Hill. He was a former legislative assistant to Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland. He also worked for two agencies of the U.S. Department of Treasury. He is currently working as director of government relations and corporate development for Eltromed,

The news release also outlines Hagedorn's priorities.

"Hagedorn cites his congressional priorities as implementing Reagan/JFK economic policies to help small business create jobs; slashing federal spending through top-to-bottom reviews of all federal agencies, beginning with the Pentagon; limiting government by returning power to the states; restructuring foreign entanglements and defunding “nation building;” and defending the American way of life and traditional culture."

Here is a link to the Web site.

He joins former state Rep. Allen Quist of St. Peter and state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield who have already announced they are running for the Republican nomination.

"Mr. Conservative" to run for Walz's seat?

Just got a media advisory about another Republican candidate scheduled to announce plans to run for the 1st District Congressional seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. The advisory does not include the name of the candidate. Instead it offers this description: "A fresh face with a familiar name."

Based on that description, my guess is that Jim Hagedorn will be the one announcing tomorrow at 2 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Rochester. I previously wrote that he was considering running for the seat previously held by his father, Tom Hagedorn.

Hagedorn spent 25 years working on Capitol Hill, including seven years as the senior legislative assistant to former Minnesota Republican Rep. Arlan Stangeland. He also had his own blog "Mr. Conservative." But he posted that after the 2008 election he was suspending all posts "in order to explore the opportunity to return to his southern Minnesota roots, accept a position in the private sector and run for Congress." Here is a link to his blog.

Hagedorn's announcement comes one day after Hayfield Republican state Rep. Randy Demmer announced he was running for a second time for the seat. Former state Rep. Allen Quist has also announced he is seeking the GOP endorsement.

Two GOP candidates with familiar names consider run against Walz

Two Republicans with names known within the 1st Congressional District are considering challenging DFL incumbent Tim Walz.

Jim Hagedorn, son of former Minnesota Congressman Tom Hagedorn, said he is considering running for the seat.

"I've been meeting with Republican leaders about the 1st District for some time and am trying to determine how best I can utilize my Capitol Hill and legislative experience to help my party take back the seat," he said.

His father served eight years representing what was the 2nd District — which covered the western edge of the current 1st District including Austin and Mankato. Hagedorn has spent 25 years working on Capitol Hill, including seven years as the senior legislative assistant to former Minnesota Republican Rep. Arlan Stangeland.

Hagedorn also had his own blog "Mr. Conservative." But he posted that after the 2008 election he was suspending all posts "in order to explore the opportunity to return to his southern Minnesota roots, accept a position in the private sector and run for Congress." Here is a link to his blog.

Hagedorn said he is looking at moving back to the district and was checking out homes in Blue Earth, Minn. yesterday.

There has also been plenty of buzz around former Republican gubernatorial candidate Allen Quist. Bluestem Prairie wrote about the potential Quist bid. He won the Republican endorsement in 1994 but lost by a landslide to Gov. Arne Carlson. In an interview yesterday, Quist declined to comment on whether he was running saying "It's just a little too early."

But he then advised me I could send my information to his e-mail at allen@quistforcongress.com. Hmmmm....

Here's a link to my story on these two candidates.