Liberal in the Land of Conservative

Yesterday I noticed that potential gubernatorial candidate, Marty Seifert, would be appearing at the St. Cloud Public Library as part of the kick off for his campaign to replace Governor Pawlenty in 2010. As soon as I made it known that I would be there and hoped to ask questions of Representative Seifert, email messages and twitter messages came to me with potential questions to pose to the candidate.

One of the frequently suggested questions was about the growing story that Seifert and his allies may have been engaged in a smear campaign behind the scenes and throughout the blogs to discredit potential Republican competitor, Representative Laura Brod. For the backstory on these allegations, you can visit both Brian Falldin and Dusty Trice who have done some great work digging into this interesting series of events.

Seifert took very few questions at the event and indicated to me that my question would be next. However, on the sidelines Jim Knobloch began whispering with Steve Gottwalt and gesturing in my direction and as Seifert was about to call on me Knobloch abruptly ended the news conference and shuffled Seifert out of the room. Luckily, I was able to catch up to him out in the hall and get this response from him:

When I returned home I also learned that Representative Brod, due to health concerns, has chosen not to run for Governor. Does this only increase speculation that the smear campaign was ultimately successful or does it put this story to rest?

While I do not know Representative Brod, I wish her the best and hope for a speedy recovery...

With every passing day the field of potential gubernatorial candidates grows on both the left and the right. It is still far too early to predict clear front runners, but it is never too early to dig through the archives for potential footage of candidates.

First, we have top tier candidate, Marty Seifert, who has already gone through a bit of a firestorm with accusations swirling that he and his team are coordinating an attack on potential challenger, Representative Laura Brod.

From the archives, I dug up this little gem in which Seifert likens himself to Luke Skywalker and speculates that Larry Pogemiller could be his father. Who knows, in this convoluted little analogy Laura Brod might be Princess Leia but at this point it is clearly speculative.

The only reason I have any knowledge whatsoever of Jungbauer is from a global warming denial forum he hosted in April of 2008 with disgraced representative, Mark Olson. Highlights of the event included the implication that Al Gore is, in fact, a Nazi propagandist and other such denial nonsense. You can read the full series of posts on this particular forum HERE.

Jungbauer didn't speak much apart from a brief introduction where he provided an interesting statement about never dreaming that he would get to the Capitol and be a major advocate for the poor.

So, on the one hand we have a candidate who sees himself in a mythical battle between good and evil while on the other hand there is the candidate who never thought that his public service would involve helping the poor.