Demmer and Quist vie for affections of MN01 teabaggers

No sooner did I learn that "teabagger" was a finalist for word of the year with those language gatekeepers at the Oxford English Dictionary, than a rumor arrived that state Representative Randy Demmer will be jumping into the GOP efforts to unseat two-term Congressman Walz.

In a year in which "unfriend" took top honors, this is indeed welcome news for the patriots--or teabaggers as they now may be quite primly called--as Demmer, like Quist before him, seeks the approval of the First District's Tea Party Republicans.

Bluestem reported Saturday on the email making its way through the little internet on the prairie. Tomorrow morning, Demmer will announce that he is running; the email asked supporters to join him in the Rochester Government Center tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

Early press reports by the Post Bulletin's Heather Carlson reveal that Demmer is mouthing teabagger pieties, as Joe Bodell pointed out in earlier this evening in Demmer runs to the right, opens up competitive House seat over at the Minnesota Progressive Project:

Randy Demmer is going all out with the Tea Party Patriots' critiques in his newest effort to unseat second-term Congressman Tim Walz.

The worst fears we could imagine about government intervention, about government growth not just in terms of spending and taxation but just even the intervention in our lives is too much for me to take.

In her online newspaper article, Carlson dangles a sample of what those assembled tomorrow morning might expect from the state representative:

He added, "Under the term 'stimulus,' anything and everything goes. The government steps in, they are taking over businesses, they are taking over the health care sector. Just the invasiveness in our personal lives is just tremendous."

I'm not surprised to hear such sentiments pop out of Demmer, given the company he kept at Walz's health care Town Hall meetings late last summer. He rode the Rochester Tea Party Patriots' bus to the Mankato Town Hall forum, where they complained mightily about having government intervention shoved down their throats. Demmer and the bus riders were forced to withdraw before the meeting ended, as Walz extended the event for an extra half hour.

The Hayfield representative also attended Walz's Rochester Town Hall meeting in September.

While Demmer is stroking the Rochester area delegates, former Representative Quist continues to cradle his tried and true ideology, while making no bones about his connections with the teabaggers.

Covering former Representative Quist's press conference announcing his bid, Mankato Free Press staffer Mark Fischenich reported:

Promising to run non-stop, to raise $1.5 million for his campaign, to tap into public concern about growth in the federal debt, and to proudly stand with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party protesters, Allen Quist made his run for the U.S. House official Thursday. . . .

. . .Quist said he’s pleased by DFL attempts to link him to Bachmann, who has become a favorite of the Tea Party protest movement that has arisen this year in opposition to President Obama and congressional Democrats. He even offered to help pay for the postage of any Democratic mailings connecting him to Bachmann and the Tea Party protesters.

Last week, MinnPost columnist Doug Grow wrote:

Quist says he will be aiming his message at the Tea Party movement and fiscal conservatives. . ..

. . .The three priorities he'll use in his campaign in an effort to get Republican endorsement and ultimately target Walz:

• The federal stimulus bill — he opposes it.

• Cap-and-trade legislation — he opposes it.

• The Democratic version of health care reform — he opposes it.

Demmer assumes similar positions on the same issues.

Which candidate will successfully woo the teabaggers? Are the Tea Party Patriots so significant in Southern Minnesota to deserve both candidate's courtship? Or have they never been anything other than a piece of the Republican base?

In recent elections, many of Southern Minnesota's Republicans have been drinking their tea of divisiveness,  and swallowing the bitter gravy of defeat come Election Day. The Demmer-Quist tussle may play out as more of the same.

Comments

[Minnesota Central]

Any word from Jim Hagedorn ? A three way race would be even more interesting.

[Sally Jo Sorensen]

Rumors have it that he's getting in tomorrow. And more!

[Max Hailperin]

The CQ Politics "Eye on 2010" blog remarks on the growing number of actual and potential challengers. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented me from posting a comment there about this line: "The former high school teacher and political outsider surprised observers with his open seat in win in 2006." The Bluestem Prairie would never have made a goof like that!

[Phoenix Woman]

Only Allen Quist would beg to be publicly linked to someone who, like him, could never be elected to statewide office.

Will you buy me a pony, too, Allen? Sorry, I can't have your babies.