Also ran in Red Wing: Jeff Johnson takes a back seat to campaign dynamos Gilbert & Severson

A helpful reader sent Bluestem a link to a new article by John Russett in the Red Wing Republican Eagle, GOP's top office hopefuls call for change, along with a brief note, subject line, "since you're on the Dan Severson beat . . ."

So at "a roundtable to discuss tax policy and business issues," the guy who wants to run an office that has an entire division devoted to Business Services decides not to talk about that division but instead about auditing the voting system.

There's that. We also noticed that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson isn't quoted in the article.

Instead, Russett devotes five paragraphs in the ten paragraph article to Randy Gilbert, while Severson gets 3 paragraphs about auditing the election system. The men share two paragraphs.

Perhaps Jay Kolls ought to have traveled to Red Wing if he wanted to score a comment from Gilbert about the Realtor Love Shack email demi-scandal.

Bluestem definitely notes a consistent talking point coming from the Republican team: they're all about the audits.

Given the past history of ambitious Minnesota men using the state auditor's office as a springboard for a flip into the governor's residents--witness Arne Carlson, Mark Dayton (a little time delay on that one) and most recently, Matt Entenza's pricey primary bid--we might even suspect that Jeff Johnson might actually run for governor some day.

Russett's lede provides a taste of the article:

Randy Gilbert, GOP candidate for state auditor, said Friday that voters should look at the upcoming elections as a job interview, not an election.

Gilbert joined Jeff Johnson, GOP gubernatorial candidate, and Dan Severson, GOP secretary of state candidate, at the St. James Hotel Friday afternoon as part of a roundtable to discuss tax policy and business issues facing Minnesota voters.

And there's nothing guaranteed to motivate voters than discussing audits in a group job interview.

Photo: Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson caught a ride with Severson and Gilbert while hitchhiking to Red Wing.

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