Cows, colleges & contentment: GOP hopeful predicts tough race with 2 schools in Northfield

In 2014, Representative David Bly, DFL-Northfield, coasted to victory in the bucolic college town when his Republican opponent suspended his campaign.

UPDATE November 21: Novelist and general good guy Charlie Quimby commented about the trophy hyena:

Good experience for dealing with media jackals.

Quimby has a point. Another safari photo from Flaherty's Facebook wall suggests that Daudt's caucus meetings could grow fairly intense:

Flaherty isn't pictured with the weapon that brought down the elephant (as is the custom for trophy photos) but the commentary below the photo is suggestive:

[Redacted] Oh, really? With a dead elephant?

Jim Flaherty Lead poisoning I guess. Heading to New Zealand the end of next month and can add an evil Penguin if you would like?

[end update]

Jim Flaherty, who registered with the campaign finance board on Wednesday, hopes to reverse Bly's luck in 2016 but feels the presence of two colleges--St. Olaf and Carleton--will make for tough sledding. On his new Facebook campaign page, he posted:

Starting today 11-18-15 I am officially running for Minnesota House of Representatives. I have registered with the State election finance board.

It is going to be a tough run with the two colleges in Northfield but it must be done.

On his campaign's Facebook group page, Flaherty introduced himself:

Jim Flaherty Candidate for Minnesota House of Representatives District 20B

I am announcing a run for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

A little about me, I’m married to Renee Flaherty and we have 4 daughters and 5 grandchildren. Most live within a 2 hour drive with 1 in Texas along with her husband and their son.

Renee and I live South of Northfield and have for many years. We have an older 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house on around 8 acers.

I have lived in the Northfield area since 1970 (most of my life) and went to Northfield public schools. I have a passion for hunting and fishing. I have been blessed in that I have had the opportunity to hunt and fish in many parts of the world. I enjoy learning and observing the customs in other countries and respect their ways of doing things. It’s only right that I respect other county’s way of doing things and I believe that when someone comes to the United States our customs should be respected.

I started working at Fran’s Red Owl in Northfield the day I turned 16 and have been employed since. I spent 17 years at Carleton College in the facility’s department. I was injured in a freak accident and recovery took a little over a year. From there I went to work for ABM/CBM (cleaning and maintenance contractor) in downtown Minneapolis as the day supervisor at the City Center/Multifoods business complex.

At this time I work for Cabela’s in Owatonna MN and have since before the store opened. Presently I work in the Gun Library as the Internet Content Provider. On a daily bases I buy, sell and trade new and used firearms along with listing firearm on the internet. I negotiate deals every day and know when it is time to walk away from deal. Contrary to what you may have read or been told, for each and every firearm sold the buyer must pass a back ground check or be a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL holder), there are NO exceptions to the law. Shall not be infringed is easy to understand.

First and foremost I am a fiscal conservative. Democrat’s talks about a State Surplus of 2,000,000,000.00 like its money that needs to be spent. While Democrats are looking for creative ways to spend that money for the greater good AKA buying votes I take a much more conservative approach of what to do with the extra we may have. In reality the State of Minnesota has a short term surplus of $1,825,370,000.00. What the democrats fails to mention is that the State of Minnesota already has $52,251,525,800.00 yes that is $52 BILLION in debt. That is equivalent to $9,550.00 for every citizen of the state.

It doesn’t matter if you are 1 or 100 that debt vulture is sitting on your shoulder bearing down on you. We owe this money and it’s not going away no matter how much we want it to unless we pony up the cash. Democrats can continue to expand our debt and spend more or we can buckle down and pay this debt off. It won’t be easy and we may all need to do without some extras but it can be done.

I am 100% Conservative, followed by 70% Republican, 20% Libertarian and 10% Constitutionalist and very fiscally conservative.

We suspect he'll be in agony during the coming bonding session. His personal Facebook page is mostly cartoons and political memes.

The district is the more DFL-leaning half of the state senate district. Earlier this month, we posted about the Senate District Republican challengers in MN Senate District 20: DFL incumbent Dahle draws two contrasting Republican challenger. Northfield DFL senator Kevin Dahle captured the swing district in 2012 by 78 votes.

Photo: Jim Flaherty likes to hunt. He bagged this hyena in Zimbabwe, via Facebook.

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