Hello Everybody,

​It looks as if the Republican primary is going to be real interesting this year. Let’s start with the gubernatorial race. The party convention endorsed Kendall Qualls. Then, Trump stepped in and endorsed his loyalist friend, Mr. Pillow-Man. So now we have two male candidates. Let’s go back in time.

​The DFL had a primary race for governor that included two female candidates and Tim Walz. The two women knocked each other off, and Walz won the primary with a 43% vote. We had been calling him, “The 43% Governor.”

​This year the Republicans have the reverse situation, with two well-known males and house speaker, Lisa Demuth; the opposite of what happened in the DFL situation. We think the President did Speaker Demuth a favor by endorsing Mr. Lindell. Now it could be likely that the two males will split the voters and give Demuth a chance at being a “43% winner.”

​Demuth has been actively mailing the party base, which does not always follow the lead of the party convention. The two men are both solid candidates, but we think Demuth may well come out the winner. Also, we think she’ll kick some real life into the election.

​Let’s move to the race for Auditor. We think Nate George is a viable contender, and may come out on top. Scott Jensen is our sentimental favorite; however, we think it may not be his term.

​Now, the only office where the Republicans don’t have fierce competition among themselves is the Attorney General slot, Ronald J. Schutz, who is extraordinarily well qualified for that position.

​The race for U.S. Senate may prove to be the most interesting. The Republicans nationally are backing Michele Tafoya, and the convention nominated Adam Schwarze, both of whom are top-notch. We feel Michele is being marketed incorrectly. The non-sports addicts may not understand the attributes necessary for a sideline commentator. The Conservatives might frown at her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, but she should be commended for her schooling at that institution and given extra credit for maintaining a Conservative bent. Furthermore she went on to obtain her MBA at the University of Southern California. Her experience as a sideline commentator required various skills and abilities, which can be useful in a political position. Adam Schwarze had an interesting start to his campaign. The reporters question him about voting in person in an election, when it turned out he was in military training on a mountain 2,000 miles away. Also, it appeared he “voted” in another election while he was off on military duty. The Minnesota election officials are saying that people have confidence and trust in them, but this brings up a high political official who said, “Trust, but verify.” We have minimal voter ID requirements for Minnesota elections, so we think the process needs to be re-examined and necessary legislation passed to set up a verifiable voter ID methodology.

​Again, we have two outstanding candidates for the U.S. Senate.  We hope the President doesn’t endorse anyone for this race, because a presidential endorsement winner could be hurt in the general election. If the President wants to get involved in this race, we feel he should say that both candidates are outstanding and he will fully support either one in the general election, but it is up to the Minnesota Republicans to choose their candidate.

​We could probably go on in more depth here. We hope this leads to soul-searching on the Republican’s part, and that they vote intelligently on August 11th.

Bob