Don't forget about Melissa Valeriano who is running for Minnesota House of Representatives for HD 25B.
https://www.facebook.com/melissavalerianoforhouse
http://valerianoforhouse.org/
and
Nate "Honeybadger" Atkins (yes, it will say "Honeybadger" on the ballot) who is running for Minnesota House of Representatives for HD 61B.
https://www.facebook.com/honeybadgerforhouse
http://honeybadgerforhouse.org/about-the-badger/
By the way, yes, many of the liberty candidates in Minnesota are running in areas that have been traditionally won by Democrats in the past. Unfortunately, it makes sense as to why this would be considering that many of these areas don't have career politicians on the Republican side because they know they can't win there. While the liberty candidates running in these areas are unlikely to win, they ARE helping to spread the message. Many of them are even going out on a limb and saying things that are controversial in "winnable" races, but things that many of us want to hear them say (legalize drugs, for example).
As the campaign manager for the Paul Tuschy campaign in 52B, I will say that I know the race we are running in is an uphill battle. In fact, it was won by something like 62% to 38% in 2010 by the incumbent, career politician Democrat.
That said, Minnesota got new districting this year and the district became anywhere from 5-7% more Republican. In addition, we know that the previous candidates who ran for the seat in 52B did very little real campaigning. The candidate who ran in 2010 did not even get a literature piece out to the entire district. He door-knocked two or maybe three precincts, put up less than 50 signs, had a small number of commercials that ran on TV and he walked in the parade with a small group.
In this campaign, things are completely different. Paul Tuschy has already door-knocked the majority of the district and is planning on hitting all of the "swing" precincts more than once. We have literature dropped the entire district once and have a second one planned this weekend. In addition, we will be mailing or lit-dropping at least four more literature pieces to the entire district. We had over 50 people walking with us in the parade which caused the TV reporters to call it a "large entourage" during the live coverage of the parade. There are over a hundred 2x4 signs all around the district and that is before we start putting them on public land over the next few weeks. We are considering doing TV ads as well.
Yes, the numbers look daunting on paper, but we know that the area has been traditionally dominated by Republican congressman John Kline who receives 60% or more every year. Tom Emmer also won the area in 2010. Heck, even John McCain won the area (if you look at how the district is broken down now) in 2008.
Needless to say, this is the first time that a candidate in the area has run a REAL campaign and gone after the incumbent. Whether or not we win, we are all receiving a lot of valuable information. We're creating networks with other liberty candidates in the area and gaining the respect of the "establishment" Republicans who have never seen a candidate work this hard in the area... I suspect that many of the other liberty campaigns in the area have similar stories.
As Ron Paul has shown us, winning is not all, but it'd certainly be a nice cherry on top.
I encourage everyone to PLEASE support these candidates! Give them a "like" on Facebook, share their page with your friends, maybe send them a check. We could certainly use it in a state that delivered 33 of 40 delegates for Dr. Paul at the RNC!
https://www.facebook.com/melissavalerianoforhouse
http://valerianoforhouse.org/
and
Nate "Honeybadger" Atkins (yes, it will say "Honeybadger" on the ballot) who is running for Minnesota House of Representatives for HD 61B.
https://www.facebook.com/honeybadgerforhouse
http://honeybadgerforhouse.org/about-the-badger/
By the way, yes, many of the liberty candidates in Minnesota are running in areas that have been traditionally won by Democrats in the past. Unfortunately, it makes sense as to why this would be considering that many of these areas don't have career politicians on the Republican side because they know they can't win there. While the liberty candidates running in these areas are unlikely to win, they ARE helping to spread the message. Many of them are even going out on a limb and saying things that are controversial in "winnable" races, but things that many of us want to hear them say (legalize drugs, for example).
As the campaign manager for the Paul Tuschy campaign in 52B, I will say that I know the race we are running in is an uphill battle. In fact, it was won by something like 62% to 38% in 2010 by the incumbent, career politician Democrat.
That said, Minnesota got new districting this year and the district became anywhere from 5-7% more Republican. In addition, we know that the previous candidates who ran for the seat in 52B did very little real campaigning. The candidate who ran in 2010 did not even get a literature piece out to the entire district. He door-knocked two or maybe three precincts, put up less than 50 signs, had a small number of commercials that ran on TV and he walked in the parade with a small group.
In this campaign, things are completely different. Paul Tuschy has already door-knocked the majority of the district and is planning on hitting all of the "swing" precincts more than once. We have literature dropped the entire district once and have a second one planned this weekend. In addition, we will be mailing or lit-dropping at least four more literature pieces to the entire district. We had over 50 people walking with us in the parade which caused the TV reporters to call it a "large entourage" during the live coverage of the parade. There are over a hundred 2x4 signs all around the district and that is before we start putting them on public land over the next few weeks. We are considering doing TV ads as well.
Yes, the numbers look daunting on paper, but we know that the area has been traditionally dominated by Republican congressman John Kline who receives 60% or more every year. Tom Emmer also won the area in 2010. Heck, even John McCain won the area (if you look at how the district is broken down now) in 2008.
Needless to say, this is the first time that a candidate in the area has run a REAL campaign and gone after the incumbent. Whether or not we win, we are all receiving a lot of valuable information. We're creating networks with other liberty candidates in the area and gaining the respect of the "establishment" Republicans who have never seen a candidate work this hard in the area... I suspect that many of the other liberty campaigns in the area have similar stories.
As Ron Paul has shown us, winning is not all, but it'd certainly be a nice cherry on top.
I encourage everyone to PLEASE support these candidates! Give them a "like" on Facebook, share their page with your friends, maybe send them a check. We could certainly use it in a state that delivered 33 of 40 delegates for Dr. Paul at the RNC!
