After 25 years living in Washington, Jim Hagedorn has moved back to Minnesota to challenge Tim Walz for the First Congressional District seat. The son of former 2nd Congressional District Rep. Tom Hagedorn, the Blue Earth Republican said in a statement this morning that he’s running because “[t]he greatness of America is under assault by the liberal politicians who run Washington” – including Walz, who he characterizes as “a thoughtless liberal.”
Until recently, Hagedorn blogged under the name Mr. Conservative, saving “his most vicious barbs for Republicans who mimic Democrats, or as Jim likes to say: Elephants who act like Jackasses.” (His blog has generated some controversy, including a 2002 post in which he discussed voting irregularities in South Dakota, stating, “Leave it to liberals to ruin John Wayne’s wisdom of the only good Indian being a dead Indian”; that post is no longer available on his blog, although it’s available in Google’s cache.) In his candidacy announcement his barbs were reserved for Walz and the Democrats.
“Washington, D.C. is out of control,” he said. “Our leaders are spending borrowed money faster than it can be printed, taxing and regulating producers into submission, plotting the takeover of whole sectors of our economy and driving us toward European socialism.”
For 18 years of his years in Washington, Hagedorn served as a congressional affairs officer in the Department of Treasury.
He joins former state Rep. Allen Quist and state Rep. Randy Demmer, who are also seeking the GOP endorsement.
Yesterday the Cook Political Report changed its rating for the race from “Solid D” to “Likely D,” presumably because of the addition of new candidates. But as Bluestem Prairie points out, the ranking includes four candidates who aren’t in the race – including Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and Walz’s 2008 challenger, Brian Davis – and omits Quist, who’s been campaigning in the area for weeks.
Update: Walz challenger scrubs jokes about Wellstone mourners, Grams’ infidelities from site
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