Seifert only governor candidate with own State Fair booth

Photo: seifertforgovernor.com

Of nearly 40 announced or possible candidates for governor in 2010, only one will have his own booth at the 2009 Minnesota State Fair. In fact, not counting Minnesota’s sitting U.S. senators, Republican state Rep. Marty Seifert will be the only politician with a booth this year.

According to a State Fair spokesperson, the Seifert for Governor campaign booth will be on Nelson Street, near the Giant Slide (P-27 on the map below).

The State Fair’s political list (pdf) does include parties — including the Green, Constitution, Republican, Independence and DFL parties — as well as the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

The deadline for applying for a booth was Aug. 1.

One other candidate who has filed to run for governor had planned to have a booth but has since decided against it. That is Chris Wright, a founder of the Minnesota Grassroots party and its gubernatorial candidate in 1998.

The VoteWright.org campaign will push biomass gasification as the route to energy independence for Minnesota, Wright said, using trash and recyclables as well as crops such as switchgrass, flax and, yes, hemp.

Wright said he and running mate Dale Wilkinson determined they didn’t have the $600 (plus a cut of any retail sales) that the Fair charged for the kind of booth they wanted, but they hope to have a Fair presence next year, closer to the actual election.

Seifert’s campaign did not return a message.