Untitled2About global warming, state Sen. Mike Jungbauer says bring it on. Not climate change itself, but challenges to his position on the issue: he figures the Earth is cooling. Announcing his bid for governor Saturday, the East Bethel Republican said that he sees himself in the top three of a crowded GOP field and that achieving lofty fundraising goals will prove God is on his side.

“I believe if I’m really called by God to do this, and again it’s not necessarily called by God to be the governor, but to do the campaign, to do it right, I set the goal quite high when I would have to believe it was truly miraculous, and I couldn’t say I did it, or they [the campaign] did it,” said Jungbauer.

His statement echoes that of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in a 2006 speech said God had told her to run for Congress.

As governor Jungbauer would stand by a no-new-taxes pledge (with possible exceptions) and alter state ethics laws that have dogged him.

Among his ethics troubles: The Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled in 2007 that he accepted an in-kind gift in the form of model airplane kits, made available to him at wholesale prices not available to the general public.