Despite its generally lackluster performance in Tuesday’s elections, the Independence Party will wake up Wednesday morning positioned to make a move against the major parties in ways it has never been before. The party has build a solid fundraising mechanism, a significant base of new volunteers, and can boast some of the state’s most intriguing young candidates.

But here’s the rub: Can those candidates withstand the siren song of the two major parties, who have been known to attract promising third-party candidates who want to actually win elections?

more insideThe IP’s Tammy Lee, who attracted more than 20 percent of the vote in an abbreviated Fifth District congressional campaign, is only one of several young IP candidates who might be lured away from the party by the prospect of major party support. Sixth District congressional candidate John Binkowski (7.8 percent), U.S. Senate hopeful Robert Fitzgerald (3 percent), and Joel Spoonheim (3 percent) in the secretary of state race are also promising young political stars who, I suspect, the DFL wouldn’t mind seeing on a sample ballot somewhere down the road.

Lee was evasive when I asked her about the attraction of a major party candidacy, noting that, “If the DFL or the Republicans embraced moderates, there wouldn’t be a need for the Independence Party.