Jim Hagedorn

As the Republican’s April 17 convention to nominate Rep. Tim Walz’s opponent approaches, southern Minnesota Republicans are jockeying for position and throwing some barbs. Jim Hagedorn, who sparked controversy late last year when he scrubbed incendiary posts from his blog, is criticizing Allen Quist for his “allegiance” to Rep. Michele Bachmann and his penchant for [...]

The rhetoric in Minnesota’s First Congressional District is reaching a fevered pitch as five candidates, Randy Demmer, Jim Engstrand, Jim Hagedorn, Frank McKinzie and Allen Quist, vie for the Republican endorsement to run against DFL Rep. Tim Walz. While Quist made news early in the race when he said that Democrats were more dangerous than [...]

Republican candidates in Minnesota’s First Congressional District are lagging far behind their intended opponent, Rep. Tim Walz, in the money race. Allen Quist, Randy Demmer and Jim Hagedorn together raised $61,453. Rep. Tim Walz, the DFL incumbent, took in $237,941.

In his new “white paper” on terrorism, First Congressional District Republican Jim Hagedorn offers some controversial rhetoric: “Young men from Islamic-dominated nations, who have no legitimate reason to visit the United States, should not be granted access to our country,” he writes. And: “Terrorists should be given last rites, not Miranda Rights.” But when asked by the Minnesota Independent for details on specific terror-fighting strategies, the Blue Earth Republican’s response was all of 25 words long — delivered by cellphone text message.

Two of Rep. Tim Walz’s GOP challengers got a dressing down by an in-district paper Friday just as they’re ramping their campaigns up: The Mankato Free Press gave the duo a “thumbs down” — for the negative “tone” of their campaigns.

From Allen Quist to Mike Parry, several conservative candidates in Minnesota have recently made (or have had revealed) statements extreme enough to earn terms of rebuke like “intolerant,” “appalling,” and “poisonous.” A partisan critic and a political scientist say such remarks show the candidates are not “of” their party’s rank and file and “erode [the candidates'] ability to speak to the voting middle.”

First Congressional District candidate Allen Quist is building his national profile — among left-leaning news outlets. His comment, first reported by the Minnesota Independent, that defeating liberals is a bigger “battle” than fighting terrorism has been noted by high-profile national blogs. And last night the St. Peter Republican led off a segment on Rachel Maddow’s MNSBC show about GOP candidates hoping to use what she dubs the “terror exploitation machine” to win election.

From Michele Bachmann urging fellow healthcare reform opponents to “slit our wrists” to Tony Sertich warning about “www.anybody.com” running wild at the state Capitol, you have the Minnesota Independent to thank — or blame — for foisting these quotations on the world this year.

As the Minnesota Independent first reported earlier this month, 1st Congressional District candidate Jim Hagedorn removed blog posts disparaging of gays, fellow Republicans and Native Americans from his “Mr. Conservative” blog within days of announcing his candidacy. Now, with new deleted posts discovered, the state’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group has called for an apology from Hagedorn.

Why should First Congressional District residents vote for GOP candidate Jim Hagedorn over other Republicans or U.S. Rep. Tim Walz? “Well, I’ve got a sense of humor,” he told MPR’s Tom Scheck yesterday. But writings purged from Hagedorn’s blog prior to his candidacy announcement Wednesday present a type of humor that might be problematic for some voters — in a new case, gay and lesbian voters and their allies.