Rob, Your hard line against Hoeven drives me nuts. Dorgan HAS TO GO. NOW. NOT 20 YEARS FROM NOW. Dorgan will be in office until 5 years AFTER HE’S DEAD. Who else has a snowball’s chance in hell for the next 20 years???

And he may not be a big time fiscal conservative, but he’s a hell of a lot better than Dorgan in every category. Tone down the hate man.

Waiting to see what Dorgan does with Cap and Trade and health care I bet. Cap and Trade is incredibly UNpopular in this state, and healthcare will change one way or another as people realize they are either going to be smacked to the floor(like ranchers, farmers and small business owners, who have their tax system set up as personal income and will find out how much a 5.4% tax increase really is, and will equipment count as income, etc, etc, etc) ORRRR they will love what is coming and will support them as they always have. I think that our seasoned citizens may start changing their minds, the more they hear about Medicare cutting back services(as has already been discussed openly) and cost analysis for treatment options, etc.

Frankly, while I agree with your point Rob, I would wait as well if I was the Governor. I happen to like the governor, don’t like all his policies, but overall I like him, and as popular as he is in the state, he is probably one of the only ones that could run and have a chance to beat him.

I think Hoeven is going to wait and see what the forecast for the state is over the next 1 to 2 years. If the spending is going to catch up to us, Obama’s recession, and budget/state employee cuts loom, he’ll jump in. Let someone else get the blame. Get out while his popularity is high.
He prepared for this day by going for the 70% vote total and attacking Mathern right to the very end. He has made sure his cronies like Hamm, Kalk and everyone owes him. He wants to be at all time high before jumping in. Johnny boy loves Johnny boy.
Now all that being said, I think that he’ll announce and learn what it’s like to play at the MLB level against Dorgan. Dorgan already fired a shot across his bow with the whole Hoeven/Dorgan/fund raising letter that emerged a month or so ago. Dorgan will either defeat the stache’ or he’ll quickly educate him on big time politics.

Hoeven won’t run because he won’t win. He’s smart enough not to give up a good gig to run a race where he could very will (I’d say probably will) lose.

Not arguing, just curious. Why don’t you think he can’t win? From talking with people here, and admittedly this area is less govt friendly than say Fargo, and reading some of the letters to the editors in every paper, the tea party attendance, etc shows that Dorgan, and I think he is the weakest link, although I could be wrong, isn’t feelin’ the love like he has before. The spending, the bailouts, cap and trade are unpopular, and I really think that the more details that come out about the plan for healthcare as it stands now is getting less and less popular here, so *I* am not so sure he couldn’t win…he is after all more popular vote wise than Senator Dorgan, if I recall Dorgan’s win margin.

I agree that the Governor needs to make his decision now. Dorgan already has a huge war chest and through all of the special interest groups that support him, he has almost unlimited earnings potential.

If the Governor does not want to pursue this office, he needs to step out of the way and provide his endorsement to Kevin Cramer. Prior to the Teaparty on the Mall, I was not overly familiar with Mr. Cramer, but after hearing his speech, and getting the chance to visit with him a little bit, I am firmly convinced that he is a true conservative and will bring a firm conviction to his conservatism to Washington.

But first, the challenge is to outspend and out-campaign Byrin Dorgan. And that can’t be done as long as we are in a state of limbo.

On one thing we all agree; Byron Dorgan MUST GO NOW!!!

Not arguing, just curious. Why don’t you think he can’t win?

What Brent and Rob said.

“Kevin Cramer. Drew Wrigley.”

Two more in a series of “Lambs to the Slaughter” commemorated
in .999 proof coins from the Franklin Mint. Get your set today, 19.95 each plus s & h.

it’s not fair to his fellow Republicans who might want to run

Hoeven has no ‘fellow’ Republicans – fellow RINOs, maybe

Put me in the “Hoeven won’t run because he can’t win” camp too. The guy is about as vain as they come. A friend of a friend told me that when he ran against Satrom he was upset because his margin of victory wasn’t big enough.

Hoeven doesn’t ever take risks. He doesn’t ever stick his neck out. I’m not even sure he really believes in anything.

I think he is whatever he thinks he has to be to stay elected. Because this is a career for him, not an opportunity to lead.

ahahahahahahahahaha! these guys wont get more than 40% of the vote. outside the valley, nobody knows drew (he needs to got at gen first if he ever has a shot) and cramer, while known, has NO charisma.

I disagree that Cramer has no charisma. I think each could be candidates at least as formidable as Hoeven if given a chance. Maybe you’re not willing to, but you’re also the guy who sits at home and throws rocks at things like the tea parties where people are actually trying to make a difference.

So pardon me if I don’t really take you seriously. You seem to think that cynicism and crankiness are the same thing as logic and reason.

Here’s a hint: They’re not the same things.

Also, Ed Schafer is not going to run for anything. He’s retired. He has no interest in running again. So you can quit talking about it.

Carl,

I understand you opposition to Hoeven, but if your logic is to get a better Conservative as our Governor then it would stand to reason that you would cheer on Hoeven to win the US Senate seat thus clearing the way for a stronger conservative in Bismarck. Does that make sense? It would also lessen the amount of out of State money coming in to the Dem-NPL further helping conservatives to get others elected in a variety of offices throughout the state. Would you agree with this? seems like better logic to me. To me getting Hoeven in to the US Senate seat would clear the way for a plethora of other conservative candidates to jump on to the scene.

Sure, I get that argument, but here’s the problem: The Senators, and to a lesser degree our Representative, act as gateways to political money flowing into the state. If Hoeven’s in the Senate he’s going to direct that money to his preferred candidates.

And those aren’t going to be conservatives.

So even if Hoeven runs off to the Senate, he’ll still be the defacto head of the party in the state and that’s still not a good situation for conservatives.

And really that’s sort of beside the point of the topic of this post. At the very least, Hoeven should pay us the courtesy of announcing if he’s running or not already. Otherwise, nobody else is even goign to have a shot.