Seifert fundraising letter: "My win was convincing enough for us to unite now..."

Posted at 11:14 AM on October 6, 2009 by Tom Scheck (7 Comments)

Republican state Rep. Marty Seifert of Marshall sent out a fundraising letter this week that touts his victory at last weekend's GOP straw poll for governor. Seifert's letter warns potential donors of DFL control of the Legislature and the governor's office in 2010. He goes through his seven point plan, his decision to refuse campaign contributions from lobbyists and how government needs to be run like a business.

The interesting part of the letter is that Seifert urges folks to unite behind his campaign:

"Now is the time to unite all Minnesotans who believe in limited government, freedom, personal responsibility, and the ability of individuals to make wiser decisions than government agencies."

and

"My win last weekend was convincing enough for us to unite now, rather than much later, when it could be too late."

and

"Investing in a winner makes sense!"

Seifert said on Saturday that he intends to send 20,000 of these letters to GOP activists and donors.

Meanwhile....

State Rep. Tom Emmer of Delano (who finished second in the straw poll) sent out a news release suggesting that the GOP race for governor is a two person race:

"Like the Twins we have made it through the regular season and earned the chance at a playoff game. Now that I am in the top field of 2 Republican candidates we will see more indepth discussion on the direction Minnesota will take." --Rep. Tom Emmer

Comments (7)

Smart strategy from both candidates … Seifert needs to shutdown the opposition since he was clearly not the 2nd choice :

First Choice
Marty Seifert, 454 votes
Tom Emmer, 283 votes
Pat Anderson, 174 votes
Hann, 146 votes
No Votes, 59 votes
Kohls, 58 votes
Other, 16 votes
Herwig, 14 votes
Jungbauer, 10 votes
Haas, 10 votes
Davis, 10 votes

Second Choice
Hann, 216 votes
Emmer, 207 votes
Anderson, 182 votes
No Vote, 172 votes
Seifert, 171 votes
Kohls, 128 votes
Haas, 46 votes
Jungbauer, 37 votes
Davis, 29 votes
Other, 25 votes
Herwig, 20 votes

Looks like Seifert has a lot to do to unite the party.

Posted by Minnesota Central | October 6, 2009 12:06 PM

IIRC, Seifert said that the October straw poll would "winnow" the field down back at his initial announcement to the press back in June.

I thought at the time that it was a clever comment, since it sounded like the kind of savvy horse-race stuff that gets picked up in the media, and since Seifert is a pretty high-profile Republican, he'd have a good chance of finishing well in it. And sure enough, a lot of reporters started writing stories building up the straw poll's importance and saying that candidates who finished poorly were "expected" to drop out.

Posted by Chris | October 6, 2009 5:22 PM

It must be pointed out that no candidate that has won the early straw polls has ever gone on to win the endorsement. The GOP straw poll was for fun. The real test will be next year.

Posted by Bill Jungbauer | October 7, 2009 8:48 AM

This might be good strategy, but the idea that a "convincing win" in a straw poll which has never actually put forth the ultimately endorsed candidate, is quite humorous. In fact, that "convincing win" should really indicate to Republicans that Seifert will NOT ultimately be the endorsed Republican candidate and that they should start looking somewhere else. Nonetheless, if by chance, the Republicans decide to endorse Seifert, there will be a GOP primary -- he is simply too weak in the general election and someone will be willing to take on this baffoon in a primary. Also, his MPR reported comments right after the straw poll thanking all the other candidates who "ran" and the other comments about the all the other candidates/horses going to the "glue factory" were not classy and are just a few more examples of why this guy cannot win. He is a not a good face for the party and his quips wear thin.

Posted by Kurt | October 7, 2009 1:36 PM

Emmer's showing is a little more impressive since he has been in the race only ten weeks.

Posted by Tom | October 7, 2009 3:12 PM

The straw poll voting rules were changed at the recent Minnesota GOP convention, which resulted in the front-runner, Marty Seifert, being penalized. The rules were changed so that if you voted for a gubernatorial candidate as your 1st choice you were forbidden to vote for that same gubernatorial candidate as your 2nd choice. Thus, Marty Seifert had the most "ineligible" ballots on the 2nd choice, because he was so popular as delegate's 1st choice. See the below chart for details.

VOTERS’ COMBINED CHOICES

Rank Percent Total 1st CD 2nd CD 3rd CD 4th CD 5th CD 6th CD 7th CD 8th CD

M. Seifert 1 26% 625 99 71 88 66 28 73 109 91
T. Emmer 2 20% 490 36 98 65 37 39 130 54 31
D. Hann 3 15% 362 38 48 73 37 19 62 48 37
P. Anderson 4 15% 356 31 68 44 47 39 61 38 28
“NONE” 5 10% 233 14 24 67 20 4 44 29 31
P. Kohls 6 8% 186 23 55 32 20 10 27 7 12
B. Haas 7 2% 56 6 13 11 4 1 11 7 3
“OTHERS” 8 2% 50 3 3 5 10 2 7 9 1
M. Jungbauer 9 1% 47 5 5 9 4 4 12 6 2
L. Davis 10 1% 39 2 3 5 8 7 10 4 0
P. Herwig 11 1% 34 3 4 7 3 1 3 3 10

39 “OTHERS”: Steve Sviggum (10), Laura Brod (10), Norm Coleman (5), Sue Jeffers (4), Morrie Lanning (2), Jim Ramstad (2), Brian Sullivan (2), Erin B (1), Phil Krinkie (1), Carol Molnau (1), “Steve Hann” (1).

Posted by Silence Dogood | October 7, 2009 10:12 PM

I am responsible for that rule change. The reason I moved to change them was to uphold the integrity of the straw poll so that we could truly know the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates. What good would it have done to have had identical results for both ballots? None.

The results as they now stand truly show us who our first and second choice for governor are. To have allowed the rules to stand as they were, would have allowed the members of each candidates camp to skew the results in favor of their candidate, rather than what we now have, accurate results for both our first and second choice for governor.

Nonetheless, a look back at the history of past straw polls shows us that the leader in early straw polls has never gone on to win endorsement.

Posted by Bill Jungbauer | October 8, 2009 9:35 AM

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