For months, Minnesota politicos have noted that DFL Attorney General Lori Swanson lacked a Republican opponent. For weeks, the Republicans said they soon would have a stellar candidate, as "soon" dragged on and on.

But Friday night, the candidate revealed himself.

Chris Barden, an Harvard law school graduate who holds a doctorate in psychology, told this reporter he was planning on running against Swanson. He said his formal announcement will come next week but he hadn't scheduled it yet.

At a Freedom Foundation event, featuring former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Barden clutched his copy of Romney's new book and demurred on several questions.

He did say he grew up in Minnesota, he once ran for school board in Utah, he holds a Ph.D. in psychology and he graduated from Harvard law school a year after President Barack Obama.

"I actually went to Harvard law school with Barack Obama. He's class of '91, I'm class of '92 so we know a lot of mutual friends," Barden said. "We are kind of on different ends of the spectrum. We have a lot of disagreements about policy issues so I think it will be a great race."

He said: "It's kind of an interesting story how I got to Harvard law school but I'll save that for next week."

For a little more on that story, and some of his work on "false memory," here's his 2003 resume, for a briefer version, here's his LinkedIn page and for his Wikipedia page that appears to be largely edited by one "RCBarden" click here.