GOP meets to name its state leader and rework party's image

The Minnesota Republican Party's central committee meets today to choose a new party chair amid soul-searching debate over the future of the party.

That the GOP needs "new ideas" has become a steady refrain from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has announced that he will take his own search for fresh themes beyond the state's borders and will not be a candidate for reelection, setting off a mad scramble to succeed him. Meanwhile, recent years have been marked by repeated electoral setbacks for the state party as a whole. The governorship is the only statewide office Republicans hold, and their legislative caucuses have shrunk to the point where they can barely uphold Pawlenty vetoes.

Pawlenty and GOP legislators have played their weakened hand skillfully, generally maintaining unity to block DFL proposals for general tax increases. But if the party loses the governorship next year, or even a few more House seats, it could find itself lacking meaningful influence over state affairs.

Searching for a message that can restore momentum, Minnesota Republicans will choose among state chair candidates -- Tony Sutton, Dave Thompson and Carrie Ruud -- who don't exactly fill a big ideological tent but represent distinct conservative factions. Current party chairman Ron Carey is not seeking reelection.

As delegates meet in Brooklyn Center, the party also will conduct one of its first prominent tests of the influence of a growing faction within the conservative movement: supporters of Texas presidential candidate Ron Paul. With their more libertarian, small-government bent, the Paulites have been attending grass-roots functions and electing members to party offices. They could have an effect on the elections and the message of the party.

Tony Sutton

Sutton, a veteran party executive and operative, disputes the idea that his election would ensure more of the same. He was recently endorsed for the position by Pawlenty.

"I don't look at it as Old Guard vs. New Guard; I look at it as experienced vs. inexperienced," Sutton said.

A former executive director of the state party, former deputy state auditor and now a businessman, Sutton said he is the only candidate who brings door-to-door skills of politics, government and the private sector together. Those skills will help reenergize a base that often may have felt left out of party functions but is essential in establishing new methods of rebranding the party, using new technologies to develop voter lists and phone banks, he said.

"When people vote Republican, they want people who believe in limited government, less taxes and lower spending," Sutton said. "When they fail to vote Republican, we have not lived up to those principles."

Dave Thompson

Thompson is a former talk radio host who has attracted a large number of Paul supporters. But Thompson, who now practices law after his radio show was canceled, said it is a mistake to characterize him as a libertarian. He describes himself as a social conservative and evangelical Christian who became involved in conservative politics during the Reagan years, not as a result of Paul's candidacy.

"As long as we're all for constitutionally constrained government, for limited government, for local control and for adherence [to the idea] that legislatures should make laws, not the courts, you can call yourself a Ron Paul Republican, a Reagan Republican or an Abraham Lincoln Republican," Thompson said. "Hey, come on, join my party."

Thompson said his radio skills will allow him to do a better job of articulating Republican principles and values.

"You do that in a way that does not just speak to the activists in the party but to Main Street America, that conservative values are the values they share," he said. "We've lost the battle of rhetoric."

Carrie Ruud

Ruud, a former state senator, said she is the only candidate to have been an elected official who has run a successful campaign and one who knows what it's like to lose when the message becomes outdated and voters grow apathetic.

Pointing to Sutton -- the party's current secretary/treasurer -- as a member of the entrenched leadership and Thompson as the candidate for the fringes, Ruud said she will work to include more women and minorities in recruiting, using websites and social networking sites as well as more traditional methods to strengthen local party units that may have gone dormant or atrophied.

"We are a very fractured party," she said. "I don't have the endorsement of the Ron Paul people. I don't have the endorsement of the Old Guard Republicans. I'm trying to represent the whole of the party and not just special-interest groups."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636