State Sen. John Marty, a DFL gubernatorial candidate, didn't have to go far to find his running mate.
He picked fellow DFL state Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, who sits just three seats away on the Senate floor and who lives just 9 miles away from Marty's Roseville home.
But Marty, the first DFL candidate to name a running mate, said Torres Ray, of Minneapolis, brings other diversity to his ticket.
As the first a Latina state Senator lawmaker, she brings ethic diversity and as a woman, she brings gender diversity, he said.
"We certainly wanted a lot of balance...I think ethnic diversity is part of that, gender, a lot of things," Marty said.
When Marty ran for governor 16 years ago, he picked Dassel lobbyist Nancy Larson as his lieutenant governor and emphasized her rural credentials. That year, he won the DFL endorsement only to spectacularly lose to Republican Gov. Arne Carlson in the November election.
On Wednesday, at the press conference where Marty and Torres Ray announced their ticket, Torres Ray avoided answering a question key to many rural voters -- the issue of ethanol.
"For now I would like not to get into answering questions related to that or any other issue," she said.