Some of the most thoughtful end-of-decade analysis of Minnesota's shared life that crossed this scribe's screen appeared on Facebook. (Then again, doesn't everything?)
Provocative posts about a state that "succumbed to the politics of anger and fear" in the aught years, and as a result produced a "stunning lack of innovation," began appearing about mid-December on the Facebook wall of public-relations pro Tom Horner.
They coincided, not coincidentally, with a story by my former Strib colleague Eric Black at MinnPost.com: "Will Tom Horner be the IP candidate for governor?"
Will he? The prospect sent me on a candidacy assessment mission to the snazzy Bloomington office tower that houses the Himle Horner public-relations firm.
I found the firm's cofounder in full "thinking seriously about running" mode.
Horner is a lifelong Republican, once chief of staff to Republican U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger, regularly a GOP-leaning analyst on Minnesota Public Radio, often an adviser to GOP candidates. One might thus think that the defection he's contemplating to the Independence Party would cause consternation in GOP ranks.
But that thought overlooks the fact that Tim Pawlenty proved twice that Republicans know how to win three-way gubernatorial elections. Horner's musings may be a source of more dyspepsia among DFLers. Not a few DFLers still grouse that Tim Penny and Peter Hutchinson, both DFL-cum-IP candidates, spoiled their party's gubernatorial bids in 2002 and 2006, respectively.
Horner argues that 2010 could be different, and not just because he would be GOP-cum-IP. This time, the IP candidate could be more than a spoiler, he says. He makes that claim with as cogent a critique of the way Republicans and Democrats function as the IP has produced since it emerged on Minnesota's political scene in the mid-1990s.