Third District GOP backs Paulsen's run for Congress

Veteran state Rep. Erik Paulsen was endorsed Saturday for U.S. Congress by Third District Republicans.

Paulsen, of Eden Prairie, hopes to succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, a nine-term Republican who is retiring.

Ramstad, 60, is a political moderate who has said he was tired of congressional partisanship that trumped good policy.

Ramstad endorsed Paulsen, a former Ramstad aide who ran unopposed, as a "leader who has the integrity, energy, vision, experience and character."

Paulsen, 42, said he considers himself a fiscal conservative who can reprise Ramstad's ability to connect with Democrats.

"The district that I've represented within the Third Congressional District, both Eden Prairie and Edina ... is very much a microcosm of the Third District and I've done very well with conservatives and moderate voters," he said. "Jim Ramstad is a mentor of mine. I am cut from the same cloth on many issues, particularly fiscal issues."

Also Saturday, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum won the DFL endorsement in Minnesota's Fourth Congressional District.

"Your endorsement carries with it a responsibility," McCollum told supporters. "For me, it affirms my work to advance our common values -- social justice, civil rights, equal opportunity and investing in peace rather than war."

In the Seventh Congressional District, Glen Menze, 49, an accountant and farmer from Starbuck, won the Republican endorsement to challenge Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson. Menze lost to Peterson by a wide margin in 2000.

Third District battle

Last Saturday, DFLers in the Third District chose lawyer Ashwin Madia, a onetime Republican who began his campaign after serving in Iraq with the Marines. Madia said he will appeal to independents and moderate Republicans fed up with President Bush.

"Our venture into Iraq has been badly mishandled," Paulsen acknowledged in an interview. "It's important for the United States to draw down responsibly. We created a mess. But we should not have a precipitous withdrawal that's going to create a vacuum ... for extremists to take over who could be a threat to the United States."

State DFL chair Brian Melendez said Paulsen is trying to distance himself from his conservative record as the House majority leader, a post he lost when the DFL took control of the Legislature in November 2006.