10 to watch

All right I'm going to start using cheap tricks to keep this blog active when the political news is slow.

In the next few weeks I will post about the 10 people or bodies within the Independence Party who can make the most significant impact on the party going forward.

Those ten in no particular order are

2006 6th district congressional candidate John Binkowski
Current State Party Chair and 2002 US Senate Candidate Jim Moore
Former DFL congressman and 2002 Independence Party Gubernatorial candidate Tim Penny
Current 5th congressional district chair Peter Theraldson
2006 Gubernatorial candidate Peter Hutchinson
Mayor of Anoka Bjorn Skolgquist
2006 5th district congressional candidate Tammy Lee
Party leadership in general
2000 US Senate candidate and Jim Gibson
The entire Team Minnesota staff

All of the above listed people can make a major impact in a variety of roles, be it party leadership, future candidates, or the media face of the party. If you saw my comments regarding the 2008 US Senate race you know that many of the above were mentioned as potential candidates, but beyond that many of the above would make ideal candidates for State House, and many of the above can play a critical role in candidate recruitment.

In the coming weeks I will go down that list one by one, give a little background and do my best to give you a good idea of what role will be taken moving forward.

I should note that the two bodies that will make the most significant impact on the Independence party going forward are the DFL and Republican parties, as I described in discussing Al Franken, but I'm keeping this list to those within the Independence Party.