It's never to early to talk 08'

The 2008 US Senate race is actually very close to beginning. While the 2006 US Senate race was jump started by Mark Dayton's announcement he would not seek re-election we should have a large list of challengers to Norm Coleman (assuming he seeks re-election) by the end of next summer. On the DFL side we know about Al Franken, and the list of potential candidates is long.

On the Independence Party side there are a lot of strong possibilities. Jim Gibson has expressed an interest in making another run, and federal office is his best fit, so I would expect him to run for either congress or US Senate in 08. Tim Penny is always a strong possibility to re-enter the game. While I don't expect the quick turn around Tammy Lee would be a very good candidate. Who knows maybe Kelly Doran wants a ticket onto the stage again, if he has a few more dollars to blow through he would seem to be a good fit with the Independence Party.

I don't expect a quick turnaround from Robert Fitzgerald or John Binkowski, and I don't expect Jack Uldrich, Jim Moore, or Dean Barkley to take a stab at it again.

The early best guess is Jim Gibson, although I would only put that at about a 20% chance as there are a lot of solid possibilities out there, not to mention newcomers I am not yet aware of.