Hoeven planning to run for the Senate

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Politico

Republicans look like they’ve landed their top recruit in the North Dakota Senate race: Popular Gov. John Hoeven is letting his political allies know that he’s preparing to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

North Dakota Republican party chairman Gary Emineth told POLITICO that he spoke with Hoeven’s senior staff soon after learning of Dorgan’s retirement, and they informed him that Hoeven is preparing to jump in the Senate race once he deals with family issues back home.

“I expect Gov. Hoeven to get in, and he’s going to work through personal issues relating to his family, but I would be shocked if he’s not in the Senate race soon,” Emineth said. “He’s been showing signs of running and getting things cued up in preparation for a decision. It’s inevitable, and the decision by Dorgan showed he was expecting Governor Hoeven to get into the race.”

Hoeven's decision gives Republicans an excellent shot at winning back the Senate seat in the solidly Republican state.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0110/Hoeven_planning_to_run_for_the_Senate.html

[No Elephants]

1. Edited because I am researching the question I had originally asked.

Decided not to be so lazy.

[FBaggins]

3. He's pretty conservative. There's no question it will be a shift

He doesn't appear to be pure evil (tm)... increasing education funding and teacher salaries... but this isn't just a switch in party affiliation.

[No Elephants]

4. Thanks, I edited out my original question bc I decided to research. Per his wiki,

he seems to have taken some good positions on things like shipping jobs overseas, Net neutrality, etc. He seems conceerned about spending, but did vote for the recovery bill. At the very minimum, he's certainly not all bad.

[FBaggins]

2. What a surprise [/sarcasm]

Dorgan's retirement told us that Hoeven was getting into the race. It doesn't tell us which was cause and which was effect... but we already knew.

[No Elephants]

5. Hoeven's Wiki implies Hoeven's poll numbers caused Dorgan's retirement.

"Rasmussen Reports polling from December 2009 shows Hoeven with a 58-36% lead over incumbent Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan.<1> Just two weeks after that poll was released, Dorgan announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2010 North Dakota senate election." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hoeven

I wonder if Hoeven's peeps helped wiki with that implication.

[FBaggins]

6. It has been the RW take on the race for some time now

Many took that poll (keep in mind who it's from) and an attempt to GET Hoeven into the race.

It was also used to attack HCR... trying to "warn" Senate Dems that even the "safe" seats weren't safe if they supported a "government takeover of 1/6th of the economy" (or whatever).

[L. Coyote]

7. Hoeven is IN the race already if they are working his WIKI already.

"Dorgan's retirement told us that Hoeven was getting into the race" is laughable.

TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT:

In a 2/3rds R state,

Dorgan kicked every R in the book for over 30 years,

and could easily do it to any R in ND again.