Defeated in Primary, GOPer Koering quits party, endorses DFLer

[Morning Dew]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_15746824?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

After losing Tuesday's GOP primary, state Sen. Paul Koering has endorsed a successor: DFL candidate Taylor Stevenson.

Koering served two terms as a Republican, but said Wednesday he's leaving the party after it helped elect former state Rep. Paul Gazelka of Brainerd.

Gazelka defeated Koering, R-Fort Ripley, with almost 57 percent of the vote, advancing to a general-election race with Stevenson, 22, a newly minted college graduate from Baxter.

The bitter primary split Republicans in Morrison and Crow Wing counties, after the personal life of Koering — who is openly gay — became a campaign issue. Koering was also knocked during the campaign for straying from his party on legislative votes.

Koering said "The party that I've called home for 14 years has kind of, in essence, went off the cliff,"

Oh really, Paul, what was your first clue on that?

[CatholicEdHead]

1. I saw this in the Strib just before the primary

I guess the Republicans around the greater Little Falls area are so homophobic that it apparently automatically disqualifies anyone unless they are are straight.

There are dirty politics and this goes way beyond any line of decency with that. Now that he quit the GOP the local Republicans are going to pat themselves on their back for a job well done. What a joke but representative of the rampant homophobia in the rural, "conservative" parts of the state.