How Republicans should capitalize on the State Fair

If the MNGOP was strategically wise, they'd utilize this year's State Fair to highlight the quality of their gubernatorial candidates. If the GOP was strategically wise, they'd host a gubernatorial debate or forum at the State Fair. The positives are obvious. Where else can these candidates get their message in front of that many people in a single afternoon?

A confident candidate with a positive message could put their campaign into high gear with a strong performance. There really isn't a downside for the candidates or the MNGOP. To the candidates that don't stand out, the good news is that there are lots of other events that might help them recover. Further, it's just short of a year out from the GOP State Convention.

The MNGOP should take advantage of the Minnesota Game Fair and FarmFest, too. The MNGOP should recruit debate/forum hosts like Mitch Berg, Jack Tomczak and Liz Collin. Getting our candidates in front of different audiences in different settings will help polish the candidates, too.

Another major upside to these debates is avoiding the Twin Cities media. By getting them in front of the people (radical idea, right?) eliminates the Twin Cities media's ability to charicature our candidates. People actually get to hear our candidates and judge their demeanor. From there, they get to compare our candidates to the DFL's candidates. That isn't a fair fight for the DFL.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I'msupporting Councilman Jeff Johnson. You're welcome too join the movement:

I'm supporting Jeff because he doesn't like the status quo and because he isn't afraid of the truth. Finally, Jeff's a natural-born leader. He won't back down when the going gets tough. I know that he's been through some pretty intense fights, fights where he didn't back down from.