Macalester College, the 2011 “most liberal college in America,” keeps generating Republican candidates for elected office.
First came undergraduate Andrew Ojeda in 2012.
Now, according to a staff report in the Pioneer Press, it looks like another Macalester student is aiming for a Statehouse seat under the GOP banner.
Actually, Daniel Surman’s LinkedIn profile indicates he attended Macalester from 2010 to 2014, so please call him a Mac graduate. He’s hoping to fill the open seat that has been held by state Rep. Michael Paymar, a DFLer, since 1996.
This dubious-looking man is also running for election, but to what office, no one knows…
Paymar, whose DFL-leaning district includes Highland Park and part of Mac-Groveland and West 7th Street, has declined to run for a 10th term.
Surman will have to compete with Ramsey County prosecutor Dave Pinto, who received the DFL endorsement for the House District 64B seat in March.
Surman, it appears, has a keen eye for politics, experience in fundraising and follows House races quite closely in his blog.
Among his varied political credentials, Surman managed the campaign of fellow student Ojeda, Republican nominee for neighboring House District 64A, in 2012.
Ojeda’s secret weapon — the almost-Republican territory constituting Ward 4, Precinct 6, arguably the most GOP-leaning precinct in the city — wasn’t enough to boost him to victory. Ojeda lost to state Rep. Erin Murphy, who has held the seat since 2007, with vote totals of 79 pct – 21 pct.
Ojeda did capture 48 percent of the vote in Ward 4, Precinct 6, which maintained a polling location at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business.