Storm gives independent eye to Senate

By Mark Fischenich
The Free Press

February 01, 2006 12:04 am

— The number of Republicans interested in replacing retiring state Sen. John Hottinger has doubled, and there’s a chance both will be on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.
Former state Rep. Julie Storm, R-Mankato, is considering a run for the state Senate seat now held by Hottinger, DFL-St. Peter, who announced in November that he won’t seek another term. But Storm, who ran a very competitive race against Hottinger in 2002, is planning to run as an independent if she enters the race.
“Everybody is getting pretty tired of all the partisanship at the Capitol and not getting things done — important things,” said Storm, who listed the odds as 50-50 that she will run.
Mark Piepho of Skyline, who entered the race just days after Hottinger’s announcement, appears to be established as the Republican candidate for the District 23 seat. A state representative and senator in the 1980s and a longtime leader of the local Republican Party, Piepho said in November that Storm and other potential Republican candidates were backing his candidacy.
“She indicated support early, and then she had a change of mind,” Piepho said Tuesday.
Storm interviewed with the Nicollet County Republican Party candidate search committee last week and told them she was considering a run as an independent. On Tuesday, Storm said she will definitely not seek the Republican endorsement and will not run in the Republican primary election.
“If I run, it will be as an independent,” Storm said, clarifying that she’s not talking about running as a member of the Independence Party.
That means if Storm runs, she will definitely be on the Nov. 7 general election ballot along with Piepho and the Democratic nominee — most likely former Mankato City Council President Kathy Sheran, who is the only DFLer in the race.
The prospect would seemingly help Sheran because Storm remains a fiscal and social conservative and her support would tend to come from conservative voters who otherwise would be likely to vote for Piepho. Piepho wouldn’t comment on whether a Storm candidacy could cost the Republicans the senate seat if it becomes a tightly contested race between Piepho and Sheran.
Piepho, however, said he doesn’t understand what would motivate Storm to run as an independent.
“It would be pretty hard for the independent candidate to win, so what’s she accomplishing?” Piepho asked.
Nicollet County Republican Party Chairman Richard Tostenson said he hopes Storm sticks with her traditional party, but he isn’t worried about how an independent campaign by Storm would impact the Republican candidate’s chances.
“Unless she has the cash and the resources to launch a serious campaign, it’s pretty hard to go up against either one of the parties,” Tostenson said, predicting Storm would siphon away very few Republican voters from Piepho. “Without your base, there’s really nowhere to go.”
And Storm, who seems to enjoy participating in GOP activities, would be cutting ties with the party if she ran against the Republican candidate in November.
“She has been told in very clear language that if she chooses to leave the party, she’ll bear the brunt of that,” Tostenson said.
Storm perturbed some District 23A Republican activists in 2002 when she briefly flirted with running against incumbent Rep. Howard Swenson, R-Nicollet, after losing the endorsement to Swenson. Ultimately, she decided to run, instead, for the Senate seat against Hottinger — winning the highest vote total against Hottinger since he was first elected in a 1990 nail-biter against Piepho.
While Tostenson and Piepho discount the prospects of victory for any independent candidate, Storm believes she can win. She pointed to the results in the last race — when she won 44 percent of the vote to Hottinger’s 47 percent at a time when he was a 12-year incumbent and the Senate majority leader.
“I pretty much was running as an independent,” she said. “I didn’t get any help from the state (Republican) party and very little help from the Senate Republican Caucus. It was a good campaign. It was almost a very good campaign.”
Storm said she recognizes that fundraising would be difficult as an independent but said she likes the idea of running a grass-roots, face-to-face campaign involving a lot of door-knocking and parade walking. And the 72-year-old retiree thinks voters would respond to a candidate who represents no political party at a time of partisan squabbling and corruption.
“I love campaigning,” she said. “If I do it, I’m going to be out every day. ... I’ve already got a reservation for the St. Peter (July Fourth) parade.”

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