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.”