FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2010
Contact: Frank Long, Chair, Carver County Republicans
felongaok@yahoo.com or (952) 955-2801
LEIDIGER, BUSINESS OWNER, DESERT STORM NAVAL OFFICER,
WINS CARVER COUNTY GOP ENDORSEMENT FOR 34A MN HOUSE SEAT
Ernie Leidiger
joined GOP gubernatorial Candidate Tom Emmer, Minnesota House Minority Leader
Kurt Zellers and 70 other representatives and endorsed candidates from around
the state Tuesday to file for his candidacy to the seat that was held eight
terms by Republican Paul Kohls.
Leidiger, owner
of Brothers Office Furniture and a decorated Naval Officer, won endorsement by
the Carver County Republican Party in a grassroots convention in Norwood Young
American May 24 as their candidate for the Minnesota House of Representative
seat in district 34A which represents western Carver County and three Scott
County precincts.
Priorities for
the state are many, Leidiger said. “We must create jobs, private sector jobs. To
do this, we must reduce those shackles of bad policy and spending that is
ruining this state, reinvent state government so that it responds to the people,
reduce the size of government so that the delivery of government services is
cost.”
The welfare
state as we know it today must be addressed Leidiger said, “we must stop all
those programs that eat away at a person’s pride and will-power and fight to
enact laws that empower the charities and non profits to be bold and continue
their good work, and not be demoralized because government wants to take their
place. The delivery of services by government is always much more expensive than
the private sector. It's because government never spends its own money, it
always someone else's money.”
Pro-life and a believer in Second Amendment rights, Leidiger said he
would fight against “those that that will harm the most frail and innocent among
us, those who redistribute our wealth and burden our children with high debt and
those that will put the states interest over the individual interests. We must
stop the idea that Government is the answer to everything and those using it to
steamroll over the will of the people.”
At Monday’s
district GOP convention in Norwood Young America, Leidiger won almost 68 percent
of the people’s vote to win their endorsement in two ballots. He took 50 percent
of the vote on the first ballot.
Candidates must
receive at least 60 percent of the delegate votes to be endorsed. Leidiger won
on a two-to-one margin over his two Republican challengers. Bruce Mackenthun, a
Scott County business owner who grew up near Norwood Young America, bowed out
after the first ballot and asked his supporters to throw their votes to Leidiger.
Waconia city councilor Jim Nash received 38 percent on the first ballot
and 35 percent on the second, and then asked for an unanimous motion to support
Leidiger as the endorsed candidate, which passed.
“The three of us
ran hard,” Leidiger said, “and during the election we came together to move
forward as one team. I am honored by the support and thank Jim Nash and Bruce
Mackenthun for running great campaigns...their efforts has made our party
stronger.”
The party’s
official endorsement now opens the way for Leidiger to begin his campaign in
earnest, challenging the Union-backed Democrat opponent, Leanne Pouliet Kunze,
for the November election.
MORE
ADD ONE/LEIDIGER
ENDORSED
Leidiger has
owned Brothers Office Furniture for the last five years, which is a member of
the Twin West and North Hennepin County Chambers of Commerce, and the Minnesota
Defense Alliance. He is a Desert Storm veteran and a decorated, retired Naval
officer and a former business owner and founder of Operation Homefront, a
charity for dependents of deployed service members. He is on the board of
directors of the local U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, and is a member of
the American Legion and VFW.
Leidiger is a long-time conservative and an active vice-chairman of the
Carver County Republican Party. He is the father of three and lives with his
wife Jan in Camden Township, just west of Waconia.
The Carver County Republicans are a grassroots organization elected for
two year terms by the people of Carver County.
The party’s delegates, which were elected during the February Precinct
caucuses throughout District 34A’s western Carver County cities and surrounding
townships of Carver, a portion of Chaska, Mayer, Norwood Young America, Waconia,
and Watertown, and the Scott County townships of Jackson, Louisville and
Lewisville, near the cities of Jordan and Belle Plaine.
Direct all
inquiries to Frank Long, Carver County GOP chair, at
felongaok@yahoo.com
or (952) 955-2801.
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