Although U.S. Rep. John Kline has compiled one of the most conservative voting records in Congress, he is being challenged from the right for the Republican Party endorsement in 2014.
David Gerson of South St. Paul on Monday formally launched his campaign for GOP backing in the 2nd District, saying at a Capitol news conference that he would be true to conservative principles while Kline has built a “moderate bordering on progressive voting record.”
This will be Gerson’s second shot at Kline. He challenged the six-term incumbent in the 2012 Republican primary and received 15 percent of the vote to Kline’s 85 percent.
He ran last year to “send Kline and the Republican Party a message,” he said. This time he said he is running a better organized and more professional campaign that is “being taken seriously” by GOP activists.
He said he would seek the Republican endorsement in the south suburban district and pledged not to run against Kline if he doesn’t get it. Kline campaign spokesman Troy Young did not respond Monday to an email from the Pioneer Press asking if the congressman would abide by the GOP endorsement.
“Mr. Gerson pledges to abide by the endorsement, but how can he be trusted when he already showed his complete contempt and disregard for the endorsement last year when, after losing the endorsement as a Minneapolis resident in the 5th District, he switched races and challenged John Kline?” Young asked in a prepared statement.
Gerson criticized Kline, a retired career Marine Corps officer who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, for voting repeatedly to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, supporting bailouts for failing corporations and allowing the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens.
Republicans are tired, he said, of elected officials who “mouth conservative rhetoric but don’t back them with action.”
His campaign mantra is that he stands for “constitutionally limited government, free markets and individual rights.”
Gerson, 46, an organizational development specialist with a British aerospace firm, said he is “certainly not running away from the tea party label.”
Marianne Stebbins, the Minnesota coordinator of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign, is chairing his political operation.
Gerson’s role model, he said, is Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican described by the Almanac of American Politics as a “persistent thorn in the side of GOP leaders.”
Kline is a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner. Gerson’s criticism notwithstanding, Kline received a 90 percent conservative rating from the National Journal for his voting record last year and a 96 percent ranking from the American Conservative Union.
Kline headed into the 2014 race with $1.3 million in his campaign treasury on Sept. 30, while Gerson’s campaign was $91,000 in debt.
Although the congressman has carried the district by comfortable margins since he was first elected in 2002, national Democrats have targeted it as one they believe they can win. President Barack Obama narrowly prevailed there last year.
Former state Rep. Mike Obermueller of Eagan, who lost to Kline by 8 percentage points in 2012, is again seeking the DFL endorsement, as are political newcomers Thomas Craft and Paula Overby, both of Eagan.
Bill Salisbury can be reached at 651-228-5538. Follow him at twitter.com/bsalisbury and facebook.com/PioneerPressPolitics.
