Hennepin County needs commissioner with conservative compass

One of the important local races in 2008 will be to replace the solidly conservative Penny Steele on the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners in District 7. Activists on both sides of the Twins stadium subsidy battle will remember Steele, along with Commissioners Gail Dorfman and Linda Koblick, as tireless defenders of the taxpayer and limited government in the face of tremendous pressure from the subsidy recipients.

With Steele not running for reelection at the end of her term this year, county conservatives will want another commissioner with a steel backbone, so to speak, to protect the taxpayer and stand in the way of runaway government growth, including a taxpayer-financed stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. (If you doubt the urgency of this need, just look at the bottom of the receipt for anything you bought in Hennepin County since the subsidy went into effect.)

Although the board is a nonpartisan one, and party affiliations will not be on the ballot, political parties can endorse. Delegates to the Hennepin County Republican convention on February 23 will choose between two candidates for the endorsement, Jeff Johnson and Warren Limmer. Limmer (R-Maple Grove) is a fifth term state senator; Johnson is a Republican former state representative from Plymouth, who ran for Minnesota Attorney General in 2006.