Burton Hanson for Congress
GOP Primary - MN 3rd District
Strength and Prosperity Through Peace

Why I'm Running

Here's a copy of the press release I penned shortly before driving over to St. Paul to file on the afternoon of 07.20, the last day of filing. Although I distributed copies of it to the major representatives of the print media in the capitol pressroom, I find it interesting -- and confirming of what I have said of the mainstream press all along -- that as of this posting, 08.19, none of them has mentioned that there is that rare bird, a Republican who dares to call himself "liberal," running in the primary as an anti-war candidate.

PRESS RELEASE
Burton R. Hanson
Edina, MN 55424
BurtLaw@ix.netcom.com
07.20.2004

I doubt very seriously whether anyone, Republican or DFL, can beat incumbent Congressman Jim Ramstad (MN, 3rd). The district rather obviously is a "safe" district for the incumbent; moreover, he seems virtually unbeatable in the Republican primary. Without illusions, I nonetheless have decided to offer the voters in the Republican primary a choice.

I don't believe anyone should run unopposed either within the party or in the general election. Our experiment in democracy, to be successful, ultimately requires that good people of good will come forward as candidates, without regard to the likelihood of "success," as that term is commonly understood, in order to give voters a meaningful choice.

I feel compelled to come forward this time because I believe the Republican party -- which, under Dwight D. Eisenhower, was the party of peace and prosperity -- under George W. Bush has become the party of unnecessary war and recession. Mr. Ramstad is a good man and generally a good representative. But on the major issues of peace and prosperity he has offered nothing but blind support for the unwise foreign and economic policies of Mr. Bush. These policies are neither compassionate nor conservative.

In any event, I am not a conservative. I stand proudly as a "liberal Eisenhower Republican" who doesn't like Mr. Bush but still likes good old Ike. There may be only ten or twenty of us in the third district, but so be it. Those voters deserve a choice. And, in the great tradition that we liberal Eisenhower Republicans established in the 1956 presidential primary, when we crossed-over and voted in the DFL primary in order to influence the outcome, perhaps there are some people in the district who normally don't vote Republican but will see fit to vote in the Republican primary so that I get more than ten or twenty votes.

I don't intend to spend any money on the cheap kind of political advertising one sees on television these days. In fact, I don't intend to advertise at all or, for that matter, campaign in the traditional sense. I merely offer myself as an alternative to "more of the same."

Copyright (c) 2004 by Burton Randall Hanson. Prepared & published  by candidate on his own behalf and at his own expense. Candidate may be reached by e-mail at burtonhanson@burtonhanson.com. Candidate does not solicit or accept contributions or endorsements.