The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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February 7, 2013

Your View: A vote for Gieseke is a vote for Quist

By William Cory Labovitch, South St. Paul

— I am a Democratic political activist who has studied across Canada and the United States on the issue of vote-splitting in multiple party elections and am concerned about vote-splitting in the upcoming special election.

 Conservative Republican Tom Emmer won the district now known as 19A in 2010 in the governor's race. He was the only Republican to win in 2010 and 2012 election cycles because 15 percent of voters voted for Independence Party candidate Tom Horner with the majority of the votes coming from voters who voted for Democrats in the other races.

Just imagine what would happen if Emmer became governor with a Republican Legislature and you could see my concern.

Allen Quist is a well-known Tea Party Republican with ties to known tea-party radical Michele Bachmann who has chastised other Republicans for not being conservative enough and the only way he is going to win is with help from Independence Party candidate Tim Gieseke.

Gieseke is a nice guy but has a very small chance of winning, so I urge moderates and center-left independents to vote for Clark Johnson, for a vote for Gieseke is a vote for Quist.

 

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