As is the tradition (apparently; it's news to Spot, but he doesn't pay much attention to the inside baseball stuff at the Lege), twelve House members announced their retirement on the last evening of the session. Via Political Animal, here they are:
Republicans:
Rep. John Berns, Wayzata.
Rep. Chris DeLaForest, Andover.
Rep. Brad Finstad, Comfrey.
Rep. Dennis Ozment, Rosemount.
Rep. Erik Paulsen, Eden Prairie.
Rep. Connie Ruth, Owatonna.
Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, Andover.
DFLers:
Rep. Scott Kranz, Blaine.
Rep. Frank Moe, Bemidji.
Rep. Aaron Peterson, Appleton.
Rep. Neva Walker, Minneapolis.
Erik the Bland is running for Congress in the Third District, of course. Rep. Dennis Ozment is the Republican with the most seniority in the House.
More interesting to Spot, however, is who is not on the list. Rep. Kathy Tingelstad is the only one of the "Override Six" to announce her retirement. The Override Two from District 41, Ron Erhardt and Neil Peterson are apparently both going to run again. They each could do that as independents (where Spot thinks that Erhardt especially would be a formidable foe) or by running in the primary for the Republican nomination. To Spot's knowledge, neither has announced which route they he will take.
Reps. Erhardt and Peterson both lost contests for the Republican Party endorsement at the District Convention in March which came on the heels of the vote to override the governor's veto of the transportation bill that included a gas tax increase.
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