ST. PETER - It has been a while since Allen Quist has been active in politics. Quist served three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1988, and challenged Gov. Arne Carlson for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1994.
Quist lost to Carlson in the primary, and tried one more run at governor in 1998, withdrawing before the state convention in favor of St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman.
In the ten years since, Quist has taught political science part time at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, and has farmed 1,200 acres near St. Peter with his son, Andrew.
Ten years later, Quist is rested and ready for another run. The onetime posterboy for the conservative wing of the Republican Party has announced that he will run against U.S. Representative Tim Walz for the First District Congressional Seat.
It's not that he missed politics, said Quist.
"I was enjoying life immensely," he said in an interview Friday. He enjoyed teaching, enjoyed farming - life was good.
He had been recruited a couple of times to run for Congress, he said, but with children at home, he didn't feel he could devote his time his children and to working in D.C.
But this year, he got a call from the Republicans' 2008 First District candidate, Dr. Brian Davis.
"Brian, who is a good friend of mine, told me he would not be able to run this year, and he suggested that I run.
"My immediate response was, 'Are you kidding?!'"
But Quist, 65, talked it over with friends and people he knew, and he got lots of encouragement. With his children grown, and with Andrew more than willing to take over the farm, Quist said he decided to make a run for it.
The time is right for a Republican to win the district, he said.
Quist said his message will be simple and straightforward: "If people like what Congress is doing, they should vote for the incumbent. But if they believe, as I do, that Congress is headed in the wrong direction, then I will be the alternative."
Quist says he thinks a conservative backlash is growing in America, especially with the drastic increase in the federal budget deficit under the first ten months of the Obama administration. He said independent voters are shifting to the Republican side in great numbers.
"What is even more surprising to me is the intensity of their feelings," said Quist. "Their intensity is of a scale I haven't seen before."
According to Quist there have been three unusually important bills under consideration during this session of Congress: the $787 billion Stimulus bill, Cap and Trade, and the Health Care bill. "Representative Walz has been on the wrong side of all three," said Quist.
Quist says that government spending is totally out of control.
"Just the Stimulus bill by itself added over $10,000 of new government debt for every family of four in our nation," he said. Quist also said that present Congressional spending trends will almost double our national debt-from 40 percent of GDP today to 87 percent of GDP by 2020. Quist says this means, "continued high unemployment and burdening the next generation with a level of debt that will substantially reduce their quality of life."
"The Cap and Trade bill will add $6,800 per year of higher energy costs for every family of four and the Health Care bill, which is supposed to reduce medical costs, will actually increase total costs by over $100 billion each year," said Quist.
Quist added that the Health Care bill contains a huge hidden tax on the middle class and will substantially reduce the access senior citizens have to needed health care. "In terms of costs," Quist said, "big business is the big winner and the middle class is the big loser. American citizens of the middle class will be forced to pay the bills."
"Southern Minnesota voters have been holding Tea Party rallies and contacting Congressman Walz's office asking him not to support these wasteful government spending bills that force more government control of our lives," said Quist. "Congressman Walz continually shows by his votes that he is out of step with the voters of the First District.
Quist said the Walz people have accused him of being close to the Tea Party movement, and to being a friend of Rep. Michelle Bachmann. He gladly pleads guilty to both.
Quist said Congress has to balance the budget, or at least create a plan to do so. Simply cutting the amount of deficit spending will only slow the bleeding, he said, not stop it.
