FOSSTON - A Fosston man announced this week he will challenge the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's endorsed candidate for a state House seat in August's primary election.
Erwin "Erv" Rud said in a Wednesday news release that he had "changed his mind about a primary challenge." He lost the party's endorsement for the District 1B seat to Mike Moore, who lives in Mentor and owns newspapers in Fosston and Hallock.
In the news release, Rud pointed to low turnout at the May 14 endorsing convention, which he attributed to graduations, the fishing season opener and other events. He also said he saw "no post-endorsement campaign activity" from Moore.
Moore expressed confusion about Rud's decision to pursue a primary challenge, given that both candidates said at the convention they would abide by the party's endorsement. The primary election is Aug. 9.
House District 1B is currently represented by Republican Deb Kiel of Crookston, and Rud targeted Moore's Democratic credentials in his news release.
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"He may as well be a Republican," he said, adding Moore "regularly supports principles opposed to the DFL values with the 'Reflections' column published in his Fosston newspaper."
Moore pushed back against Rud's assertion, and pointed out he does not write the Reflections column. He said he has contributed to Democratic candidates and he's "pretty much espoused all of the DFL platform that we're talking about," adding he's in favor of transportation, education and programming for senior citizens.
