As I do before every important election, I’m listing the top 100 reasons I’m voting for the top of the ticket.

Of course, I became an Emmer supporter long ago.  The GOP started the campaign early – right around State Fair time in 2009 – with a crop of great candidates and rumored candidates.  Paul Kohls was a sharp guy; I could have easily supported Pat Anderson; Dave Hann is right about everything that matters; most of all, Marty Seifert would have been an excellent standard-bearer.  I would happily have written these 100 reasons about any of them.

But Emmer became my personal front-runner as Ed and I interviewed him at the Fair on September 4, 2009.  Someone asked him a question about some kind of wedge-y social issue or another.  And without skipping a beat, Tom responded “I dont’ care; this election is about jobs and the economy”.  Emmer is the single best stump speaker in Minnesota politics today.  And for all the left and media’s efforts to paint him as some sort of extremist, Tom has not only stuck to that message, but has shown himself superb at explaining that message to people who don’t start out as believers.  Which is the main reason the DFL has had to run such a superlatively slimy, negative campaign against him.

And to be honest, those were the only reasons I really need to support Tom Emmer.  But I came up with 99 more.  Because that’s what I do.

To wit – the 100 main reasons I’m voting for Tom Emmer today.

1. Because the DFL’s plan is a return to the past, in ways that just don’t make sense anymore.
2. Because the DFL’s big-money, big-union, big-service model was based on economy that exploded at a time when America was the only serious economy on earth.
3. And times have changed.
4. And Tom Emmer knows that we have to change our government with those times.
5. And Mark Dayton thinks that if you throw enough obstinacy and rhetoric and taxpayers money at life, the clock will turn itself back to the DFL’s glory days.
6. Not to mention his own glory days.
7. And as that great political commentator said, Glory Days will pass you by in the wink of a young girl’s eye.
8. Because Emmer’s about providing three things; Jobs
9. Jobs, and
10. Jobs.
11. And Dayton is not.
12. Unless you’re an AFSCME, SEIU, MAPE other state employee.
13. Indeed, we know of many companies that are going to leave Minnesota, sooner or later, if taxes don’t moderate.
14. And we know many, many more that are waiting on the fence to see where their investments are going to go.
15. Because it’s not just about creating jobs.  It’s about creating a climate where companies will create jobs, and new companies will form, and hire people to work for them, and more new companies will form to provide goods and services and wholesaling and distribution and support and markets and suppliers for the companies above.
16. And Mark Dayton’s policies will curb that as effectively as any policy designed to curb business growth on purpose ever could.
17. Because our state government needs to be re-engineered…
18. …and Emmer has the plan to do it…
19. …while Mark Dayton’s entire plan is to just pour more of our money down the rathole.
20. Because of Emmer’s enemies; the SEIU, AFSCME, the Teamsters, and the bureaucracy are the only people who benefit from the current government.
21. Because Tom Emmer is one of us.
22. And I just know that some idiot leftyblogger will go “yeah, he’s a middle class white guy”, which shows you yet another reason Emmer needs to win; the phony “diversity” pimps must not be rewarded.
23. No, Tom Emmer is a Minnesota guy who grew up the child of business people, worked for the business, worked his way through college and law school, worked his way up the hierarchy of his business – just the way most Minnesotans have to, whether they’re white middle class guys…
24. …or Latino working-class gals…
25. …or black single mothers who are fighting to keep their kids’ charter schools afloat…
26. …or Asian immigrants who are working in their uncle’s restaurant while they earn their engineering degree.  It’s all part of a story…
27. …that Mark Dayton never participated in, can not understand…
28. …and has to have interpreted for him  by his advisers from the AFSCME, MFT, MAPE, SEIU, ACORN, CommonCause and MoveOn.
29. Tom Emmer doesn’t have to have anyone explain “the Minnesota Dream” to him.  He’s lived it, and his whole plan is about opening up that dream to everyone.
30. Because Mark Dayton is the wrong guy for the job.
31. He was an unmitigated disaster as a Senator…
32. …and an undistinguished State Auditor….
33. …and a failure as Economic Development commissioner – so bad that his boss’ son wrote an Op-Ed claiming that he bailed on the job before a recession, to salvage his political future.
34. And his only “plan” is to start jacking up taxes.
35. And as much as he caterwauls about “taxing the rich”, the fact is that his proposed “taxes on the rich” won’t even begin to cover the deficit, will slow the state’s economy and sent it into a vicious, revenue-killing spiral…
36. …that will result in the definition of “the rich” being pushed ever downward until pretty much everyone in Minnesota is “rich”…
37. …while, paradoxically, poor.
38. Because his plan will gut charter schools – a racist plan that will destroy the only meaninful “school choice” most inner-city parents of color, and from poor families, and immigrants and Native Americans, have to try to get their children a decent education.
39. (But Dayton needn’t care, because he went to Yale).
40. Dayton’s plan, indeed, is voodoo economics of the most trite, vapid order.
41. And Minnesotans are smarter than that.
42. (Or, after Ventura, McCollum, Ellison and Franken, I guess I should say they can be smarter than that.  Here’s your chance, Minnesota!)
43. Because “Alliance For A Better Minnesota” is, paradoxically, an alliance for a much, much worse Minnesota.
44. Because while I don’t really want big corporations buying my elections, I don’t want Alita Messenger buying them, either.
45. Or Big Unions.  What’s the SEIU done for us lately, besides demand more money and more subsidies?
46. Ditto the Minnesota Federation of Teachers?
47. Or, more tellingly, the entire Dayton family?
48. Because anyone the Twin Cities Media has been working so hard to gundeck this last six months has to be good.
49. Because Pat Doyle smeared Emmer in the Strib…
50. …and I busted Doyle.
51. Because if Tom Emmer wins, maybe the Twin Cities media will examine some of their prejudices, and focus less on electing DFLers and more on…reporting the news?
52. Because if Emmer wins, perhaps people will, once and for all, start treating the Minnesota Poll like “news”, and more like an “in-kind campaign contribution”, which is all it is.
53. Ditto the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute Poll
54. And “Mid-Morning with Keri Miller”.
55. Because while I have no doubt that the Twin Cities media will eventually ask questions about Mark Dayton’s alcoholic relapses and mental health record, it’d be good to settle that before he takes on the most powerful job in Minnesota.
56. Or preferably rather than taking it on.
57. Because it will pound a stake through the heart of the old, RINO Republican party
58. Because Lori Sturdevant seems to have staked out a market at tut-tutting Republicans for not being like the Republicans of the 1970’s – and far be it from me to want to constrict somebody’s market.
59. Because Tom Emmer survived the most epic smear campaign in Minnesota history.
60. And that sort of behavior must not be rewarded.
61. Think about it; if Mark Dayton wins, all of ABM’s lies will be considered justified.
62. Because to the left, the end justifies the means – and since power is their end, this campaign will codify the means; lying, smearing, slandering.
63. And “power”, in this case, means not only the power to tax you back to the stone age, but to scupper the economy of this state for a generation.
64. Which, let us not forget, is yet another end that’d justify their means, if it succeeds. Because a state with lots of DFL dependants is a state with a happy DFL.
65. Because if Tom Emmer beats out this epic smear campaign, perhaps the Minnesota DFL and its lefty allies will learn some f****ng manners.
66. Because I don’t want the definition of “Marriage” decided by a bunch of moron legislators or bobbleheaded, agenda-driven judges.
67. Because if Emmer wins, free speech wins.
68. It was the “Citizens United” Supreme Court case that allowed corporations to contribute to political campaigns.
69. And so a raft of Minnesota companies contributed to “MNForward”, a pro-business PAC.
70. And a legion of howling lefty nutcases lined up to crucify these businesses…
71. …well, no.  They didn’t line up to slander and badger Polaris or Davisco or Securian.  They lined up to attack Target Corporation as “anti-gay”…
72. …even though Target is one of the most pro-equal-rights-for-gays companies in a state full of companies that bend over backwards to prove their “diversity”.   The attack wasnt’ because of anything Target did, but to try to bully and browbeat all Minnesota companies who dared to dissent from the DFL and their various hangers-on.
73. BTW, Tom Emmer is no more “anti-gay” than Barack Obama or, for that matter, Mark Dayton.
74. Because while the “Minnesota Miracle” of Minnesota Media Myth is indeed largely mythical, and would have happened anyway
75. But today, Minnesota needs a real miracle, and we need it now.
76. And real miracles come from the private sector…
77. …and the best thing government can do is stand out of the way – lending the odd helping hand (by, say, providing an educated and competent work force – ooops, sorry about that, Minnesota Federation of Teachers) and letting private enterprise and the market do the hard stuff.
78. Because while Governor Pawlenty has done a helluvva job keeping the wheels on this state, it’s only going to get more difficult as the Obama Depression grinds on.
79. And we have two more years of The One to survive; and electing a responsible, grownup, conservative government is a great first step in telling the rapacious federal regime “not so fast, bitches”.
80. Because it’s a big wave.
81. And if Emmer wins, then so will Michele Bachmann.
82. And Erik Paulsen.
83. And John Kline.
84. And since the Constitutional Officer races usually follow the governor’s race, an Emmer win will bring back Pat Anderson to State Auditor, replacing the fairly useless but boundlessly venal Rebecca Otto.
85. And Dan Severson could win, replacing Mark Ritchie, who was basically put into office to further George Soros’ grand scheme of having fifty in-the-bag secretaries of state.
86. And Chris Barden could become the Attorney General, giving us an AG that will work for Minnesota, rather than for Mike Hatch.
87. And if Emmer wins big, there’s a decent shot that Chip Cravaack will win as well – and Congress desperately needs Jim Oberstar to leave and go into the lobbyling business, where his heart really belongs.
88. And if Emmer wins, the coattails will help Randy Demmer, too; every little bit helps.
89. And of Tom and Chip take it downtown, then Lee Byberg will stand a decent chance of toppling Colin Peterson.
90. And if Tom, Chip, Randy and Lee pull it off, then the heretofore unthinkable – Teresa Collett knocking off Betty “Mission Accomplished” McCollum – is suddenly thinkable.
91. And Joel Demos might just be able to pack his wife and kids up and head off to DC as well.  Because we’re Minnesotans, and we do believe in Miracles.
92. And if that happens, somewhere on the campus of the Blake School, some mirthless harpy’s head is going to explode.
93. And some hard-scrabble Latina will make a few bucks cleaning up the mess, giving her the money to feed her kids and drive them to a good charter school,  where they become good educated citizens, who vote Republican…
94. …and help repeat the cycle…
95. …so that before too terribly long the DFL – the great destroyer of jobs, the albatross on the back of the Minnesota economy, the racist ravager of school choice, the thuggish apparatchik that wants to make sure you do no better than they do, will become a third party.  Like it so richly deserves.
96. Because I want Minnesota to be a good place for my children.
97. I don’t want Minnesota to become a Cold California, a windy Greece, a passive-aggressive Michigan, a “nice” Massachusetts.
98. And DFL rule merely ensures that that is exactly what will happen.
99. And conservative government is not just sane, stable government, it’s the key to a prosperous, sustainable state.  Even the parts that aren’t government.
100. Because it’s something you can do for A Better Minnesota.  All of us. Together.

So let’s make this happen.

Previous “100 Reasons” posts:

• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For Bush, Not Kerry
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting for the 2006 MNGOP slate
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For McCain
• 100 Reasons I’m Voting For Eva Ng