Two good choices

We'll find out who will get the Republican endorsement in the Senate race against Amy Klobuchar this weekend. I'm not going to make an endorsement for two reasons:

• My opinion doesn't matter much; and
• I'm really torn

There are three candidates in the running and all of them have their merits. Kurt Bills is most associated with the Ron Paul activists and may end up winning the thing if the organizational muscle the Paul supporters have developed is sufficiently strong, but I think Bills really ought to go back to the legislature and play a leadership role there instead of pursuing higher office at this time.

The other two candidates are both compelling. Doc Severson ran a strong campaign for Secretary of State in the last cycle and has done some very important work in party building, especially among groups that the GOP has traditionally had a tough time reaching. Mitch Berg makes a good case for him here.

Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth has done some tremendous work at the helm of Vets for Freedom and has also proven to be a formidable fundraiser, which will be pretty important given the advantages that Klobuchar has at her disposal. Andy Aplikowski has been blogging steadily on Pete's behalf for a while now and you can read a lot about Hegseth's merits at his place.

I won't be at the convention, but I suspect this endorsement battle will be contentious. No matter what happens, we're going to have a good candidate.