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Capitol View®
Catharine Richert

Big caucus turnout in Eden Prairie

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Eden Prairie High School is the place to be this caucus night.

Several hundred Republicans representing 29 precincts in Eden Prairie and Minnetonka are gathered there to pick candidates.

It's also where two major Republican candidates for governor and one candidate for the U.S. Senate showed up to shake hands with voters.

Here's a dispatch from MPR News reporter Tom Scheck.

Before the caucuses began, three statewide candidates spoke to the group.

“The world is run by those who show up,” gubernatorial hopeful Sen. Dave Thompson, R-Lakeville, told the audience.

Thompson is one of two candidates who say they’ll drop out of the race if they don’t win the backing from party delegates.

Thompson has been working to persuade delegates that they should pick him in tonight’s straw poll, in part because he’ll abide by the party endorsement.

“I think it’s really almost disingenuous to come here and say, 'I would love your support, I want you to endorse me, you’re really important to me unless you pick someone else and then you don’t matter to me at all.'” Thompson said he’d like to do well in the straw poll because it will have an impact on momentum and perception.

Eden Prairie is a key area for the GOP in the upcoming election. And tonight, a large number of delegates there are telling the campaigns that they are undecided.

Former state Rep. Marty Seifert said he is hoping to finish in the top three in tonight’s straw poll. Seifert, who dropped his campaign for governor in 2010 after losing the party endorsement to Tom Emmer, said he would have to evaluate his campaign if he doesn't dowell tonight.

“Usually the top three punch a ticket out to the convention,” Seifert said. “If you can’t break 10 or 15 percent at the caucuses, how on earth are you going to put a primary campaign together? You do have to have people put up your signs, make your phone calls and knock on doors.”

Unlike 2010, Seifert is not ruling out running in a primary if he doesn't win party backing.

One of the GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate also spoke to the group. Mike McFadden said he’s challenging DFL Sen. Al Franken because he thinks the nation is on the wrong track.

“As I have traveled around the state the last seven months, it’s become very clear to me that Minnesotans are concerned about their financial security,” McFadden said.

McFadden is not ruling out running in a primary if he does not win the party endorsement.

Caucus goers said their list of top concerns ranged from spending on the federal level, concerns over the Affordable Care Act and worries over a proposed light rail line in the western suburbs.

Among them was Donna Azarian, who said she doesn't want the project funded.

“The Met Council has overstepped its boundaries. You do not force a $1.8 billion light rail line on people especially when we don’t have the population density for it succeed.”