All things considered in the governor's race

MPR has a little political toy called “Select A Candidate.” You answer a series of questions about your thinking on various issues, and you’re given a score ranking of how you stand vis a vis various candidates. I tried my hand at the governor’s race.

It will come as no surprise to readers of this site that my views were most closely aligned with those of Libertarian(/Republican?) Sue Jeffers. My “compatibility” score, I guess that’s what it would be, was 13.0

Here is what is surprising.

Next candidate on my ranking based on my position on the issues was Governor Pawlenty at 7.0. Mike Hatch was next, at 6.0.

Now this little quiz is hardly scientific, but if there is any significant libertarian leaning in the Republican party, for that wing of the party there isn’t a whole lot of difference between Tim Pawlenty and Mike Hatch. The difference depends on which issues does a libertarian holds most dear and which ones is he or she is willing to swallow hard and compromise -- or is Jeffers a real alternative?

Considering that this is an MPR toy, it’s not surprising that cumulatively, the most compatible candidates are in reverse order they were when ranked against my positions -- Steve Kelly (37 percent), Beckey Lourey (33 percent) and Peter Hutchinson (11 percent).

But here’s the interesting part again. Remember this is MPR listenership, liberal, yes, but also significant in number. The next three candidates in order of cumulative issue compatibility were Sue Jeffers (7 percent), Mike Hatch (7 percent) and Tim Pawlenty (5 percent).

Again -- this is hardly a scientific survey, but all things considered, if MPR listenership is the typical liberal voter, if it comes down to Pawlenty vs. Hatch, Jeffers could find herself a pretty popular gal. All those Kelly, Lourey and Hutchinson voters have to go somewhere.

Not to say a scenario is shaping up here, but . . . .

[Note -- if you play with the toy, post your results in the comments. Might be interesting.]