GOP leader to seek another term

02/26/2005

Dane Smith, Star Tribune
February 26, 2005

Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Eibensteiner will seek a fourth two-year term, he announced Friday.

If reelected at a GOP Central Committee meeting in June, the Minneapolis venture capitalist would achieve what is believed to be the longest tenure for a chairman of either major party in recent history.

Eibensteiner said he was proud of helping make Republicans more competitive and transforming Minnesota into a battleground state in presidential politics. He said he was not aware of any other chairman in the state who had served more than four years.

Since Eibensteiner was elected in 1999. Republicans have taken control of the governor’s office, gained a U.S. House seat, built their percentage but not carried the state in two presidential contests and maintained control of the state House for the longest period since at least the 1960s.