In what is shaping up as a wave election for limited-government Republicans, there has been no shortage of high-profile gubernatorial races throughout this country: Kasich vs Strickland in OH; Scott vs Sink in FL; Whitman vs Brown in CA; Perry vs White in TX; etc. But one race, for whatever reason, seems to have flown beneath the radar: the race for governor of Minnesota.

That’s unfortunate because I can’t think of a single race for a statehouse that has a more clearly defined ideological difference than the one in the state I now call home.

Tom Emmer, the GOP nominee is facing ex-Senator Mark Dayton and ex-RINO now Independent Party candidate Tom Horner. Dayton was a one-term senator from MN who compelled a stellar 11% lifetime ACU rating and heir to the Dayton Department Stores fortune. Thus, the only job he’s ever had is to run for political office. Tom Horner, running as an ‘outsider, owns a PR firm whose biggest clients have been…government entities. Or, as Tom refers to them: “the hobbyist and the lobbyist.”

I had to the good fortune of meeting Tom at various events leading up to the nominating conventions (I was a voting delegate) and he always impressed me with his passion, his ability to articulate conservative principles in ‘everyday person’ terms, and his ready wit and self-depracating sense of humor. So, I contacted his press secretary (who, I was to find out, vists RS on a fairly regular basis) to conduct an interview for posting on RedState. Well, recently, he managed to wrangle a 30 minute block of time out of Tom’s frenetic and hectic campaign schedule.

To say I was blown away would be a gross understatement. I sat for 30 minutes and listened to Tom field questions on a variety of issues and philosophies. And for 30 minutes, I listened to Tom articulate conservatism in terms that left me as impressed as I’ve been with anyone in the last 30 years. He spoke from the heart, and there wasn’t a teleprompter in sight.

Many of you may remember the outstanding post that Erick Erickson wrote last December about the difference between being a ‘noun’ conservative and an ‘adjective’ conservative. Well, folks, Tom Emmer is a ‘noun’ conservative if I’ve ever seen one.

In fact, the biggest challenge I had (and it was mega timeconsuming) was figuring out a way to reduce 30 minutes of awesome down to a timeframe that you ADD-addled online activists would actually click on to and listen to (’cause I knew the odds of you listening to the whole 30 minute gig was slim and none).

So, in a welcome change from my usual rambling, lengthy prose,  I’m not going to tell you about Tom Emmer; I’m going to let Tom tell you about himself, his views on the issues facing Minnesota and the nation, and his conservative philosophy in his own words. I split it into 6 segments and while I certainly hope you’ll take the time to listen to all six, if you choose only one, you’ve got to listen to Tom expound on his core values.

So, without further adieu, here’s Tom Emmer – ‘noun’ Conservative.

On his core values:

On the major issues in the upcoming election:

On State’s Rights under the 10th Amendment and HCR:

On strengthening the GOP and the politicians he most admires:

Tom’s background and why he’s running for governor:

On the importance of the upcoming election and America’s future:

The latest polling on this race shows it to be a dead heat: SUSA has it 39-38, Dayton, and Public Opinion Strategies has it at 40-40 (in the interest of full disclosure, NPR has Dayton with a 12 point lead and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has Dayton w/a 7 point lead; NPR is, well, NPR and the Strib may be to the left of the NY Times and they haven’t called a race accurately in, well, forever).

On top of that, both Houses of the MN state legislature are both heavily Democrat and the only thing that has stood between Minnesota becoming California-lite has been Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen. Toss in redistricting (MN is rumored to be on the list of states that may lose a seat under redistricting) and the need to have a ‘noun’ conservative hold the Governor’s chair is absolutely essential.

Mark Dayton, being the ‘hobbyist’ that he is, has spent millions of his trust fund dollars on this race. Tom has had to raise his money the hard way – through the thousands of donations from conservative activists in MN and throughout the country. And he has spent that money on some of the best campaign ads I’ve seen this year (check ‘em out when you visit his site).

Folks, I know that there are a lot of tight races out there right now that have great conservative candidates. But if you’re looking for that one last race in which you want to make a difference in these last hours before the election, I submit to you that it would be difficult to find one more important, or one on which you can make more of an impact, than this one.

Help push Tom over the top. Help Tom keep the momentum going. Help elect a ‘noun’ Conservative to be the next governor of Minnesota.