BLAINE, Minn. — The 2014 election is still more than a year away but with Michele Bachmann deciding not to run for reelection the campaign to replace her is well underway. Last week former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer announced he would seek his party’s nomination. This week after much thought Anoka County Board Chair Rhonda Sivarajah decided that now was the right time to seek a higher office. “Certainly an opportunity, a once in a lifetime opportunity” said Sivarajah.
Sivarajah was first elected to the county board in 2002 and has served as chair since 2010. This is not Sivarajah’s first attempt to seek a higher office as she was Marty Seifert’s running mate in his failed bid for Governor in 2010. Sivarajah is proud of the work she has done in Anoka County and believes that she can deliver results in Washington. “I really prefer to put my head down and just get in there and dig in and actually do the work, and I think that is the sort of thing that I can take to Washington” said Sivarajah.
Sivarajah has said that she will seek the Republican nomination but stopped short of saying that she would abide by the nomination setting up a possible primary battle. Besides Sivarajah and Emmer the only other announced candidate is Democrat Judy Adams an environmental activist from Circle Pines.
