Liveblogging the MN Governor's Race

Tonight I'll be following the campaigns of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and his challenger Sue Jeffers. But first, just down the street from my northside home, I stopped to say hi to James Everett, an independent gubernatorial candidate you probably haven't heard of. Everett, founder of the Sub-Zero Collective, uses "positive hip-hop" and other media tactics to reach his constituents. Tonight that involved his graffiti-covered van parked at the corner of Plymouth and Penn avenues North and, a block away in the Snow Foods parking lot, the "Wagon of Revolution" (or W.O.R.). Outfitted with a sputtering generator the wagon was a mobile sound station, attracting attention to Everettt's unorthodox campaign.

Born in North Minneapolis and educated at North High, Everett says he was the first, second, and third presidents of the local NAACP chapter, the ytoungest6 member of the Citizen's League, and an Emmy winner for his wo4rk with teh show Don't Believe the Hype.

Quoting everyone from Floyd B. Olson to the Book of Samuel, Everett's platform includes private policing (since, he says, 70 to 80% of police calls are for domestic violence), a pullout of Iraq, and reparations from slave owners. He's not on the primary ballot, but he hopes to debate other gubernatorial candidates.

"I can come up with global concepts," he says. "I just can't clean my room."

[Cross-posted at Minnesota Monitor.]