Hernandez to challenge Klobuchar

With MPR's Mike Mulcahy...

Another Republican says he wants to run against DFL Senator Amy Klobuchar in 2012.

Anthony Hernandez of St. Paul says it's time for a new generation of politicians to try to solve the nation's problems and get people back to work.

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"We need to have a resurgence in the private sector," Hernandez told MPR News. "President Obama and Sen. Amy Klobuchar 's policies of stimulus spending--it's obviously not working. Because ever since they bailed out the banks in 2008 unemployment keeps going up, our national debt keeps going up and quite literally we're selling out the future of our young children who aren't being represented right now in the Senate or Congress or really in any level of government."

(Editor's note: It should be noted that President Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program into law. Klobuchar voted for the measure. Barack Obama also voted for the measure when he was in the U.S. Senate.)

Hernandez, 32, has never held elective office, although he has run unsuccessfully for state Senate against DFL Sen. Dick Cohen.

Hernandez says he will run on a campaign theme of requiring term limits for members of Congress and on a plan to ensure the federal budget is balanced. Hernandez said he favors portions of Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan and, like many Republicans, wants to repeal President Obama's health care law.

Republicans Dan Severson and Joe Arwood have also said they're running for Senate.