Ramstad for governor?

Former Third District congressman Jim Ramstad dropped a little bit of a bombshell — for now, we’ll call it a firecracker — when he told Gary Eichten a few minutes ago that he’s leaving the door on the possibility of his running for governor “open just a crack.”

A few minutes later, however, he said there’s a 99 percent chance he wouldn’t run.

Ramstad, a moderate by any definition, has no shot at winning a Republican state convention, but in his scenario he made it clear he’d do what former Gov. Arne Carlson did and run in a primary.

The former congressman had announced earlier this summer that he would not run.

Ramstad made his comments during the early part of MPR’s Midday show, when he strongly criticized “the hard core right wing Republicans who are in charge of the Republican House caucus.”