Conservative Joe Arwood will run against Klobuchar in 2012

St. Bonifacius city council member Joe Arwood announced on Monday that he will soon file paperwork to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar for the U.S. Senate.

Arwood, a conservative, is seeking the Republican nomination and says he’ll hold a press conference in St. Bonifacius on Monday night. Arwood has little political experience, and he’s the second announced candidate in the race. Former state Rep. Dan Severson announced his campaign in May.

On Twitter, Arwood describes himself as a “Small government Constitutional conservative first time Senate Canidate [sic]. Running so that our freedom and prosperity can be resotred [sic].”

Arwood's Twitter bio

Arwood doesn’t yet have a campaign website, but he shares some of his views on Twitter. Here’s one example: “Why does the left never call for evil actors to pay their fair share? They only think CEO’s are evil. Liberal Hollywood pay up sucka!”

And another: “Pres Obama cleared his schedule for today. Hold on to your wallet”

In a press release from his campaign, Arwood described why he is running:

our Country is in trouble, and we need people with common sense solutions to be leaders. We the people need to take our Country back from the political class that has established obscene pay and perks for themselves, while at the same time kicking the economic and Social Security can down the road. We need to get the economy going again, people are hurting out there, and Government seems to be standing in the way, or at least on a collective break. Here we are in the middle of a huge unemployment crisis, while the President is on vacation, and Congress is on break. Why are we not in session discussing the possibilities of a simpler tax code that would close the loop holes, lower taxes for companies that want to invest here at home, rather than abroad? Why are we not looking at our regulations that are preventing us from being energy independent? Why are we not allowing struggling families to tap into their 401K, by removing the 10% penalty, to save their homes and the housing market as a whole?? This ‘uncommon Joe’ is ready to run towards the financial fire, put it out, roll up his sleeves to help get us going again.

Arwood has his work cut out for him if he hopes to beat the popular Klobuchar. In June, Public Policy Polling released survey results showing that Klobuchar would beat Severson by 28 points. In hypothetical matchups, Klobuchar also handily beat out Tim Pawlenty (by 12 points) and Michele Bachmann (by 20 points); neither are running. “Amy Klobuchar looks like a shoo-in at this point,” said PPP president Dean Debnam at the time.