State Rep. Tony Cornish of Vernon Center said his race with Madison Lake software engineer John Branstad is well underway, but the Branstad campaign missed in targeting one voter recently.

Both Cornish, a Republican, and Branstad, a Democrat, were in the Janesville parade last weekend. Cornish doubled back after completing the route to check out the competition because Branstad was further back in the parade line-up.

One of Branstad’s supporters came up to a woman near Cornish and explained that they were trying to defeat him. The woman said “I know Tony.”

The Branstad supporter said, “I bet you want him out, too.”

The woman, though, happened to be Republican Sen. Julie Rosen who was campaigning with Cornish. She proved a tough sell.

“She says, ‘No, I love Tony,’” Cornish said.

Busy season begins

Branstad, making his first run for elected office, said he and his supporters have knocked on 2,000 doors already and had good support at the first two parades in Janesville and Mapleton.

“We had a pretty good crew,” Branstad said.

He planned to be at another in Lake Crystal last night and in an additional 15 parades scheduled later in the summer in the large rural district, including a pair in Kiester and St. Clair this weekend.

While he’s a first-time candidate, Branstad did door-to-door work for congressional candidate Tim Walz in 2006 and for presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.

“It’s exciting to do door-knocking with my own name and face on the literature,” he said.

Watching from afar

With the Republican National Convention just up the road in St. Paul in early September, it would have been a great opportunity for longtime Republican activists from the area to go to the Grand Old Party party on the cheap.

In fact, a couple of veterans of past Republican national conventions — Mark Piepho of Skyline and Jerry Groebner of Madison Lake — said they weren’t going to compete for delegate slots this year so that others, who couldn’t afford past conventions in places like New York or San Diego, could attend their first convention.