HOEVEN CAN'T WAIT:

With Rove heading to N.D., GOP hopes Hoeven can be coaxed into Senate race (Peter Savodnik, 9/08/05, The Hill)

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is planning to travel to North Dakota later this month to rally GOP activists and, Republicans hope, persuade Gov. John Hoeven (R) to challenge Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) next year. [...]

The White House has been lobbying Hoeven for months to get into the race. This year alone, President Bush has lobbied for Social Security reform in North Dakota and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Treasury Secretary John Snow and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have visited the state.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, gave Hoeven a ticket to attend the president’s State of the Union address. Hoeven met with Rove in early June while the governor was in Washington.

The extra attention — state officials say they can’t remember the last time North Dakota played host to so many Washington power brokers — is meant to accentuate Hoeven’s ties to the White House, North Dakota Republicans have said.

The strategy is similar to that employed by the White House in neighboring South Dakota in 2004, when leading Republicans recruited John Thune (R) to challenge successfully Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D).