My cousin Manan (who is also an Iraq War Vet) just forwarded me the news that 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran Jigar Ashwin Madia just announced his candidacy for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives:

U.S. Marine Corps Iraq veteran J. Ashwin Madia announced his candidacy to represent Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District Tuesday.

Madia will seek the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement.

While serving as a Marine, Madia was also a prosecutor, defense attorney, and legal advisor to a Marine Corps commander.

Madia graduated from Osseo Senior High School. He went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota and New York University School of Law. [Link]

First thought (albeit very shallow)? It isn’t going to hurt him that he looks that good. I have a feeling that the comments section in this post is going to have a lot of female commenters leaving onomatopoeic words like “Rrrrrrr.” But does Jigga-man got the necessary skills to go with those looks? He is currently working at attorney at Robins, Kaplan, Miller, and Ciresi LLP in Intellectual Property Litigation.

Drawing on his experience in Iraq, Madia plans to make the war a major issue in his campaign. He also hopes to focus on balancing the budget and fighting global warming. What he stressed most frequently, however, is his desire for this campaign to be a real dialogue between the candidates. Madia says he wants as many debates and candidate forums as possible, noting that open congressional seats don’t come around very often.

With no elected experience and no history with party regulars, Madia certainly has an uphill climb. He’s seeking to break into politics in a congressional race that is likely to be among the most competitive in the country - and a race that already has an excellent DFL candidate. There is no question that he is an underdog in this race.

“The three issues that I care about most and that form the basis for my campaign are: 1) Ending the Iraq War without leaving behind a catastrophe; 2) Balancing our budget and returning to “pay as you go” principles; and 3) Creating and implementing a comprehensive solution to address global warming. I also want to talk more generally about the direction of our country, and what kind of nation we want to be post 9/11. I don’t believe that we need to have torture chambers, Guantanamo Bay, secret prisons, and spying programs on American citizens in order to be secure. In fact, I think that when we do those things, we tear at the fabric of our country” - said Madia. [Link]

Let’s also take a look at the 3rd District and see what the battlefield terrain looks like:

Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District is one of the most affluent in the state, encompassing the suburbs of Hennepin County to the north, west, and south of Minneapolis. With blue collar Brooklyn Park to the north, middle-income Bloomington to the south, and higher-income Eden Prairie, Edina, Maple Grove, Plymouth and Wayzata to the West, it features a mixed characteristic. The district leans slightly Republican with a CPVI of R + 1.[3] It is currently represented by Jim Ramstad, a Republican, scoring 79% conservative by a conservative group[4] and 20% progressive by a liberal group.[5] People of the district voted for George W. Bush in 2004, but with only 51% of the votes cast. On September 17, 2007 Ramstad announced he would not seek reelection in 2008. [Link]

So it is an open seat in a district that, although has leaned Republican in the past, is ripe for the picking by an anti-war Democrat that will have some street-cred with the stay-the-coursers. That’s a powerful combo. Who might his chief challengers be?

State Sen. Terri Bonoff, a Minnetonka DFLer, already has announced her candidacy. State Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, has hired campaign staff and filed the federal paperwork needed to raise money. [Link]

He will face a stiff challenge from Bonoff but I think he has a shot, especially if the DailyKos’ers get behind him.

As we get a little closer to the election I will try and line up an interactive interview with Madia on SM like we did with Raj Bhakta (and like we will be doing with a few other candidates soon).

Madia’s campaign is accepting contributions now.