BREAKING: Matt "The Law" Lindland, fighting for House Dist. 52

-- Matt Lindland and family--

He is a former Olympics silver medalist, however he is probably better known as an Ultimate Fighting phenom.

Matt "The Law" Lindland got his nickname for taking a lawsuit to the Federal Courts because his opponent had violated the rules of Greco-Roman Wrestling in their Olympic qualifier. He then went on to win a silver medal.

He is known to be one of the hardest working men in that sport and conversations with people who knew him from college say that the guy just kept working and working and working until he reached the pinnacle of his sport.

Lindland still wrestles in the Ultimate Fighting world, however, he has also created a name for himself in the business world and promises that should he win the House district 52 seat (being vacated by the awesome Patti Smith) he will be fighting hard for the people of district 52.

Lindland is a family man who is solid on tax and land use issues as well as bringing a very unique resume to the race and to the Republican party.

What could make this race very interesting is that because of his resume' he could tap into a whole new set of voters. A youth movement that has locked into the sport of Ultimate fighting and that group ranges from 18-34 years of age. There have already been rumors, from some insiders that I have talked with, that he could bring in new registered voters to a seat that could easily be decided by 500 to 1,000 votes.

In an interview by "Husker Extra" (he was a former wrestler for the Nebraska Corn huskers and now resides in Estacada) there is this one paragraph analysis of the man Matt Lindland:

Though he suffered his only defeat in the NCAA Championships and didn’t medal, Lindland went on to experience plenty of wrestling glory — earning gold medals at the 1999 and 2000 Pan American Games, winning U.S. amateur national titles in 1995 and 1997-99 and a World Cup title in 1996.

However the take away line was reserved for the words of Lindland himself when he was asked whether or not his new sport was sending a bad message to kids. He had this to say (emphasis mine):

Those people, they misunderstand so much. They think my sport is just violent and brutal, but it’s not. It teaches kids values — hard work, training, confidence, all those things that made America strong but that we’re forgetting about as a society. It’s what made our country the strongest in the world. We’re the No. 1 country in the world because we’re good at competition.

Some people say this isn’t a positive thing, but it’s one of the most positive things we’ve done in sports for years. We’re competing and trying to be the best that we can. We’re bringing it back and putting it in people’s faces.

They say fighting sends the wrong message. Well, it’s wrong if your kid fights because somebody tried to take his Tonka truck, but if someone was trying to put my daughter in a real truck, I have the confidence in her that she has the martial arts skills to defend herself.

Does that sound like the kind of guy who could enter the legislature and provide some immediate leadership if not a bucket full of gravitas? Now THAT is a guy I would want representing me in the state legislature.

I had the opportunity to talk with Matt this morning and a more soft spoken guy you would probably not find in politics. I get the impression he intends to fight hard for this seat but that he is not interested in beating up a Republican opponent should he have one in the primary because he definitely believes that a Republican should retain this seat.