Former State Rep. Allen Quist, who has run twice for governor, says he's close to deciding on whether to run for Congress in the First District.

Even though he vowed 11 years ago — after losing the 1998 Republican endorsement to Norm Coleman — to give up running for office and spend time fishing and working on his farm, he worries about the national situation and is ready for a comeback.

He attended last week's health-care protest in Washington, D.C., organized by Rep. Michele Bachmann. And he met Tuesday in Mankato with southern Minnesotans about health-care reform legislation.

“The thing that changed is I really am concerned about the direction the country has taken,” he said, according to the Mankato Free Press, which noted:

Quist said he needs to decide “real soon” and that “I’m strongly inclined to be a candidate.”

The paper also said Quist's wife, Julie Quist, is district director for Bachmann and commutes to Bachmann’s district office in Woodbury.

Quist said his wife’s work with Bachmann has provided a personal connection to the battle going on in the nation’s capital. He likes the idea of providing some reinforcements for Bachmann, the increasingly prominent conservative who has called for an “orderly revolution” against President Obama and the Democratic Congress.