Jim Hagedorn, a long-time Washington, D.C., figure, has moved back to Minnesota and said today he’ll run for Congress as a Republican in the First District, taking on two-term DFLer Tim Walz.

Hagedorn’s father, Tom Hagedorn, was elected to four terms in the U.S. House in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Two other GOPers — State Rep. Randy Demmer and former state Rep. Allen Quist — also recently announced they will run for the seat.

On Hagedorn’s announcement, the Rochester Post Bulletin says:

Hagedorn has spent the past 25 years working on Capitol Hill. He was a former legislative assistant to Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland. He also worked for two agencies of the U.S. Department of Treasury. He is currently working as director of government relations and corporate development for Eltrome.

A news release from his campaign says:

Hagedorn cites his congressional priorities as implementing Reagan/JFK economic policies to help small business create jobs; slashing federal spending through top-to-bottom reviews of all federal agencies, beginning with the Pentagon; limiting government by returning power to the states; restructuring foreign entanglements and defunding “nation building;” and defending the American way of life and traditional culture.

He also takes a shot at Walz, calling him a “thoughtless liberal” and raises the concern that the United States is headed toward “European socialism”:

The greatness of America is under assault by the liberal politicians who run Washington D.C. The big government agenda of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Tim Walz is in direct conflict with our free enterprise system and the enduring principles of liberty, individual opportunity, personal responsibility and traditional cultural values.

DFL officials took offense at that attack, immediately issuing this release:

“Typical of the ‘Party of No,’ Jim Hagedorn is jumping into the First District race by launching baseless partisan attacks at Representative Walz — because Hagedorn himself has no substance to run on.

“Jim Hagedorn is a 25-year Capitol Hill operative turned lobbyist, now trying to use his connections to buy himself a seat in Congress. He is yet another Republican hoping to cozy up to right-wing tea-baggers to further his own ambitions. The Tea Party Republicans are constantly attacking government of any form, so it will be interesting to see how they receive Jim Hagedorn, who has been a federal-government insider for nearly all his adult life.”