Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns will attend the North Dakota Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner early next month in President Bush’s latest effort to persuade Gov. John Hoeven (R) to challenge Sen. Kent Conrad (D) in 2006, state Republicans said.

The administration wants to convey to North Dakotans that Hoeven, if elected, would have the ear of the president and the secretary, these Republicans said.

The Agriculture Department — and the fight for more farm subsidies and greater protection from foreign producers — is of paramount importance in a state teeming with corn, wheat and soybean farmers.

The strategy to link Hoeven with the White House is similar to that used in 2004 in neighboring South Dakota, where Bush lobbied John Thune to challenge Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, whom Thune ultimately defeated.

Ken Karls, the North Dakota GOP’s chairman, said that Johanns’s visit would encourage Hoeven to run only “indirectly” — by sending a signal to North Dakota voters — and that the secretary is unlikely to mention the race in his remarks at the dinner.

The dinner, scheduled for March 4 in the state capital of Bismarck, will draw as many as 300 elected officials and grassroots volunteers, state GOP Executive Director Jason Stverak said.

Stverak said the annual event is “one of our big kickoffs” for the upcoming election cycle. Defeating Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D) is among Republicans’ top priorities, Stverak said.

The White House refused to comment on Johanns’s trip. Ed Loyd, a spokesman for the Agriculture Department, stressed that the trip was “unofficial.” Since taking over the department Jan. 21, Johanns has visited New Orleans and San Antonio on official business, Loyd said.

Republican state Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem suggested Johanns might also seek to mollify North Dakota farmers worried about the president’s budget proposal, which includes cuts to the agriculture budget.

Stenehjem said the impact of the new budget would be felt most acutely by rice and cotton farmers. Neither rice nor cotton is farmed in North Dakota, he added. Still, Republicans running for office in agriculture states could suffer next year if voters believe the administration — and, more generally, the GOP — is unfriendly to farmers.

State Republican Party officials were reluctant to discuss the political impact of Johanns’s upcoming visit, saying only that it was rare for an agriculture secretary to travel to North Dakota.

Many of these Republicans, as well as a representative from the North Dakota Farm Bureau, said there are many pressing issues they would like to discuss with Johanns, including the importation of Canadian beef and fears of “mad cow” disease.

Don Larson, a spokesman for the governor, said Hoevens is absorbed, for the moment, in the state legislative session in Bismarck. Education funding, including a proposed $3,000 pay raise for teachers over the next two years, and economic growth are the governor’s two chief concerns this year, Larson said.

The governor has yet to make any public remarks about his political plans. State Republicans said the governor is unlikely to say anything about the Senate race until the Legislature wraps up in mid-April. Karls, the state GOP chairman, said the governor would need to make up his mind by early August to run a viable campaign.

Like many Republicans, Karls strongly supports a possible Hoeven candidacy. The governor won reelection last year with 71 percent of the vote. “The Bush administration is going to try to encourage the governor to run,” he said. “Frankly, I’m 100 percent behind that.”

Larson, saying he had learned last week of Johanns’s trip, acknowledged that the secretary’s visit has obvious political implications.

“The governor is a friend of Secretary Johanns and has asked him several times to see if he could make it out to North Dakota,” Larson said. “It’s always a good opportunity to have the secretary of agriculture here. … Obviously, there’s speculation about the governor’s future political plans. We haven’t really, from this office, speculated much on that. We’re very busy with the task at hand. We’ve got a legislative session, which in North Dakota only happens every two years.”

Republicans in Washington have been openly urging Hoeven to challenge Conrad since January, when the North Dakotan was invited to attend the State of the Union address.

A Republican source noted that Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, gave Hoeven an extra ticket to attend the address.

Bush also made a point of traveling to North Dakota before any other state after the State of the Union. Hoeven traveled on Air Force One on that trip.

While Republicans concede that Democrats have long held both Senate seats and the at-large House seat, they insist that Conrad is out of touch with North Dakota values.

Conrad won his third term, in 2000, with 62 percent of the vote. North Dakota’s junior senator, Byron Dorgan (D), last year won reelection with 63 percent of the vote.

With seats on the Agriculture, Budget and Finance committees, Conrad has portrayed himself as an independent voice willing to work with Republicans on issues ranging from Social Security reform to farm policy.

David Strauss, the new chairman of the North Dakota Democratic Party, said: “I think there are a lot of people from outside North Dakota who would like to see a Kent Conrad-Hoeven race. I’ve not seen a lot of evidence in the state.” Strauss added that North Dakotans value Conrad's seats on the Finance and Budget committees.

The senator could not be reached for comment yesterday.