Might be personal reasons why he didn’t run. He was apparently doing several things from the 2000-07 period, briefly serving at one point as an aide to the Secretary of the Army. Of course, I also noticed he’ll be 66 in 2012, so it’s possible he may again decline to run, not wanting to spend his retirement years in DC. He really should’ve run in either 2000 or 2004.
Schafer really should run against Conrad even if it’s for a single term. 2012 would be too soon for the ND GOP to have any other first-tier candidates, but by 2018 we’ll hopefully have another two-term governor ready to run for the Senate, as well as three-term Congressman Cramer just in case.