Fingers Crossed

Gary Gross at LFR sent me a copy of NRO’s Jim Geraghty’s list of 13 potential November upsets.

And coming in at #11:

11. Theresa Collett vs. Betty McCollum, Minnesota’s 4th District.

Reasons the challenger should have no chance: This is a D+13 district; McCollum won it in 2008 by 37 percentage points.

Reasons the challenger has a chance: Upon winning the primary, Collett, a University of St. Thomas law professor,challenged McCollum to four debates. She’s still waiting for a reply. On the stump, Collett makes her points in a crisp, clear, direct style. Outgoing governor Tim Pawlenty is giving Collett some help. Collett is severely underfunded, but McCollum has only $160,634 in cash on hand as of July 21, which is fairly low for an incumbent.

This is the first I’ve seen anyone think of MNCD4 a potential upset…ever.

I remain to be completely convinced.  Oh, in a just world Teresa Collett – a blindly-articulate, fiercely-intelligent con-law professor, would mop the floor with McCollum, a woman often distracted by shiny objects, and about whose speaking style it is said that she could read the phone book from the well of the House, if only because it sounds like she already is, and who is serving her fourth term on the strength of being endorsed by the DFL in a district that would have sent Richard Hung  to Washington if he’d come up with the endorsement.

Is this year going to be that different?  I’ll cross my fingers and whisper “from Geraghty’s lips to God’s ear”.

2 thoughts on “Fingers Crossed

  1. So far this race seems to be almost invisible to the uninterested public. I have seen some yard signs for Collet. And there were two letters in todays paper. The first said: “……McCallum cannot see the world for anything other than “Bush did it”……..”.

    The next letter (a pro- Betty letter) went about blaming Bush for everything. The name “Bush” was used 4 times in the letter.

    I live in the 4th and am interested in making a difference.

  2. Betty McCallum losing in the 4th… we’re talking not just epic, but a reallignment of Biblical proportions. Old Testament stLike most miracles, I’ll only believe it when I see it for my own eyes. The 4th is the best example I have for my out-of-state friends that there was good reason Franken won even without cheating – the 4th. Largest per-capita collection of brain-dead automatons outside the planet of Manhattan.

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