{"id":48153,"date":"2014-10-16T09:18:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48153"},"modified":"2014-10-16T09:25:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:25:09","slug":"the-unthinkable-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48153","title":{"rendered":"The Unthinkable"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was about this time four years ago that a small group of\u00a0bloggers and activists got a call from the Chip Cravaack campaign; the challenger was within the margin of error against 200-term congressman Jim Oberstar.<\/p>\n

It was unthinkable.<\/p>\n

And was one of the headiest days in my life as a political activist; the Tea Party wave was flipping the unflippable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I didn’t think I’d see another day like it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I’m going to lead with all the usual disclaimers; it’s an internal poll, which can make it both more and less trustworthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But an internal poll shows Torrey Westrom leading 12-term DFL Rep. Colin Peterson, 44-43<\/a>, as the race turns into the home stretch:<\/p>\n

A new survey released today by the Westrom for Congress campaign reports Republican challenger Torrey Westrom pulling ahead of 12-term incumbent Democrat Congressman Collin Peterson. Westrom now enjoys a lead among likely voters in Minnesota\u2019s 7th Congressional District (44%-43%), while thirteen percent (13%) are undecided<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, that’s a lot of undecideds – but then, that’s the point of releasing the polling news; to create the “bandwagon effect” that drives campaigns over the finish line in style.\u00a0 Fact is, even if it’s close, Peterson has got to be sweating bricks right now;\u00a0 rarely do challengers get within a three-digit margin of northwestern Minnesota’s ag pork king.<\/p>\n

If this poll is even within 3-4 points of accurate, it’s bad news for the DFL.<\/p>\n

My November 5 dream:\u00a0 Torrey Westrom, Stewart Mills and Tom Emmer not only start measuring their drapes in Washington, but flip Minnesota’s congressional delegation not only red, but solidly right-of-center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was about this time four years ago that a small group of\u00a0bloggers and activists got a call from the Chip Cravaack campaign; the challenger was within the margin of error against 200-term congressman Jim Oberstar. It was unthinkable. And was one of the headiest days in my life as a political activist; the Tea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,155],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-48153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-14","category-mn-congressional","tag-mn-cd7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48153"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48159,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48153\/revisions\/48159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}