It’s go time for Republicans in Minnesota. And by “Republicans”, I mean conservatives, and people who can be convinced that Minnesota’s liberal traditions and Barack Obama/Mark Dayton’s takeover of society will leave us all the worse for wear.
If you live in the Third Congressional District, you are in a semi-competitive race – but Jim Meffert clearly doesn’t pack the gear. Still, if you live and work in the Three and support the GOP and conservative ideals, you will need to hunker down, help out Paulsen and your local state House/Senate candidates, and maybe dig deep and see if you can free up a buck or two to help those races out.
If you live in the Fourth or the Fifth – you know you’re the underdogs. I’m one of you. And yet you have great candidates with great messages, facing weak candidates (especially the Fourth CD’s Betty McCollum, one of the most inconsequential people ever to serve in Congress). And you’ve been working; somehow, the GOP found a reserve of people whose spirits had not been trounced by decades of living in one-party cities, and have been campaigning in precincts that haven’t seen a GOP voter in a generation. We’ll come back to you.
If you live in the First District, you are seeing signs of hope; Walz is weak, Demmer is raising good money, Walz backed a lot of deeply stupid legislation – Demmer could pull this off. Hang in there, and above all, keep working.
Of course, if you live in the Seventh and Eighth, you might be feeling like you just climbed into a car with the accelerator stuck to the floor. Lee Byberg has raised more money than Colin Peterson’s last generation’s worth of challengers combined, most of it local. And Chip Cravaack has not only blown the lid off of the usual polling in the Eighth District, but uncovered what looks like a wave of populist conservative enthusiasm in that long-benighted part of the state.
I don’t want to get too excited, but Byberg, Demmer and Cravaack could all catch fire here.
I’ve never felt that about the Seventh or Eighth in all the years I’ve lived here.
Now – if you live in the Sixth District, Michele Bachmann is going to win by 10 points. Maybe 12. So while the leadership of the Sixth District will scream at me for suggesting it, I’m going to say “howzabout you take a moment to peel off a few bucks to help out one of the swing districts? Maybe help conquer one of the districts that hasn’t seen sane representation (or in the case of the Eighth, seen their representative at all) in a generation or two?
And if you live in the Second District, you know in your gut that if Shelly Madore gets within twenty points of John Kline, it’ll be with the aid of a lot of corpses in cemeteries in Apple Valley. Kline is going to demolish Madore. Now, in 2008 I suggested peeling off some money and some volunteer time to help out in some of the swingier districts, and Janet Beihoffer – the 2nd CD chair at the time – nearly took out a hit on me. But I’m going to do it again. John Kline is going to win, and win huge. So will Bachmann.
So if you live in those districts and see fit, and want to help back up some of the confidence that’s buzzing around the state, please consider peeling off some volunteer time to drive from the Second to the First, or from the Sixth up to the 7th or 8th, to help Randy, Lee or Chip. Or send a few bucks to Randy, Lee and especially Chip and, if you really want to pray for an upset that’ll shock the world, for Joel Demos and Teresa Collett.
Here’s where to start:
- Randy Demmer
- John Kline
- Erik Paulsen
- Teresa Collett
- Joel Demos
- Michele Bachmann
- Lee Byberg
- Chip Cravaack
More – much more – later.
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