The latest Tim Walz ad, "3000" is up at YouTube:
OLLIE OX UPDATE: Word has just come in that the St. Peter Herald has endorsed Tim Walz.
ROLL CALL: RESOURCES CONVERGE ON GUTKNECHT SEAT
A new Roll Call article tells the expense of campaigns for a congressional seat newly in play:
Resources Converge on Gutknecht Seat October 26, 2006 By Matthew Murray, Roll Call Staff Campaign money from the rest of the country continued to pour into Minnesota's 1st district Wednesday, feeding a cash burn that shows no sign of subsiding in the final days of an emblematic House contest.
"The playing field for Democrats has definitely widened in recent weeks," said one Democrat familiar with the spending plans of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The race between six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) and Democratic challenger Tim Walz, a high school geography teacher, "is a prime example how the field has expanded for Democrats."
The National Republican Congressional Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, labor unions and other groups have dumped more than $500,000 on direct mail and broadcast advertising into the district in recent weeks, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Though it was once considered a solid Republican seat, the Walz-Gutknecht race was destined to have a turnaround, analysts said. Although Gutknecht won with healthy margins in 2002 and 2004, President Bush carried the district twice by narrow margins. With independents garnering 6 percent of the vote in 2000, Bush beat former Vice President Al Gore with 49 percent of the vote.
Lynn Wilson, chairwoman of the Olmsted County, Minn., Democratic- Farmer-Labor Party, said the groundwork for defeating Gutknecht began 10 years ago. Gutknecht, then in his first term, eked out a win against Mary Rieder (D), a local university professor. He faced Rieder again in 2000, trouncing her by nearly 15 percentage points.
But Walz has played political small-ball since he announced his candidacy in February and his popularity with voters has grown, Wilson said. Combined with a dislike for how the war in Iraq is proceeding, "it's perfect timing." The potential for supporting a Democrat in the 1st district has "always been here," Wilson said. "It just had to be worked."
Wilson said the president's unpopularity in the region was apparent Wednesday with the GOP's choice of fundraisers: first lady Laura Bush. "She was chosen because her favorable rating doubles her husband's," she said.
Walz appears to have benefited the most financially from the recent national spotlight pointed at the race. Although individual fundraising totals are current only as of Sept. 30, independent expenditures reported to the Federal Election Commission by party committees and other outside organizations are updated daily.
Since Oct. 13, the Service Employees International Union has spent about $45,000 on direct mail and radio and television spots supporting Walz. On Oct. 23, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees spent more than $200,000 on television advertising opposing Gutknecht. During the past week, the DCCC has spent about $150,000 on ads opposing Gutknecht.
The NRCC has spent more than $150,000 on ads and phone banks for Gutknecht. The National Right to Life political action committee spent more than $3,000 on radio ads for Gutknecht.
Walz's campaign also confirmed that on Wednesday the Democrat was included in a mass appeal by former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Sponsored by MoveOn.org, the e-mail asked for support for roughly 10 candidates. By late Wednesday, the group claimed to have raised about $1.3 million, but it declined to indicate how much was raised specifically for Walz.
Walz - a retired National Guardsman who is a graduate of the liberal "Camp Wellstone" political training program, named in honor of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) - had about $290,000 on hand through Sept. 30. Gutknecht had about $800,000.
While Democrats are enjoying a boost in the 1st district, GOP strategists said the incumbent has a few aces in its pocket: illegal immigration and the economy, both of which resonate in the district.
Although the NRCC declined to discuss campaign strategy, it appeared likely
that the two issues will figure prominently in the waning hours of the Gutknecht re-election campaign."Tim Walz is being defined as someone who wants to raise taxes and make amnesty [for illegal immigrants] the law of the land," said Ed Patru, a spokesman for the NRCC. "That message is being driven home, and it's a message that moves numbers."
Tim Walz's immigration plan is found here. It does not include amnesty, but rather asks undocumented immigrants to return to their home countries and apply for legal status.
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