Errors of fact in the Hill's coverage of the MN-01 congressional contest

In Some primary challengers catch incumbents in third-quarter funds, the Hill's Aaron Blake writes:

No GOP candidate is raising big money yet against Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), but physician Brian Davis’s field-leading third-quarter total of $80,000 raised shows he could be a player in the primary. Davis entered the race in August.

This isn't the first time we wondered if Aaron Blake ever researches a lick of what he writes. Let's review the factual errors in Blake's paragraph.

A. Davis entered the race for the GOP endorsement in June, filing his statement of candidacy on June 1, 2007. Davis's committee filed a Q2 quarterly report in July.

B. Blake writes that Davis's fundraising should help in "the primary." 

Primary?

Minnesota's primary is in September; the parties hold their endorsing conventions before that date. Both parties will be holding their precinct caucuses on February 5; Davis, Day, Demmer and Meyer will have to get their supporters to the caucuses.

Republican BPOU (basic party operating unit) conventions will be held between February 22 and March 15, with the congressional district conventions taking place between March 28 and April 19. We're not sure when the 1st CD GOP will be holding its convention--its web site is a barren template on the state party's site.

In an interview with Joe Bodell at Minnesota Campaign Report, Davis said that he abide by the GOP endorsement:

JB:  Do you plan to abide by the Republican endorsement in the race against Tim Walz?

BD:  Yes.

Davis will either have the activists' endorsement by the end of the convention, or be out of the race. He'll be in a primary only if he's the endorsed candidate and another one of the 4-pak decides to launch a primary challenge.

This is the second time Aaron Blake has written about the "primary" in the First; the last time seemed to have been spoonfed to him by the NRCC.

Check out the  August 1, 2007 dispatch, Neutral NRCC is faced with growing number of primaries, wherein Blake wrote:

Multi-candidate primaries have already popped up against Democratic Reps. John Hall and Kirsten Gillibrand in New York, as well as against Reps. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.).

Both pieces are quite curious, since Blake should know better about Minnesota. His bio at the The Hill:

Prior to joining The Hill this year, Aaron Blake interned as a Washington correspondent for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. A native of Eden Prairie, Minn., he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science in 2005. His background is in sportswriting, and he freelances games occasionally

The NRCC might want to promote the idea there's some heat in the First Congressional race, spurring interest and dollars, and perhaps the spin sounds pretty good to the Beltway--and Aaron Blake.  The contest for the GOP endorsement should be over by April 2008; if any of the 4-pak is planing a primary  challenge, we have yet to hear of it from any reliable source.

Elsewhere, the headlines and body copy read a bit differently. In the Swing State project's Covering Key Races Around the Country, we read:

Anatomy of a Dud, Part II: Are Tim Walz and Zack Space the luckiest Dem freshmen sitting in districts that Bush carried?  Take a look at their hapless opponents, who are all posting extremely anemic fundraising numbers.

The First's largest circulation daily writes: Walz posts huge cash lead over GOP rivals.

Comments

[A reader]

The PB is generous to Davis. Of the 16 First District(all from Roch.) contributions to Davis, 3 are from Davis to himself, and two are air transport donations. Another is from a former neighbor. Two others are from well known Rep. donors, Jack Remick and Charles Pappas. The remaining, less than 10 donations, are from a few physicians and business people from Roch.