It's cold out there today, but the congressional contest is heating up in the First. First the Republican Party's base of activists will have to pick their guy. All three have publicly stated that they will abide by the decision of the DC1 GOP endorsing convention at the end of March.
The Mankato Free Press reports about Republican three-legged race fund-raising in Congressional hopefuls tout success:
The three remaining Republicans seeking their party’s endorsement to run against Democratic Congressman Tim Walz are continuing their fundraising race even as they work to line up supporters to attend the Feb. 5 precinct caucuses.
Two of the candidates — state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna and Rochester physician Brian Davis — are tying the two competitions together, suggesting that their success in raising money indicates to caucus-goers the strength of their campaigns.
Davis was the first candidate to release some of his 2007 fundraising totals early this month and Day followed up Friday with some of his totals. Campaign officials for state Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield didn’t return phone calls seeking a summary of his fundraising.
For all of 2007, Day said he raised $210,149 and had $95,660 remaining at the end of the year.
Day, in a written statement, described it as “pretty encouraging to see so many southern Minnesotans investing in our efforts in spite of tight budgets at home. It tells me we’re on to something with our message ...”
If Day raised $210,149 for the year, that would mean that he took in about $53,000 for the final quarter of 2007, being beat out once more by Rochester physician Brian Davis. Randy Demmer has yet to disclose his fundraising for the year, nor has Walz.
Some of our big-city blogger friends in the Cities like to contrast Walz's overwhelming cash lead to that of his challengers, predicting the cash lead will dictate that Walz will meet with no real opposition. We have always disagreed with that assessment, for reasons the MFP spells out today:
While Walz is destined to have a huge fundraising advantage heading into the summer, he knows from experience that a challenger’s campaign war-chest can grow quickly if party leaders and other donors start to suspect an upset in the making.
In 2005, the year prior to the election year, Walz and his supporters struggled to raise $118,000. After Jan. 1 of 2006, he added more than $1.1 million more, with much of it coming in the final couple of months of the campaign.
One final thing. We are hearing rumors from a number of different people that Brian Davis's claims of growing support from within the Republican Party are accurate. The story goes that experienced campaign hands believe that Demmer will be unable to raise the money required for the campaign, while they worry that Day will shoot off his mouth at some point on the campaign trail. (Day will be on The Patriot today talking about the NTSB preliminary findings today at 3:15 for those who want to see if he does just that. We think he'll probably sound a lot like he did Thursday when he traded barbs with DFL State Sen. Steve Murphy on MPR's Midmorning).
Davis's professional demeanor, along with his ability to raise money and hardshell conservative views on global warming, the War in Iraq, health care insurance reform, and other issues, make some party insiders think that they've found their man.
Both the New Ulm Journal and the Rochester Post Bulletin report that Walz issued a brief statement about the President's economic stimulus package. The Post Bulletin writes in State's senators welcome rebate plan:
U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota welcomed President Bush's economic stimulus proposal, which goes to Congress for action. . . .
. . .Coleman, a Republican running for re-election, said Congress should move quickly. He said he wants a package that combines incentives for job growth and what he said was "tax relief to struggling working families.". . .
. . .Klobuchar, a Democrat, also said she wanted fast action on a plan to aid "those who need it" and not "an economic package that just hands out more benefits to the wealthy."
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, also issued a statement, but did not address specifics. He said only that he was pleased by an apparant willingness among both political parties to "work together to change the priorities in Washington and provide economic assistance to those affected by the downturn in the economy." . . .
. . .No comment was immediately available from Rep. John Kline, R-Lakeville.
The New Ulm Journal only looks at Coleman and Walz in Coleman, Walz react to economic package.
KEYC-TV reported Walz Says Political, Economic Progress Lacking in Iraq. The Rochester Post Bulletin's Political Party blog has posted Walz Trip Itinerary so we don't have to.
In the Netroots
On Thursday, we noted the contrast between Representative Walz and Bachmann's interviews on MPR's Midmorning show. Yesterday, Sean Aqui at Midtopia linked to the show as well but stressed the gentle congresswoman's views in Michelle Bachmann is still clueless.
John Boehner gave a very good speech at the RNC Winter meetings which I suspect will be the talking points for November’s elections. One tidbit was discussion of taking back the House … he outlined that they only need 16 seats and there were that many in districts that Bush had won in 2004. With the national convention in St. Paul, Coleman having a featured race, and potentially Pawlenty on the ticket, there will be every opportunity for Republicans in Minnesota to become quite excited. Southern Minnesota has long been considered Republican territory, so the money race will not be a fair indicator of the election results. Boehner gave some good advice : Hold to your principles. To date, Walz has held to his principles … voting in what he thinks best for the district and the country … the problem is that Ron Carey will Swiftboat Walz on every issue … at this date, the endorsed Republican nominee may be unknown, but we can safely call him “Smear and Sleaze” … watch out for the Push Polls, robo-calls, and paid advertisements from third-parties. It’s gonna be a rough fall.
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | January 19, 2008 at 02:39 PM