The latest Cook Political Report
on competitive house races continues to place MN-01 in the least-likely-to-change category,
"Likely Democratic." The handicapper defines this category this way:
"Likely: These seats are not considered competitive at this point but have the potential to become engaged."
Cook updated ratings for two Congressional races on Thursday, as it believes the odds have improved for the Democratic candidates in two seats in Missouri and Alabama. The assessment for the MN-01 general election has remained unchanged.
Some competition is happening in the First. There's definitely a Republican primary on. LaCrosse CBS affiliate WKBT reports in Minn. State Sen. Dick Day makes push for Congress:
In a visit to Southeastern Minnesota Thursday, Day said his 25 years of experience in politics makes him a good candidate, and he wants to make his campaign about the issues.
Those who slept through geography class may not know that LaCrosse is just across the Highway 61 bridge from LaCrescent. Day is not the only one working the edges of the district.
A friend who travels across large swaths of rural Southern Minnesota for his job writes:
On Highway 68 from the Brown County line north through Morgan to Redwood Falls , there are a series of groups of Republican signs. They are every 1-2 miles. They all appear on the same person’s property, namely that of a person that bought the railroad line that runs along the road in that area. Each grouping had Colemen, Davis, a local representative candidate, often McCain in small signs, but most curiously, “Pawlenty for governor” signs. They must think he has coat tails. Likely they went up for Farmfest and were left up.
That is a fair assessment, especially since the Redwood County vote is unlikely to play a key role in either the primary or general election in the First. Our sign watchers in the field also reported another Day sign up in Madelia, in a field next to the Tony Downs food processing plant.
In an interview with ABC-affiliate WXOW in LaCrosse, Day brought up immigration as an issue for the race; Day's candidacy may get a boost from this meeting in Austin. As the Divine Tild noted in the waning days of 2007, Day made a run for the border last year as he sought to make immigration the signature issue for the district. The meeting on Monday:
Town Hall meeting on immigration
Oak Park Mall Community Room, 1301 18th Ave. N.W., Austin. 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Panelists are Susan Tully, Midwest field director for Federation for American Immigration Reform; Ruthie Hendrycks, founder/president of Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform; Dell Erickson, author and educator; Ron Branstner, minuteman from California.
What looks to be a press release about the event, the Austin Herald's notice of the meeting called the panelists "experts" and today's editorial recommends that people attend it. We want to know where the employees at the Herald are scoring Pineapple Express.
Loyal readers may remember that this is the paper that employs a reporter who contacted a severe case of Davis Misinformation Syndrome that led her to write that Tim Walz had defeated Brian Davis in 2006; in reality, Walz defeated six-term incumbent Gil Gutknecht.
The U.S. State Department's Election 2008 project recently reported on immigration as an issue in Immigration Reform Major Issue in Minnesota Food-Processing City. The reporter noted the positions on immigration of the three congressional candidates in the First:
The candidates for Minnesota’s 1st District congressional seat have varying views. Republican Dick Day, who is challenging the party-endorsed Republican candidate Brian Davis in a September primary, says a fence is the way to go. He also believes in heavy fines for employers if they are found to have hired workers illegally.
Davis also favors a fence and enforcement of existing laws. He says a “tamper-proof system” should be created to determine if employees and people applying for work are legally entitled to work in the United States.
Both Davis and Democrat incumbent Tim Walz favor a system that would allow people in America illegally to return to their home countries and apply for permanent residency. Davis also thinks knowledge of English should be required to obtain U.S. citizenship.
We can't vouch for the accuracy of McConnell's reporting (which is routinely republished by the Newsblaze site in California--where a Davis supporter has already hijacked the story's comment thread
to claim that only his candidate favors a border fence). She seems to face enormous challenges when it comes to identifying Congressman Walz, much less his positions on issues (the example above leaves out a lot, including Walz's position on biometric ids).
This isn't the first story in the series that we've wondered about McConnell's misrepresentation through omission. In yesterday's Republican Area in Minnesota Could Go Democratic in November (Newsblaze posting, but attributed to the U.S. State Department project, McConnell reported first:
The majority of visitors who spoke with America.gov at the Olmstead County Fair - an annual celebration of the area's agricultural economy held in Rochester - said they would vote for Obama over Republican John McCain for president.
We like that part. But then she must have burned one, suffered a relapse of Davis Misinformation Syndrome, or both:
Finding alternative energy sources to relieve high gasoline prices and confronting climate change are issues that concern the people surveyed.
Most voters said they believe every individual can do something to protect the environment, such as recycling waste, driving less and using less electricity. They split on the question of whether America should drill for oil off America's coastlines or in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
Both McCain and Obama favor some form of offshore oil drilling. Brian Davis, the Republican-endorsed candidate for the area's 1st Congressional District seat, strongly favors looking for oil offshore and drilling in Alaska, while 1st District incumbent Representative Tim Walz, a Democrat, favors developing alternative energy sources such as wind and ethanol.
This is the second time the poor child been unable to mention H.R. 6709, which would expand offshore drilling. Walz and the bipartisan House Energy Working Group introduced the bill at the end of July, so we're not sure why the State Department can't find it in Thomas. Maybe McConnell scored from the Herald staff when she visited Southern Minnesota.
Former mayor of Preston and an Independence Party congressional candidate in 2004, David Pechulis writes a Letter about Oil Drilling to the editors of the Fillmore County Journal. We're not sure about his claim that refineries are working close to 100 percent of their capacity; most figures we've seen put it between 85 and 90 percent. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that it was at 85.9 percent of capacity the week before.
In Early Voting, Minnesota First's Apollo suggests that if anyone is up for Operation Chaos action, he or she can find it in the district's Republican primary (we assume he's talking about absentee balloting):
Early voting started last Friday, so if you are going to be away from your precinct on September 9, be sure to go vote. Tim Walz is unopposed in the primary, but if anyone is feeling up for a little Operation Chaos, Dick Day is an inviting option!
While we assume that the MF blogger is teasing, we don't recommend such tactics. People should use their vote in good faith, picking the candidates they feel will best serve the country, state or district. In Minnesota's open primary, voters pick to vote for a party's candidates, but must pick those from one party only. And DFLers, after all, have an important U.S. Senate primary vote, so it's also in their own interest not to go down the Operation Chaos path for the sake of the congressional race.
The Winona Daily News editorial board says Sorry, we don’t need reports, just money about the Walz amendment to the bridge bill. We think that both are needed, but the editors' suggestion that the government should act on report recommendations is a good one. The trick is spending the government dime wisely.
The Fillmore County Journal looks back A year after the great Rushford flood.
Swaney gets life sentence, according to the Worthington Globe. Good. Swaney was convicted this week for the brutal murder of 20-year-old Blue Mounds State Park worker Carrie Nelson.
Photo: A still of State Senator Dick Day in one of two appearances on Lacrosse-Southeastern Minnesota television news.
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