We're back from a fun Minnesota Farmers Union convention and are placating the kittehs, who are insisting that their legendary independence is overrated.
Minnesota's other farm group convened this weekend as well. The Bemidji Pioneer reports in Minnesota Farm Bureau president defends ethanol production that President Kevin Paap:
lauded the efforts of U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, DFL-7th District, who steered the farm bill through Congress as chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee.
“MFBF sincerely thanks Chairman Peterson for his outstanding leadership on this legislation,” Paap said, also citing Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Amy Klobuchar, DFL-Minn., and Reps. Jim Oberstar, DFL-8thDisrict, Tim Walz, DFL-1st District, John Kline, R-2nd District, Keith Ellison, DFL-5th District, and Betty McCollum, DFL-4th District.
Readers can readily ascertain which of Minnesota's representatives are left off that list. Former Congressman Tim Penny writes the Mankato Free Press to say Area is ready for energy push. The reitred dean of engineering at MSU-M says A bold energy plan is necessary.
Over at the Swing State Project in Covering Key Races Around the Country, Mark (a native of the First District) writes:
District 1--It's been amazing seeing how fast Rochester, Minnesota's third-largest city and formerly known as "the heart of soul of the Minnesota Republican Party, has changed. The first signs of GOP softening came in 2000, with a Mark Dayton victory over Senator Rod Grams and a soft four-point margin for Bush over Gore. After several cycles of shifting, Rochester completed it's transition to a Democratic-leaning community having voted for Barack Obama by nine points. Considering that most of the rest of the district has been more politically competitive, having the population anchor of the district trending Democrat gives MN-01 a decidedly blue tint, at least unless the Republican party moves back towards the kind of political moderation that was the hallmark of the state GOP in decades past and was embraced by Rochester.
Tim Walz mowed down third-rate competitor Brian Davis even more lopsidedly than I could have imagined. Walz won all 23 22 counties in the district, a feat I wouldn't have imagined possible this year given that Pipestone and Rock Counties in the southwest corner are shut out of the Minnesota media market (and thus tend to vote party line on essentially every non-national race) and have populations that are more than 20% evangelical that vote so overwhelmingly Republican that it makes nearly any Democratic victory unattainable. I think Dick Day had the potential to mount a stronger challenge to Walz had he won the primary, but still would have likely fallen far short. Walz' rock-solid 30-point victory gives me confidence in his ability to weather more defensive political cycles that may emerge in the years ahead.
Other thoughts.....Worthington, formerly a Democratic stronghold in southwestern Minnesota that has been trending Republican in the last couple of decades, had another pretty good year for Democrats, following an upwardly mobile 2006. College towns Mankato and Winona saw dramatic improvement for all Democrats on the ballots. Traditional Republican strongholds like New Ulm and Owatonna were, for the second election cycle in a row, softer than usual across the ballot. That leaves Fairmont as the district's only population center that remains unflinching in its allegiance to the GOP.
Tonight's video is Bob Marley singing (in part) about planting corn; we dedicate it to Kat the Warrior Princess:
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