Via the Minnesota Independent and Smart Politics, we visited the Rothenberg Report's 2010 House Rankings, which handicap competitive districts in the 2010 election. Erik Paulsen's MN-03 and Michele Bachmann's MN-06 are on the list as "Republican favored."
Bachmann was on the February 2007 list along with Congressman Walz, the equivalent ranking for the 207-2008 cycle. At this time in 2007, four Republicans were actively discussing plans to seek their party's endorsement, and eventual endorsee Brian Davis would hop in the race a couple of months later.
Walz's 62.5 percent to Davis's 32.9 percent of the vote in November 2008--along with the absence of any public discussion of a Republican opponent to challenge the congressman in 2010? Probably enough to bump te district off the radar.
And while MN-01 wasn't showing up on anyone's radar in February 2005, Walz's FEC fundraising report for Q1 2005 does show that the teacher and former National Guard member was already in the fight, having received his first large contribution on January 27, 2005 while his statement of organization was filed February 10, 2005. Davis and Demmer still have committees; we'll see in the next set of FEC reports if they're oing much other than trying to eliminate their committees' debts.
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