Hope you guys enjoyed being a swing state, because that era seems to be coming to close. Obama has led McCain by double digit margins in recent polls and both campaigns have been sending signals that Minnesota will not be a critical battleground this fall.
Today, in his regular ranking of state’s most likely to move from red to blue or blue to red this fall, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza doesn’t even place Minnesota in the top ten. Six weeks ago, Cillizza ranked Minnesota a 7th. Our drop is no doubt due to Barack Obama’s all but certain clinching of the Democratic nomination. Obama is widely considered to be a stronger candidate in Minnesota than Hillary Clinton.
If Republicans do in fact chose not to contest Minnesota in the presidential race, it will be a massive boon for the DFL up and down the ballot. Currently, the presidential race is the only level where the Republicans are financially comptetitive. The DSCC and DCCC, on the other hand, have massive cash advantages over their Republican counterparts. If McCain and the RNC pull out of Minnesota, Madia, Walz and all the other DFL candidates will be enormously benefitted.
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Al Franken will be a drag on the ticket though - and the only hope for Franken to win, is on Obama’s coat tails. When you’ve got 3 sitting DFL congress people publicly distancing themselves from Franken, it’s a problem.