Walz is going to win in a landslide in CD1. More commentary on this ad from Ollie Ox.
Archive for the 'CD1' Category
I just love this guy:
Gov. Rep. Tim Walz announced today that he had raised nearly 250K since July 1st.
Today, the Walz campaign announced that Congressman Tim Walz has raised almost $250,000 in the pre-primary reporting period (July 1-August 20). So far, over 7,500 individual donors have contributed to Tim’s campaign.
Given the paltry 100 grand from millionaire Dr. Brian Davis, and (probably) less from Dick Day, Tim Walz is in a great position to coast to victory this year.
But all the same, years from now when one of your kids asks you what you ever did for Tim Walz (who will by then have joined Humphrey, Mondale and Wellstone in the DFL firmament) you could say you donated to him waaay back when he was just a freshman legislator — or that you even went and volunteered for him.
On Tuesday, August 26th, three congressional candidates released their first TV spots. Coincidence? I don’t know. The third comes from CD1:
A solid spot by Tim Walz on energy. Walz co-sponsored the DRILL act. He voted for the Clean Energy Act. He’s brought forth legislation to expand wind power. He’s fought for lower gas prices. The ad isn’t just rhetoric — it reflects the kind of positions Walz has taken in Congress and why we need to keep him in Washington.
[via]
Just saw a press release from Congressman Walz in my inbox and thought this is pretty cool:
The National Geographic Education Foundation announced today that four key Congressional leaders have won its “Geography Legislator of the Year” award for 2008. Recognized for their commitment to promoting improved geographic literacy among American K-12 students are Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).
…
Walz, a former high school geography teacher in Mankato, Minn., and a member of the Minnesota Geographic Alliance, has fostered practical, hands-on global education for students, including promoting people-to-people ties between the United States and China. He has been effective in building broad support for the TGIF bill, introduced as H.R. 1228 in the House, personally collecting over a dozen co-sponsorships from his colleagues.
Boy, he sure is great on education issues; I wonder what he could do if put in a position where he could have more of a direct affect. But most education is funded at the state level… shucks.
Bluestem has the scoop.
Today, Congressman Tim Walz’s campaign released estimates of its fundraising numbers for the second quarter of 2008. Walz had his strongest quarter yet, with more than 2,500 individual contributors and raising more than $430,000, bringing cash on hand for the cycle to $1.2 million.
GOP endorsed candidate Brian Davis raised $290,000 in the second quarter and loaned himself an additional $100,000. That means that even if you include the six figure loan, Walz outraised Davis by at least $40k. His cash on hand lead is even more impressive - $1.2 million for Walz vs. $376k for Davis. Thats a 3-1 lead.
Davis’ primary challenger, Dick Day, has yet to report his fundraising totals, but I’d guess he’ll fall well below Davis’ totals. In fact, despite promising to do so just last week, Day has yet to file for office and some are speculating that he won’t (though to be fair, Davis and Walz have yet to file as well).
Bottom line: Davis’ fundraising is impressive, but its just not enough to make this a competitive race in such a DFL year.
The FEC Report is available here.
Davis raised 268k from individuals, got another 20k from party units and PACs and put in 2k himself. Not bad.
The big news, if I am reading this report correctly, is that Davis loaned his campaign an adittional 100k. Thats on top of the loans he made earlier in the cycle.
Davis has $376,000 cash on hand. That’s a good sum for a challenger. Too bad he’ll have to spend a lot of it fighting Dick Day in the primary. Oh, and don’t forget that Tim Walz had a million dollars in the bank as of April.
I just spoke with Chris Schmitter Tim Walz’s campaign manager and he called the "report" in Checks & Balances (subscription required) completely false .
The Congressman is neutral in this race, he is focused doing his job for the people of Southern Minnesota, he is not encouraging Ciresi to get in and he is not playing a role in this race at all.
Bluestem has the scoop, a new poll by the Benenson Strategy Group shows Tim Walz with massive leads over his two Republican challengers:
Walz - 60%
Davis - 20%
Walz - 57%
Day - 22%
No big surprise here, Walz is going to blow these guys out of the water.
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.
Bluestem has the goods. Congressman Tim Walz sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings regarding her visit to Minnesota this week.
Madam Secretary, what was troubling about your visit was that you came to Minnesota to announce a pilot project that will not help Minnesota’s students and schools. I think it is important for you to address the fundamental question of why you would come to Minnesota to announce a policy that doesn’t help Minnesota students.
Kudos to Walz for trying to get to the bottom of this. I think, however, Walz’s questions might also be asked of Norm Coleman and Tim Pawlenty.
Congratulations to Jim Ramstad, Wellstone Action and the 268 members of Congress who voted for the Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act today.
Mental health advocates praised Wednesday’s landmark vote by the U.S. House approving addiction and treatment legislation named for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.
The bill, which would require insurers to cover mental health in the same way as physical ailments, had long been championed by the Minnesota Democrat, who died in a 2002 plane crash.
“This is a very historic moment,” said his son David Wellstone, who addressed a Capitol Hill rally that included former First Lady Rosalynn Carter and singer-turned-activist Carole King. “This legislation is very close to my heart.”
The 268-148 House vote sets the stage for negotiations with the Senate, which passed a less stringent version of the bill last year. Key backers of the House bill, including Reps. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., and Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., say it provides greater access to treatment for people with addiction and mental health problems.
Michele Bachmann and John Kline voted against the bill. Jim Oberstar, Colin Peterson, Betty McCollum, Tim Walz and Keith Ellison voted for it.
Good news for Tim Walz:
State Sen. Dick Day will skip over the Republican party endorsement and run in a primary in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.
Day says he wants the voters to decide which Republican challenges Democratic U.S. Representative Tim Walz.
Day says the September primary election is more democratic than letting a few hundred GOP activists pick the candidate at a district convention.
Contested primaries aren’t always a bad thing, they can increase name recognition and give campaigns a chance to test drive their field operation. In this, however, a contested primary is a VERY bad thing for the MN GOP. Why? One word: money. Check out the 4th quarter filings for CD 1 candidates:
Dick Day (R)
Raised - $53 k
Spent - $37k
Cash on Hand - $96k
Randy Demmer (R)
Raised - $35k
Spent - $49k
Cash on Hand - $42k
Brian Davis (R)
Raised - $59k
Spent - $51k
Cash on Hand - $85k
Congressman Tim Walz (DFL)
Raised - $250k
Spent - $119k
Cash on Hand - $793k
The three Republicans have pathetic numbers compared to Walz, and now they are going to blow what little cash they have on a primary. To make matters worse, the winner of this primary can’t count on any help from the cash-strapped NRCC, which is goign to be busy defending open seats like the 3rd.
This race is over.
Although Joe Bodell’s blog falls disappointingly low on the ‘snarky wonkishness’ scale it shouldn’t diminish the fact that every now and then he has some pretty awesome content up over there.
Anatomy of a Special Election Victory: SD25
DFLer Kevin Dahle emerged victorious in a special election this week to replace State Sen. Tom Neuville. Dahle prevailed against a well-funded, well-known Republican in the person of former State Rep. Ray Cox, who served half the district in the Legislature for several years until going down to defeat in 2006.
Dahle’s victory has set off a string of recriminations among Republican Party activists, one side accusing the other of not helping enough and the other complaining about a closed process that produced a weak candidate. In the mix are (of course) remonstrations that the DFL played negative politics to the bitter end on behalf of Dahle. Senator-elect Dahle, for his part, managed to stay positive throughout the short campaign, and now heads to St. Paul as part of a veto-proof majority.
Go check out some great analysis on why the DFL now has a VETO PROOF MAJORITY(!) in the State Senate — but remember who sent ya.
[update:] Another stellar write up from Ollie Ox at Bluestem Prairie. I don’t have a Google News Alert for Tim Walz anymore — I just go to Bluestem Prairie. Her coverage of this southern MN race was bananas too, stop by and give her a read.
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