By most measures, House District 37A should be a lock for Republicans. The wealthy (median income $65,338), suburban district, which encompasses much of Apple Valley, voted for Gov. Tim Pawlenty over Mike Hatch by a 52-41 margin in 2006, while Bush carried the area by a 51-48 spread two years earlier. In 2002, Norm Coleman whipped Walter Mondale by 19 points there in the U.S. Senate race. The one exception to this GOP dominance in recent years is Amy Klobuchar, who took 37A by a 55-42 margin two years ago. “It is a classic, second-ring, suburban district that has historically been very Republican,” says Patrick Staley, chair of the GOP in Senate District 37.

So when Shelley Madore (pictured above) secured the DFL endorsement for the House seat in 37A four years ago, she knew it would be a difficult political contest. The mother of two children with special needs (spina bifida and Asperger’s syndrome), she ran a spirited campaign for the open seat, but ultimately came up 466 votes short of upsetting Republican Lloyd Cybart. After licking her wounds for a few weeks (”you boo-hoo a bit,” she says), Madore began girding for a rematch. In 2006, she avenged the narrow defeat, beating the incumbent by just 195 votes. She was one of a handful of suburban female DFL’ers who eked out surprise victories and helped the party pick up 33 seats.

But that exceedingly narrow margin of victory means that Madore’s seat is one that Republicans will fight vigorously to take back this year. They’re backing political newcomer Tara Mack, currently a legislative aide to state Reps. Matt Dean and Joe Hoppe, for the post. “She brings a good knowledge base on the issues through her work at the Capitol,” says Staley. “I think she has a lot of energy. I think she’s eager to contrast her views on things like education and health care with Rep. Madore.”

Mack is apparently less enthusiastic, however, about talking with reporters. She did not respond to repeated inquiries by the Minnesota Independent via phone and email. The Republican also failed to show up at a candidate forum last week sponsored by MICAH, a religious organization that works on social issues such as housing and poverty. Mack told the Pioneer Press that she was too busy door-knocking to attend, but that she intended to participate in four subsequent candidate forums.

Madore argues that Mack’s low profile is no accident. “They keep her in the closet and they attack me and they’re not giving the voters any opportunity at all to see us together,” she says. “It’s not easy to think on your feet and be able to respond to voters, but I think the voters need to see that.”

The race is attracting plenty of attention from GOP leaders. At a debate sponsored by Politics in Minnesota earlier this month, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert compared Mack to Sarah Palin. As of August, the Republican had raised just over $27,000, a formidable sum for a first-time state House candidate. Mack’s coffers have been swelled with contributions from big-time GOP givers from outside the district such as local TV/radio mogul Stanley Hubbard, Minnesota Timberwolves owners Glen Taylor and former Target chief executive officer Robert Ulrich. Madore, by contrast, despite enjoying the benefits of incumbency, has raised barely half that amount.

The level of vitriol being directed at the freshman Democrat is also unusual for a state House race. Since Madore’s first days in office, a blog written by a local GOP activist has consistently (and often disingenuously) attacked her record — a tactic usually reserved for statewide and federal contests. Emails have recently circulated in the district strongly criticizing her two-year tenure at the Capitol. And phone calls that some Democrats have described as push-polling are also being utilized to denigrate Madore’s political record.

Coming from a phone bank operation in Provo, Utah, the calls state that Madore voted to increase welfare spending by more than $1 billion and backed $170 million in pork-barrel spending. More pointedly, they accuse the freshman legislator of voting to allow sex offenders and other felons to work in child-care centers and nursing homes. (Apple Valley resident Dave Mindeman was among the recipients of these calls and wrote about it in more detail on the mnpACT blog.)

Madore explains that the latter measure was intended to loosen restrictions on hiring of ex-felons so that drug-and-alcohol treatment programs can employ former addicts as counselors. “I think an addict would listen to that person before they’d listen to someone like me,” she says. But Madore acknowledges that the legislation was written more broadly than she would have preferred. “The wording on that should have been changed to say limited to drug and alcohol counselors,” she says.

But perhaps the oddest controversy in the race has been the change of one of the legislative district’s voting locations. In May, the Apple Valley City Council voted, with no debate, to move the polling place for Precinct 16 to River Valley Church. The decision was peculiar because the church — one of the largest evangelical parishes in the area — is not actually in Precinct 16.

But Democrats are troubled by the move for a more pointed reason: Tara Mack’s husband, Justin, is an assistant pastor at the church. River Valley Church’s head pastor, Rob Ketterling, even mentioned the political contest in his blog. “She’s done a great job of balancing her church involvement and also her political involvement,” Ketterling wrote of Mack in July, “and although RVC cannot endorse candidates, I can say she’s a great pastor’s wife!”

Madore is not happy about the move. “It just smells as fishy as can be,” she says. “I know that the DFL is taking this very seriously and they will be watching it.”

Kristi Gottwalt, associate DFL chair in Senate District 37, says that the Secretary of State’s Office has assured the party that the arrangement is legal, but that hasn’t diminished worries about the new polling location. “A pastor has a lot of sway,” she says. “We’ll definitely have poll watchers there because it is a concern.”

Apple Valley City Clerk Pamela Gackstetter says that the move was necessitated by the decision of Kingston Green Apartments, one of the city’s normal polling locations, to not make the space available this year. She notes that the decision was made back in May. “That’s before anyone has even filed for office,” Gackstetter says. “You couldn’t possible foresee who’s going to apply.”

Madore is focusing her attention on talking to as many voters as possible. “I think that the number of Republican votes is tapering out now,” she says. “I don’t think they’re winning new people.”