The Rochester Post-Bulletin reported Tuesday that the declared Republican challengers for the U.S. House seat in the 1st District in southern Minnesota are already off and running in the race to raise campaign cash. According to the Post-Bulletin, state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna leads the pack with about $20,000 raised.

In second place is Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial school board member Mark Meyer with approximately $6,450. State Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield is yet to leave the gate, raising less than the $5,000 set by the Federal Election Commission as the threshold to file.

One axiom of politics is that first-term members of Congress who have taken their seats from the opposing party are considered vulnerable, especially when the opposing party has held that seat for a number of years. In 2006, Walz defeated six-term Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht.

According to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Dr. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has identified Walz as one such incumbent. On the center’s website, Sabato lists all members of Congress who won with less than 55 percent of the two-party vote in 2006, of whom 28 are Democrats and 33 are Republicans. Strictly by those numbers, Walz would be considered the 17th most-vulnerable Democrat.

Walz has yet to hire a campaign manager but is conducting some fundraising for his campaign through a political consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and has office space in Mankato.