10:25:   With 86% reporting in Hennepin County only, Kelley is up in the county 44%-37% over Swanson, difference of about 5,000 votes over what you see on the SoS website right now. We’ll see if it’s enough.
9:55: More results – 40-35, Swanson over Kelley with 85k votes in. Still only 13% of Hennepin is reporting.

8:40:  More results in:  Swanson at about 38%, Luther and Kelley both around 30% – only 14,000 votes in.  Hennepin and Ramsey have not been counted yet.8:20:  First returns are in – 300 votes only.  Must have been the early bird precinct.  Just getting back connectivity to MNCR, got a hiccup in service.

7:45:  Phone banks are closing soon, and we will be heading over to the victory party in Minneapolis.

5:05:  Reports from CD5 polling place watchers seem to be indicating mostly normal turnout – we’ll see what happens in the next three hours as people come home from work.

4:10:  Spoke to Kelley again – After having campaigned almost non-stop for well over a year, it’s almost surprising to hear how excited this guy is to meet his eventual opponent in a business setting.  With Jeff Johnson campaigning on a “friendly-to-business” platform, Kelley appears confident that he can not only meet Johnson head on in this important constituency, but beat Johnson outright.

Steve also showed off a new tie he got recently – asking whether it was green drew some pleasant laughter.

3:30:  Steve Kelley has arrived at the campaign office.  Visibly limping, too – his hip has been bothering him, and he will be having it replaced on November 10th.  Recounts are not an option, DFLers.

I asked Kelley about the CCRN email just noted below – while reading it, he shook it off easily.  Spoke for a couple minutes about conceal-and-carry, and the candidate talked about the pro-C&C ideologues who simply would not allow exceptions for businesses with multiple entrances (like SuperValu in Kelley’s Senate district 44) or churches.  Evidently in good spirits and looking forward to the victory party tonight.

2:33: Just got a look at an email from Conceal and Carry Reform Now, a gun rights organization – they’ve given grades to all of the major candidates across the state, passing out an F to Steve Kelley and an A to Lori Swanson. Rather, they gave an F to Steve Kelly. Dunno who that guy is. Steve Kelley, on the other hand, is opposed to conceal-and-carry. Although the organization does not make an outright endorsement of Swanson, indications are that their PAC did send Swanson a check. Jeff Johnson, the presumptive Republican nominee for AG, also received an A.

1:55 PM:  Discussed the call schedule with top staff here – this is intense.  Several phone banks going full-bore, ramping up as the day goes on.  One top staffer couldn’t cite an exact number, but said that “several thousand