Ashwin Madia

Three Minnesota candidates who didn’t win their elections — or haven’t won yet anyway, with the U.S. Senate race still in limbo — can take a little consolation in having their television ads (or ads meant to benefit them) honored on national best-of lists. “Running,” the first TV ad that Democrat Ashwin Madia aired in his losing bid to replace U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, was this morning ranked among the nation’s eight best ads in U.S. House races this year by The Fix, a Washington Post blog. Videos and more best-of listings after the jump, including the ad attacking Madia that used clips from “Running.”

As President-elect Obama moves to form his staff, Minnesotans with ties to his candidacy and a desire to move to Washington, D.C. may reasonably hold out hope to get tapped. One post that already got away from the Minnesota crowd is White House press secretary. Another is chief of staff — and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s ascension to that perch will set Minnesotans who know him a-twitter. Meanwhile, T-Paw finds his own higher perch — on the shortlist of GOP prospects for filling the job of U.S. President.

The main question for the national Democratic party this morning may be what to take for all those post-victory hangovers, but at some point the chieftains of the Democratic congressional apparatus will get around to examining those few places where the party failed to make the most of a decisive Barack Obama win. And when they do, Minnesota — where Obama turned in the strongest Democratic presidential performance since 1976 — is likely to be at the top of the list.

Democrat Ashwin Madia and Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen fought one of the fiercest battles for a U.S. House seat this year, while Independence Party candidate David Dillon brought the lion’s share of the laughs to the 3rd Congressional District race. With the race over today, maybe Ash and Erik can share a laugh over drinks sometime. In fact, they already have, in this short clip from the candidate debate at Edina High last month. Video after the jump.

In e-mails to the Minnesota Independent this afternoon, KSTP-TV’s Tom Hauser responds to reports that the station gave Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen’s campaign an early heads-up yesterday about the results of the latest 3rd Congressional District poll that Survey USA conducted for KSTP. Hauser also confirms that the latest poll was a re-do of one just two days earlier that left out the name of David Dillon, Independence Party candidate.

A new Survey USA poll shows for the first time a spread between the two leading candidates in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District that’s greater than the margin of error. It’s a sudden swing that Survey USA suggests might be due to a TV ad that darkens Democrat Ashwin Madia’s skin. But if so, the effect would seem to arise more from recent news reports about the ad than from the ad itself, which came out a full week before the first of Survey USA’s latest pair of back-to-back polls. Another way Republican Erik Paulsen’s ahead: KSTP gave Paulsen’s campaign an early preview of the poll results, according to Joe Bodell. And David Dillon’s camp says the poll is a re-do because the Survey USA left the Independence Party candidate’s name off last time.

For decades, Republicans have won the battle on wedge social issues at the polls in suburban districts, while Democrats quietly tried to shoo those wedge issues away. But Democratic candidates in tough districts are slowly coming to openly support equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and they are being led by a new crop of unlikely pioneers — military veterans. DFLer Ashwin Madia is one such candidate.

Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) is making rumblings about “taking appropriate legal action” after its frustrated attempts to have state Rep. Erik Paulsen stop using video from TPT’s “Almanac” program in an ad attacking his 3rd Congressional District Democratic rival, Ashwin Madia. Paulsen’s FEC filings list ad production by Upgrade Films, the same D.C. outfit whose use of Pawlenty campaign video in a state GOP TV ad cost the governor’s 2002 campaign a $100,000 fine.

House Democratic leaders have been working hard on behalf of Democratic challengers, showering them with money and personal attention to expand their majority and to curry favor with future colleagues. Here in Minnesota, Ashwin Madia is the beneficiary of their campaigning.

UPDATED: Roll Call reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee is putting $11,200 into mailings meant to reduce voter support for David Dillon, the Independence Party candidate who’s running a distant third in the 3rd Congressional District race. A scan of the piece and more after the jump.