After all, who wouldn’t pay to see this lineup? First you’ve got Dylan (OK, it’s Independence Party candidate David Dillon, but he does a mean Dylan in his “Subcommittee on Homeland Blues” video).

Then come two real curiosities. Erik Paulsen is the opposite of a RINO — he’s every bit a Republican, just not in name. Whether by evolution or Intelligent Design, his signs and Web site have nothing to show he is a Republican.

But that’s mild stuff compared to DFLer Ashwin Madia, who the Paulsen campaign has touted this week as that rarest 3rd District species: an actual unmarried, childless apartment-dweller who doesn’t coach soccer. To find anything as bizarre, you’d have to travel to the Washington, D.C., office of the 3rd District’s current member of Congress, Jim Ramstad. The nine-term Republican, who’s retiring, hasn’t fathered kids and wasn’t married until three years ago.

Four other debates are still scheduled in the race, and WCCO-TV hosts all three candidates Sunday at 10 a.m.

CQPolitics rates rush to center a toss-up

CQPolitics.com takes an extended look at the rush to the center among 3rd District contenders and rates the race as “No Clear Favorite” — the most competitive category. The attention is fresh if the quotes belong to what now seems a long-past Age of the National Conventions. One highlight:

Paulsen said the Republican Party “has lost a little bit of its brand,” but that it deserved to do so given the fact the party has moved away from core principles like a balanced federal budget. Paulsen said he wanted to be part of a “new generation of Republican reformers.”

Madia OK with new version of bailout

Madia’s campaign released a statement Friday afternoon on the latest bailout — er, economic recovery — bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. It reads in part:

I am pleased that a significant bipartisan compromise has been achieved. However, I am disappointed that compromise required more than $100 billion in pork barrel spending in order to achieve passage. Putting wooden arrow, rum, and NASCAR tax credits in a must-pass bill is exactly the kind of wasteful spending I will work against when I get to Washington.

Madia spokesperson Dan Pollock clarified that for the Minnesota Independent as meaning that Madia would have voted for the new bill. Madia told reporters Wednesday he would also have voted for the earlier version — if inaction were the only alternative. “Ashwin thinks it’s ironic that most [of] the Republicans seemed to need $100 billion in pork spending to switch their votes,” Pollock wrote in an e-mail. “Obviously, it’s a bit different in Ramstad’s case.” The long-sought Wellstone-Ramstad mental health bill was added to the package this week.

Dillon first said he preferred that Congress ready a rescue but not act yet. But he tells the Minnesota Independent that he came around to supporting the plan after consulting economists and bankers over the course of the week — and after reading it for himself. “I downloaded all 451 freaking pages,” he said. “And I have to tell you, the first 230 pages were really good.” Dillon said he liked the oversight, goals, and executive pay limits he saw in the document’s first half — and even some of the second half’s miscellaneous add-ons, though he said he didn’t like to see legislation get done that way. 

Paulsen’s position on the bailout plans put forward this week isn’t known. If the campaign responds to requests for information about his position, look for an update at MnIndy. 

More business backers for Paulsen

Three groups added their endorsements Thursday to the roster of business interests backing Paulsen’s candidacy. At what was apparently the third Paulsen news conference this week at which the candidate himself did not appear, Paulsen got pledges of support from the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. None of whom, it seems, could cajole enough members to buy tickets so the chamber of commerce in Paulsen’s hometown of Eden Prairie could host its debate.

Beyond the Polls tips race to Paulsen

A blogger at a Web site called Beyond the Polls called the 3rd District race a toss-up in July, but in a post on Minnesota races today calls it for Paulsen, the Republican — “only because I have to pick somebody, but I don’t feel real confident in the prediction.” Probably a good instinct, since the previous sentence is this:

The race might hinge on turnout and whether Obama wins by enough to carry Paulsen with him.