Tarryl Clark, Michele Bachmann. Photos: Clark for Congress, Bachmann for Congress (Flickr)

Dr. Maureen Reed’s decision to drop out of the DFL primary comes as positive news for the campaign of state Sen. Tarryl Clark campaign, as it will allow her to focus solely challenging Bachmann, especially in light of Bachmann’s current fundraising advantage. The campaign in the 6th is currently the fourth most expensive House race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The DFL-endorsed candidate, Clark is supported by prominent Democratic politicians, so she was likely to win the primary even if Reed had not dropped out. But Reed’s withdrawal comes as Bachmann faces increasing criticism over her legislative record. AOL News recently reported that only two of Bachmann’s 17 congressional staffers were legislative aides, compared to three working on media relations. She has only introduced 18 pieces of legislation since January 2009, with only one successfully passing.

That news follows a recent Bachmann profile in The Washington Post, which included this telling comment:

Her only notable legislative triumph came in the adoption of a low-profile bill that has made technical changes to the obligations of merchants who deal with credit card and debit receipts. But Bachmann emphasizes that to focus on the passage of bills is to miss the whole point about her: She is in Washington, she says, to beat back government’s attempt to “eclipse freedom in people’s lives.”

Her attention on raising her media profile may not have won legislative victories, but it has bolstered Bachmann’s fundraising. In their last reports submitted to the FEC, Bachmann had raised $2.3 million with $1.5 million cash on hand, compared to $1.1 million for Clark, with only $600,000 cash left.

What is striking about those numbers is the source for each candidates’ donations*. Through March 31, Bachmann had 1,513 individual contributions from large donors (contributors of $200 and above), with over 55 percent of those coming from non-Minnesotans. Clark on the other hand had 742 large-donor contributions, but 80 percent came from within state. Even though Bachmann had almost twice as many total large, individual donations, Clark only had about 50 fewer of such contributions from Minnesotans.

With the DFL nomination sealed up, Clark should expect to begin receiving greater financial support from national Democrats. And her success at raising money from Minnesotans may be a sign that voters have become tired of Bachmann’s emphasis on out-of-state matters.

But while Bachmann’s lack of a legislative record opens her to criticism, Clark’s extensive record during her time as assistant majority leader in the Minnesota Senate provides plenty of ammunition for her opponent. This spring’s rough-and-tumble budget battle often put Clark in difficult positions, at one point serving as the tie-breaking vote on a measure to raise taxes. And though Bachmann’s political reputation is one of a far-right firebrand, the fact remains that she does represent Minnesota’s most conservative district, one that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama in 2008 53-45 percent.

Minnesota’s history of supporting third-party candidates could also shake up November’s election. Bob Anderson is the endorsed candidate for the Independence Party. Anderson ran as in independent in 2008 (the Independence Party cross-nominated the DFL candidate that year), and was able to draw 10 percent of the vote. With the official backing of Minnesota’s main third party, Anderson could see his share of the vote increase this election.

It’s unclear whether Anderson’s campaign poses more of a problem for Bachmann or Clark. Anderson’s center-right views would indicate that his supporters have more in common with Bachmann’s base. But he may end up siphoning off the “anyone but Bachmann” voters who would otherwise go for Clark.

(St. John’s University professor Aubrey Immelman, who ran as a Republican against Bachmann in the 2008 primary, is also running for the seat.)

With the amount of cash being pumped into the campaign for the 6th, as well as Bachmann’s prominence in the world of Fox News and conservative conventions, the race should receive continued national focus as November nears.

*This post originally omitted a distinction of the Federal Election Commission figures. The FEC statistics cited track donations larger than $200, not every individual campaign contribution. The language has been changed in the post to reflect that differentiation.

Maureen Reed. Photo: Reed for Congress, Flickr

Dr. Maureen Reed announced Sunday that she’s suspending her campaign for the DFL primary in August. Sen. Tarryl Clark will be the DFL challenger to Rep. Michele Bachmann along with Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson and independent Aubrey Immelman. In a statement, she said she bowed out when it became clear that Clark had more resources.

“It is with a heavy heart that I am suspending operations in my campaign for Congress in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District,” Reed said. “During the past few days, I have come to the conclusion that a prolonged primary fight only assists Michele Bachmann. The other DFL challenger, Tarryl Clark, has amassed more resources, and I feel that it is time for the DFL to unify behind one candidate in this race.”

Clark issued her own statement on Sunday thanking Reed.

“[I]t is because we possessed the common goal of restoring real representation and getting the people’s work done, that I am honored by and thankful for Maureen Reed’s endorsement,” Clark said. “Dr. Reed’s supporters and volunteers did a tremendous amount of work to help defeat Michele Bachmann in November, and I invite and encourage them to continue those efforts with our team.”

“I managed to reach about 20 of the approximately 30 delegates and alternates on the phone Thursday and Friday night ahead of Saturday’s Independence Party nominating convention, but it was clear that most of those planning to attend already had their minds made up,” Immelman said in a comment at the Minnesota Independent. “Not one of the individuals on the delegate list offered me a pledge of support.”

Anderson won 10 percent of the vote in the 2008 election as an unendorsed independent.

“I will represent my constituents free from the partisan politics of the Democratic and Republican Parties,” Anderson posted on his website following the endorsement. “I ask if you truly want change, try something different. You have the control.This is a two year position, if you are not satisfied with my job performance you can vote me out!”

Immelman told the Minnesota Independent on Friday that he’ll submit his name for consideration at the Independence Party convention on Saturday.

“I’ll have a clearer picture about my options to help defeat Bachmann after tomorrow’s 6th District Independence Party nominating convention, where I’ll be offering delegates a choice between myself and Bob Anderson.”

Immelman says he has a better shot at drawing votes from independents who lean toward Bachmann.

“My efforts are presently directed to achieving that objective by targeting my messaging to the large independent constituency in the 6th District, the majority of which currently leans Bachmann.”

Last July, Anderson told the Minnesota Independent that he’d only consider running if the Independence Party did away with its policy of cross-endorsing. In November, it did. But now Anderson tells the the St. Cloud Times his entry into the race hinges on whether he lands the IP endorsement.

“I want to see where I stand with the party,” Anderson said. “If I can secure that endorsement, I’m moving forward.”

He’s the only candidate vying for the Independence party endorsement, and party officials say he is likely to get it.

(Hat tip: Paul Demko)

Last election, when Anderson ran as an unendorsed IP candidate, the party endorsed Elwyn Tinklenberg, who was already the DFL’s endorsed candidate. Rep. Michele Bachmann squeaked out a win, with a margin of victory of just 3 percent. Anderson garnered 10 percent of the vote.

“I don’t want to get involved in that again,” he told the Minnesota Independent in July, adding that he’d only consider running if he could vie for the party endorsement. “I want the party’s support. I don’t want ‘anti’ support.”

After Saturday’s State Party Convention in Brooklyn Park, the party decided to remove that obstacle for candidates like Anderson. It voted to stop cross-endorsing.

“Our delegates feel that offering endorsement support to candidates of the parties that brought us this systemic mess diluted our message,” Jack Uldrich, party chair, in a press release. “If other political candidates want our endorsement, they are welcome to have it but they are going to have to leave their current party to get it.”

The party also voted to keep its ban on PAC money, a move that together with ditching cross-endorsement “clarif[ies] and amplif[ies] the fact that the Independence Party is the only true reform party,” according to Uldrich.

It doesn’t clarify Anderson’s involvement in the 2010 race to unseat Bachmann, however. In an email he says he’s “encouraged by these decisions,” but he hasn’t decided yet whether he’ll run again.

He does see opportunity, though. With cross-endorsement gone, the landscape has shifted. Candidate Maureen Reed was seeking both the DFL and IP endorsements, but many pundits think DFLer Tarryl Clark is likely to get that party’s endorsement. (Clark recently got support from Sen. Al Franken, who penned a fundraising letter on her behalf.)

If that happens, Anderson, who sees Reed as more moderate than Clark, thinks he’s got a shot, should he get the IP’s nod. “I see a wide open middle if Clark defeats Reed,” Anderson said via email. “I feel Clark is too far to the left to win in the 6th District.”

There’s one scenario that could do in Anderson’s plans should he opt to run: Reed signing back on with the Independence Party and trying for anointment by the party. She ran as the party’s choice for lieutenant governor’s office in 2006.

(Images: NationalAtlas.gov, Bob Anderson)

Things are heating up in the race to unseat 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann: Democrat Maureen Reed raised $230,000 in the two months following her announcement to run; past Bachmann challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg says he’ll be in the Democratic primary whether he gets the DFL nod or not; and state Sen. Tarryl Clark is expected to announce her candidacy soon. A new twist: Third-party candidate Bob Anderson — who garnered 10 percent of the vote in the 2008 election — is seriously considering running again.

Last time Anderson ran as an unendorsed Independence Party (IP) candidate; Tinklenberg was cross-endorsed by the DFL and the IP. This time, Anderson says he wants just one endorsement — the IP’s. Coinciding with the IP’s executive committee meeting last weekend, he sent a letter to the party indicating his interest in running. He wouldn’t share the letter, but said his first post on his new campaign blog, launched Sunday, sums it up. He writes that candidates should focus on just one party: “I feel if you need the endorsement of two parties you are not the strongest candidate.”

In an interview with the Minnesota Independent on Thursday, Anderson said he learned a lot during the last campaign and will leverage that experience this time around. But it all hinges on whether the IP will cross-endorse.

“I don’t want to get involved in that again,” he said. “I want the party’s support — I don’t want ‘anti’ support.” Later he said he doesn’t think cross-endorsement helped “anybody,” adding with a chuckle, “It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. ”

The endorsement question

Don’t expect a definitive decision from Anderson soon. He’s waiting for the results of the Independence Party’s October 10 Central Committee Meeting, when the body will vote on whether to continue cross-endorsing.

Party chair Jack Uldrich was hesitant to guess about the outcome of that meeting, but he says he’s heard strong opinions on both sides.

“My personal feeling is it’s going to be a very close vote,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “A lot of people in ’08 were disappointed with how cross-endorsement worked.”

He said there are pros and cons to the practice: On one hand, cross-endorsement improves the odds of a candidate with a platform similar to the IP’s getting elected (although Minnesota law prohibits more than one party affiliation being listed on ballots). On the other, cross-endorsement dilutes the party brand, as Uldrich puts it. “The public might say, ‘Well, what does this party stand for?’”

Uldrich implied that Anderson’s chances of getting the endorsement are much better this time around. “The fact that he’s reaching out earlier will work in his favor,” Uldrich said. “Against him is that El Tinklenberg or Maureen Reed will seek the party’s cross-endorsement, too.”

But of Anderson, who addressed the 2008 IP convention, he added, “He’ll be received warmly by the party. Whether that’s enough to garner the endorsement is impossible for me to say.”

The Democratic Party likely wouldn’t welcome an Anderson candidacy, given his take of the vote last time around. But when asked about Anderson’s potential run or the party’s thoughts about cross-endorsement or whether Anderson was a “spoiler” in 2008, Gabby Adler, Midwestern press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), dodged the question.

“Minnesotans are looking for a Representative who reflects their values and will fight to protect jobs, reduce home foreclosures, and promote local economic growth,” she wrote in an email. “We are excited to work with whoever emerges as the DFL nominee next year as they reach out to Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike to build a winning base of support.”

Spoiler?

Anderson calls himself a “right leaning centrist” running in the “most conservative district in the state.” But some call him “spoiler.”

He took 10 percent of the vote in a 2008 election that was decided by a mere 3-percent margin of victory.

“I know I created a lot of stir. I know a lot of the bloggers have been against me, because they think I cost the election,” he said. But he believes he took more votes from Bachmann than Tinklenberg, since he runs as a conservative.

Anderson sees himself as a legitimate alternative to Bachmann and didn’t hesitate to criticize her over, among other issues, the congresswoman’s failure to support the Mental Health Parity bill and her practice of holding mid-day teleconference calls that she bills as town hall meetings. Plus, he calls out media appearances where Bachmann suggested President Obama had “anti-American views” and announced her refusal to fill out the full U.S. Census.

“I think she’d be much better off concentrating on the district,” he said. “She’s got the ability to draw all that news coverage. Why doesn’t she do something less divisive?”

He added, “She’s kind of embarrasing the district. She’s a smart gal and attractive, but she’s got a lot of negatives. She’s got a really strong base, but believe me I hear more people talking negative about her than positive.”

Aubrey Immelman

Aubrey Immelman, a St. John’s University political science professor who ran as a Republican against Bachmann in the 2008 primary, wrote in an email that it’s “empirically unverifiable” whether Anderson lost the election for the Democratic candidate.

He cites numbers he crunched on his website in May that he believes show the primary election results “predicted the outcome” of the general election. In the primary, Tinklenberg won 43.1 percent of the vote, a fraction of a percent less than he got on election day (43.4 percent). Bachmann went from a 47.2 percent share in the primary to 46.4 percent on Nov. 4, whereas Anderson went from a 2 percent share in the primary to 10 percent on election day.

Whether Immelman will join Anderson in the race and challenge Bachmann for the GOP nomination is also up in the air.

“I have not yet decided,” he said. “I’m encountering significant hostility to my open primary strategy — not from Republicans, but from partisan Democrats.”

He cites commenters on liberal blogs, as well as a post by Dave Mindeman at mnpACT, who called Immelman’s primary bid “election trickery” and “foolishness”: “Really, Mr. Immelman — if all you have to recommend you for the 6th District is that you are not Michele Bachmann, then spare us the typeface.”

Whether a vote for Anderson constitutes supporting a “spoiler,” the IP’s Uldrich gave his solution, then his opinion. The Independent Party supports instant-runoff voting (IRV), which allows voters to rank their voting preferences. (Democrats support IRV in their plank, he said, while Republicans oppose it).

“Whenever a voter votes his or her conscience it’s never a wasted vote,” Uldrich said. “That says quite a bit about the caliber of candidates the Republicans and Democrats are putting up.”

Clark has been rumored to be eyeing either the governor’s race or a congressional challenge for months, but she has remained cagey about her ambitions. What’s known is that Clark has been testing the waters with party activists in the district.

“She is actively considering getting into the Sixth Congressional District race,” says Nancy Schumaker, chair of the DFL in the district. “I don’t know what her timetable is to make a final decision.”

But Schumaker doesn’t rule out a gubernatorial bid by Clark either.

“My best answer is she is looking at both and trying to make up her mind and getting advice from others in the party,” she says.

While Clark would undoubtedly be a formidable challenger to Bachmann, she’d have to fight for the DFL endorsement. Both Elwyn Tinklenberg, who narrowly lost to Bachmann in 2008, and Maureen Reed, a former Independence Party candidate for lieutenant governor, are seeking the party’s backing. The latter announced today that she’s raised more than $230,000 in just the two months since announcing her campaign.

The Sixth Congressional District has not been friendly to Democrats. Along with being the most conservative district in the state, it’s also proven fertile ground for third-party candidates. In 2008 Bob Anderson won 10 percent of the vote running as an Independence Party candidate — even though he wasn’t the party-backed challenger and didn’t mount much of a campaign. (Tinklenberg was endorsed by both the DFL and the Independence Party, but only one party affiliation can be listed on the ballot.)

“The bottom line is there are a lot of voters who don’t pay attention,” says Jack Uldrich, chairman of the Independence Party, noting widespread disaffection with the two dominant parties. “When they saw that there was a third option they just went with Bob Anderson.”

Uldrich says the party hasn’t spent much time thinking about the Sixth Congressional District contest yet. Reed has indicated she will seek cross-endorsement — a prospect that Uldrich believes would be “met warmly” by many Independence Party members.

“I’m not actively recruiting candidates up there,” Uldrich says.

Thanks for the memories. Now please go away. Yes, we’re talking about you, Rudy Giuliani. And you, Wolf Blitzer. We no longer wish to be a swing state. Henceforth the residents of the state of Minnesota promise to vote reliably Democratic. Or Republican. It doesn’t much matter which — just as long as you people promise to stop showing up in our little slice of the frozen tundra seeking to feel our pain. But to memorialize the horrors visited upon us during the (still ongoing) campaign season, we offer — in honor of our favorite member of the Statewide General Election Canvassing Board — the G. Barry Anderson Awards.

Betty McCollum

Personally we thought the Andy Rooney date-rape skit had potential: It’s tough to recall now, but back in June it looked as if Al Franken’s Senate campaign was going to run completely off the rails. Despite two years of suffering through fish fries and potluck suppers in East Jesus Nowhere, his campaign was beset by controversies over improperly paid taxes and past writings. But it wasn’t the inevitable frothing of Minnesota Democrats Exposed that put the Franken campaign at risk of losing the DFL endorsement to a little-known challenger from the Trotskyite wing of the party. Rather it was the attacks from Franken’s fellow Democrats, led by Rep. Betty McCollum, that nearly doomed his candidacy. Her sanctimonious outrage over a (rather dull) Playboy article triggered a cattle call of Democratic politicians expressing faux outrage over Franken’s past writings. The comedian’s possibly pending triumph, however, raises hope for a 2014 Diablo Cody campaign.

T-Paw

He even cut off his hockey mullet, dammit: We really, really thought Gov. Tim Pawlenty was a shoo-in. When GOP muckety-muck Ken Mehlman hosts a Georgetown cocktail-and-mini-wiener gathering in your honor and it’s revealed that First Lady Mary Pawlenty refers to you as “45″ behind closed doors, it’s time to start measuring the curtains for Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret bunker, no? Pawlenty couldn’t have telegraphed his desire for the post any more strongly if he’d offered to take on eBay’s Meg Whitman in a steel-cage match. But when it became clear that Sen. John McCain’s appeal was largely limited to (some) former guests of the Hanoi Hilton and beer-distributorship scions, the drab choice of Pawlenty got scuttled for a moose hunter with a unique ability to arouse the Republican base with just three words: “Drill, baby, drill.” Does M-Paw now cry out “46?”

Xcel Energy Center

Let’s play hockey, please: Barack Obama decided to pee on the ice first. On the night that he finally slew the Pantsuited Beast once and for all, Obama showed up in St. Paul to stir the masses with his magic happy talk. A photo that would become one of the iconic images of the campaign was snapped in an Xcel elevator by Time photographer Callie Shell. It shows Obama, surrounded by his wife and advisers, beaming as if he’d just discovered indoor plumbing. Even better: nobody had time to organize a protest or arm the police with $50 million worth of the latest riot attire.

The Republican National Convention

What a gas: Did anyone other than St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, Gov. Pawlenty and a few other insecure, ambitious politicians have any desire to host this four-day excuse to beat on protesters, arrest reporters, scream epithets at cops and hire really high-priced hookers? Does anyone care about whether the world at large has any clue where St. Paul, Minn., is located on a map and whether people view it as a “first-class” city? Can we please go back to being a Cold Omaha that rich people visit only when their nasal passages can no longer reliably process coke? Nobody was impressed by forced exposure to Minnesota Nice Passive Aggression and the Land of 10,000 Cops in Riot Gear. Anderson Cooper will not be returning this winter to hang out at the St. Paul Curling Club. If “this is what democracy looks like,” as the protesters kept insisting, we don’t want any part of it. To quote Meir Kahane and Kelly Clarkson: “Never Again.”

Palin-tology

Let them eat moose: That damned Katie Couric. She ruined everything. Before Sarah Palin performed her excruciating media belly flop on the “CBS Evening News,” she brought the house down at the RNC in St. Paul. Winking her way through a speech notable for its withering contempt for the Democratic presidential nominee, she had pundits (particularly the male variety) swooning. But even after it became clear that she was about as prepared to take up residence at the White House as your typical TV sports reporter, the GOP faithful were positively loopy for Palin. When she returned to Minnesota for a rally in Blaine (along with the old guy at the top of the ticket) just two weeks later, the delirious Palin-ites nearly filled an airplane hanger. But after it became increasingly clear that McCain had no chance of winning Minnesota, we were stuck with the surrogates. And unfortunately it wasn’t Bristol Palin. Or Levi Johnston. Instead we got the first dude — a man (to put it kindly) not known for his rhetorical gifts. But Minnesotans apparently weren’t offended by this snub. Todd Palin’s whirlwind two-day tour of the state was the biggest thing to hit Grand Rapids since the annual Judy Garland Festival.

The Crazy McCain Lady

Now she would have been a bold VP pick: When McCain arrived in Lakeville for a town-hall meeting in October, we were concerned that Minnesota might not be living up to expectations as a swing state. After all, recent McCain-Palin rallies had featured party faithful so riled up by the red-meat rhetoric that they’d spewed death threats at Obama and gnawed the legs off of anti-war protesters (OK, not really the latter). Were nice Minnesotans psychologically equipped to live up to such demanding standards? But then 75-year-old Gail Quinnell wandered up to the stage and let everyone know that we’re just as loony as the rest of the country. The “Crazy McCain Lady” utilized her moment in the political spotlight to declare Obama an Arab, earning a rebuke from McCain and her own skit on “Saturday Night Live.”

Cullen Sheehan

In October Harper’s Magazine reported allegations that Norm Coleman’s close pal Nasser Kazeminy financed lavish shopping sprees for the senator at Nieman Marcus. The Republican’s campaign initially refused to answer any questions about the controversy, brushing off inquiries from both Harper’s and Pioneer Press reporter Dave Orrick. “There are very awful things that are said about people on the blogs,” Coleman revealed. But it was the senator’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, who really transformed the story into Intertubes gold. At an excruciating state Capitol press conference, he repeatedly refused to disclose whether Coleman had received any free suits from Kazeminy. Instead Sheehan recited this mantra over and and over and over and over again: “The senator has reported every gift he’s ever received.” Of course Suit-gate was soon trumped by Donor-gate, after two lawsuits alleged that Kazeminy attempted to funnel $75,000 to the senator.

Neiman Marcus

We’re pretty sure that was Rod Blagojevich trying on a houndstooth jacket over in aisle three: What other clothing store in the country can claim a place at the center of two different scandals during this election season? Coleman may have been responsible for the first free Neiman Marcus advertisement, but it took Sarah Palin to truly put the retailer in the national spotlight. After she was tapped as the VP nominee, the GOP brass were apparently fearful she might show up at the convention in camo waders and a blaze orange overcoat. So they tapped local Republican pooh-bah Jeff Larson to lead the Alaska governor on a $75,000, donor-financed shopping spree at Neiman Marcus. No word on whether she ran into Norm (or Nasser) while at the Nicollet Mall store.

Sixth Congressional District Voters

They’re not anti-American, but they’re definitely pro-Scandinavia: After the best-dressed homophobe ever to represent Minnesota in Congress spread her magic to the whole wide world via “Hardball,” it looked as though her congressional career might be over after just one term. Money poured in from across the country to support the underdog campaign of Elwyn Tinklenberg, and polls showed the race deadlocked. But the nice, racist Scandinavian voters of the Sixth Congressional District had an election day surprise for the pollsters. They gave Bob Anderson — a candidate who wasn’t endorsed by any political party, wasn’t invited to most debates, and hardly campaigned — 10 percent of the vote, thus ensuring that Michele Bachmann would return to Washington. We can vividly imagine the thought process of Ole and Sven while hovering over the ballot: “Bachmann? Isn’t she the one who wants to start gulags for everyone with un-American thoughts? Tinklenberg? I do kinda have to use the bathroom now that I think about it. Anderson? Well, I betcha he’s an awful nice gentleman. I’m sure he’d do a wonderful job in Washington, just like Coya Knutson.”

The Recount

This is dedicated to Eric Magnuson’s goatee: The fifth pile. The third pile. Wrongly rejected absentee ballots. Allegedly double-counted ballots. The 133 missing ballots. G. Barry Anderson. Marc Elias. Tony Trimble. The Lizard People. Flying Spaghetti Monster. G. Barry Anderson. Minnesotans have been forced to learn an entirely new lexicon and nomenclature to fully follow the U.S. Senate Contest That Refuses to Die. And now it’s clear that no matter how much we repeat the totemic words “G. Barry Anderson” over and over and over again, the recount is destined to drag on well into 2009. Even if we don’t end up in the swamps of south Florida with hanging chads and Cruella Harris haunting our dreams, it’s still been a rather gruesome process to behold. But here’s a simple proposal to bring this mess to an end: a lutefisk-eating contest on the state Capitol steps. The Uptake will carry a live feed. G. Barry Anderson will officiate. Whichever candidate can cram the most lutefisk down his throat in 15 minutes goes to Washington. With one caveat: He can never come back.

Minnesota media mostly keep those two straight, but even locals find the profusion of Scandinavian surnames in the various recount venues vexing. Typical is KARE-11′s recent confusion of Roger Magnuson, an attorney who makes Coleman’s recount arguments before the state Supreme Court, with Eric Magnuson, the Supreme Court’s chief justice who doesn’t hear such cases due to his current service on the State Canvassing Board. (To make matters worse, there’s also a U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson in Minnesota.)

And don’t even get started with another name that’s so common and so golden in Minnesota politics that it’s inspired a term –”The Anderson Effect” — to describe the often ill-informed preference voters give to candidates who bear it.

You can look in any political direction in Minnesota and find an Anderson. The last major recount in Minnesota 46 years ago involved Gov. Elmer L. Andersen (slight spelling variant there). The last non-Jewish major-party candidate (as it happens) for the U.S. Senate seat that’s now under recount was Joan Anderson Growe in 1984 (the others, all Jews, being senators Rudy Boschwitz, the late Paul Wellstone and Coleman). And this year an unknown Independence Party candidate named Bob Anderson drew a whopping 10 percent of the vote, possibly helping an embattled incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann win re-election in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District.

And sure enough, there’s a pair of Andersons on the Minnesota Supreme Court: Paul and G. Barry. The latter has recused himself from the courtroom for recount matters while he serves in the recount effort as an appointed member of the State Canvassing Board, just like his colleague Eric Magnuson — who was himself appointed this year to be chief justice after the retirement of a man who spent more than a quarter century on the state’s highest bench … a man by the name of (you guessed it) Anderson.

On a day like today when both the state Supreme Court and the State Canvassing Board are in action, and Scandinavian names are flying through rarefied air in the halls of power like so many potato pancakes, Minnesota needs to consult its most time-honored pair of experts in the Abbott and Costello vein: Sven and Ole.

SVEN: Oy, Ole, this recount is taking longer than lutefisk. Who’s deciding this here thing then?

OLE: Minnesota State Canvassing Board, they say.

SVEN: Who’s on that?

OLE: Well, there’s Magnuson and Anderson…

SVEN: OK, Magnuson and Anderson are canvassers.

OLE: No, Magnuson and Anderson are justices on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

SVEN: You said Magnuson and Anderson are on the State Canvassing Board!

OLE: Yah, for the recount they are but then they go back to being on the Supreme Court.

SVEN: So who’s on the Supreme Court while Magnuson and Anderson are doing the recount?

OLE: Well, there’s Anderson …

SVEN: But you said Anderson’s on the canvassing board!

OLE: That’s the other Anderson.

SVEN: So there’s still an Anderson on the Supreme Court?

OLE: Yah, he told Norm Coleman’s attorney, “This is not Florida.”

SVEN: “This is not Florida?” Well, who said it was?

OLE: Was what?

SVEN: Florida!

OLE: Magnuson said it was.

SVEN: Magnuson at the canvassing board said this is Florida?

OLE: No, Magnuson at the Supreme Court.

SVEN: There’s another Magnuson at the Supreme Court?

OLE: Roger.