Congress

Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg leads U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.) 47 percent to 44 percent in a new poll of 621 likely voters in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District that Survey USA conducted Oct. 21–22 for KSTP-TV. The poll shows that 6 percent of respondents favored Independence Party candidate Bob Anderson and 2 percent were undecided. The poll has margin of [...]

CQ Politics crunched the latest financial filings by candidates for Congress and put Minnesota state Rep. Erik Paulsen, with $2.2 raised so far in his campaign (as of Sept. 30), at No. 7 in the country for most cash raised among candidates for open House seats. His DFL rival, Ashwin Madia, is at No. 12 [...]

What would it look like if the media took up U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s call to hunt down anti-American members of Congress? Look no farther than this headline from Friday, the day Bachmann made her plea to the press for a Capitol Hill witch hunt: “CNN’s Beck Decamps for Fox News.”
Right-wing host Glenn Beck, who will command a [...]

The cash differential is really starting to show in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District race, as evidenced by four new pieces of video today. Two are paid ads intended for TV: a positive ad from Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Ashwin Madia called “Discipline,” which highlights his service as a U.S. Marine and argues for fiscal discipline, and a negative ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that attacks Republican candidate Erik Paulsen for coddling offshore dummy corporations.

The other two are free media: a three-minute YouTube video posted by the Paulsen campaign that features testimonials from veterans who support the state representative’s congressional bid, and a four-minute interview that Fox 9 conducted with Paulsen as part of its morning news show… which was followed minutes later by the new Madia ad. See videos after the jump.

UPDATED Well, they do call it the Independence Party. It turns out the party’s candidate in the 3rd Congressional District race, David Dillon, has donated a considerable sum of his own money to his campaign through Sept. 2: $122,000. That’s 81 percent of his campaign’s $150,513 war chest, which according to a fresh report from the Center for Responsive Politics’ opensecrets.org, makes Dillon the eighth biggest self-funding candidate for the U.S. House or Senate this year, by percentage of total money raised.

On WCCO-TV Sunday, State Rep. Erik Paulsen spoke for the first time on Republican claims that DFLer Ashwin Madia is less qualified for the state’s 3rd district U.S. House seat because he’s not a father, rents, and doesn’t fit the district’s “demographic.” Asked if he would condemn the line of attack, Paulsen dodged the question — without acknowledging his campaign’s role in rolling out the personal slams. More after the jump, including videos of WCCO’s interviews with all three candidates.

Here’s five minutes of video from a press conference held today by Ashwin Madia, DFL candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s 3rd district. In this clip, Madia addresses the economy; Republican characterizations of his background as less well suited to the district than that of his opponent, state Rep. Erik Paulsen; ads by outside groups attacking Paulsen that have been called inaccurate; and an incident in which a Madia campaign volunteer removed Paulsen signs from a public right-of-way. Also: six-minute clip of GOP response.

If the telecommunications industry has its way, it’ll be in charge of what Internet users can and can’t see. Web sites that pay a premium will get direct access to readers, while blogs and personal Web sites will be relegated to the “slow lane.” That discrimination by telecoms would be undemocratic, Net neutrality supporters say.

A [...]

The Conservation Minnesota Voter Center has released its 2007 Congressional Scorecard rating the voting records of Minnesota’s congressional delegation on energy, the environment and conservation. The nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization releases the annual report to inform residents on “issues that affect our lakes, lands, and lives.”

“Minnesotans care a great deal about protecting our lakes and [...]

Sen. John McCain has been the most outspoken and aggressive of Republican presidential hopefuls when it comes to solving climate change. While Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are ready with sound bites when cornered by reporters or pressed in a debate, McCain is the only candidate who chooses to bring up the importance of cutting [...]