3rd CD: Debate tonight, new party ads, and a gender gap on parade

While the country turned its fickle eyes to Minnesota’s suddenly compelling 6th Congressional District contest, the race for the state’s 3rd District didn’t stop being hot. Over the last two days, both major parties’ congressional committees unveiled new TV ads. Big male guns vouched for the Republican candidate, state Rep. Erik Paulsen, and big female guns tried to widen a gender gap for DFLer Ashwin Madia — while heaping derision on another female office-holder, state Rep. Michele Bachmann. All this and more, with video and details about tonight’s candidate debate in Edina, after the jump.

New DCCC ad targets Bachmann

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched new ads in the 6th Congressional district as promised, but, like Democratic candidate El Tinklenberg, they avoid mentioning Rep. Michele Bachmann’s gaffe that brought money and attention to the…

DCCC to spend $1 million on ads targeting Bachmann

The DCCC announced Monday that they will drop $1 million into ad buys targeting Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional district. The buy was motivated by the intense scrutiny over Bachmann’s remarks on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris…

DCCC Poll: Bachmann’s lead in the Sixth is down to four points over Tinklenberg

Poll numbers released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday show Rep. Michele Bachmann leading Elwyn Tinklenberg by 4 points. Bachmann garnered the support of 42 percent of those polled while Tinklenberg had 38 percent. The poll says Bachmann’s approval rating in the 6th Congressional is at 34 percent.

DCCC did coordinate anti-Paulsen ads — with DCCC’s own press release

A flashpoint in the 3rd Congressional District mini-debate on TPT’s Almanac program Friday (video) was Republican candidate Erik Paulsen’s charge that DFL candidate Ashwin Madia has illegally coordinated his campaign with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, an…

Republican congressional ad buys continue crumbling

The National Republican Congressional Committee has continued to cut back on its planned TV advertising buys in Minnesota, with a second week of ads canceled in the 3rd Congressional District and a week called off for the first time

MnIndy Video: Emanuel lauds Madia; Ramstad assails ‘gutter politics’

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., came to the Twin Cities today to support DFL congressional candidate Ashwin Madia in his bid to replace retiring Republican 3rd District U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad. Emanuel lavished praise on Madia as the sort of practical politician who would be welcomed in the House Democratic caucus, which Emanuel leads. Both are sons of immigrants, with names that not everyone can spell, who in the course of their congressional campaigns have been called “carpetbagger.” In a separate press conference across town today, Ramstad himself assailed Madia and Democratic groups supporting him for engaging in “gutter politics.”

MnIndy video and more after the jump.

Dem poll puts Madia up by five in 3rd Congressional District

DFLer Ashwin Madia holds a five-point lead over Republican state Rep. Erik Paulsen in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District race, according to results of a new poll released Monday by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). It’s a sizable swing from Paulsen’s three-point lead in an independent poll six weeks ago. But as in that survey, the difference in Monday’s results between the leading candidates — Madia with 44 percent to Paulsen’s 39 — is within the poll’s percent margin of error. More after the jump, including a Republican ad retreat; courting business; and dueling national endorsements.

3rd District update: Madia ad swats back, Paulsen plays bachelor card, KSTP gives DCCC mailings an ‘F’

The knives are out in the 3rd District congressional race. A new Ashwin Madia attack ad answers Sen. Erik Paulsen’s, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee mailing reaches with a strip-club charge, and a Paulsen stand-in plays up Madia’s marital and residential status (single, renter) and calls him “carpetbagger.”

Video: 3rd District candidate Ashwin Madia

Joe Bodell of Minnesota Campaign Report and The UpTake interviewed 3rd Congressional District candidate Ashwin Madia prior to Barack Obama’s speech at last night’s rally. Madia discusses his campaign, the Iraq War and possible…