Third District

Minnesota’s U.S. Representative-elect for the Third District, Republican Erik Paulsen, ran one of the best five House campaigns in the country, according to the Washington Post blog The Fix. Paulsen “beat back the anti-Republican trend,” writes Chris Cillizza, “by focusing on his own accomplishments in the state legislature.” The Fix tracked the Third District contest closely throughout the campaign season as one of the nation’s most competitive congressional contests. But in several ways Cillizza’s summary this morning doesn’t exactly square with how home-state observers might recall the race.

Two residents of Minnesota’s Third Congressional District have given the Minnesota Independent details about calls they got Tuesday evening that they say started as political surveys but ended as push polls against DFL congressional candidate Ashwin Madia.

In this Friday’s edition of our weekly Schultz Report, political analyst David Schultz expresses surprise over the way media has covered Gen. David Petraeus’ testimony this week before Congress. “If you listen to what Petraeus said, the surge failed,” he says. “It essentially failed. In his testimony, he talked about a variety of factors that [...]

If Terri Bonoff wants to know where her lavishly anointed campaign for Minnesota’s Third District Congressional seat went all wrong (here’s that list of all-star endorsements again), the answer lies as close as the nearest mirror.

Minnesota Democratic insiders have been making worried sounds about Bonoff’s performance on the stump since the start of her campaign. [...]

With a polite nod in the direction of Terri Bonoff, US Rep Keith Ellison this morning endorsed the Third District Congressional candidacy of Ashwin Madia. Ellison’s media release took pains to wrap Madia, an Iraq War vet, in the anti-politics-as-usual mantle of Obama: “Like Senator Obama, Ashwin Madia is a voice for change from the [...]