American Action Network, the Republican advocacy group former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman helped found last year, is the latest group that's putting money into the Eighth District congressional race.
The group is buying print advertisements and sending out mailings for Cravaack and 31 other vulnerable House Republicans, defending their positions on Medicare. The conservative "action tank," which poured millions into congressional races in 2010, is spending $1 million across the 32 House districts, according to a spokesman.
"Minnesota Seniors Can Count on Congressman Chip Cravaack to Stand Up Against the Obama Medicare Plan," the mailer reads.
If this sounds familiar, well, that's because it is. Democrats have attacked Cravaack repeatedly on Medicare since he voted for Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan in the spring, and conservative groups have defended him numerous times. There have been phone calls, radio ads, TV ads and even billboards.
The flurry of outside spending in the Eighth shows that the seat will be a 2012 national battleground, which Democrats see as one of their top pick-up opportunities.
JEREMY HERB
McCollum no Tea Party fanRep. Betty McCollum, unabashed liberal and stalwart DFLer, used the stock market meltdown on Thursday to become the most outspoken opponent of the Tea Party in Minnesota's congressional delegation.
In the wake of the Dow Jones' 500-plus point drop, she issued a statement that read:
"Every American should be concerned about the very real possibility of sliding into a 'Tea Party recession.' Tea Party Republicans took the entire U.S. economy hostage over the debt ceiling increase and used this crisis to force trillions in cuts at a time when more, not less investment in the U.S. economy is needed. The destructive default politics and machete budget cutting of the Tea Party Republicans in Congress is exactly the wrong medicine for the ailing U.S. economy. The Republican obsession with slashing government investment is totally counterproductive. The Tea Party's default crisis created enormous, unnecessary uncertainty in global markets."
BOB VON STERNBERG
Dayton Farmfest reduxGov. Mark Dayton visited hot, dusty Farmfest on Tuesday, calling it the "touchstone" for Minnesota farmers.
Dayton sampled the corn ice cream, MCed Ole and Lena jokes and rattled off Minnesota's agricultural statistics. He repeatedly pitched his upcoming trade missions to Asia and visited booth after booth to check in with the farming set.
While he was there, his fans came forward to tell him not to give up.
"Keep up the good job," said Bill Frischmon of Hoffman. "Keep trying."
But after he left, others, when asked about Dayton, were not so positive.
"I don't think he's strong enough," said Eugene Kerfeld of Willmar.
RACHEL E. STASSEN BERGER
