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Thursday, June 22, 2006 

Republican Nightmares

Tim Walz and Amy Klobuchar are going to end Gil Gutknecht and Mark Kennedy's careers.

Walz was profiled yesterday in City Pages, an article which is required reading for anyone looking to keep up with the horserace in the 1st. Walz is seriously challenging Rep. Gil Gutknecht for the first time in a decade, and it seems that Gutknecht's campaign skills are rusty. Walz has been getting tons of attention while Gutknecht remains nearly invisible in the media. That'll hurt this year; Walz will paint Gutknecht as a Bushie (which he is, but that's beside the point) and without some loud denials Gutknecht runs the very serious risk of losing. In my humble opinion, Gutknecht is not taking this challenge nearly as seriously as he ought to. Tim Walz is a great candidate with a real shot at winning the 1st CD: if you are able, please do something to support him, whether it be volunteering, donating, or even just telling your friends and neighbors.

Amy Klobuchar is another Republican killer. Despite the fact that the campaign season is not yet in full swing, new Zogby polling shows her 7.4 points ahead of Mark Kennedy. Mind you, this is before most voters know the real dirt on Kennedy: a voting record that screws the average Minnesotan. It'll take a lot of work before November, but it's looking more and more like Ted will remain the only Kennedy in the Senate. It's a good thing, too, because Minnesota can't afford a Sen. Mark Kennedy.

Pres. Bush sure does have coattails: right back to auctioneering for Gutknecht and accounting for Kennedy. Bush is polling at 34% in Minnesota these days, and for the Congressmen from the 1st and 6th, the formula is simple: Gil Gutknecht=Mark Kennedy=George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Rochester Post-Bulletin editor Jay Furst says
It's a good story and maybe Democrats have reason for optimism, but a "Republican nightmare"? This is perhaps the only story in any media on Planet Earth to suggest that incumbent Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht is (or should be) losing sleep this year.
Perhaps the reason that it's the only media reporting on it is because Furst doesn't run a paper with inquisitive political reporting. Shouldn't the Post-Bulletin, inside the 1st CD, be reporting on Walz, rather than the City Pages?

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Did you see that the Governor was up on Hatch by 5 or 6 points in the same poll?

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