What is going on in Minnesota?

[dennis4868]

Bush visited Minnesota today? That is suppose to be a "safe state" for Kerry....anyone have any ideas as to WTF is going on there? I read that 3 polls have been put out to the public recently. Two of the polls show it a tie and one poll gives Kerry a decent lead, but not comfortable. If Kerry is struggling in Minnesota and has to go back there and spend money on ads there that is not good and takes awy his time and money from swing states like Florida, Ohio, etc...I also have heard that Illinois is a toss up and that Kerry is behind in NJ (within the margin of error). WTF?

Many of the national polls are back to normal (they show for the most part a tie) but some states that Kerry absolutely has to win (like Minn. and Illinois) are now close? I am not worried about that Gallup poll that will be out tomorrow which the media whores will have a good time with. But some of these state polls do worry me some.

Seems like Bush has comfortable leads in his "stong states" and Kerry cant say the same thing (there may be one or 2 exceptions).

If I am wrong about all of this let me know....I have been wrong before and I hope I am wrong now.

[shockingelk]

1. I don't have a TV

But I believe there are quite a few ads here.

MN has not ben considered a "safe" state, but I believe Kerry will handily take it.

We're one of the states where you can walk in on Election Day and register to vote.

[ISUGRADIA]

2. Kerry has had a lead in Minnesota but it's always been a

battleground state this election season. That why there have been an abnormal amount of visits by both candidates over the last few months' it's a toss-up state with 10 electoral votes.

I still think in the end MN will go for Kerry with 52 or 53%.

[Dickie Flatt]

3. Well

Maybe it's "supposed" to be a safe state, but it has been called a battleground state for the entire campaign, and for the most part it hasn't gone beyond weak Kerry. Gore won by 2.41% in 2000, so our status as a battleground is not unexpected.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Kerry is still strong in MN.

There is a poll in the Minneapolis paper that puts Kerry up by 9 points. The local freepers are going nuts and are planning a protest in front of the newspaper building next Monday because they don't believe the poll. But the Star-Tribune's polls have generally been quite accurate.

[joanne]

5. It;'s true that Gore barely won Minnesota

But didnt Nader get about 5% of the vote?

Wont happen this time.

Joanne

[Dickie Flatt]

6. Yes; specifically, Nader received 5.2% of the vote in 2000...

...I believe he will be on the ballot in Minnesota this year.

[CityDem]

7. It is a battleground state

Gore won by a slim margin and the current polls show the race is within the margin of error. Since there are only about 17 states that are really competitive, it seems likely that both candidates will be visiting Minn.

[WI_DEM]

8. how can you say that this when Gore won by only 2-points?

and Norm Coleman and Pawlenty were elected in 2002? Minnesota is not the solid blue state it once was.

[dennis4868]

9. I say this...

because Minnesota has gone Dem in presidential elections for the longest time....am I right about that? And you make a good point....Gore narrowly won the state and I was unaware of that. Thanks for the info.

[jean]

10. Pawlenty won because it was a three-way race - he did not dominate

a lone Dem candidate

[Nordic]

11. yeah, well MN voted for Norm Coleman and Jesse Ventura

so nobody should take anything for granted in MN

[Lindacooks]

12. I do agree that I'm ashamed of my home state

but if Senator Wellstone's absentee ballots were counted (they were NOT), Senator Mondale would have won.

Coleman's absentee ballots were counted, which I thought was very, VERY unfair.

As for Ventura, I can't explain him. I couldn't stand him when he was mayor of Brooklyn Park, I couldn't stand him when he was governor of this state, and I can't stand him now. He quite possibly is the biggest narcissist to ever come out of this state. EVERYTHING was about him.

[CornField]

13. I didn't realize that about the absentee ballots

How did they get away with that?

[askew]

14. Ventura wasn't a republican, he was a 3rd party candidate.

A third party is also Pawenty got into the Governor's office. And had Wellstone not been killed, I believe he would have won. I helped out with the Dean campaign in MN (not nearly as active as some) and the Deaniacs really brought a lot of new people into the MNDFL, as I am sure the Clark campaign did. 2002 was a wake-up call for the MNDFL in my opinion. They seem to be really focused this year. We have ACT and MoveOn up here helping out with the GOTV. We have two competitive candidates running against incumbent Republicans for U.S. Congress. Hopefully, we can knock off Kennedy before he gets a chance to take on Dayton. On a side note, Minnesota has a history of electing Republicans in the past, but not wingnuts. That type of Republican doesn't work here. Coleman ran as a moderate. I have a feeling he will be in serious trouble come re-election time, as will Pawlenty.

Also, we had a record turnout for the caucuses in Minnesota and this was the night Edwards dropped out of the race, so it was really late in the race. Most of the Republican suburbs had never seen turnout like this for a Democratic caucus. In my red suburb the typical turnout is around 25-50 people. We had 100s. Also, I am seen lots of Kerry/Edwards, ABB, and other anti-Bush stickers here in red-suburb land. Along with sell-out shows of F9/11 out in the 'burbs leads me to believe that the polls are way off in calling this a swing state.