Posted on 10/10/2008 9:32:08 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
In an election for the open seat in the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District today, one month to Election Day, DFL Party candidate Ashwin Madia and Republican Erik Paulsen battle for every vote, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. Madia and Paulsen finish today inside the survey’s margin of sampling error, effectively even, 46% for Madia, 43% for Paulsen. In an identical SurveyUSA poll one month ago, Paulsen was nominally ahead, inside of the margin of sampling error.
(Excerpt) Read more at surveyusa.com ...
This race in suburban Minneapolis is a cliffhanger. It’s one of the most important, and could be a harbinger for other suburban districts.
Is this Steve Ramstad’s old seat or Gil Guthek’s?
“Is this Steve Ramstad’s old seat or Gil Guthek’s?”
Steve Ramstad’s.
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The 3rd CD used to be the epicenter of the GOP in Minnesota.
But in the last two election cycles, the DFL has made some inroads in various parts of the district.
There has been a slight demographic warming towards Democrat candidates - but the 3rd has always been one of those districts where the average Republican down the street is not a doctrinaire conservative.
GOP candidates who are perceived to be too conservative do not do well in this district.
And that’s where Ashtray...I mean Ashwin Madia’s campaign has been successful. They have painted Eric Paulson as a supreme right-winger and Paulson’s rebuttal ads haven’t been the best.
That would be Jim Ramstad, not Steve. I grew up in this district, though I don’t live there right now. They’ve reshaped the boundries a bit over the years, but it’s been the general area of the Western suburbs for as long as I can remember.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that people are less conservative in the 3rd. I would argue that the definition of conservative and the direction of the GOP have changed, and that has led to declining fortunes for them in districts such as this one. Suburban, middle to upper-middle class districts like this used to be the GOP’s bread and butter. States with a lot of areas like it, such as Illinois, California, and New Jersey, used to fairly solid Republican states, but now have all slipped over to the Democrats, and it’s because the loss of well-to-do suburbanites.
The shift away from economically conservative positions and putting more focus on social issues has been a double-edged sword; many people are simultaneously losing their main reasons for voting Republican and gaining new reasons to NOT vote for them. The Bible-toting, anti-intellectual, class warrior image loses as many votes as it gains, if not more. For me, the fact that a guy like Mike Huckabee was a serious contender for the Republican nomination is downright scary. The GOP is in danger of becoming a regional party, because that deep-fried brand of conservatism doesn’t sell in places like this.
You mean that place has too many atheists who are okay with infanticide, sodomite "marriage", fisting for third-graders, etc?
Your attitude is indicative of the problem I am discussing. I don’t consider wedge social issues like that to be of importance. First of all, I think one can certainly be both an atheist and a conservative. If I’m not mistaken, there are a few that post on this forum. Secondly, I don’t have a problem with state regulations on abortion, but it’s not a top issue for me and I am against any federal abortion policy.
The last two issues you mention, gay marriage and sex education (I will not resort to using your childish names for them), most people are missing the larger point - why are we giving the government this much power? Marriage is a religious institution, and thus the state has no business defining it. Government marriage is leftover from the days when countries had official religions.
I personally am in favor of comprehensive sex education (and “fisting for third-graders” is hyperbole), but I understand that not everybody feels that way. That’s why I’m in favor of breaking the public school cartel with options like homeschooling and school vouchers. At the very least, we should remove state and federal rules regarding sex education so that families can find public school programs that match their values, but I think that these are family issues and it’s at the family level they should remain.
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