Posted on 09/12/2014 9:51:43 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BRAINERD, MINN.
Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan’s impassioned speech at a darkened bar here was a decided departure from those given by dozens of vulnerable Democrats across the country.
“Of course we support the Affordable Care Act for all the good things it’s done for so many people, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’re not going to be done until we have a single payer system!” Nolan said, his hoarse voice rising above the friendly crowd sipping pitchers of light beer and sitting among peanut shells. “Let’s get back to returning the House of Representatives to the people’s chamber … and then we can join … the president of these United States of America to get this country back on track again.”
Nolan is currently a tad worrisome to Washington Democrats. An old-school politician — he served three House terms in the late 1970s — Nolan leaves party talking points out of his speeches just about every day. He brazenly bashes beltway playbooks that politely ask him to log 30 hours a week dialing for dollars. He often reverts to fevered hyperbole when talking about his job in Washington. In one speech, he called the current House of Representatives “the most undemocratic institution that I have ever served in.”
He says he prefers the old days when members of Congress stayed in Washington longer, debated everything, and were handily able to secure federal funding for their districts.
Yet as genuine and unscrubbed as Nolan’s opinions may be to some constituents, the Eighth Congressional District is no longer the Democratic stronghold of old, tending instead to whip around with the political winds of the moment.
The result?
The 70-year-old Nolan is in the political fight of his life against Republican Stewart Mills, a 42-year-old scion of Mills Fleet Farm enterprises.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Hopefully we can take this seat back again. Nolan is a Watergate Baby. He needs to go back into retirement.
Nolan, one of the weirdest comebacks ever.
Mills, while well funded, isn’t an ideal candidate, but neither was Cravaack.
The 8th. District has experienced some demographic changes over the years. The Duluth area has declined in population and the outlying rural areas are a larger portion of its population. Also, white Catholics in the Iron Range and elsewhere are trending away from the Democrats. There also may be a reaction to the behavior of Somali Muslim immigrants who have settled in the area.
This is an older FR article which will help explain why this district has become more competitive:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1716234/posts
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