I spent the Labor Day weekend on Lake Superior. It was wonderful, calming and the weather was perfect.
One other thing that made it nice was that I only saw a few Chip Cravaack for Congress signs. He is the current Republican representative for the Eighth Congressional District of Minnesota. The number of signs that his challenger, Rick Nolan, had on lawns was about the same. I even saw one Elizabeth Warren sign.
The race for this traditional Democratic seat is neck-and-neck. The latest polling from the Star-Tribune shows that Nolan is up by three points. With the margin of error, it is basically tied.
This seat is a bona-fide pick-up opportunity for the House. Nolan is endorsed by Cravaack's predecessor, Jim Oberstar, and this area of Minnesota has been a stronghold of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (the Democratic Party of Minnesota, basically) for decades. Oberstar lost by just 4,400 votes in 2010. If the base turns out in numbers like they usually do for election years, Nolan has a real chance of bringing this seat back onto the Democratic side.
One other aspect of this year's election is an item on the ballot that might bring a lot of folks in to vote: a referendum for a marriage amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota. Please don't ask me about how this made to a referendum. I really have no idea.
One lawn sign that I saw a lot of was the sign saying to vote "No" on this amendment (that's a good thing). The amendment is simply called "The Minnesota Marriage Amendment". The description on the ballot will simply read:
Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?
If you want to learn more about this amendment, you can visit the Facebook
page created by the opposition to this travesty.
I can only estimate the number of "No" lawn signs that I saw while driving to and from the North Shore at over 100. I saw maybe two saying "Yes". This could be a good turnout driver in support of down-ticket races throughout the state.
As you can probably guess, Cravaack has a money edge. However, the SEIU will be helping Nolan some, but anything you can give would be greatly appreciated and, of course, feel free to like the campaign against the marriage amendment on Facebook.
Here is Rick Nolan's website.
Also:
www.dccc.org
www.actblue.org
www.democrats.org