MN-2. Kline to retire.

[Kingpoleon]

Patricia Anderson lives in the district, IIRC.

Does she have enough name recognition to run and win fairly easily?

She or Mary Pawlenty are strong enough by name recognition alone to push this race to lean-R.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Pawlenty and (thankfully) McFadden are out.

DFL Reps. Joe Atkins and Rick Hansen still considering.

https://twitter.com/kpottermn

[136or142]

http://atr.rollcall.com/new-names-surface-republicans-pass-race-succeed-kline/

[Kingpoleon]

Former Auditor Patricia Anderson, Former Chairman Tony Sutton, and several state legislators appear to form a strong GOP bench.

[136or142]

Former Auditor Patricia Anderson, Former Chairman Tony Sutton, and several state legislators appear to form a strong GOP bench.

This Tony Sutton?  Are you being sarcastic?

http://www.startribune.com/former-minnesota-gop-chairman-tony-sutton-declares-bankruptcy/222902471/

[Kingpoleon]

Former Auditor Patricia Anderson, Former Chairman Tony Sutton, and several state legislators appear to form a strong GOP bench.

This Tony Sutton?  Are you being sarcastic?

http://www.startribune.com/former-minnesota-gop-chairman-tony-sutton-declares-bankruptcy/222902471/

I was hinting at how interesting such a primary fight would be.

[Maxwell]

Former Auditor Patricia Anderson, Former Chairman Tony Sutton, and several state legislators appear to form a strong GOP bench.

This Tony Sutton?  Are you being sarcastic?

http://www.startribune.com/former-minnesota-gop-chairman-tony-sutton-declares-bankruptcy/222902471/

Kingpoleon's whole thing is he just lists a bunch of names with no actual knowledge about any of them.

[publicunofficial]

Bump.

Rothenberg/Gonzalez changed their MN-02 rating from Toss-Up to Tilts Democratic today.


Democrats have coalesced around Angie Craig, an executive St. Jude Medical, who has raised major money ($1.3 MILLION at the end of March) and faces no primary opposition.

The Republicans, meanwhile, appear likely to nominate radio host Jason Lewis. Lewis has been described as "The Rush Limbaugh of Minnesota", and has made numerous appearances on Limbaugh's show. As you can imagine, Lewis has racked up numerous controversial statements; including numerous sexist tirades and disputing whether Lincoln was justified for going to war over slavery.

[Heisenberg]

Bump.

Rothenberg/Gonzalez changed their MN-02 rating from Toss-Up to Tilts Democratic today.


Democrats have coalesced around Angie Craig, an executive St. Jude Medical, who has raised major money ($1.3 MILLION at the end of March) and faces no primary opposition.

The Republicans, meanwhile, appear likely to nominate radio host Jason Lewis. Lewis has been described as "The Rush Limbaugh of Minnesota", and has made numerous appearances on Limbaugh's show. As you can imagine, Lewis has racked up numerous controversial statements; including numerous sexist tirades and disputing whether Lincoln was justified for going to war over slavery.

If Democrats win this year, Mike McFadden should run in 2018 and pull an Emmer (as in lose statewide in a midterm, run for the House four years later).

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's pretty cool how Angie Craig is a lesbians and no one is making a fuss about that. Progress.

In addition to the likely bad Republican candidate this is a district where Trump is going to play very bad.

[Vosem]

Cool how gradually this district went from barely on anyone's radar to a likelier Democratic pickup than not.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's pretty cool how Angie Craig is a lesbians and no one is making a fuss about that. Progress.

Yep. The debate on who to replace Kline with should be an issues-based debate, not a sexual orientation debate.

[Kingpoleon]

Former Auditor Patricia Anderson, Former Chairman Tony Sutton, and several state legislators appear to form a strong GOP bench.

This Tony Sutton?  Are you being sarcastic?

http://www.startribune.com/former-minnesota-gop-chairman-tony-sutton-declares-bankruptcy/222902471/

Kingpoleon's whole thing is he just lists a bunch of names with no actual knowledge about any of them.

Maybe Tony Sutton's wife, then.

[publicunofficial]

It's pretty cool how Angie Craig is a lesbians and no one is making a fuss about that. Progress.

Yep. The debate on who to replace Kline with should be an issues-based debate, not a sexual orientation debate.

I bet Lewis brings it up eventually. And that'll be when this seat becomes Likely D.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's pretty cool how Angie Craig is a lesbians and no one is making a fuss about that. Progress.

Yep. The debate on who to replace Kline with should be an issues-based debate, not a sexual orientation debate.

I bet Lewis brings it up eventually. And that'll be when this seat becomes Likely D.

For what it's worth, if I had to make an educated guess, this district probably voted against gay marriage in 2012. Obama's margin of victory here was very slim, and the pro gay marriage vote notably underperformed him statewide.

[Miles]

^ CD2 voted 53/46 against the SSM ban.

[OwlRhetoric]

Thought this one deserves a bump because it might be competitive, and the primary is next week. Only the GOP has a competitive primary race, and I'm not sure how "competitive" it really is.

Jason Lewis won the CD-2 Republican endorsement at their district convention earlier this summer. He's a former talk radio guy being supported by Trump people and some rump libertarian/Cruz Republicans. However, Darlene Miller is being supported by Kline and what you'd probably call the local GOP establishment. Lots of my friends in CD2 are receiving slick mailers attacking Lewis over his support for the Iran deal and other things.

I still think Lewis will win, and go on to face DFL's Angie Craig in November. Wouldn't bet on it, though, since this primary is bound to be very sparsely attended.

Would be good to see some GE polling. Kline always won CD2 by pretty solid margins, but it could flip, especially if Trump gets beaten badly in southern Minnesota.

[Badger]

If Lewis wins the primary, Craig has this race.

[OwlRhetoric]

If Lewis wins the primary, Craig has this race.

He did win, and I'd consider it more of a toss up, slight (D) edge, mainly because Craig is sitting on so much money. I know a lot of people in this district and go down there quite often. It's very much a purple district with some very conservative demographics. Overby the independent is running again too, and third parties routinely pull 2-5%, mostly from Democrats.

Hopefully we'll get a poll or two in the future to see how things are leaning.