GOP, Dems diligently campaign this season

By Brian Bakst, Associated Press

Gov. Mark Dayton rolled into Albert Lea’s old-brick main drag this week on a mission to save Rep. Shannon Savick, eagerly shaking hands and running down reasons voters should send her back to St. Paul for a second term. On Friday, Dayton was off to St. Cloud to help Rep. Zachary Dorholt, another freshman in a tough race.

That Dayton took time in the waning days of his own re-election bid to help the pair — and other vulnerable incumbents in the days to come — speaks to the urgency with which Democrats are seeking to protect their Minnesota House majority. If that slips away, the free rein Democrats have enjoyed in state government the past two years is over.

“With a stalemated government once again, just look at Washington and you can see what happens when there is that kind of gridlock and deadlock,” Dayton told several dozen people in an Albert Lea coffeehouse as Savick and House Speaker Paul Thissen stood at his side.

Thissen said a renewed Democratic majority would, for starters, focus on freezing college tuition and beefing up sick and parental leave laws.

Republicans are also fixating on one-party rule, but for a different reason: They argue it’s led to runaway spending, misguided regulations and lax oversight on things like the state’s 1-year-old health care insurance exchange. Republican leaders say they’d prioritize road and bridge investments, tackle an achievement gap between white and minority students and further streamline environmental permitting,

The GOP needs to pick up at least seven seats to reclaim power opposite a Democratic-led Senate, which isn’t on this year’s ballot.

Millions of dollars have poured into television and radio ads, mailings, canvassers and phone calls. Some races in a few competitive districts are seen as so close that it could take recounts to sort out — and one possible outcome is a 67-67 tie.

Most of the 134 seats aren’t in play. Democrats and Republicans have at least 50 seats apiece they can bank on. Between 12 and 20 swing districts are getting most of the money and attention.

Democrats are on defense, particularly in districts outside the Twin Cities and its suburbs.

“We’re playing 100 percent right now on their field, which is a really good position for us to be in,” said House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt, R-Crown.

He said there are scenarios where the GOP could take the majority without snatching a single Democratic-held suburban seat.

“That tells you how much greater Minnesota is in play,” Daudt said.

A new batch of hard-hitting TV ads airing against Reps. Roger Erickson, Andrew Falk, John Ward and Jay McNamar offers an example. The ads from the Minnesota Jobs Coalition, a Republican-aligned group, hammer the incumbents for voting “with Minneapolis liberals to bring Obamacare to Minnesota,” through legislation to establish the insurance exchange known as MNsure.

One point of concern among Democrats is two competitive congressional races covering large swaths of northern and western Minnesota. Republicans eager to push out two congressional Democrats are doing more than ever to identify and turn out GOP-leaning voters, which could have a trickle-down effect on as many as eight pivotal races in the state House.

But there is suburban territory at stake, too.

Mail pieces from other conservative groups concentrate on a controversial Senate office building going up near the Capitol, largely at taxpayer expense. “Do we need a Taj Mahal for politicians paid for by taxpayers?” reads one sent to voters in a south suburban swing district now held by Democratic Rep. Will Morgan.

House Democrats and their allies are swinging back at the Republican challengers. For instance, radio ads have sliced up the voting record of former GOP Rep. Jim Knoblach in his campaign against Dorholt and questioned the political independence of Savick’s GOP challenger, elementary teacher Peggy Bennett.

As he waited for Dayton to arrive in Albert Lea, Thissen said the governor’s performance at the top of the ticket will go a long way toward determining the House fortunes.

“The accomplishments of Governor Dayton the last two years were only done hand-in-hand with a DFL Legislature,” Thissen said. “If they want to continue the progress, that connection needs to be made in voters’ minds.”

Bennett will be campaigning in town with mayoral candidate Jeff Johnson, a Hennepin Co. commissioner, today. Bennett and Johnson will be at The Trumbles restaurant at noon, Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea around 12:45 p.m. and Becker Hi-Way Frate around 1:30 p.m.