A recent article by Kevin Diaz in the Star Tribune's "Hot Dish Politics" blog brings to light DNC efforts to unseat Erik Paulsen in Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District.  The DNC remains hopeful that they can pull off a victory in the district that was the 18-year home of Republican Jim Ramstad (and has been held by a Republican since Clark MacGregor won in 1961) because President Obama won the district handily in 2008 - 52% to 46%.

The fact that the national Democrats want to focus so hard on CD 3 is probably because of their utter inability to unseat Michelle Bachmann in CD 6.  Their disdain for her is quite palpable, as evidenced by left-wing bloggers like mnpACT who go so far as to call her a "nut" and a "bigot." The truth is that while voters did show up to offer support for president Obama, those same voters voted for Erik Paulsen by a 7% margin.  That means that even though some were caught up in the Obama hysteria, they still had the good sense to vote against Ashwin Madia.  That can only lead one to the conclusion that voters recognize Erik Paulsen as a strong candidate, even despite the national obsession with Obama.