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Minnesota has a real Republican governor and one Republican Senator. New Jersey does not. Did you ever get out of the twin cities long enough to visit with real people in places like Moorhead (where I went to college), Mankato or Wadena? Republicans carried five of eight congressional districts in the last two presidential elections. How many did they carry in New Jersey? Minnesota still runs fairly honest elections. Does New Jersey?

Minnesota has a real Republican governor and one Republican Senator.

Minnesota had a great 2002. 2004 and 2006 were bloodbaths for Republicans in that state. Pawlenty was barely reelected (thank his opponent for calling a reporter "a whore" in October) and Coleman will have a difficult race next year. Mark Kennedy lost his open senate race by 20 points! Kean, Jr. did a lot better than that.

In addition, New Jersey's House delegation is 7-6 Democrat, while Minnesota's is a more lopsided 5-3 with one of them unseating an incumbent Republican last year.

There are a lot of swing voters in N.J. ready to support the right Republican. Minnesota was there several years ago, but antipathy to Bush cut short that trend.

Gov. Pawlenty does buck the trend, but Minnesota has always had less trouble electing Republicans at the state level than at the federal. Norm Coleman was only elected because of the unusual cirumstances - Wellstone would have beat him, and he won’t be re-elected in 2008. He’s a RINO and a scumbag anyways, so frankly I don’t care if he loses.

I don’t need to “visit” anywhere. I have family spread out all over the state, and I have lived in and out of the Twin Cities. What a lot of people don’t realize about Minnesota is that the rural areas are full of dyed-in-the-wool DFLers. Many are outright liberals, and even those that are conservative still vote DFL. The DFL has a complete lock on the Twin Cities and the Iron Range, and the RINO-leaning Western Suburbs are increasingly turning DFL. The only strong conservative pockets in Minnesota are the 2nd and 6th Congressional Distircts, i.e. the Southern and Northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. Despite that, the DFL was still close to pulling of a victory in the 6th.

I’d like to see this data saying that Republicans carried 5 of 8 districts, because it goes without saying that they lost the 4th, 5th, and 8th, and the 1st, 3rd, and 7th are all conceivable wins for the DFL. I believe I remember hearing that Kerry won the 3rd, despite that district having a RINO Congressman. I’m skeptical that Bush really won 5 districts twice, though I’m not saying it’s impossible.

As for New Jersey, from what I’ve gathered, the average person here is much more conservative than in Minnesota, but the state GOP suffers from both massive voter fraud and a never-ending conflict between its moderate and conservative wings.