We got only 8 days to go until this, so I'll actually cover every single contested primary. Which is possible only due to the convention system making few contested primaries, and even fewer interesting ones. But if you want to know what to look for besides just the Gubernatorial one, look here.
Congressional district 2: Two Democrats running, Shelley Madore and Dan Powers. Neither is all that strong and both would lose the general. Madore at least is a former State Rep and has more establishment support, so normally I'd bet on her, but this year has shown that things don't often work like that.
Congressional district 4: McCollum has a primary challenger. Her official website is "go to facebook". Needless to say she will not win. Two joke Republicans are running, Teresa Collett and Jack Shepard, Collett looks like a typical Republican, Shepard looks like a liberal Democrat actually from his site so he has no chance. Well a liberal Democrat who has no clue in how to do web design:
http://www.jackshepardforcongress.com/Congressional district 5: Ellison has two primary challengers, his Republican opponent from last time, and a perennial candidate guy who last year won his highest percentage ever breaking 18% for a Minneapolis City Council seat. Needless to say neither will win.
Congressional district 6: DFL preferred candidate Tarryl Clark has an opponent on the ballot in Maureen Reed. Reed however has suspended her campaign awhile ago though after the removal deadline, so Clark will win easily.
Congressional district 7: Peterson faces the guy he beat last election and another joke. I'd bet on the guy he beat last time. Neither will defeat Peterson.
Congressional district 8: Oberstar has a primary opponent named Bill Hamm. Hamm looks like one of those odd teabaggers running as a Democrat from his
site, though I'll give him credit for covering marijuana legalization as well on it in addition to the teabagger nonsense. Anyway he will be crushed.
Governor: You all know about the DFL side. There is also a perennial candidate Peter Idusogie running. He'll be lucky to break 1%. Dayton, Entenza and Kelliher's showdown is all anyone will be paying close attention to. Horner has some opposition for the IP nomination though all look like jokes and not worth looking into. Emmer has some token opposition, a Birther nut running to his right (hard to believe that's even possible), a normally DFL perennial candidate running as a Republican for the first time and an environmental activist. It'd be funny if Emmer lost or at least got below a majority in at least one county.
Secretary of State: Incumbent Mark Ritchie has a primary challenge from a perennial nobody. He is rather right-wing on most issues but supports universal health care. Predictably none of the issues he mentions on his
site have anything to do with being Secretary of State. Ritchie will win in a walk. His GOP opponent btw isn't a total joke being a State Rep, but his whole campaign seems to be that Ritchie is the only reason Al Franken is a Senator.
Attorney General: Incumbent Lori Swanson has a joke opponent with no website. On the GOP side they might end up with their own version of Al Greene, Sharon Anderson, an odd perennial candidate is running and she got 42% last time despite not being an attorney or even running a campaign. This was attributed to her Scandinavian last name. Her opponent Chris Barden is less serious this time, is a nobody as well and is basically a hardcore teabagger whose whole campaign is against Swanson for not suing against healthcare reform. Of course Swanson will easily defeat either, but DeMint would've beat Greene's opponent as well.
State legislature coming up.
