CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Oct. 3, 2008 – 5:19 p.m.
Minnesota House Candidates Madia and Paulsen Run Away From National Parties
By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff
The race for the battleground seat of retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad in Minnesota’s 3rd District sounds familiar: like the presidential race, the contest is about change vs. experience. And both candidates are struggling to find a way to claim that they are the best moderate to fill Ramstad’s centrist shoes.
The race pits newcomer Ashwin Madia, a 30-year-old lawyer and Iraq War veteran, against Ramstad ally Erik Paulsen, a member of the state House.
The district has a nominal Republican lean. President Bush won the district, which covers the Twin Cities’ suburbs, in 2000 and 2004, but Democrats argue they have made gains in the state legislature in recent years that indicate a growing Democratic presence in the district.
CQ Politics rates the race as No Clear Favorite, our most competitive category.
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Both candidates face the same dilemma — figuring out how to move to the center of their own party to appeal to the greatest number of voters. Ramstad, who has served in the House since 1991, used a centrist approach to bridge the gap in a potential swing district, and both Madia and Paulsen invoke the principle frequently.
Madia describes himself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate who wants to balance the national budget, develop a comprehensive energy policy to get the country off its dependence on foreign oil, and find a responsible way to end the war in Iraq. Paulsen says he wanted to fix the “broken Congress” and find long-term solutions for issues currently being addressed on a short-term basis, including energy policy, tax policy, and the war in Iraq.
Both call for a responsible conclusion for the war in Iraq. Madia says that, depending on conditions on the ground, he thought the military could bring home one or two brigades every couple of months with a full withdrawal of U.S. troops in several years, while Paulsen said he supports the current phase-down of troops.
Each candidate participated in the national conventions for his Party. With the Republican National Convention located in St. Paul, just east of the 3rd District, it was a short trip for Paulsen. Democrats took aim when Paulsen agreed to speak at the RNC, with state party spokesman Eric Fought calling Paulsen a “George Bush Republican who has spent the past 14 years playing partisan political games at the expense of Minnesotans.”
One week earlier Madia participated in the Democratic National Convention in Denver, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee brought him onstage as one of eight showcased Democratic candidates running for a Republican seat.
CQ Politics spoke with Madia in Denver shortly after his appearance in the Pepsi Center. Madia dismissed the question of whether his appearance onstage at the DNC tied him too closely to the national Democratic Party, as Democrats had charged of Paulsen.
“I don’t get too fixated on those kinds of politics,” he said.
Madia conceded that he was not entirely comfortable with the partisan pep-rally aspects of an appearance at a national convention.
Minnesota House Candidates Madia and Paulsen Run Away From National Parties
“I’m not really a barn-burner speech type person. I’m more just somebody that wants to quietly work with both sides in order to get more done, you know. And maybe we could use a few more people like that. I’m not out there trying to rev up the far left or make the far right really mad or anything like that that. I just want to find the middle.”
Madia argues that his personal biography as a Marine and an Iraq War veteran gives him unique strengths in working in a bipartisan manner. “I’m not really a politician, I’m a Marine. ... And the good thing about the Marine Corps is it’s not really Republicans and Democrats, it’s just Marines, and I think me need more of that mentality in Washington right now, people who will work with both sides in order to get things done,” he said.
When Paulsen sat down for an interview at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, he dismissed Democratic charges that he was too conservative for the district as a tactic “out of the general playbook” that Democrats would use.
Paulsen worked for Ramstad in the 1990s and the congressman is chair of Paulsen’s campaign to succeed him. “I’ve had high vote margins because I’ve learned from Ramstad, I’ve replicated him in many ways, we’re cut from the same cloth on many issues, actually,” he said.
Paulsen said the Republican Party “has lost a little bit of its brand,” but that it deserved to do so given the fact the party has moved away from core principles like a balanced federal budget. Paulsen said he wanted to be part of a “new generation of Republican reformers.”
Paulsen dismisses the idea that the 2008 election cycle favors candidates running under the mantle of “change.”
“My opponent has an interesting background and I commend him on it and I commend him for his service, but ultimately the questions is going to be, for voters, who is better prepared to serve the people of the 3rd District? And head and shoulders I’m going to be above him in that capacity,” he said.
The two candidates are closely matched in fundraising. Paulsen reported raising $1.7 million and had $1.2 million on hand through Aug. 20, while Madia reported raising $1.4 million and had $914,000 by the same date.
Comments
Madia's positions clearly place him closest to the political leanings of Minnesota's 3rd CD. He has articulated clear, concise explanations of how he proposes to solve the myriad of problems facing our nation and state, and that is not something the voters have seen from Paulsen. He has not engaged the public to let them really know where he stands on the issues, has pulled out of 2 debates, and will have to live with his extremely conservative voting record from the last 14 years in the state Legislature. Madia's a Patriot, not a career politician...he's the change we need.
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