My friend Jim Meffert is running for congress in MN-03. He is a great guy and a good match for this suburban Minneapolis district. The seat was held for a number of years by moderate republican Jim Ramstad. Meffert has served as president of the MN Parent Teacher Association and as Executive Director of the MN Optometric Association.* As director of the MOA he is familiar with working to advance legislative agendas and building coalitions and consensus. As a parent and PTA member he has a great working knowledge of the education system and great ideas on how to make it better. You can read more great stuff about him on his campaign website.
His opponent, Eric Paulsen, is a freshman republican who won the seat with less than 50% of the vote in a race where the moderate independent took nearly 11%. Paulsen is a career politician who spent a number of years in the MN state house before being elected to Congress in 2008. While in Congress, Paulsen has taken the lead from fellow Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann and has voted with her 93% of the time.
Recently, Paulsen released this attack ad that tries to paint Jim as an "extremist". I think there are two good signs in this for Jim. First, for an incumbent to issue this type of attack ad at this point in the campaign must signal some signs of under performance in polling. The Meffert campaign has hinted that Paulsen is consistently polling below 50%. Second is the frequent use of Jim's name in the ad which can only help to increase name recognition in the district, and that is Meffert's number one obstacle.
That is also where I hope the DailyKos community can help. As we all know, the greatest challenge to increasing name recognition is fundraising. Jim is over halfway to his goal of raising $25,000 online. With your help he can reach his goal and get his name in front of the people of the third district. People who reluctantly supported a Republican they believed to be moderate but has turned out to be more right wing than they bargained for. With your help you can make this race competitive and even flip this seat to the "D" column.
*I am a licensed optometrist practicing in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I met Jim through my involvement with the MOA. I am not affiliated with the Meffert campaign and the words and opinions expressed here are my own and have not been endorsed or edited by the Meffert campaign.