Almanac: At the Capitol

12:30 am Democrats sat quietly and watched a somber Ashwin Madia conceded victory to Republican Erik Paulsen who will elevate from the State House to the U.S. House after an ugly and bruising campaign. Bachmann also wins.  No pick ups for the Dems in the congressional races.

9:30 Republican John Kline won big and was the first winner to work the crowd at Republican headquarters.

9:15 GOP headquarters, congressional candidate Erik Paulsen is the first candidate on the scene talking to reporters.  Congresswoman Michele Bachmann follows suit. It's not very common to see candidates do media before their race is called.  Bachmann says she's confident she'll win, other Republicans weren't so sure.  At DFL headquarters, Congresswoman Betty McCollum is the first victor to address the crowd.

By 8:30 the DFL party is packed and rocking.  As Ohio goes for Obama they chant "O-hi-o" over and over followed by "O-ba-ma."  The excitement is already crazy.  There is barely room to move and the night is still early.  I haven't seen DFLers this excited before.

At 8:00 the party just started here at DFL headquarters.  Minnesota was called for Obama seconds after the polls closed and the crowd roared.  That got the mood started with an exciting and energetic tone.   The crowd is good for this early in the night.  Dems are excited. 

Republican headquarters seems to be a bit slower out of the shoot. Perhaps not as exciting early returns to celebrate.  One GOP party insider predicted that Erik Paulsen will win against Ashwin Madia and Michele Bachmann will lose to El Tinklenberg.  No one is making many predictions on the Senate race.  We expect it will be late.

Republicans are excited about Sarah Palin though, here's the "Minnesota's Wild About Sarah!" hockey pucks celebrating the hockey mom.

Tonight on TPT-17 at 7:00pm I will host the first televised debate in the most important congressional race in Minnesota and one of the top races in the country.  AARP is co-sponsoring the debate with us, we'll address issues important to 50+ and plenty of other timely and important issues to all of us.  Squaring off will be Independence Party's David Dillon, Democrat Ashwin Madia and Republican Erik Paulsen.  The candidates that hit 5% in an independent poll are included. Should be interesting!

3rd District Congressional candidate Ashwin Madia didn't get to the podium, but he got on stage here at the DNC in Denver.  We talked to him outside afterwards where a girl grabbed his autograph after our interview.  Madia said the exposure has value even though not too many people are probably watching in the afternoon. 

Madia was one of a half a dozen candidates featured by Congressman Chris Van Hollen Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  I talked with him backstage afterwards and he said after campaigning with Madia in Minnesota,  voters in the district seem ready for change.  The race is part of the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program for promising candidates.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar addressed the convention for the second time in two days.  This must be getting old hat.  Today she recalled her family's frugal roots on the Iron Range.

So much for the race to replace Congressman Jim Ramstad being a two-person race. The DFL field has gotten complicated. State Senator Terri Bonoff was the frontrunner or the only DFL candidate for a while, but that's no longer true. Dems have had a history of slugging it out to primaries while Republicans clear the field for one annointed candidate. Dems had been doing better at that in recent years realizing how it put them at a competitive disadvantage. I'm hearing other DFLers are getting into the race because there's a bit of uneasiness about Bonoff. She has great credentials and a solid resume. But in this new media world, one has to wonder if Minnesota Democrats Exposed video of her missteps at her campaign announcement have hurt her. I know a lot of MSM don't want to give bloggers that credit and power, but they're not to be overlooked. I've got to say to me Bonoff has been professional and pretty impressive, but this video does not look good. She is the only candidate for major office to personally call me to invite me to her kick off. That's a personal touch. But now that Edina Mayor Jim Hovland and Iraq war veteran Ashwin Madia are in the race it's gotten messy. Speaking of new media, Minnesota Campaign Report and Eric Black's new site have some interesting posts on this.