I had a funny feeling the race in CD3 was about over, so I thought I’d go up to Stillwater to see if they still had a race. And do they ever have a race! But before I did that, I wanted to see how the local GOPers were spending their time.

Fittingly, the SD42 Republicans were meeting at a church for their convention. I say this for two reasons: Grace Church is exceedingly fundamentalist, as are the Eden Prairie Republicans; and the Eden Prairie Republicans are going to need all the help they can get for Erik Paulsen in that quest for Congress. If GOPers can get endorsements from preachers that call on The Good Lord to have a hurricane smote New Orleans, who knows? Maybe they can one to get amnesia inflicted on CD-3 voters, thereby paving the way for The Hustler to avoid his record!

Last week, southern Minnetonka and Eden Prairie DFLers packed a high school cafeteria with party activists, well over 500 delegates strong. This week, the same area’s GOPers only needed a conference room at a church for their party’s faithful. OK, sure – it was kind of a large conference room, as far as conference rooms go, but while DFLers were filling “tables” as in “plural” to seat a precinct’s delegates, the GOPers were using a table – as in singular – to seat a precinct’s delegates – and not a big table at that.

I didn’t stay long; GOPer talking points defy credibility. Suffice it to say, if you want to read what the GOPer speakers were saying, just go to Minnesota Democrats Exposed to read the rhetoric the GOPers were parroting. The sad thing is, these GOPers still think reasonable people will believe it. What once was a proud party is now in the hands of extremists – extremists that helps keep the good folks at Snopes.Com in the business of debunking smears.

Stillwater beckoned – SD 52 and 56 were meeting less than a mile apart. And if these two Senate Districts are any indication, there is a real race for the privilege of taking out Michelle Bachmann. Team Franken has a solid lock on delegates, taking 10 delegates to JNP’s 3 with Cerisi being shutout. In 52, Franken took 10 to JNP’s 4 to Cerisi’s 1.

The House race is where it gets interesting. The only debate between El Tinklenberg and Bob Olson was way back in October, at St. Cloud State. For some reason, it seems Team Tinklenberg can’t find the time to debate. Why? Conventional wisdom dictated Tink had his delegates locked up; so why debate? Get the delegates locked, get through the SD conventions, take the endorsement at the CD Convention, and who remembers you wouldn’t debate the issues before?

Except, if 52 and 56 are any indication, Tinklenberg hardly has his delegates lined up, and the undecideds are getting more reasons to question Tink, then they are to vote for him. Olson’s speeches garnered a lot more applause than Tink’s.

I simply couldn’t believe that Tinklenberg, in his speeches, claimed, in essence, “all Minnesota’s DFL congressmen have endorsed me.” Betty? Sure. Oberstar? Of course! But Walz? Quite frankly, I didn’t think Congressman Walz had endorsed, so I called Mankato. Nope! was the answer; no endorsement. If I knew anyone in Peterson’s Office, I’d have called there, too. On this, and on a number of issues, Tink has some explaining to do. Too bad Tink won’t debate, so all could hear.

Quite frankly, Tinklenberg’s Pro-Life, yada yada yada conservative position didn’t fare well with a lot of the delegates. At both 52 and 56 there were subcacuses named “Franken – Olson – Women’s Issues” and they both took two delegates.

At 56, Tinklenberg took two delegates with his “Tinklenberg Kiss Bachmann Goodbye!” subcacuses, and one more with a “Tinklenberg – Labor” subcaucus.

Of 17 delegates, I have 56 down as 3 Tink, 2 Olson, 12 uncommitted – but I think Olson may have 4 more.

At 52, Tink took 2 delegates with a “Tinklenberg – Uncommitted” subcaucus, 1 with a “Franken – Tink” subcaucus – and possibly 4 more out of a Franken – Obama subcaucus; quite frankly I’m not sure but this probably will be scored 7 to 2, Tink over Olson. Even with that, it was quite surprising Tinklenberg didn’t have a tighter grip on the delegates and there’s still a race in the 6th.

With the 3rd all but over, with Madia’s Marauders performance today, the congressional race in the 6th should now be getting attention. I’ll be at conventions in the 6th next week, and will be talking more about this race.