ABSTRACT

Like much of the rest of the country, the election of 2006 in Minnesota turned on disenchantment with the Bush Administration over Iraq. In this environment, the Senate contest, where Republicans had once hoped to pick up an open seat, turned into a rout for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate. In southern Minnesota, a traditionally Republican congressional seat fell to a political neophyte. The State House of Representatives changed from a slight Republican majority to 85-49 DFL control. The incumbent Republican governor eked out a 1 percent victory only because of a third-party entrant and a last minute flameout by the DFL candidate. Remarkably, in this pro-Democratic environment, the Republican candidate in the Sixth Congressional District managed to hold a Republican seat against a well-known and well-financed DFL opponent.