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Senator Coleman Critical of Gonzales, Craig

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Senator Norm Coleman has taken advantage of two events this week to demonstrate to his Minnesota constituency that he is a centrist, independent voice for the state. In both cases he was critical of fellow prominent Republicans in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, in response to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation, Coleman issued a press release stating Gonzales "had lost the credibility needed to effectively run the Justice Department."

In an interview on Wednesday, Coleman was extremely critical of fellow GOP Senator Larry Craig, who it was revealed this week plead guilty to disorderly conduct for propositioning an undercover police officer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport:

"I am deeply disturbed about this conduct. It's disgusting. ... If I was making the decision I would tell him to resign. ... It's unbecoming a Senator. It's unbecoming anybody. ... I'm troubled by this one. ... It casts disrepute onto the Senate as an institution. It undermines all those by the way who actually talk about values. ... I can't give him slack on this one."

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The 40 Percent Floor

Although Republicans have won 23 of 39 Indiana gubernatorial races since the first time a GOP candidate was on the ballot in 1860, Democrats have suffered few blow-out defeats during this span. In fact, the Democratic nominee has eclipsed the 40 percent mark in all 39 contests. The Republicans cannot quite claim the same, falling below 40 percent just once with nominee Linley Pearson during the gubernatorial election of 1992 when Evan Byah won his second term. Democrats have a streak of 47 consecutive contests reaching the 40 percent mark - doing so every cycle since the party first fielded a candidate in the race for governor of 1834.


Curse of the '4'?

Big-name Republicans are not coming out of the woodwork yet to challenge Al Franken in Minnesota's 2014 U.S. Senate race, and there is not much chatter of the GOP picking off one of the five DFL-held U.S. House seats either. Over the last century, Minnesota Republican U.S. House candidates have not fared all that well in cycles ending in '4' - losing seats in five of these cycles (1914, 1924, 1944, 1954, 1974), holding serve in four others (1964, 1984, 1994, 2004), and gaining seats just one time (1934, after redistricting had been delayed one cycle with all nine seats voted at-large in 1932). Perhaps the Republican Party's best chance for a pick up in the Gopher State in 2014 is if 12-term Democrat Collin Peterson retires after nearly a quarter century on Capitol Hill. The 7th CD has the second largest GOP lean in the state.


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