[promoted from the diaries by haystack-good work in here eburke… more of these please folks?!]

Barring a miracle (or unprecendented vote fraud) it would appear that the reign of Nancy “We Have to Pass the Bill to Find Out What’s in the Bill” Pelosi will be washed out to sea on November 2nd by a wave of voter discontent with the far-left policies of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama cabal. Even the sycophantic MSM, while endeavoring at every turn to trumpet every real or imaginary failure, no matter how inconsequential, of every Republican candidate, have resigned themselves to gazing at their collective navels and contemplating whether this will merely be a ‘normal’ sized wave or a tsunami of 1894 proportions.

But while it’s great to dream dreams as we giddily contemplate getting rid of a Barney Frank or a Jim Oberstar, what makes waves tsunamis is making sure that every single district that by all rights and voter registration numbers should be ours, is ours. My district, MN CD-01 is one of those districts that presently belongs to them; on the morning of November 3rd, it needs to belong to us!

Right now, MN-CD 01 is represented by Tim Walz (D). LaborUnionReport did a masterful job a week or so ago in outlining Walz’s far-left voting record so I shan’t repose the entire, sordid record again except to remind readers that he voted for the trifecta: ObamaCare…the Stimulus…and Cap & Tax. He has perfect 100% voting records from NARAL and from Planned Parenthood so on top of the fact that he apparently has never met a spending bill he hasn’t liked, he apparently has never met an abortion procedure that didn’t meet with his approval either.

And, as LUR so masterfully pointed out and linked to in his post, Tim is a labor union darling having racked up 100% voting records from the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the SEIU, the NEA, et al. In return, unions have rewarded Walz with almost $700,000 in contributions this election cycle.

And the piece de resistance? Tim Walz’s lifetime ACU voting record is 8%. To put that into perspective, Rep. Dennis “The Menace” Kucinich’s lifetime ACU record is 9% and Bernard Sanders, Socialist Party Senator from the state of Vermont, has a 7% ACU lifetime achievement. That’s right, my Congressman sits to the left of Dennis Kucinich, and just barely to the right of an openly socialistic Senator.

Now, given all these facts, one would think that MN-CD1 must be a D+15 district or so. Well, one would be wrong. In reality, until Tim Walz won this seat in the 2006 wave, except for the time period between 1982 and 1994 (when it was held by fiscally conservative Democrat Tim Penny), this seat has been in Republican hands since 1892! It’s current Cook Partisan rating is an R+1.

So how did this seat end up in the hand of such a far-left radical? It’s all been in the timing, and Walz’s ability to convince the voters of this district that he’s something that he’s not. Tim takes his A rating from the NRA (which LUR deconstructs here and here), marries it to his veteran’s status, and convincingly morphs that into a persona that he’s just one of the good ol’ guys in this very patriotic, pro-gun rural district. As is evidenced by the above, nothing could be further from the truth.

Enter Randy Demmer, farmer and small business owner from the small town of Hayfield, and 4-term representative in the MN State House. Now, I could spend a whole lot of time listing all of Randy’s conservative positions, or I can just cut to the chase and tell you that prior to the GOP nominating convention in April (I was one of the elected delegates) I questioned Randy for over an hour on his policy positions. And for an hour, Randy demonstrated that not only did he understand the core tenets of conservatism, he was able to articulate them clearly and passionately. Since that time, I have marched in parades with Randy, attended fundraisers and Chamber of Commerce events at which he has spoken, and had additional private conversations with him. And his message of smaller government and greater individual freedoms never changes.

You see, Randy’s not a career politician. He’s a small businessman who, as he puts it, has signed both the front and the back of a paycheck. He’s unashamedly pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, and he understands that not only does government not create jobs, but that we’re at a crossroads in this country as to which direction we will go as a nation:

Now, this race has only recently made it onto the national radar screen and you might be wondering why. Again, Tim Walz is a walking example of the adage that it’s better to be lucky than good. He took the Democrat wave of 2008 and Pelosi’s willingness to let him off the hook on the really tough votes due to his Freshman status, combined his ‘moderate’ image with an inexperienced, ineffectual GOP opponent, and won this seat by 30 points.

Anyone with any working knowledge whatsoever of how the NRCC, the RNC, PACs, and conservative interest groups compile their list of ‘competitive seats’ for the next election cycle knows that it’s not by first analyzing seats that we lost by 30 points in the last cycle. Getting this seat onto the national radar screen was done by the sheer hardwork and determination of Randy and his unbelievably dedicated staff (his press secretary tweeted about a week ago that he was actually home for the first time in 10 days).

In sum, Randy has worked as hard on this campaign as he has in his successful business ventures. And it’s finally paid off. He’s been awarded Young Gun status by the NRCC for his organizational and fundraising success. Both the NRCC and Norm Coleman’s American Action Network are now engaged and up with spots attacking Walz’s profligate record.

But reflective of his incumbent, pro-union status, Walz has raised over $1.8 million and had over $800K COH as of September 30. And he’s used this money to pound Randy on one issue and one issue only – that Randy wants to rip away from seniors their Social Security by investing it in the stock market so that greedy Wall Street bankers can make billions (I know…we’ve never seen that one before) Walz has been pounding Randy day and night with that issue and that issue alone because he simply can’t run on his abysmally liberal record in this center-right district. And in a reflection of how concerned the Democrat’s are about this seat, the DCCC piled in with another 200K this week to pound Demmer on…wait for it…Social Security.

How close are we? The latest poll on the race, done by a local TV station, shows Randy w/in the MOE (47% – 42%) using the 2008 turnout model of 46% D and 42% R. In this wave election? Not. Gonna. Happen.

Bottom line? This. Race. Is . Winnable. But to wrest this seat from the hands of a far-left CongressCritter whose campaign has been straight out of the scorced-earth Democrat playbook, and who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from labor unions, it’s going to take money. My money. Your money. Our “Obama’s gonna get it anyway” money.

Randy needs our help, and I can assure you from first-hand experience that Randy runs his campaign as frugally as he runs his small-businesses and his farm.

This election cycle has seen conservatives across this country rise up and say ‘no more!’ They’ve said it with their online activism; they’ve said it with their GOTV efforts; they’ve said it with record volunteer efforts in campaigns; they’ve said it in the thousands and thousands of small donations they’ve sent to candidates across this country who share their vision of a smaller government that’s here to serve the people, not the other way around.

I know Randy. I know what Randy believes and I’ve seen his passion and his eloquence. Folks, Let’s not leave this seat lying on the table come November 3rd. Let’s not have to contemplate what might have been. Let’s make the wave into a tsunami.

Let’s Roll!