If You Can’t Take the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen

It has been estimated that during elections Mickey Mouse, and other frivolous characters, receive around 20,000 votes for some office or another. Why does this happen? This may go without saying, but for voters to know who they are voting for candidates must advertise their name to the public. Furthermore, candidates will modify their campaigns to accommodate the political views of the residents in their district. 

In the House race for Minnesota's third district communication to voters is especially important to the challenger, Democratic candidate Jim Meffert. Meffert is going up against incumbent candidate Republican Erik Paulsen who has already held the seat for the past two years after winning the election in 2008. Because Meffert and Paulsen are not competing for an open House seat, this is not a very competitive race. Forecast polls indicate Paulsen having a significant lead on Meffert. Paulsen has a clear advantage over Meffert being the incumbent. Meffert, however, has failed to put together a strong campaign against Paulsen which will subsequently cause him to lose the House race.

As mentioned in a previous post, Meffert has raised significantly less money than Paulsen. As a result, Meffert has not been able to afford television ads. This makes it quite difficult for Meffert to obtain any name recognition or for the people of the third district to get to know his political ideals. Meffert weak campaign will also make it difficult if he wishes to run for an office in the future.