Big Money Pours into Minnesota's 8th congressional district

Mills, Nolan battle to win over anxious DFLers in state's tightest race for Congress

Excerpt:

If there is an epicenter to the most expensive U.S. House race in the country, it may be at a small dairy farm in this community north of the Twin Cities. At Bartchelle Dairy, where milk from about 70 cows is shipped daily to Land O’Lakes, a group of farmers and ranchers talked last week about how their parents and grandparents were all DFLers.

Now this group is struggling to connect with the party of their forebears. They blame politicians for a sluggish economic recovery, higher health care costs and more stringent environmental regulations. While they love working outside, they say they feel like it should be easier to achieve a middle-class life.

In Minnesota’s sprawling Eighth Congressional District, Republican Stewart Mills is trying to capitalize on strains in the DFL as he makes a second bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan. The district is a former DFL stronghold full of blue-collar voters who Republicans have long felt should be receptive to calls for limited government and fewer environmental regulations.

Comments: Stewart Mills pic from his website. Rick Nolan's a snap from his Facebook  page. Because the 8th is served by the Twin Cities' TV market, we must see 10 ads a day or more. Nolan paints Mills as a trust fund kid who's never worked. I'm pulling for Stewart Mills! As you can view with this tag, I've been following this for several election cycles.